Let's say America annexes Mexico after the Mexican-American War. What happens now? A massive, expensive effort to occupy the country and introduce slavery in it, thus making tensions between North and South even worse?
What if America annexed Mexico?
- Thread starter SlickerVyn
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Is quite logical that tensions would grow even worse ITTL if this happens. One of the most troublesome affairs even during the OTL Mexican–American War was that the US government decided to not expand slavery in these states, which left an open field for the escalation of tensions between the Abolitionist North and the Slaver South. Now include a massive chunk of land, replete with potential "inferior" Latinos (take into consideration that during this time, racism was far worse than in modern days), aka potential slaves who could work the landowners cotton fields in the North American south.
The US could have easily annexed the entirety of Mexico after the war, the problem was to properly address the slavery issue which the US had, while also having to deal with dozens (if not hundreds) of Mexican guerrilla groups spreaded across all these lands.
The US could have easily annexed the entirety of Mexico after the war, the problem was to properly address the slavery issue which the US had, while also having to deal with dozens (if not hundreds) of Mexican guerrilla groups spreaded across all these lands.
It's highly likely that Mexico will rebel when the a civil war amongst the Yanquis inevitably occurs over slavery. Not out of sympathy with the Confederacy, but because that's obviously the best time to make such a move. That in turn might increase the chances of British and French intervention, since Mexico isn't rebelling to preserve slavery and so is a lot more palatable than the CSA.
This is pretty unlikely scenario since USA didn't want more Hispanic Catholics. And it would had brought problems since Mexicans wouldn't accept that.
So if USA would had done that, USA would had suffered severe Mexican resistance. This would too cause more tensions between North and South over slavery issue. Sooner or latter at least during Civil War USA probably has let Mexico to regain its independence so Union can focus to crush Confederates.
USA would end to be poorer since whole occupation would had eaten lot of resources. Mexican-American relations would are pretty bad. Mexico might even join to US enemies on Great War if such war still comes and USA joins to the war.
So if USA would had done that, USA would had suffered severe Mexican resistance. This would too cause more tensions between North and South over slavery issue. Sooner or latter at least during Civil War USA probably has let Mexico to regain its independence so Union can focus to crush Confederates.
USA would end to be poorer since whole occupation would had eaten lot of resources. Mexican-American relations would are pretty bad. Mexico might even join to US enemies on Great War if such war still comes and USA joins to the war.
Unless I am mistaken, Nicholas Trist actually played a major role in preventing the annexation of Mexico by the US. Also worth noting is that many in the US didn’t support the war, like Grant and Lincoln.
The US wasn’t going to annex all of Mexico, but they did want to - and could have - annexed more land. Trist, however, jumped the gun and drafted the treaty before instructions from Washington arrived. The Mexicans accepted Trist’s offer and Washington had no choice but to accept as well since the treaty included all the territory they were originally vying for: the entirety of Texas’ claims, including the nueces strip, and all of New Mexico and Alta California plus San Diego. At that point asking for more at that point would have only angered the Mexicans and prolong the negotiations. There had already been riots in Puebla and Mexico City against the occupation; so even if the US could take more, it would become an extremely expensive affair which almost no one was willing to pay for. You also have to consider that the US had an election coming up in 1848 and no one wanted to drag out the negotiations after that. The Whigs had the house (and were likely going to win the next election) and were willing to accept Trist’s treaty and give Polk the win; why risk a quagmire during an election year with the uncertainty of how Mexico and your political opponents would react when you can get a massive win anyway.
What I find interesting about this scenario is what happens in Mexico when the ATL Civil War comes: I think that former Mexican lands would take advantage of the mess between North and South to regain independence but, does the whole former country rebels? Do some more "Americanized" regions stay loyal to Washington? Do we get several independence movements, i.e. core Mexico (CDMX, Bajío and Altiplano regions), Rio Grande Republic 2.0, perhaps a California Republic (which would probably have plenty of Anglo settlers already, but perhaps there hasn't been a gold rush and the cost of occupying Mexico prevented the US from populating the region at the same pace as OTL).
I'm guessing the Yucatan would probably attempt a secession on its own. It's also likely Mexico, as we know, wouldn't exist even if got independence.
Actually, at the time of the Mexican-American War Yucatán was independent and in deep trouble with Mayan revolts. In this TL, perhaps the US, already having annexed the rest of Mexico, takes up the Yucatec offer of annexation in exchange for assistance, or maybe it becomes a British protectorate or even return to the Spanish fold. Or we get a rump Yucatec state centered around Mérida while the rest of the peninsula comes under Mayan control. Either one of these are very interesting options.
If the US somehow manages the full annexation of Mexico, the British might give some aid to Yucatan to squash the Maya revolts and prop up the Yucatan Republic as a buffer between their sphere in Central America and the US. Yucatan in turn would recognize British Honduras and maybe even give the British full control of Chetumal Bay (about the southern third of OTL's State of Quintana Roo).
To curb further US expansion the British could also formalize their protectorate over the Miskito Coast and confederate their Central American colonies into a larger colony (as they did with Canada and South Africa in OTL).
Willaim Walker will have to go venturing somewhere else.
That's something I'd like to see. A Central American Dominion stretching from Yucatán to Costa Rica, maybe with the future addition of Panamá if the British replace the US (too busy dearing itself apart between North, South and Mexico) as the main interested party in a canal.
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You know, some of the proposals (a minority, though) to annex all of Mexico wanted the Mexican states to be admitted as free states to counterbalance the power of the slave states.
if the United States has to Annex the entirety of Mexico.
you probably see a blending of the Mexican American culture
Catholicism would become the prominent Christian denomination.
but that could mean it doesn't remain The prominent denomination.
population of Mexico in 1860 was a little over 8.4 million
while the United States was basically 32 million with four million slaves
the majority of Mexico will be free states maybe there might be a few that decide not to but I don't see it being that many. Mexico basically had a surf system at this time.
this most likely butterflies the Civil War way
there will be three prominent factions in politics
broken up as the Mexican / Catholic vote the northern Protestant vote and then the southern slave vote
with the Mexican and Southerner vote being more aristocratic while the northern and Mexican vote would be more anti-slavery
with these three factions playing each other off against each other possibly leading to all three factions having more breathing room and also leading to more compromise
you probably don't see a Mexican born president until quite late or possibly 1890 but most likely further on
we actually might see a focus on northern states to bring in more immigrants from European nations that are Protestant.
you actually might see a large migration of Irish immigrants to Mexico in this scenario.
probably actually encouraged by the United States government to fast-track English as a more common spoken language in Mexico.
America's foreign-policy desires is probably going to be destroyed by this though you probably see domestic issues.
taking the focus of the United States America still might buy Alaska but Hawaii is a maybe.
the big thing is is how much different will the population growth of Mexico be in 1910 the population of Mexico was was 15.2 million while the United States was 92.3 million
without the Civil War in Mexico's constant Civil Wars you probably see a lot larger population probably looking at 130 million Americans by 1910 if not more
by the 1920s and 30s slavery and the Mexican American culture wars probably over
slavery probably officially abolished by the 1880s if not 1890's
Mexican American culture war is a little different you probably have a vastly different culture America to the one from our timeline but I think American culture as a whole will be dominant probably most of the people in Mexico will speak English as the prominent language by the 1920s and 30s the cultures will be basically seamlessly brought together and you just have a more Latino flavored America also prohibition is probably never adopted in this world as a constitutional amendment at least there might not be 3/4 of the needed states to actually make it a Amendment.
just thought I'd throw some other ideas into the mix
you probably see a blending of the Mexican American culture
Catholicism would become the prominent Christian denomination.
but that could mean it doesn't remain The prominent denomination.
population of Mexico in 1860 was a little over 8.4 million
while the United States was basically 32 million with four million slaves
the majority of Mexico will be free states maybe there might be a few that decide not to but I don't see it being that many. Mexico basically had a surf system at this time.
this most likely butterflies the Civil War way
there will be three prominent factions in politics
broken up as the Mexican / Catholic vote the northern Protestant vote and then the southern slave vote
with the Mexican and Southerner vote being more aristocratic while the northern and Mexican vote would be more anti-slavery
with these three factions playing each other off against each other possibly leading to all three factions having more breathing room and also leading to more compromise
you probably don't see a Mexican born president until quite late or possibly 1890 but most likely further on
we actually might see a focus on northern states to bring in more immigrants from European nations that are Protestant.
you actually might see a large migration of Irish immigrants to Mexico in this scenario.
probably actually encouraged by the United States government to fast-track English as a more common spoken language in Mexico.
America's foreign-policy desires is probably going to be destroyed by this though you probably see domestic issues.
taking the focus of the United States America still might buy Alaska but Hawaii is a maybe.
the big thing is is how much different will the population growth of Mexico be in 1910 the population of Mexico was was 15.2 million while the United States was 92.3 million
without the Civil War in Mexico's constant Civil Wars you probably see a lot larger population probably looking at 130 million Americans by 1910 if not more
by the 1920s and 30s slavery and the Mexican American culture wars probably over
slavery probably officially abolished by the 1880s if not 1890's
Mexican American culture war is a little different you probably have a vastly different culture America to the one from our timeline but I think American culture as a whole will be dominant probably most of the people in Mexico will speak English as the prominent language by the 1920s and 30s the cultures will be basically seamlessly brought together and you just have a more Latino flavored America also prohibition is probably never adopted in this world as a constitutional amendment at least there might not be 3/4 of the needed states to actually make it a Amendment.
just thought I'd throw some other ideas into the mix
They are going to be able to vote for their government more so then they have in most of there previous governments existence Santa Ana's dictatorship first Mexican Empire not to mention the old guard aristocracy which basically runs the country in medieval fiefdom style
Except they're being ruled by white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant individuals who are hundreds of miles away, do not speak the language, and do not care at all for their customs. No amount of 'you can vote now' will change the fact they also have their own history behind the nation of Mexico, and proud Mexican nationalism to contend with. There's also the Catholic Church, a powerful political force in Mexico, that will now have very rocky relations with America. I fully expect a Nativist movement to gain support in the region, calling for the 'diminishment' of Catholic influence, leading to some violence as did happen in OTL, about a decade earlier.
Yeah, voting is not everything, besides some (if not the majority) of the Mexican Elite won't be happy with them losing power to the Washington Elite. They will finance and promote any kind of rebellion they could form just to diminish the Americans' authority. Mexicans will basically be the Hungarians of the American (Austrian) Empire.
I'd even argue that the Hungarians have it better because by the 19th century they were a significant faction to the point where they got Vienna to listen. I doubt the Mexicans would have that luxury from Washington, not to mention that there's white supremacist elements that would exacerbate the problem.