Module 2 Notes: U.S. Conquest and Imperial Expansion, 1848-1898

Introduction to Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Cultures

Course Overview

• Focus: U.S Conquest and Imperial Expansion from $1848$ to $1898$. This period marks the transition of the United States from a continental power to a global empire, beginning with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and ending with the Spanish-American War.

Lecture Outline

1. U.S. Conquest of the Southwest

   • Analysis of the Mexican-American War and the ideological foundations of expansionism.

2. Racialized Violence & Resistance

   • Exploration of how the new legal and social order was enforced through state and vigilante violence.

3. U.S. Imperialism and the Spanish-American War of $1898$

   • The shift toward overseas territories and the end of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.

4. U.S. Imperialist Interventions in the Spanish Caribbean & Central America

   • Case studies on economic and military control in the $20^{th}$ century.

Chicana(o)/Latina(o) Culture Course Themes

• Chicanx/Latinx Mobility

  • Encompasses both voluntary and forced migration. It involves "push" factors (war, poverty) and "pull" factors (labor demand) that drive the movement of people across borders.

• Chicanx/Latinx Identities

  • These are not static; they are socially constructed and evolve based on geographical contexts, such as the transition from "Mexican" to "Mexican-American" or "Chicano."

• Anti-Latinx Racism

  • A systemic framework including institutional marginalization and individual prejudice. This includes the legal disenfranchisement of land-owning Californios and Tejanos after $1848$.

• Chicanx/Latinx Mobilization

  • Tactical resistance ranging from political lobbying (LULAC) to labor strikes and radical movements like the Chicano Power Movement of the $1960s$.

• Chicanx/Latinx Contributions to U.S. Society

  • Highlighting economic labor in agriculture and railroads, as well as cultural influences on American literature, food, and music.

A Chicanx/Latinx Global History

Scale of Analyses

1. Individual Level: Focuses on testimonios (personal narratives) and daily micro-interactions.

2. Community Level: The role of mutualistas (mutual aid societies) and local church organizations.

3. Regional Level: How the borderlands function as a distinct socioeconomic zone compared to the national interior.

4. National Level: How citizenship laws (like the Jones Act) define who belongs to the body politic.

5. Global Level: Transnationalism—how families maintain ties across borders through remittances and shared culture.

Current Events and Historical Context

U.S. Policies and Responses

• Puerto Rico and Disaster Relief:

  • Post-Hurricane Maria ($2017$): Under the Trump administration, the Federal Government was criticized for restricting over $\$20$ billion in aid. Advocates argue this reflects the "colonial status" where residents are U.S. citizens but lack full representation.

• The Cuban Embargo (El Bloqueo):

  • Initiated in $1960$, it remains a cornerstone of U.S.-Cuba relations. Despite a brief "thaw" under Obama, the Biden administration has largely maintained the strict sanctions of the Trump era, impacting local medicine and food supplies.

Imperialism and U.S. Expansionism

Key Historical Timeline

• $1803$: Louisiana Purchase (doubled U.S. size for $\$15$ million).

• $1821$: Mexico gains independence from Spain; soon after, American settlers enter Coahuila y Tejas.

• $1823$: Monroe Doctrine (declared the Western Hemisphere closed to European intervention).

• $1829$: Mexico abolishes slavery, creating friction with Anglo-Texan slaveholders.

• $1845$: Annexation of Texas (seen by Mexico as an act of war).

• $1848$: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; Mexico cedes over $50\%$ of its territory.

• $1853$: Gadsden Purchase (finalized the current U.S.-Mexico border for railroad construction).

• $1898$: Treaty of Paris; U.S. acquires Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.

Key Concepts

• Imperialism: A policy of extending a country's power through diplomacy or military force. It is often driven by the need for new markets and raw materials.

• Colonialism: The practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

• Settler Colonialism: A specific form where the colonizing power seeks to replace the indigenous population with its own settler society (e.g., the Anglo expansion into California).

Historical Narratives

The Alamo and the Texas Republic ($1836$-$1845$)

• The Myth: Often portrayed as a heroic fight for "liberty" against the tyrannical Santa Anna.

• The Reality: Many Anglo-Texans revolted specifically to maintain the institution of slavery and land speculation, resisting Mexican laws that forbade both.

Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War ($1846$-$1848$)

• Coined by John O'Sullivan in $1845$, Manifest Destiny was the belief that the U.S. was divinely ordained to expand across North America. It provided a moral and religious justification for the conquest of non-white, non-Protestant peoples.

Treaties and Colonial Frameworks

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ($1848$)

• Article VIII: Guaranteed that Mexicans in the ceded territories could maintain their property and chose between Mexican or U.S. citizenship.

• Article IX: Promised "the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens of the United States."

• Article X (The Omitted Article): Originally intended to protect all prior Mexican land grants, the U.S. Senate struck this article out, leading to the massive dispossession of Mexican land through the U.S. court system.

The Changing Southwest and Racialized Violence

Racial Capitalism and White Supremacy

• Racial Capitalism: A concept by Cedric Robinson arguing that capitalism and racism are intertwined; the system extracts value from non-white bodies through slavery, low-wage labor, and land theft.

• The Texas Rangers: Originally formed to protect settlers, they often functioned as a paramilitary force that enacted state-sanctioned violence against Mexicans and Native Americans.

• Lynchings: Between $1848$ and $1928$, at least $597$ people of Mexican descent were lynched in the U.S. Southwest, often as a tool for economic intimidation.

Forms of Resistance

• Social Banditry: Figures like Joaquin Murrieta and Gregorio Cortez were viewed as criminals by the U.S. state but as folk heroes (the subjects of corridos) by Mexicans for standing up to Anglo injustice.

• Las Gorras Blancas (The White Caps): A group in New Mexico in the late $1880s$ that cut fences and destroyed railroad tracks to protest the enclosure of communal grazing lands by Anglo developers.

The Spanish-American War ($1898$)

• The "Splendid Little War": Triggered by the explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor.

• The Platt Amendment ($1901$): Although Cuba became independent, this amendment gave the U.S. the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and established the naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

• White Man's Burden: Based on Rudyard Kipling’s poem, it was the paternalistic idea that the U.S. had a duty to "civilize" the "darker skins" of the new colonies.

U.S. Imperialist Interventions in Latin America

• Guatemala ($1954$): The CIA-backed coup against Jacobo Árbenz to protect the interests of the United Fruit Company.

• Panama Context: The U.S. supported Panamanian independence from Colombia in $1903$ specifically to secure the rights to build the Panama Canal.

• El Salvador ($1980s$): Significant U.S. military aid (over $\$1$ million per day) supported a government that committed widespread human rights abuses during the civil war.