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Chapter 15 The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

"This is a direct violation against the Monroe Doctrine and a Deceleration of War against the United States."- Speaker of the House James K. Polk 1837
"Why did i send Lamar in the first place? Only he is crazy enough to grab California."- President Sam Houston 1837
"We won the war, but at what cost?"- Presidente Valentin Gomez Farias 1837

On April 4th, representatives of five nations, three of which have existed for less than a year, met at the small village of Guadalupe Hidalgo, there began a process of which some would call the "Partition of Mexico". It was obvious to everyone that attended that the Federal regime in Mexico had little to no say in what was about to take place. While they did technically win the war it was only through the French intervention that they managed to capture the capitol at all, in addition even if Farias wanted to continue war against the French, Mexico had little to no available manpower or resources to fight them head on in battle, and unlike the War of independence, the Mexican people were to tired to continue fighting and wanted desperately a return to peace. If Farias expected for the terms to be light then he would've been dead wrong, Baudin used this conference as an opportunity for France to claim permanent dominance over the region by enforcing trade agreements in favor of France, setting up French forts and ports within the region, and supporting ALL claims to Mexico by the rebel nations. The terms of the treaty are as follows:
It was a comprehensive treaty that effectively split Mexico apart and made it subservient to France and its former territories. While it was celebrated within the Republics as a total victory for their part within the wars it brought upon a three decade national trauma within Mexico called "The Generation of '36". Civil conflict would reign within Mexico for the next decade while the Farias regime would dedicate all its resources to improving the domestic situation within the country as well as implementing vast liberal reforms and de-centralizatoin. Eventually a new wave of revanchism and Mexican cultural revivalism would hit the nation in the 1850's and a new Mexian unification movement lead by Benito Juarez would lead the country to the Mexican War.



New Borders according to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Among the other nations of the world the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was met with much divisiveness. Within Latin America many nations were filled with both fear and joy, fear that what happened to Mexico would later come to them by European powers, and joy that as strong regional rival had been thoroughly eliminated. Much of Europe was either indifferent or worried for the rise in French power. The two nations that were most livid were the Untied States and the United Kingdom. The United States was furious that France had directly violated the Monroe Doctrine and had given Texas what they had considered to be part of America's territory, as many American settlers had made their way to California within the past decade. Great Britain was apalled at the French's attempts on what was considered their corner of the world and feared the emergence of a new Napoleon. Yet many factors would prevent these nations from going to war or joining against each other against France; for one while France had violated Mexican sovereignty it had done so to protect independent nations and had taken no personal land from Mexico. To try and dispute France's actions would be hypocritical of Britain's actions to other nations in Asia and to the United States for doing the exact same thing in its Revolutionary War. While France had defied America, there was little America could do about it as they had a poorly funded and small army back then and had no direct way to fight France at the time, in addition the oncoming Recession of 1837 would prevent any action from happening due to America's poor economy. The United States would be reluctant to intervene in Texas's claims on California in the future as due to its Constitution, slavery was now legal throughout all of California, meaning that any U.S expansion into the region would be forced to expand slavery as well. Finally the British people as a whole were apathetic to France's actions as they saw it as some minor war fought in a backward part of the region. If France had done the same thing in India or the Middle East then it would be a cause for concern, but because it took place in Mexico, where the main government was bound to lose anyways, the British people did not want to start another war and end the twenty years of peace. So reluctantly both nations backed off from France's gains. Although they would be keeping a closer eye on France and Latin America in the future.

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The American dream of Manifest Destiny was on hold. For Now.

Within the new Republics each focused on creating its own new destiny in world affairs. France would sign new treaties with both the Yucatan and Rio Grande similar to its own agreement with Texas(with the exception of colonists), 5000 troops would be stationed within each nation and a new sphere of French power was established within the Americas. Both nations then diverted attentions to their internal affairs. The Yucatan focused on consolidating their gains as well as trying to improve relations between the Creole and Mayan citizens of the nation, a task which would prove difficult for the next decade. The Rio Grande took this time to establish its identity and control over its new states. Unfortunately, the young republic was formed out of the minds of fortunate filibusters and had little love among the populace who desired a return to Mexico, this would create much conflict within the nation that would lead to the Mexican War. What came as a shock to most nations in Latin America, as well as the U.S, was Texas's annexation of California. While it was originally true that Texas only desired to expand to the Rio Grande, the actions of vice president Mirabeau B. Lamar would change the limits of the Lone Star Republic. Lamar was sent to Mexico along with Secretary of State Austin in order to represent the Texas government at the negotiations, Lamar was also a fervent nationalist of the new country and had a dream of Texas being a powerful nation that resided from coast to coast. Lamar was able to convince Charles Baudin of the benefits of Texas having California by preventing America form expanding southward as well as giving Texas (and in extent France) more land and strong ports on the Pacific Ocean. Houston for one was not happy about this new agreement as he believed that it was beyond the nations capabilities for governance and that the Californian people might resent their new masters. Nevertheless the Texas Senate unanimously ratified the treaty and Houston, albeit reluctantly, signed the treaty to prevent a loss of support for him in the next election. The only benefits that Houston saw though was that more land on the Pacific would be a fruitful offer to encourage U.S annexation, as fate would have not only would California become a factor in the United States rejecting Texas annexation, but it would also prove to become a boom for Texas later in the century. For now Texas expanded its lands and focused on encouraging new settlement and creating a stable economy, its journey had begun.

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Lone Star Flag of the California Commonwealth of the Republic of Texas

A/N: All credit for map belongs to member "Cool-eh"