The 10 Most Important Events in North American History: Conclusion.

Part one can be found here.

Part two can be found here.

Part three can be found here.

2. The Spanish Explorations.


Ever since 1492, Spain had been on something of a mad dash to explore the environs of the Caribbean sea, and by the mid-16th century, had explored much of coastal South America, made significant inroads into the conquest of the archipelagos, Central America, the former Incan and Aztec empires, and kept sending over men interested in fortunes and fame who wore armor and carried guns, as well as men interested in evangelization for the Catholic Church who wore the various robes of different religious orders (though both groups were not necessarily mutually exclusive in their desires).  Life was good.  Riches kept pouring into the coffers back home on the Iberian peninsula, missionaries and traders alike now had new avenues of expansion available, and stories kept popping up about even more wonders and golden opportunities to be had deeper into the heart of the unexplored north.  Even before Mexico was conquered in 1521, Juan Ponce de Leon had explored the coast of Florida.  On April 3, 1513, he made a landing somewhere on the Atlantic shoreline, and was simply awestruck by the lushness and beauty of the forests he found there.  He found no great cities, he found people pretty much devoid of riches, not even any proof that further inland lay gold and such, but he remained enchanted by the land nonetheless, and made a very important discovery: Florida was either incredibly large for island, or most likely not one at all.

Back in 1497, England had already beaten Spain to North America, and John Cabot (who was actually Italian, but don't tell anyone) had "discovered" what would become Newfoundland.  He was actually looking for the legendary Celtic island of Hy-Brazil, which was supposedly rich in trees that could produce a commercially valuable red dye.  Needless to say, word caught on among Italian explorers that there was land north of the Caribbean, even though no one knew exactly how much was around, to say nothing of suggesting that a new continent existed there.  Sure, some people thought Asia was right around the corner, though with the exceptions of the findings of 1497 and 1513, little else existed north of Cuba, for the European knowledge of the world, other than mists and endless expanses of water.  The conquest of Mexico changed all that.  While the land did stop at the Pacific Ocean not too far away from the eastern shores, it also got a bit wider the further north that Europeans explored.  The explorers also started seeing different landscapes, as rain-forests and glistening beaches gave way to mountains that actually had snow on top of them, forests of pines and oaks that hugged the sides of volcanoes, and finally, vast stretches of desert  and grasslands that had herds of buffalo roaming in them, and that actually got cold at night and during the winter.  They found different people there too, cultures that sometimes had constructed buildings, but nothing on the vast scale of the empires to their south, and they seemed to live in a more direct relationship with the land.  Some of them even told the newcomers that riches lie just beyond the next horizon, probably in attempt to get them to move on.

Unfortunately, the attempt did not work.  The newcomers would simply assert control over wherever they went, as long as it was within reasonable striking distance of their established operations further south.  On top of this, they would continue to expand in the direction they were pointed, but eventually everything seemed very far away, and the unfolding land kept getting bigger and more mysterious.  El Norte, then, as now, was an irresistible lure that was at once both desirable and yet seemingly worlds away.  The cost of this was that Mexico was not getting settled and developed as much as some back in Spain would have liked.  In the late 1530's, they decided to do something about it, and sent three men northwards.  Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was sent by sea to explore the Pacific coast, and in 1542 landed on the shores of San Diego bay.  He continued up the coast perhaps as far as northern California.  Francisco Vasquez de Coronado set off on land to explore the northern desert reaches, and in 1540 he found his way into the Sonoran desert and crossed into modern-day Arizona.  His expedition made it as far as central Kansas.  Hernando de Soto landed his ships south of Tampa Bay in 1539, hacked into the mangroves, fought pretty much everyone he came across, and wandered the American south, crossing the Great Smokies and reaching his demise on the banks of the Mississippi somewhere in Arkansas, not several hundred miles away from where Coronado was stumbling around in the plains of Kansas.  None of them found empires or gold.

They did, however, succeed in establishing that a northern continent did exist.  They found lands quite different from what they expected, including more temperate climates, great rivers, endless plains, deserts with strange plants in them, and a lovely, paradise like coastal strip on the Pacific that had a climate very similar to their own in Spain.  More importantly, they found a land vast in scale, rugged, and without a unified native empire that they could topple as they had done down south.  This, combined with the awareness that Asia was actually someplace else, and that the gold was strikingly absent, led to a rather remarkable development back in Mexico.  Conquest was now followed up by colonization.  Within the next century, Mexico would be transformed as the conquerors settled down and even mingled and married with the locals, giving us the Mexicans we know and love today, a product of two worlds while also a nation of their own making.  In the same century, the concept caught on further north, and England began settling the Carolinas, Virginia, and New England.  The French would be drawn to the St. Lawrence valley and the shores of Acadia.  Granted, their interactions with the locals would take on an entirely different flavor.

The Spanish explorations of the three ventures would open up a truly new world to people looking for a new destiny back in Europe.  The mysterious lands of Mexico, the United States, and Canada were no longer just plunder opportunities for adventurers, but diverse and rich lands with landscapes and climates to suit any number of settlers looking to root somewhere new.  Most important of all, the voyages fueled the fire of exploration that would stimulate such powerful growth in the three nations, gold or not.  Though they would not properly be known as such yet...  Mexicans would march north as missionaries and primitive geologists, north into the bounty of souls and minerals that existed in the desert frontiers nestled between peaks of pines, oaks, and snow.  They would settle the paradise-like coast and found the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Canadians would also go forth as missionaries, while others would canoe the most beautiful forests in the world in search of new trading partners who had the miracle-animal known as the beaver in great supply.  They would call for their families back across the ocean and settle in strips of land branching out from the great St. Lawrence.  Americans would not send as many missionaries, but they would bring their religions with them, and would savor new freedoms as they slowly but steadily worked their way inland from the sandy islands and beaches that stretched from Cape Cod to the Georgia islands.  Some of them would continue their search for freedom by joining with the Canadians in the lands around the Great Lakes when their neighbors started getting different ideas of freedom than what they would have, and would then take the name of Canadians as well.  The three men did not know it, but they destroyed myths and exposed the continent for what is truly was (to say nothing of the huge size opening up non-Spanish ventures, space for everyone... until the 18th century anyway), thus laying the foundations for the settlement and creation of three nations.

The first footsteps of their sojourns as they crossed into the (now) United States can be found at Cabrillo National Monument, Coronado National Memorial, and De Soto National Memorial.
 
1. Cortez Not Only Conquers Mexico, but Decides to Consolidate on the Matter.


Until Cortez conquered the Aztec empire, Spanish interests in the Americas were largely confined to plundering the resources of the lands they came across.  Missionary work was important, but until the efforts made by Bartolome de las Casas to reform approaches taken in dealing with the local peoples started to change Spanish policies, it took a back seat to economic and personal interests of explorers and conquistadors.  One of the policies that de las Casas crusaded against was the use of local people in the encomienda system as slaves, which was extensive enough in practice by even the 1510's to make one think that colonization was proceeding rapidly apace.  Instead, the Spanish men were largely absentee landlords, and were more interested in pillaging the next island over rather than setting up house.  Cuba and Hispaniola were something of an exception to this lifestyle, and some towns had already been founded by the time Cortez found himself bored with life once again.

Hernando Cortez, you see, was a bit restless, and never quite good at anything other than sudden bursts of opportunism.  He went to school in Spain to become a lawyers, and spent a few years as a notary, but the news of excitement and riches to be had over across the waves was far more enticing to him than a legal career.  In 1504, he found his way to Hispaniola, acquired a plantation, joined the military, and helped consolidate the conquests of both Hispaniola and Cuba, giving him some experience in how to repeat the matter elsewhere.  Eventually, he found Cuba more to his liking than Hispaniola, but even there, stared out at the sea and wanted to take a few more chances.  In 1518, plans were drawn up to take control of Mexico, though no one really knew what was there.  Cortez was very eager to find out, and set sail for the coast of the Yucatan even as his orders were recalled at the last minute.  He slowly moved through the tropical southern shores of the Gulf of Mexico, won some women in a few fights with the locals in Tabasco, and found one in particular to be his kind of woman.  Her name was Malintzin, a woman known throughout the ages as either a traitor, a victim, or even the mother of the Mexican people.  She spoke all the important languages of the peoples that she and Cortez would come across, and knew enough to tell him how things worked in this part of the world.

Most crucial of all, however, was her relationship with Cortez.  While he did acquire her as a slave in battle, he grew fond of his interpreter, probably because she foiled a plot to have him killed.  The two fell in love and a son was born to them, perhaps the first Mestizo.  Cortez had a house built for her, and even though she ended up marrying another Spaniard a few years later, the relationship must have changed how Cortez saw the land he found himself in.  Yes, he went on to pillage, plunder, conquer, and act like a true conquistador, but for a brief while, Cortez had a taste of settlement rather than expedition.  Mexico was a very different place from the other lands he had thus far been in during his rounds of adventure, and it was an empire, an empire with a magnificent city, an empire with riches.  Mexico, not Spain, was where Cortez would make his own destiny.

He burned his ships to let his men know that he was in command of the venture, and that he was deadly serious about its success.   He fought off the Aztecs, he fought of the Spanish who came from Cuba to reassert authority over him, and conquered an empire with 600 men fighting against millions.  Then, against all odds, he decided to stay, and encouraged Spaniards to come and do the same.  His own relations with Malintzin made marriage with the locals socially acceptable, and the two different worlds started mixing into a new culture, the Mexican culture.  He stayed on to build Mexico City in the image of a Spanish colony settlement rather than something Aztec.  He built palaces for himself both here, and in Curenavaca, where he enjoyed the climate (his palace there is still a main attraction downtown).

This is not to say that things were flowing easily and peaceably.  Consolidating a conquest of an empire of millions was a daunting task, to say nothing of how Spanish culture would be asserted as superior to the native cultures time and again.  Christian expansion could not tolerate paganism, and initial missionary efforts took pains to ensure that natives were transformed from being natives.  Elements of the local culture did end up in the world of the newcomers, however.  Locals married colonists, maize continued to be ground and made into tortillas, attitudes and philosophies of life blended together.  The tequila, at least, flowed easily enough.  In the end, something neither entirely native or Spanish ended up being created, and this new Mexican culture, a blend of worlds, set the stage for the development of the future of modern North America, something mixed, something neither European, nor Indian.  For the first time, the newcomers became something more than raiders and economic entrepreneurs, and the New World was truly born.

The explorations that laid the continent open to planning rather than imagination would compel other newcomers to the north to settle the lands of the United States and Canada, but it was the likes of Cortez and his men, who dared to stick around in an alien land among an alien people, that first sparked the very concept of leaving homelands behind and becoming something altogether new.  In Mexico, this resulted in a merging.  In the United States, attempts at assimilation.  In Canada, a setting apart.  The peoples on this continent still argue, still fight, and differences still remain between our three nations, as well as between, yes, immigrants and the native born, but this continent remains the land of new beginnings and is very much its own land, even while being populated by people who came here from everywhere else ever since the Bering straits were dry land.  He and his men took a calculated gamble, just as the first Quebecois would, and the first Virginians would, or long ago, the first band of hunters chasing a mammoth just an extra few miles over the horizon did.  Worlds have since collided, and the result is the world we now see before us from that stretches from Nome to St. John's, to Miami, to San Diego, to Villa Hermosa.

The 10 Most Important Events in North American History, part three.

Part one of this series can be found here.

Part two of this series can be found here.


Before we go on, I will come clean and state that the American Revolution is not on this list.  Instead, the next two events are presented as the forth and third most important events in our shared North American history, as they were far more influential in making sure the United States would even go after, much less maintain, independence.  Even if the list were just about the United States and not also Canada and Mexico, these two events would remain in place of the events that took place between 1775 and 1781.

4. The Treaty of Ghent.



Without engaging in another diatribe about how the War of 1812 gets very much ignored by most Americans, I would have to say that I maintain, and likely always will maintain, that the War of 1812 was the most important exercise in the declaration of nationhood for both the United States and Canada.  What's more, the fact that the United States got so thoroughly trounced and yet managed to tell Britain, or any nation for that matter, to mind its own business, was a message to the rest of the world that the fragile existence of a democratic state was perhaps a bit more strong that anyone had thought.  Yes, democracies had existed before, but they were not like this.  The only other large scale experiment in this kind of revolution happened in France, and, well, it really did not work out so well.  Here, not only the sovereignty of a nation  was held intact, but also its pride.  On the other side of the table, though not immediately apparent, Canada did the same thing.  As was the case in 1763, Britain did have an attractive choice in forgoing a Canadian retention, but chose not to take such an option.

Beyond these obvious considerations and players, however, lies a third party.  Two years before the war even began, Mexico had begun its war of independence under the leadership of Miguel Hidalgo.  Things got off to quite the rocky start, and by 1815 Hidalgo was executed and the Mexican forces had accomplished seemingly little in their fight to take the country.  Hope was needed if the enterprise was to succeed, and most historians will be quick to point out that things really got underway when Augustin de Iturbide switched sides from Spain and brought a good portion of the royalist army with him.  However, Iturbide also had himself crowned emperor and was more interested in destroying liberalism than in freeing Mexico.  In 1821, only a year into his reign, Iturbide was overthrown by Santa Anna, and Mexico became a republic.  Clearly there was some other inspiration out there that kept the fires burning down in Mexico.  Things were not looking good for anyone over in Europe, and the Congress of Vienna made sure that the concept of revolution would be put to rest until 1848, for the most part.  But Mexico was not part of Europe.  Call it conjecture, but maybe, just maybe, Mexicans looked north and saw that the United States was not only still standing at the end of their second war with a distant would-be ruler, but the United States made out pretty well in the deal.  For that matter, Canada survived intact.

So how did this happen, exactly?  Sure, Fort McHenry got blasted to smithereens but stood its ground for two whole days, protecting Baltimore.  Yes, Tecumseh had been killed at the Battle of the Thames, York (Toronto) had been burned to a crisp, and Britain was unwilling to devote more force to protecting Canada. However, Detroit was captured, the American forces were repulsed back across the Niagara, and Washington was taken, with the White House in need of a substantial re-construction and now famous paint job.  Most importantly, this was the first time that Canadians themselves actually fought to protect their homeland.  Yes, British regulars were responsible for many of the great victories of "Canada" during this war, but it was Canadians, English, French, and First Nations alike who shed their blood at River Raisin, Thames, Lundy's Lane, and most sacred in memory of all, Chateauguay.  Both sides were not fighting for some distant government or a handful of rich men who wanted to tell them what to do.  They were fighting for their homes, for their families, for their land.  The ideals of freedom might have been philosophized elsewhere in books and speeches and formalized into governments closer to home, but here, democracy did not mean the prosperity of "the people" so much as it meant something far more tangible when blood was spilled over beloved soil.  All of a sudden, "nation" became as important a concept as "liberty".  "Nation" existed before, but now it meant something more than just a crown.  "Nation" became "My Mexico, My America, My Canada".

In Ghent, Belgium, in August of 1814, after some very passionate fighting on the part of North Americans both north and south of the Great Lakes, Britain and the United States started talking.  The Americans did not have much to bring to the table outside of victories won at Plattsburgh and Baltimore.  Their capital had been destroyed, their army somewhat demoralized, and Canada had not been taken, to say nothing of how it had not been taken as easily as many believed it would be.  Napoleon had been defeated, and Britain was certainly capable to taking its full force over to the United States and dictating very brutal terms to the young nation if it wanted to.  Some historians claim that Britain was weary and just wanted to be done with the business of war for a while.  Rather, I think that Britain looked over at Canada and saw something different than an imperial territory, for once.  There in cold and snowy Canada were people who fought to defend their homes from invaders.  They might not have all locked arms and looked at one another lovingly while proclaiming how wonderfully Canadian they felt (and you know what, some things have not changed), but like those Yankees to the south of them, they did not have the luxury of parochial snobbery in the face of annihilation of what it meant to be what they were.  There were people there who put their lives on the line for their homes, just as Britain had done herself against Napoleon in the preceding decades.  Still, there were choices to be made.

Britain was undergoing a transformation into a world empire.  Old rival France had been soundly divested of that concept, and the concept of Spanish empire was in its death throes as well.  India, the Caribbean, Australia, Africa... new opportunities were everywhere.  Canada, seemingly good for only timber and beaver pelts, looked like a bizarre waste of resources to maintain.  The United States was clearly not part of the British world anymore, and they had far more to do with North America than Britain did, at least in terms of logical direction of commerce.  Maybe the Americans would be better off buying Canada and coming to an amicable relationship with Britain again thereafter.  Trans-Atlantic commerce could be renewed, while both sides could maintain their own business at their leisure, and not at competing interests.  Then again, those Canadians, well, they fought against that sort of thing, much to the shock of everyone.  While the Americans had been much more pro-active in telling others to get off the lawn, they were not the only ones interested in not being pushed around by a foreign power.  Instead of giving up or resuming aggression, then, Britain offered the United States a return to the ways things were before the war, a status quo antebellum.  Many Americans became convinced that they had won, and the funny thing is, they did.  They lost a war, achieving no objectives in it, but won a conference.  Granted, impressment of sailors stopped (because they were no longer needed), the British did not gain control of the northwest territories, and American independence was now very real and uncontested.

What had begun in 1776 was truly realized, and a surge of patriotism washed over the states, which were now 18 in number, and no longer the disparate colonies they started out as.  Western expansion could go on without too much worry.  Native peoples would be forced out of their lands by expansionists and pioneers.  What remained of North American French culture outside of Quebec and Louisiana went into remission.  Canada survived.  The American Revolution now truly succeeded in changing the face of the continent, but not as some people had envisioned, and "freedom" became synonymous with more than just "America", if the two neighbors were given a chance to say anything about it.


3. The Fall of Quebec.


Montcalm and Wolfe probably did not know what was happening as they were both dying that powerful day of September 13, 1759.  They knew that the war in which they were fighting was going to take a corner from here on out, and they knew that the British would take the city.  As Wolfe bled out onto the field, he initially had no idea that the French were even in retreat, and even as he was about to breathe his last, he simply gave out orders to consolidate the British position by ordering a march on the bridge over the St. Charles river to cut off retreat.  He was a solider though and through, only concerned with the actions of the battlefield, and unable or unwilling, even in his final moments, to focus any attention on the impact on the history of North America his bold strategy to take Quebec would have.  No doubt that there were many there that saw the world change that day, and knew it all too well.  The French-Canadians knew it, and they feared what would happen to their world; they had seen what had become of the Acadians.  When the Americans far to the south would learn of it, they would certainly know it; finally they would not have to worry about the French, and they could have access to the riches of the interior.  No one, however, knew that the blood spilled this day would be the seed of a revolution fought a mere 16 years later, and the birth of not only that nation, but that of Canada as well.  Likewise, no one could have imagined that the fall of Quebec would not result in the destruction of French Canada.  French rule was disputed here to the point of extinction, while French-Canadian rule silently began.

 English rule was strengthened, only to grow so strong and looming that the Americans would unite together to challenge what had become the ironic block to their growth and unrivaled prosperity.  Forget taxation, forget a lack of representation in Parliament, what the American Revolution really came down to was a monopolistic opposition, a being surrounded on all sides by one power, one very real, yet very imagined, enemy.  Don't get me wrong, the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, and yes, taxes are very annoying.  But those things, the wet ink on a declaration signed rather flamboyantly by a certain Mr. Hancock, and the courage shown by patriots risking life and land, that was all very potent fuel added to a fire that was lit the moment French control over the Ohio valley was relinquished.  The conditions to allow the spark to even ignite, of course, had been forming ever since the first colonists stepped off their ship and planned to make a new life for themselves.  Now, self-determination seemed like it could be more of a reality.  It took a war and a battle involving every party on the northern part of the continent to make it happen.

Meanwhile, Canada sat on the edge of the American world, cold, vast, Indian, and French.  Now it was all of those things, but worse still, part of the supposed tyranny of King George.  The truth was, Canada was simply too far away from the colonies, geographically, spiritually, culturally, and mentally.  Both Canadians and Americans settled their new land for a self-determined life away from the conditions and economics of distant mother countries.  Both Canadians and Americans would explore their continent and seek out its resources as their own.  For all they held, and hold, in common, they also were worlds apart in many ways.  Canadians were stewards of inherited traditions and pioneers of a far slower pace of converting their land into "civilization".  Americans were breakers of tradition, innovators, desperate to expand as a way of maintaining their individualist mindset.  This is not to say that everyone followed these character patterns precisely, but such patterns were, and in many ways still are illustrative of what differences lie between the peoples who otherwise seem so outwardly similar.

Then there were the choices made as a result of the Fall of Quebec.  Britain had a choice to leave Canada to the French, and instead take Guadeloupe, a very profitable sugar island in the Caribbean.  Guadeloupe was worth more than the entirety of Canada, and furthermore, there were some on parliament who wanted the French to stick around on the colonists' backdoor so that loyalty in both heart and arms would remain focused back with the crown.  Instead, the choice was made to control Canada, and later, the Quebec act would allow it to remain French in soul if not in duty.  Loyalty, needless to say, ran away from London regardless.  In that same year of 1774, the Fall of Quebec turned from a happy memory into a sign of betrayal by the British.  To this day, the Fall of Quebec is remembered by many French-Canadian separatists as the second worst event in human history after the Fall from Grace.  To Anglo-centric Canadians, it is remembered as a triumph.  Historical memory, obviously, often gets whitewashed or darkened beyond recognition.  Instead, I prefer to think the Fall as the point of conception for our nations, and the birth of a true French-Canadian independence.

And what of the peoples who had been in Canada and America long before such words even existed?  They were used as scouts, as shock troops, and as bargaining chips.  For the original people of North America, the Fall of Quebec was largely another turning point in which they would find themselves facing new political difficulties, if they would face any attention at all.  With the French gone, and the British an obstacle, but not immediately a dangerous one, the Indians were now a primary threat to the spread of American civilization and security.  History tells us plainly what has happened since this attitude gained popularity.  Savage retaliation was produced by savage assault, with little to show for it in reward, and only cultural annihilation and a loss of moral superiority the penalty inflicted on the respective sides of the ongoing war between peoples.

In the meantime, far to the south, Mexico slowly awakened from a slumber under Spanish monopoly as Jesuits improved educational access within the country, and some people began to find out about what was happening up north.  Their concept of nation, of course, had already been forming for centuries prior, and was the impetus for settlement in those lands to begin with.  Come by next Saturday to see what I mean as I conclude this series.

The 10 Most Important Events in North American History, part two.

Bear with me, this is a long post.  I figured I would break it into two sections, but I do not want either part getting lost and not read.  I will insert a break point in the middle to make this more convenient.  The first part of this series can be found here.


7. The Louisiana Purchase.


In hindsight, it is perhaps easy to say that the Louisiana Purchase was no real loss for France and an amazing and easy gain for the young United States.  What claims the French did have on the region were weakly held by only small number of settlers in the swampy bayous around New Orleans and the small frontier city of St. Louis.  The only other French residents of the entire territory were scattered, highly independent fur trappers.  The United States, on the other hand, had settlers that were steadily pushing past the Appalachians and down into the Ohio river watershed.  Kentucky, in fact, had already become a state in 1792, followed by Tennessee in 1796.  People were on the move, France needed every coin they could get to make sure it could properly dominate Europe, and thus surely the opportunity was clear and present for both nations to act upon. Rather, the reality of the situation was far more complicated.

France had just reacquired Louisiane from the Spanish under the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, an agreement clearly made under duress, as Napoleon had Spain under his boot at the time.  In 1801, Napoleon began committing troops to New Orleans, which understandably made the United States nervous.  Napoleons intentions were unclear; the army could have been staged there in an attempt to march on Mexico (which was not included under the terms of the treaty with Spain), or just as likely could have been sent to prepare for an advance to retake Saint-Domingue from Toussaint Louverture.  The American perspective, however, was that France, an uneasy ally, might be ready to invade the United States, if only to keep the young nation from siding with Britain against them.  Even if they were not going to invade, having New Orleans serve as a road block to American commerce down the Mississippi was simply not going to do.  The Spanish revoked port rights to the city for American traders back in 1798, and even though they renewed rights in 1801 (The French takeover was secret, and the Spanish nominally retained control of Louisiane until three weeks before the American purchase), there was no guarantee that the city would remain "free".

President Thomas Jefferson thus sent James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston off to France to try to secure New Orleans.  They were prepared to offer 10 million dollars for the city, and were thus completely shocked when the French offered to sell them everything from the river delta clear to the headwaters of the Missouri river for 15 million.  Napoleon, you see, had failed to retake Saint-Domingue (now called Haiti), and the loss of sugar revenue made the North American lands look a bit less affordable and attractive.  He knew that he could not fight off Britain or the United States for control of the territory, if push came to shove; world empire meant little when Europe itself was at stake.  The problem was that in those days, not everyone in the United States was sold on rapid expansion, and the country was left with the haunting recommendations, by Washington himself, not to fool around in foreign affairs and to be content with what was won from Britain.  The Federalists were worried about war with Spain (it was most likely still theirs, secret "treaty" or no), to say nothing of making life difficult with Britain.  Frontier settlers, furthermore, seemed worlds apart from the placid mercantile society of the eastern seaboard; why tyrannize settlers further west who had their own values and their own right to government?  The call to frontier, however, had always been in the hearts of North American settlers (including native peoples who walked the dry bottom of the Bering straits so long before), and overpowered such objections.

Jefferson certainly had the confidence to send his men to France in the first place, and had no issue with them taking this new and improved deal.  Congress, in the end, agreed with him, and ratified the treaty, which forever changed the face of the continent.  All of a sudden, the Ohio river stopped looking so far away to Americans.  Maybe the United States was meant to be something bigger than an Atlantic nation, and the concept of "sea to shining sea" first became a reality.  The impact of this would not be felt by Canada or Mexico for some time, but the foundations for boundaries and relationships were already being laid even before they would become countries.  Canadians, with as little sense of nationhood as they had at the time, started to become concerned that what they did have might now look far more appealing to a neighboring country that had just managed to double in size.  Mexicans, though still under a Spanish flag, suddenly acquired a new neighbor.  Native peoples, needless to say, would start encountering English speaking Caucasians in ever increasing numbers, who would change their world forever.  Hindsight tells us that yes, obviously, the United States expanded and did pretty well in the deal.  History tells us, however, that it came down to a fortunate set of circumstances, and a choice between remaining in a secure past or venturing into an uncertain future.

6. The Siege of Vicksburg.



In hindsight (yet again), the Union had a great industrial war machine and a righteous cause that surely meant the Confederacy could not prevail against it.  The defeat at Manassas and the thrusts made by the Confederates into Maryland, and at the same time of this battle, Pennsylvania, were prolonging the conflict that would inevitably end with the triumph of the Union and all that it stood for.  In reality, the war was a savage conflict that took many lives and cut a very deep scar into the heart of the United States in so many ways.  The Siege of Vicksburg, and the campaign that led up to it, was certainly proof of this.  As if he needed to prove himself further, Grant had to take the city in order to finally divide the Confederacy in two, and decisively take the Mississippi.  The problem was, Vicksburg was a real fortress of a city, surrounded by extensive defenses and situated on some of the highest ground anywhere in the region.  On top of this, Mississippi's subtropical climate was living up true to its name, and if you think fighting in 95 degree weather with as much humidity is hard, try doing so in the midst of a bunch of decaying corpses baking under that southern sun.

The thing about Grant was that while he was every bit a capable commander with a good grasp on strategy, he was perhaps far more valuable for his dogged determination and iron fortitude.  He was also a pretty decent man.  He did not have much in the way of wealth until later in life, actually believed in civil rights, and though he fought in the Mexican-American war, had misgivings about the nature of that conflict.  When he fought at Vicksburg, he was most likely doing far more than trying to win a mere battle.  To take the fortress city of the Mississippi would be to put the Confederacy on the defensive, and he certainly knew it.  John C. Pemberton knew it too, and he certainly knew that once Grant got a hold of you, he did not let go.  Vicksburg was sieged after initial assaults had failed to take the city by surprise, and Grant and his men pounded away at the place with iron-clad gunboats (one of which can still be seen today), sappers digging mines and tunnels, and just plain enduring the terrible conditions of a steamy summer Mississippi in wartime. In the end, the fortress was taken, and President Lincoln boldly proclaimed that the "Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea".  The joy of victory aside, one could only imagine what look everyone really had on their faces when they afterward stared at the great river which probably had more than just water in it.

The preservation of the Union would mean that universal franchise could finally become a reality, that the frontier could be settled and bridged instead of being used a gambling chip in political debates between Northern and Southern interests, and perhaps most strongly, that those who would sail past a future Statue of Liberty could try see their new home as a beacon of what the lady represents.  Say what you will about state's rights and honor, the fact is, slavery had always made any concept of liberty and freedom seem hypocritical.  If the United States was going to play center stage in North America, and try to claim any sort of moral high ground (which was turning invisible after the events of 1846), it had to clean house.  The American Civil War, ultimately, was about this, and Vicksburg was the place where the Union was maintained and its highest values were given currency.  War is never glorious, but neither is it meaningless.  Vicksburg, like other battlefields, is sacred ground.

OK, take a break if you want.  This next part gets long, and a bit passionate.  

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5. The Battle of Chapultepec.


This took a while for me to write.  I did not want to end up sounding too negative, but in general, the Mexican-American war gets set aside as a "between them" sort of thing in Canadian classrooms, and treated as a "oh yeah, and this happened, but, you know, what's done is done" sort of thing in American classrooms.  Without beating around the bush at all, I am going to out right say that the Mexican-American war was probably one of the most unjust conflicts in the history of humanity.  Regardless of how we might feel today about the United States managing the lands which are now called California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, the truth is that they were ripped out of Mexico's hands, and the Mexican landowners who did have holdings in those lands, especially in California and New Mexico, were often forced out of them cheaply, even after they pledged loyalty to the new ruling nation.  Feel free to look down on my opinion, but recall that I am good company with it.  Presidents Lincoln and Grant felt the same way.

By the time the opening shots were fired to start this war in 1846, another contest for territory had already taken place north of the 42nd parallel in what was known as Oregon country.  After the War of 1812, Britain and the United States tried to settle territorial claims through negotiation rather than armed force, and in Oregon they agreed to settle their claims by joint occupation.  Whoever settled the place more, essentially, would have the stronger claim to the land, and by the 1840's things were clearly going in favor of the Americans.  Though many feared that the United States would go to war with Britain over the matter (which might have ended up with Canada being cut off from the Pacific), this never really came close to reality, and the United States could afford to focus their attention southward instead.  Mexico, you see, had never really recognized Texas' independence, despite not really maintaining much of military presence north of the Rio Grande, and none at all beyond the Nueces river.  Americans interested in selling the war to Congress claimed the opposite, and added that Britain was more than eager to take whatever trophies of Mexico she could, just as she was "trying to" in Oregon.  The United States, they cried out, should never surrender its God-given right to the lands that stretch to the Pacific, and especially not to Britain.  When such claims would fall on deaf ears, the rights of Texans were instead pleaded for.

Well, if you ask me, the Texans stood up for their rights at the Alamo, and they won their freedom for themselves.  That particular event is where things start to get a bit ugly regarding this whole conflict.  In those days, the Roman Catholic Church and the United States were not on the best speaking terms.  Anti-Catholic bigotry had been inherited from England, including the Black Legend, which had a particularly racist undertone to it.  Stated simply, Mexico invited Americans to settle Tejas and help develop it (and help deal with the Comanche, who had been raiding northern Mexico for some time), dropping their own exclusivity by allowing the settlers freedom of their Protestant faith.  The existing Tejans and the new Texans built up a pretty nice place to live.  The Texans, however, brought some slaves with them, in clear violation of Mexican law.  In 1830, the United States offered to purchase Texas, which understandably made Mexico a bit nervous.  In response, Mexico refused to allow any more American immigration into its territories (something of a historical irony), and also insisted in collecting customs duties and taxes from Tejas.  By 1836, the Texans took control of the territory and won their independence.

Some wanted an independent Texas, "free of Indians, free of Catholics, and free of abolitionists who cared nothing for property rights".  Fortunately, there were other great men who also wanted to see a free Texas, who did not hate Mexico, and who did not care much for slavery or Indian removal.  They did, however, like all good Americans, hate taxes and import duties.  These were Texans who give a great name to their state, men like Sam Houston and Davy Crocket.  Sadly, their voices were pretty much ignored, and slavery, backed up by some deeply rooted prejudice, reared its ugly head.  Oregon, looking like it was going to go well, and become free territory at that, had many folks in the southern states concerned that they might end up on the losing side of the numbers in Congress.  Texas was a wonderful solution to this problem, and it had the added benefit of being "contested" by a nation next door that also held the keys to everything from El Paso to the Pacific Ocean.  The beautiful part for them was that some northerners were willing to jump on the war wagon, because Manifest Destiny was simply too strong a call to be ignored.  On March 27, 1846, General Zachary Taylor led some men to what would later become Brownsville, and started building a fort in plain view of Matamoros.  On April 3, the Mexican army responded by firing on the fort.

Mexico (let's be honest here, Mexico, until recently, has never had much in the way of political stability) was not entirely united at the time, except regarding the issue of American relations.  The result of this instability was that the country really never had a fighting chance against the invasion, and desertions occurred in many places.  In New Mexico, the Americans were welcomed with open arms; New Mexicans had been trading with the Americans over the Santa Fe Trail for decades now.  Santa Anna had to fight off invasion with a severely reduced army further south, and Chihuahua and much of the northern states easily fell without much support to back them up.  Despite this, the further into Mexico the United States armed forces marched, they would also encounter more resistance among the civilian population.  In California, without any support or orders from the Mexican government, the Californios heavily resisted the incursions of John C. Fremont and his men.  Finally, the beginning of the end happened at Veracruz, where 12,000 Americans fought a Mexican army a quarter of their size.  Present at the battle were a who's who of military celebrity: Grant, Meade, Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Longstreet.

Central Mexico presented a new difficulty for Americans used to their climates.  Unlike the lands of northern Mexico, the jungles of Veracruz were lushly tropical and nearly a third of the army became sick from malaria.  On top of this, even when they would be able to break into the interior of the country, fighting would take place in elevations in excess of 8,000 feet or more.  Though the army triumphed on the march to the capital, and Puebla surrendered without a fight, one last obstacle stood in the way of victory, the Fortress of Chapultepec.  With their backs to the wall, the Mexicans put up one of the fiercest fights in North American history.  The hill (more of a small mountain really, and trust me, it is not fun to climb even the easy way up) withstood bombardment for well over 24 hours, and when it ceased, some of the most intense fighting ever seen by the United States military took place.  To this day, the battle is remembered for such intensity in the very first line of The Marines' Hymn.  Even when a general surrender was ordered, the Mexicans continued fighting, including six teenage cadets.  The ferocity of the battle is disputed by some American historians, to which I can only respectfully disagree.  For one, I have yet to find a Marine corps historian who disputes the valor with which the Mexicans fought at the battle (Marines, after all, know the meaning of honor, and I am proud to count some as friends).  Mexicans share the same spirit and love for their land that Americans and Canadians do, and like Americans and Canadians, have shed their blood when their homeland was threatened with annihilation.

Chapultepec fell.  The American flag was hoisted over the castle, in plain view of the entire city.  California and New Mexico had been taken, Veracruz and Mazatlan had fallen (along with the navy), and now the capital was lost.  Mexico had no choice but to surrender to the United States, and under any terms they wished.  The result was the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, wherein was surrendered all of California, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.  On February 2, 1848, at the high altar of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the treaty was signed.



Courtesy of the National Archives.

North America has never been the same.  Aside from the obvious after effects, I included the battle itself as the primary event of the greater war, because the battle was the point at which history was truly changed, where North Americans fought one another passionately and savagely, and the last place where our nations shed each other's blood.  The battle was the crux of a war that has come to symbolize so much of such a rocky relationship between these lands, replete with all the politics, racism, bigotry, and worst of all, misconceptions, that have divided people on both sides of the border (the border which was largely set by that treaty document you see there).  Prejudices still exist on both sides, and in the meantime, the walls get higher and longer.  

Would things have been different had certain parties had their way?  Probably, but the truth is, we may never know.  Some parties just wanted Texas, while others wanted everything down to the Guatemalan border.  In the end, what happened, well, happened.  We remember the dead on both sides, and hope and pray for a better future.

The 10 Most Important Events in North American History, part one.

The usual policy of American Voyages is to use my personal experience and explorations in posting about North America, which implies that I use my own photographs.  In this, and other posts about history, I will instead supply fair-use images of period paintings when possible to help illustrate events.  I mean, it would be difficult to actually take a picture of something that happened 200 years ago.


In the coming year, as the 150th anniversary of battles of the American Civil War are commemorated, and the War of 1812 is largely ignored by most people, American Voyages will feature more historical posts about these events.  An emphasis will be given on exploring the remains of battle sites, with the usual attention given to arboreal detail on the side.

To this end, I figured I would do something a little different for a post today.  To help place these conflicts in proper context, larger overviews of history could be given.  However, those might also be boring!  Furthermore, I like ranking lists.  So, what happened since North America drifted into its current spot as the land mass we know and love, and why were things that happened so important?

Before we begin ranking, I am going to leave out two very crucial events, only because they go without saying as being highly influential in North American, and indeed world, history.  Those events would be the migration of humans across the Bering Land Bridge (which is still the leading contender for figuring out how humans first got here), and the landing of Columbus on San Salvador/Guanahani.  Furthermore, events considered will be events that happened in and directly impacted the continent.  While, say, the defeat of the Spanish Armada was crucial in allowing other European nations to hedge their bets in beaver pelt country, it happened over yonder across the large ocean and did not mean that anyone specifically got any new territory that forever changed things in said pelt country.

Anyway, once people figured out that other people were already here and started caring more about the gold they may or not have rather than focusing on fashion changes in court at Madrid or London, what happened since, and what were the 10 biggest turning points?

10. The Creation of NAFTA.

Courtsey of national archives, Washington, D.C.

While thinking about events that have impacted the relationship of all three nations of North America, this was the first one that came to mind.  There had been dealings between the three before, beginning during the Second World War when Canada starting focusing military policies on the alliance with the United States rather than with maternal entity Great Britain.  Mexico, being one of the Allied nations, was for the first time involved in direct formal relations with Canada in 1944, but not until NAFTA was the relationship anything more than lukewarm at best.  NAFTA basically came about because free trade had already been established between Canada and the United States.

Bush the elder, being from Texas and such, was considering putting a separate system in place for Mexico.  Brian Mulroney, Canada's prime minister at the time (the man at top right), got understandably nervous about this and suggested that maybe all three nations should be included in this venture.  His concern was based off of a fear the cheaper labor costs in Mexico would direct U.S. trade there instead of to Canada, and brother, was he ever right.  Corporations moved from both Canada and the United States to Mexico, and border towns such as Matamoros swelled in population due to the new maquiladoras opening up a deluge of new jobs.  Many industries in Canada and the United States, meanwhile, found themselves in the position of having excess, expensive labor (compared to the Mexican counterparts).  Things are changing, as Mexicans start to demand living wages, but they are changing slowly.  In terms of the cost to Canadian and American manufacturing, NAFTA was short-sighted.  For Mexican manufacturing, NAFTA was exploitative.

On the other hand, relations between the three nations have advanced rather rapidly as a result of NAFTA.  When I was in Mexico City a few years ago, I saw quite a bit of Canadian commercial presence in Mexico.  Nearly every third bank was from Canada, "Canadian food" (including poutine) was everywhere, and the number one foreign destination for quincineras was turning out to be Montreal rather than Paris.  I spent a good hour talking to a few people in a cafe after they figured I was "Quebecois" (I kindly informed them of my Franco-Ontarian and Irish heritage instead), in French no less.  They were ordinary people, cab drivers, waiters, etc. who actually sounded excited about Canada.  Yes, these were isolated examples, but I am sure that such cordial relations would not have existed before the pact.  Though created as a capitalistic venture and then partially out of fear, NAFTA has also resulted in the start of North American regionalism and has begun to powerfully influence some otherwise cold and rocky international relationships.  NAFTA has definitely changed the continent, for richer and poorer.  

9. The Completion of the Trans-Canada Railroad.

Credit: Alexander Ross / Library and Archives Canada / C-003693

Canada was "created" in 1867, but very much like the early United States, the confederated provinces were hardly what one would call a happy family.  Then, as now, much power was placed into the hands of provincial governments, and every province seemingly had its own agenda.  As was the case with the thirteen colonies, the provinces were largely independent entities, even after territorial reorganization in 1791 and then under unification in 1840.  Confederation alone was not enough to bridge the differences between provinces as diverse as Nova Scotia, Ontario, and distant British Columbia.  John A. MacDonald, Canada's first prime minister, knew that the only way to assure unity between distant lands was to link them through travel and trade, just as the Americans had done with the railway that stretched from Omaha to Sacramento.

In 1881, at a little town called Bonfield, the venture was started with the first spike being driven down.  Things took their time, as a number of difficulties hindered progress almost from the start.  Officials as high as the prime minister were bribed and involved in scandal.  Routes were argued almost constantly; difficult terrain, native possession of land, and local competition from Americans all served to impact just where the railroad would go.  The Blackfoot agreed to allow the railroad to pass through their land, the American competition was simply ousted by placing the track as close to the border as possible, but the terrain was another story altogether.  Canada, you see, has no easy pass through the Rockies as the United States does in Wyoming.  Even Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada mountains has nothing on Kicking Horse pass.  A gradient of 4.5%, the highest anywhere in mainline North America at the time, was the difficult reality faced by rail builders.  In the east, the rugged and isolated terrain of the Canadian Shield was not being helpful either.  Canada, it seemed, had nature working against its unity.

Aside from connecting the provinces, much of the railroad was built through largely unspoiled lands that remain sparsely populated to this day.  The prairies did not fill out nearly as fast as the plains to the south in the United States did; they were either too arid (nearly all of the Canadian plains are arid and short grass) or too cold.  Many people living in more fertile regions questioned the usefulness of the middle of Canada and were still more concerned for their own lands.  In the end, however, the railway was completed.  The overcoming of such difficulty proved to Canadians that they would and could make things happen in their beautiful but difficult lands, and other lines started cropping up everywhere.  The reality of the situation also convinced different provincials that a unified Canada was the only way to ensure they would not be eventually swallowed by the United States.   John A. MacDonald knew that a railroad worked for the Americans trying to solidify the bonds between east and west.  It went a long way to ensuring the survival of Canada and gave us the political map that we have to this day.

8. The Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

By 1853, Manifest Destiny was no longer a dream for the United States of America.  Americans were already pouring into the new states of California and Oregon, Mexico was hedged safely on their side of the Rio Grande, Canada was largely concerned with defending their borders rather than even close to considering war, and plans were being drawn up to divide territories into manageable units.  The west coast, however, was over six months away for most travelers trying to cross the breadth of the continent.  Vast plains, high mountains, and harsh deserts did not serve the make distances any lighter, and not long after the first lines were constructed between the great cities of the east coast were dreamers and businessmen thinking about making that travel time significantly shorter.

The problem, of course, was that a dreamer in New York had a different vision from a dreamer in New Orleans.  Different worlds existed between north and south, and those worlds each had a different path to the west coast.  Southerners wanted to see a railroad passing through their route that took advantage of the Gadsden Purchase.  Northerners wanted to wrest control of migration away from slave holders (though undoubtedly they were also largely concerned with keeping profit up in their end), and argued that the great trails already ran through Nebraska and Wyoming to lands beyond.  New York was not about to watch the Erie Canal corridor dry up as new transportation methods took over; Omaha was easy to connect to Albany.  Chicago, needless to say, seconded that motion.  Legislation was at a stand still, however, until the notable lack of southern interests in Congress, during the Civil War, allowed for a central route to begin construction in 1862.

Opportunity aside, Lincoln knew that rebuilding the concept of Union was going to take improvements in travel and communication.  While it never came to pass, further division among north, south, and then west (and possibly Utah)  might have been a reality had the railroad not come along first.  Though much progress had been made in promoting the spirit of being American since the parochial days of the thirteen colonies, regional and state identities were still pretty strong.  On top of this, there was all that vast open land that needed to be consolidated for Manifest Destiny to actually feel like the reality it had become.  In 1869, when travel from Sacramento to Omaha could take six days instead of six months, the lands between started to feel a bit smaller.

One end result was that settlement increased and resources started to get easily consumed.  Mountain timber reserves and the herds of Buffalo started vanishing rapidly, and thus the railroad, completed in the time frame that is was, became important for bringing about conditions that helped conservationists show the world the price of progress.  In 1872, Yellowstone became the first National Park in the world.  Another end result was that the Buffalo would be joined in near extinction by the people who had been around all along; Native Americans would dwindle once the west was truly open for conquest.  Finally, the unity and ease of settlement afforded would act as a wake up call to the people to the north.  Canadians would achieve confederation in 1867, and not wanting to see their own version of Mexico's 1846 come along, would make their own tracks by 1885.  Mexico could probably breathe a sigh of relief as well; the Americans finally achieved what they wanted and would surely have no need to make more "purchases".

Stop by for the next four Saturdays to see the rest.