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Chapter 72 Yucatan and Rio Grande
Chapter 72 Yucatan and Rio Grande
"What kind of disaster have I created?"- President Jesus de Cardenas 1838
"With Central America coming into the fold it is clear to the other nations that the Yucatan is a force to be reckoned with. Mexico will think twice before attacking us."- President Miguel Barbachano 1839
"If there is a hell then the closest thing that comes to it is the Rio Grande."- John Hays 1847
Before we begin an insight into the beginning of the Mexican War, it is important to look at the final two players of the conflict who both played key roles in the beginning and conclusion. The Republic of the Rio Grande and the Republic of the Yucatan. In many ways these two sister nations of Texas could be said to be the exact opposites of one another. The Rio Grande was a failed state brought on by filibusters with little identity to call their own. The Yucatan would eventually rise to become one of the better success stories in Latin America by transforming itself into a prosperous Republic built on Creole and Mayan traditions. Both nations played key roles in the history of North America. Rio Grande and its primary cuase of the Mexican War, and Yucatan in shaping Central America the way it is today. These are their stories.
Yucatan: Since the beginning of New Spain the Yucatan had held a unique place within Mexico. For nearly two centuries since the region had become a part of New Spain in 1624, it had special autonomy within the colonial nation as a Captaincy General of the Spanish Empire. There were many factors that had resulted in its creation but this was primarily due to the unique geographical position of the Yucatan and the presence of the heavy Mayan native population that had persisted compared to the Aztecs and other native groups of New Spain. During the Mexican War of Independence, the state of the Yucatan had become a bastion of liberalism within Mexico due to the great number of Revolutionary leaders who had arisen from the state. One special example being Texas founding father Lorenzo de Zavala who came from the Yucatan and was a key sponsor of the Mexican Constitution. After Mexico's independence the state continued to liberalize while becoming one of the more prominent supporters of Federalism in Mexico due to its past history with heavy autonomy. While all this was going on the Mayan people were beginning to grow more powerful with a demand for equal rights to be strengthened. Because of all these factors the Yucatan was starting to form a strong national identity much like how Texas was in the 1830's. Creating the conditions for the Yucatan Revolution.
After the Yucatan Revolution came a short time of much uncertainty in the new republic. The Yucatan was far from an homogeneous place as the Mayan population were a strong and restless minority that were demanding of greater rights that it had not received in its time in Mexico. Along with this came backlash from the Conservative sections of the Creole population who were concerned with the immense amount of power that the Liberals were taking and were afraid that the Republic would be transformed into a dictatorship of Barbachano. Thankfully for the young nation an event soon came that would unite all sections of Yucatan society together and start the first feelings of Yucatan Nationalism, the Guatemala War. While the Guatemala War had been most undoubtedly one of Yucatan aggression against the Central American republics, it was one that gave the people of the Yucatan a clear enemy to fight against and a common goal to unit towards. The fact that the end of the Guatemala War resulted in the successful annexation of three nations and half of Honduras, showed the people that the Yucatan was a nation that could be successful and rise above the rest of the troubled states of Latin America. Another often overlooked result of Guatemala is the fact that it had solved, or at least curtailed, many of the initial problems that plagued the republic. Since the war was fought in order to meet the needs of the Mayan people, the Mayan natives became cooperative towards the state due to the fact that they could now rest easy knowing they had a role in the Republic and could live in peace with their nation united and no longer under the threat of forced assimilation by the Creoles. Both Liberals and Conservatives were able to unite together in a war and developed a newfound sense of patriotism towards their nation, helping to prevent the rise of any ideological civil wars as seen in the first two Mexican ones. With the addition of new territory that had more than doubled the Yucatan, the new nation would have a vast supply of natural resources to call upon and could expand itself to become a strong self-sustaining economy in the Gulf region due to the heavy trade with Texas and the passing of ships on both sides of the Yucatan's shores. With this sense of nationalism and identity being further reinforced with the Border Wars, the nations of the world could now count Yucatan as a stable and permanent member of their ranks. Now it was time for the Yucatan people to earn their peace.
The first issue of the new nation was of course the natural integration of both Creole and Mayan in the new state. While the Yucatan Constitution was certainly one of the most liberal in the world and contained equal rights for all its citizens on paper, there was still heavy discrimination of the Mayans be certain groups of the Creole population due to a general feeling of superiority. There had been multiple agreements and compromises made by Barbachano to try and appease both parties, though they were all temporary in nature. In the aftermath of the Guatemala War, the Creoles began to realize that they now had the possibility of being outnumbered by the Mayan peoples in the future as there were now hundreds of thousands of Mayans in the Republic and the they had naturally higher birth rates than the Creole population. Even the most bigoted of the Creole Yucatanis understood that a solution had to be met or they would face the wrath of the Yucatan. Wanting to find peace for both parties, President Barbachano began sending letters to President Houston in Texas, asking the man if he could give any advice based on Houston's successful implementation of the Indian Citizenship Initiative. Houston replied back in multiple letters and suggested that in order for there to be peace for the Mayan people to have their own semi-autonomous territories in the republic based on tribes so that they could live in their own manner. Barbachano saw this outcome as the best solution as it could allow both racial groups to live separately in peace. Legislation was then passed in the Yucatan congress drawing up a new federal system not only applying to the Mayan, but to all of the Republic. The Federal Act of 1839 would come to divide the Yucatan into eleven districts throughout the nation that in a similar manner to Texas would have high amounts of autonomy with a far more limited central government that would mainly be focused on the economy, national legislation, military, and foreign affairs. Each district would have three senators to send to the Yucatan for the Senate and a House of representatives also based on population. The Mayan nation within the nation would have seven senators to have in the senate while its tribes would be spread out in counties that would be able to keep their cultural practices in protection by national law and have unique laws that would apply to them so long as they didn't go against the Constitution. In order for a Mayan county to have a representative in the House, it would need at least 10,000 people. Although there was some heavy opposition from the Conservatives, the law was able to pass and the Yucatan people finally able to achieve their dream of the perfect federal state.
Unfortunately while the social changes were a great sign of progress, the Yucatan Republic would still be ripe with much conflict. These groups of dissidents usually came in the form of three different types; the Creole extremists, the Central American/Mexican Nationalists, and the Mayan extremists. The first was an extremely small minority of Creoles who were against what was appearing to be the transformation of the Yucatan into a Mayan nation. Because of this there was a sharp increase in the number of anti-Mayan crimes in the early and mid 1840's. The largest example of which was the existence of the Creole supremacist group the Creole First Coalition (CFC), a radical group of Creole supremacists who shared many similarities to the American KKK. Thankfully these attacks soon died down as the Yucatan Congress and the district governments refused to submit to the terror and renenge on the Mayan rights, meanwhile a nationwide crackdown on race crimes began that would see them become a minor problem by 1850. Though the CFC still continue to this day in a rump form. The next group who would prove to be the most dangerous for the Yucatan were the nationalists of the various states who the Yucatan had conquered. The first primary issue of this group came in the form of the Central Americans who had been conquered in the Guatemalan War. From 1839-1843 existed a time of unrest known as the Central American insurrection where groups of the defeated republics would wage a guerilla insurgency to seek the freedom of the nations or restore the USCA. Over time the Yucatan Army along with the help of the Mayans, were able to quell these insurrectionists and prevent a largescale rebellion from rising. Due to the increasing passed time as well as the memories of the short Central American confederacy, the motive for the people to fight for independence died over time and Central American nationalism hardly exists in the Yucatan today besides some fringe nationalist groups dissatisfied with the government. Finally there were the hostile tribes of the Mayans who would not accept coexistence with the Creoles and wanted their own state. Thankfully these people were a minority of the Mayan nation as a whole and thus were able to be quelled by Mayan militias before the Army had to get involved, thus preserving the Mayan status.
View attachment 312411
Map showing the boundaries of the districts of the Republic of Yucatan circa 1861
During the early days of independence the Yucatan began to form its own independent economy that would hopefully be able to compete among the many nations within the Gulf region. Unfortunately unlike Texas, the Yucatan did not have many natural resources to mine upon or even a small fraction of industry to build, so it instead relied on creating an agricultural economy to meet the needs of the people and hopefully trade with the rest of the world. Because most of the nation was extremely rural the average job of a Yucatani was to become a subsistence farmer and live within the village. The agricultural economy diversified during this period and began to take on a heavy amount of cattle ranching, lumber, coffee and rubber plantations, and plantations for tropical fruits that were rare outside of Latin America. The only jobs that could not be found outside of agriculture were positions within the port cities with Merida and Campeche forming heavy trade centers within the nation. These were mostly just confined to ship building, naval transportation, and fishing in the gulf. The one factor that allowed the nation to grow and prosper in the early years was its key position in Central America which had it become a midway point for trade between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, later causing the rise of railroads in the 1860's in order to quickly transport goods and people from one side of the country to the next. Though the Yucatan would never construct a canal like Nicaragua or Panama. Though its growth was relatively slow and the economy did not become as large as Texas, the overall economic conditions in the Yucatan were stable and as such most of the citizens lived a contempt life with a decent income, a rare sight in 19th century Latin America.
One last factor to talk about Yucatan is the beginning of its politics. Due to the Republic being a major center of Mexican Liberalism in Mexico, the Yucatan congress soon came to be dominated by liberals within its legislature. The apparent control of the liberals being evidence by the presidency of Miguel Barbachano from 1837-1853. The longest presidency of any individual in Yucatan history. Miguel Barbachano and his liberal allies followed many of the classic tenents of liberalism at the time with the main the imposition of free trade, equal rights with the natives, the existence of a strong federalist structure with low power for the central government, and a heavy emphasis on the importance of the Yucatan farmer. These groups coalesced together in 1839 to form the National Liberal Party. On the opposite side of the political spectrum existed the Conservatives who felt that the liberals were being too radical in their reforms and wanted a return to the old ways. These people believed in protectionism, buildup of industry, a strong central government, heavy support of the Catholic Church, and the assimilation of native peoples. These groups came together in 1840 to found the Conservative party and would begin to find much success in the 1850's with the election of founding father, Santiago Mendez, as president and the takeover of the Senate. Lastly existed a group of Mayans who felt that their needs were not met by either party. These political Mayans were of a more populist manner who followed many liberal ideologies but sought for the protection of the Mayan culture and advancement of their agenda in the nation. In 1850 this would give birth to the Mayan People's Party which was founded by Mestizo, Rico Salazar. The MPP would form a small third party for many years as much of the Mayan population were illiterate and held low political participation in the government. Over time as the Mayans grew and they became literate, the Mayan Party would become a force to be reckoned with and would stand equal with the other two parties in the 20th century.
View attachment 312410
President Santiago Mendez, 1853-1861 (Left). Presidential Palace in Merida, Yucatan. (Right)
Rio Grande: In hindsight the creation of this mess of a nation was something that should've been dearly avoided by France, Texas, and the Yucatan at the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo. What these parties did at the end of the First Mexican Civil War was nothing but take away five important states from Mexico and give it to a small group of filibusters who claimed to represent the hundreds of thousands of people who lived among the Rio Grande. In reality the founders of the Republic of the Rio Grande were only a group of ambitious landowners who saw an opportunity with the presence of the armies in the south and the relative sparse concentration of people in the north of Mexico. When independence was finally achieved, many of the founders of the Rio Grande didn't know what to do as they were very inexperienced in politics and the previous politicians and statesmen of the states were either dead, disposed, or unwilling to help. Because of this there existed a very tense political situation where a constitution had not even been drafted yet. There was still hope for the young nation however that it would bounce back and prove its own like Texas and the Yucatan. However the aftermath of the Border Wars provided a trauma that the Republic would never be able to bounce back from as it utterly failed to protect its sovereignty from Mexico and would've collapsed if not for foreign assistance. Unfortunately the Republic fell apart with the assassination of President Jesus Cardenas in 1849 by Luis Garcia, a man who Cardenas had owed money to but was never able to pay it back. When the Rio Grande cabinet and congress convened to appoint a successor (they never wrote a constitution so it wasn't clear that the Vice President would succeed like both Texas and the Yucatan) no one candidate could be agreed upon and the members refused to form elections to have the people decide. When word of the prevention of elections spread, the people across the Rio Grande either rose up or simply ignored all authority from Satillo. From there the situation worsened as Congress shut down completely and all the representatives went back to there own states and counties to either claim the presidency or take control of their own area. From this began the Rio Grande period where the entirety of the nation collapsed into multiple states with the Rio Grande only surviving in name due to no one state either having recognition or gaining power. An endless civil war.
To put the situation of the Rio Grande perspective is a quote from Mexican historian Manuel Gutierrez, who described the Rio Grande at this time as "Mad Max if there was even a sliver of order left." This description while seemingly hyperbolized, was in many respects quite accurate as the Rio Grande was a lawless region with multiple city states, independent ranches, and consecutive wars trying to claim ownership of the region. Outlaws were numerous and extensive in the republic with the people needing to rely on arming themselves for defense. The economy was practically nonexistent and the Texan Redback was the only acceptable currency due to the large informal trade going across the Rio Grande river. In may cases the only organization who could provide a sense of order and leadership left was the Catholic Church, with many towns actually having the local priest in charge of leadership. This was mainly due to the Church's largely established role in the lives of the citizens and its respected stance of neutrality between many of the warlords in the region. Often times it was joked that any day Pius would sent Italian legions to conquer the Rio Grande. With the large amount of chaos and unrest that took place at this time, its rather hard to form a conscice summary of the Rio Grande as a whole as each town was radically different from the next. Rather than existing as one nation, the Rio Grande was a host of micronations before the concept even existed. What little that can be said is that the Rio Grande was a largely agrarian nation focused on livestock and subsistence farming with its people living mostly independent and libertarian lives away from the control of a government. The Rio Grande was a true example of what would be called The Wild West.
Over the years with the Rio Grande descending further and further into anarchy, its people began to despair. They were tired of the constant warfare by gangs and filibusters, they were tired of living in an impoverished land, they were tired of not knowing if one would be able to even live to the end of the day. With little hope of Satillo emerging to take control any time soon, the people began leaving in droves to either Texas or Mexico. Yet out of those who stayed emerged a movement, the Pan-Mexican movement. The Pan-Mexicans emerged in 1853 after the rise of Benito Juarez and were determined to reunite with the mother country. They saw how Juarez was changing Mexico for the better and wanted to be in on the glorious movement as well, to experience the prosperity and sense of order that they had undergone in New Spain. These people did not care for the Texans or the French as they saw them as responsible for the mess. Over time began the emergence of the Order of Mexican Patriots, an organization of Mexican Nationalists who strove for unification. Born in the state of Chihuahua, the group of patriots would slowly gain power with the covert aid of Mexico and would soon begin to rule all of Chihuahua and were making their way into Central Rio Grande. With the path to revolution clear, the Pan-Mexicans began a national revolt in 1861 which invited the Mexican Army to begin, starting the Mexican War.
A group of Rio Grande filibusters. A rather common sight in the 1850's.
"What kind of disaster have I created?"- President Jesus de Cardenas 1838
"With Central America coming into the fold it is clear to the other nations that the Yucatan is a force to be reckoned with. Mexico will think twice before attacking us."- President Miguel Barbachano 1839
"If there is a hell then the closest thing that comes to it is the Rio Grande."- John Hays 1847
Before we begin an insight into the beginning of the Mexican War, it is important to look at the final two players of the conflict who both played key roles in the beginning and conclusion. The Republic of the Rio Grande and the Republic of the Yucatan. In many ways these two sister nations of Texas could be said to be the exact opposites of one another. The Rio Grande was a failed state brought on by filibusters with little identity to call their own. The Yucatan would eventually rise to become one of the better success stories in Latin America by transforming itself into a prosperous Republic built on Creole and Mayan traditions. Both nations played key roles in the history of North America. Rio Grande and its primary cuase of the Mexican War, and Yucatan in shaping Central America the way it is today. These are their stories.
Yucatan: Since the beginning of New Spain the Yucatan had held a unique place within Mexico. For nearly two centuries since the region had become a part of New Spain in 1624, it had special autonomy within the colonial nation as a Captaincy General of the Spanish Empire. There were many factors that had resulted in its creation but this was primarily due to the unique geographical position of the Yucatan and the presence of the heavy Mayan native population that had persisted compared to the Aztecs and other native groups of New Spain. During the Mexican War of Independence, the state of the Yucatan had become a bastion of liberalism within Mexico due to the great number of Revolutionary leaders who had arisen from the state. One special example being Texas founding father Lorenzo de Zavala who came from the Yucatan and was a key sponsor of the Mexican Constitution. After Mexico's independence the state continued to liberalize while becoming one of the more prominent supporters of Federalism in Mexico due to its past history with heavy autonomy. While all this was going on the Mayan people were beginning to grow more powerful with a demand for equal rights to be strengthened. Because of all these factors the Yucatan was starting to form a strong national identity much like how Texas was in the 1830's. Creating the conditions for the Yucatan Revolution.
After the Yucatan Revolution came a short time of much uncertainty in the new republic. The Yucatan was far from an homogeneous place as the Mayan population were a strong and restless minority that were demanding of greater rights that it had not received in its time in Mexico. Along with this came backlash from the Conservative sections of the Creole population who were concerned with the immense amount of power that the Liberals were taking and were afraid that the Republic would be transformed into a dictatorship of Barbachano. Thankfully for the young nation an event soon came that would unite all sections of Yucatan society together and start the first feelings of Yucatan Nationalism, the Guatemala War. While the Guatemala War had been most undoubtedly one of Yucatan aggression against the Central American republics, it was one that gave the people of the Yucatan a clear enemy to fight against and a common goal to unit towards. The fact that the end of the Guatemala War resulted in the successful annexation of three nations and half of Honduras, showed the people that the Yucatan was a nation that could be successful and rise above the rest of the troubled states of Latin America. Another often overlooked result of Guatemala is the fact that it had solved, or at least curtailed, many of the initial problems that plagued the republic. Since the war was fought in order to meet the needs of the Mayan people, the Mayan natives became cooperative towards the state due to the fact that they could now rest easy knowing they had a role in the Republic and could live in peace with their nation united and no longer under the threat of forced assimilation by the Creoles. Both Liberals and Conservatives were able to unite together in a war and developed a newfound sense of patriotism towards their nation, helping to prevent the rise of any ideological civil wars as seen in the first two Mexican ones. With the addition of new territory that had more than doubled the Yucatan, the new nation would have a vast supply of natural resources to call upon and could expand itself to become a strong self-sustaining economy in the Gulf region due to the heavy trade with Texas and the passing of ships on both sides of the Yucatan's shores. With this sense of nationalism and identity being further reinforced with the Border Wars, the nations of the world could now count Yucatan as a stable and permanent member of their ranks. Now it was time for the Yucatan people to earn their peace.
The first issue of the new nation was of course the natural integration of both Creole and Mayan in the new state. While the Yucatan Constitution was certainly one of the most liberal in the world and contained equal rights for all its citizens on paper, there was still heavy discrimination of the Mayans be certain groups of the Creole population due to a general feeling of superiority. There had been multiple agreements and compromises made by Barbachano to try and appease both parties, though they were all temporary in nature. In the aftermath of the Guatemala War, the Creoles began to realize that they now had the possibility of being outnumbered by the Mayan peoples in the future as there were now hundreds of thousands of Mayans in the Republic and the they had naturally higher birth rates than the Creole population. Even the most bigoted of the Creole Yucatanis understood that a solution had to be met or they would face the wrath of the Yucatan. Wanting to find peace for both parties, President Barbachano began sending letters to President Houston in Texas, asking the man if he could give any advice based on Houston's successful implementation of the Indian Citizenship Initiative. Houston replied back in multiple letters and suggested that in order for there to be peace for the Mayan people to have their own semi-autonomous territories in the republic based on tribes so that they could live in their own manner. Barbachano saw this outcome as the best solution as it could allow both racial groups to live separately in peace. Legislation was then passed in the Yucatan congress drawing up a new federal system not only applying to the Mayan, but to all of the Republic. The Federal Act of 1839 would come to divide the Yucatan into eleven districts throughout the nation that in a similar manner to Texas would have high amounts of autonomy with a far more limited central government that would mainly be focused on the economy, national legislation, military, and foreign affairs. Each district would have three senators to send to the Yucatan for the Senate and a House of representatives also based on population. The Mayan nation within the nation would have seven senators to have in the senate while its tribes would be spread out in counties that would be able to keep their cultural practices in protection by national law and have unique laws that would apply to them so long as they didn't go against the Constitution. In order for a Mayan county to have a representative in the House, it would need at least 10,000 people. Although there was some heavy opposition from the Conservatives, the law was able to pass and the Yucatan people finally able to achieve their dream of the perfect federal state.
Unfortunately while the social changes were a great sign of progress, the Yucatan Republic would still be ripe with much conflict. These groups of dissidents usually came in the form of three different types; the Creole extremists, the Central American/Mexican Nationalists, and the Mayan extremists. The first was an extremely small minority of Creoles who were against what was appearing to be the transformation of the Yucatan into a Mayan nation. Because of this there was a sharp increase in the number of anti-Mayan crimes in the early and mid 1840's. The largest example of which was the existence of the Creole supremacist group the Creole First Coalition (CFC), a radical group of Creole supremacists who shared many similarities to the American KKK. Thankfully these attacks soon died down as the Yucatan Congress and the district governments refused to submit to the terror and renenge on the Mayan rights, meanwhile a nationwide crackdown on race crimes began that would see them become a minor problem by 1850. Though the CFC still continue to this day in a rump form. The next group who would prove to be the most dangerous for the Yucatan were the nationalists of the various states who the Yucatan had conquered. The first primary issue of this group came in the form of the Central Americans who had been conquered in the Guatemalan War. From 1839-1843 existed a time of unrest known as the Central American insurrection where groups of the defeated republics would wage a guerilla insurgency to seek the freedom of the nations or restore the USCA. Over time the Yucatan Army along with the help of the Mayans, were able to quell these insurrectionists and prevent a largescale rebellion from rising. Due to the increasing passed time as well as the memories of the short Central American confederacy, the motive for the people to fight for independence died over time and Central American nationalism hardly exists in the Yucatan today besides some fringe nationalist groups dissatisfied with the government. Finally there were the hostile tribes of the Mayans who would not accept coexistence with the Creoles and wanted their own state. Thankfully these people were a minority of the Mayan nation as a whole and thus were able to be quelled by Mayan militias before the Army had to get involved, thus preserving the Mayan status.
View attachment 312411
Map showing the boundaries of the districts of the Republic of Yucatan circa 1861
During the early days of independence the Yucatan began to form its own independent economy that would hopefully be able to compete among the many nations within the Gulf region. Unfortunately unlike Texas, the Yucatan did not have many natural resources to mine upon or even a small fraction of industry to build, so it instead relied on creating an agricultural economy to meet the needs of the people and hopefully trade with the rest of the world. Because most of the nation was extremely rural the average job of a Yucatani was to become a subsistence farmer and live within the village. The agricultural economy diversified during this period and began to take on a heavy amount of cattle ranching, lumber, coffee and rubber plantations, and plantations for tropical fruits that were rare outside of Latin America. The only jobs that could not be found outside of agriculture were positions within the port cities with Merida and Campeche forming heavy trade centers within the nation. These were mostly just confined to ship building, naval transportation, and fishing in the gulf. The one factor that allowed the nation to grow and prosper in the early years was its key position in Central America which had it become a midway point for trade between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, later causing the rise of railroads in the 1860's in order to quickly transport goods and people from one side of the country to the next. Though the Yucatan would never construct a canal like Nicaragua or Panama. Though its growth was relatively slow and the economy did not become as large as Texas, the overall economic conditions in the Yucatan were stable and as such most of the citizens lived a contempt life with a decent income, a rare sight in 19th century Latin America.
One last factor to talk about Yucatan is the beginning of its politics. Due to the Republic being a major center of Mexican Liberalism in Mexico, the Yucatan congress soon came to be dominated by liberals within its legislature. The apparent control of the liberals being evidence by the presidency of Miguel Barbachano from 1837-1853. The longest presidency of any individual in Yucatan history. Miguel Barbachano and his liberal allies followed many of the classic tenents of liberalism at the time with the main the imposition of free trade, equal rights with the natives, the existence of a strong federalist structure with low power for the central government, and a heavy emphasis on the importance of the Yucatan farmer. These groups coalesced together in 1839 to form the National Liberal Party. On the opposite side of the political spectrum existed the Conservatives who felt that the liberals were being too radical in their reforms and wanted a return to the old ways. These people believed in protectionism, buildup of industry, a strong central government, heavy support of the Catholic Church, and the assimilation of native peoples. These groups came together in 1840 to found the Conservative party and would begin to find much success in the 1850's with the election of founding father, Santiago Mendez, as president and the takeover of the Senate. Lastly existed a group of Mayans who felt that their needs were not met by either party. These political Mayans were of a more populist manner who followed many liberal ideologies but sought for the protection of the Mayan culture and advancement of their agenda in the nation. In 1850 this would give birth to the Mayan People's Party which was founded by Mestizo, Rico Salazar. The MPP would form a small third party for many years as much of the Mayan population were illiterate and held low political participation in the government. Over time as the Mayans grew and they became literate, the Mayan Party would become a force to be reckoned with and would stand equal with the other two parties in the 20th century.
View attachment 312410President Santiago Mendez, 1853-1861 (Left). Presidential Palace in Merida, Yucatan. (Right)
Rio Grande: In hindsight the creation of this mess of a nation was something that should've been dearly avoided by France, Texas, and the Yucatan at the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo. What these parties did at the end of the First Mexican Civil War was nothing but take away five important states from Mexico and give it to a small group of filibusters who claimed to represent the hundreds of thousands of people who lived among the Rio Grande. In reality the founders of the Republic of the Rio Grande were only a group of ambitious landowners who saw an opportunity with the presence of the armies in the south and the relative sparse concentration of people in the north of Mexico. When independence was finally achieved, many of the founders of the Rio Grande didn't know what to do as they were very inexperienced in politics and the previous politicians and statesmen of the states were either dead, disposed, or unwilling to help. Because of this there existed a very tense political situation where a constitution had not even been drafted yet. There was still hope for the young nation however that it would bounce back and prove its own like Texas and the Yucatan. However the aftermath of the Border Wars provided a trauma that the Republic would never be able to bounce back from as it utterly failed to protect its sovereignty from Mexico and would've collapsed if not for foreign assistance. Unfortunately the Republic fell apart with the assassination of President Jesus Cardenas in 1849 by Luis Garcia, a man who Cardenas had owed money to but was never able to pay it back. When the Rio Grande cabinet and congress convened to appoint a successor (they never wrote a constitution so it wasn't clear that the Vice President would succeed like both Texas and the Yucatan) no one candidate could be agreed upon and the members refused to form elections to have the people decide. When word of the prevention of elections spread, the people across the Rio Grande either rose up or simply ignored all authority from Satillo. From there the situation worsened as Congress shut down completely and all the representatives went back to there own states and counties to either claim the presidency or take control of their own area. From this began the Rio Grande period where the entirety of the nation collapsed into multiple states with the Rio Grande only surviving in name due to no one state either having recognition or gaining power. An endless civil war.
To put the situation of the Rio Grande perspective is a quote from Mexican historian Manuel Gutierrez, who described the Rio Grande at this time as "Mad Max if there was even a sliver of order left." This description while seemingly hyperbolized, was in many respects quite accurate as the Rio Grande was a lawless region with multiple city states, independent ranches, and consecutive wars trying to claim ownership of the region. Outlaws were numerous and extensive in the republic with the people needing to rely on arming themselves for defense. The economy was practically nonexistent and the Texan Redback was the only acceptable currency due to the large informal trade going across the Rio Grande river. In may cases the only organization who could provide a sense of order and leadership left was the Catholic Church, with many towns actually having the local priest in charge of leadership. This was mainly due to the Church's largely established role in the lives of the citizens and its respected stance of neutrality between many of the warlords in the region. Often times it was joked that any day Pius would sent Italian legions to conquer the Rio Grande. With the large amount of chaos and unrest that took place at this time, its rather hard to form a conscice summary of the Rio Grande as a whole as each town was radically different from the next. Rather than existing as one nation, the Rio Grande was a host of micronations before the concept even existed. What little that can be said is that the Rio Grande was a largely agrarian nation focused on livestock and subsistence farming with its people living mostly independent and libertarian lives away from the control of a government. The Rio Grande was a true example of what would be called The Wild West.
Over the years with the Rio Grande descending further and further into anarchy, its people began to despair. They were tired of the constant warfare by gangs and filibusters, they were tired of living in an impoverished land, they were tired of not knowing if one would be able to even live to the end of the day. With little hope of Satillo emerging to take control any time soon, the people began leaving in droves to either Texas or Mexico. Yet out of those who stayed emerged a movement, the Pan-Mexican movement. The Pan-Mexicans emerged in 1853 after the rise of Benito Juarez and were determined to reunite with the mother country. They saw how Juarez was changing Mexico for the better and wanted to be in on the glorious movement as well, to experience the prosperity and sense of order that they had undergone in New Spain. These people did not care for the Texans or the French as they saw them as responsible for the mess. Over time began the emergence of the Order of Mexican Patriots, an organization of Mexican Nationalists who strove for unification. Born in the state of Chihuahua, the group of patriots would slowly gain power with the covert aid of Mexico and would soon begin to rule all of Chihuahua and were making their way into Central Rio Grande. With the path to revolution clear, the Pan-Mexicans began a national revolt in 1861 which invited the Mexican Army to begin, starting the Mexican War.
A group of Rio Grande filibusters. A rather common sight in the 1850's.
- Kaiser Chris
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