A: In my post regarding the Battle of Chapultepec, I did not expressly opine that the addition of these territories to the United States is a good or a bad thing. The fact of the matter is, we may never know how the nations of the United States and Mexico might have developed otherwise had Mexico won the battle, thus having more room for negotiation at the bargaining table, and retained control of its territories. We can conjecture quite a bit about the way things might have turned out with a stronger Mexico, just as soon as we can conjecture that the United States would have tried to purchase and/or take the lands by force anyway. What I did say in the post was that the war was unjust, which it was. What I did say in the post was that the destinies of all three of our nations were forever changed by the war, and they were. The sheer difficulty involved in taking Chapultepec and holding on to Mexico thereafter kept Mexico an independent nation, even while the treaty made afterwards removed roughly half of its territories from it. More happened at that battle and its following peace than territorial exchanges; attitudes were forever altered on both sides.
What would have happened to the relations between the two countries if the border remained at the front crest of the Rockies, the Nueces river, and the 42nd parallel? Again, we may never know. In all likelihood, Mexico would have found much of the territory too distant and vast to manage, unless they experienced a similar migration northwards that many Americans engaged in going west. New Mexico would have considered breaking away and joining the United States, to whom they were engaged in a lucrative trade relationship already. Texas would have pushed for a border at the Rio Grande, which the treaty would have gained for them anyway. California might have broken off relations with Mexico City as Texas did, though the resistance of Californios to annexation by the United States might have left it as a separate nation. Now, assuming that New Mexico would have taken the entirety of the upper Rio Grande valley, this would have left Arizona, the undeclared Republic of Deseret (Utah), and the Colorado river drainage of Colorado and a little bit of Wyoming left to Mexico, a wedge in the plans of a bunch of potentially hostile neighbors. Assuming that the United States would not try to acquire this wedge first, the country might have looked to the 54th parallel as a way to fill out a clear path to the Pacific, which would have taken a large portion of land from what would soon become Canada and... well... things might have become very messy at that point. Instead, history happened, and the United States picked up what has turned out to be prime real estate.
Granted, the land has become prime real estate because of how it has been developed. Mexico looked north and saw deserts, missions, and frontier. The United States looked westward and saw resources, the Pacific Ocean, and a haven for a different way of life for the Mormons, adventurers, rogues, capitalists, etc. Granted, the land might have developed in a close fashion had the war not destabilized the country so much. Benito Juarez would have still been there, trying to push reforms and a chance at modernization and industrialization, and would have been still backed up by the United States looking for an amiable leader next door from whom they could buy land. Instead, we had war. The border was changed, hearts were changed, destiny was forged. What we have today is simply what we have today, and our role as nations now is to make the experiences of people from both Phoenix and Hermosillo a lot more human and a lot less degrading. The truth is, as I love the people on both sides of that ever expanding fence, I would love those lands regardless of who is in charge of them! That said, write to me. Tell me how you feel about this, tell me what you have studied about it. The discovery of history never stops, and I am not closed-minded.
Q: What is your favorite National Park?
A: In what region? Due to my preference for my native land of Northern Ontario, Voyageurs, Isle Royal, and Acadia top the list in the United States. Parks like them in Canada, such as Pukaskwa and Quetico would cover the Canadian side, though all of these pale in comparison to Algonquin, which is a "mere" provincial park. As for everywhere else, I really don't know. I think my most emotional experiences have come from three places out west: The Grand Canyon, Sequoia, and Saguaro national parks. Here they are as I saw them:
I was completely unprepared for seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. I was expecting an incredible vista, but nothing like the pause bringing, pseudo-mystical feeling I got when I felt so completely unimportant in the face of the power of eternity, standing there on the north rim. Pictures cannot capture the sensation. I was preparing myself as best I could to see the Sequoias for the first time. The redwoods might be taller and a bit more lush, but in essence, a Sequoia resembles the Platonic ideal of a pine (a redwood is a mere spruce, I tell you, a mere spruce!). Call me a hippy, call me a nature pagan (I most assuredly am neither), but when I walked in the mist and snow to the base of the most massive tree in the world, I felt like I was approaching the favorite personal property of God. Then I did something I probably should not have, and gently touched the bark, and felt what I can only describe as a sensation of touching something directly consecrated by the hand of the divine.
Finally, we have the cacti. I had already seen a bunch of chollas, prickly pears, barrels, and such in other parts of the west, but had not yet been to the lower, warmer reaches of the Sonoran desert where the giant stuff could be found. My first trip there, heading into Tucson from New Mexico on I-10, was on a forty degree day in very foggy skies, in March no less. I found my first saguaro in a wash east of Benson, and got really excited. Then I went to Cactus Forest drive in the eastern unit of Saguaro National Park, and saw sights that I will never forget in my entire life. A forest of saguaros, ocotillos, everything I had imagined... lush, green, alive, and with a smell that I wish I could have bottled and taken home with me wafting through the misty air. This was actually an experience that made me want to study botany; this "desert" world was just so ethereal that it grabbed my attention and turned me on the path of a new passion.
As usual, leave comments here or e-mail me with questions at BKryda@gmail.com. By all means, disagree with me and get political! Discourse can only improve us.
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