CitizenBBN
04-09-2017, 07:05 PM
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/04/09/new-york-times-slams-trump-mexico-owed-half-territory-united-states-war
This article by a Mexican historian argues that the treaty that granted us California, etc. is an emotional scar that Trump has torn open with his rhetoric. Also it is somehow invalid and that Mexico is the party being wronged and not the US as Trump has claimed. They don't have much of a legal case other than that the treaty somehow wouldn't hold up to modern standards. We paid $15 million at the time for that land and that apparently was too low.
I have a simple answer: I'll support the US giving back that territory as soon as the country of Mexico, which is a nation formed by Spanish conquest, gives back everything they took from the Aztecs, Mayans, and the various Anasazi and other descendant tribes living in the US west when they showed up with their missions and Spanish nobility landowners.
Yes, we fought a war and part of the settlement was that land. Abraham Lincoln btw even argued against the somewhat trumped up justification for the war with his "Spot Resolutions" in Congress, but we went to war, we won, and we got some booty for it.
The same way the Spanish took over what is now Mexico, repressed the much larger and more organized populations of that area, and established colonial rule for nearly 300 years. That doesn't even mention how about 30 years before the US/Mexican war the then "Empire of Mexico" annexed what is now most of Central America, or the near endless various uprisings against corrupt leaders that led to near constant conflict in Mexico.
IMO our terms were fairly generous. We did compensate for the land (albeit a good price but not outrageous when you consider France sold the Louisiana Territory for the same basic amount about 50 years sooner, but the Louisiana territory didn't consist of large swaths of desert. Also the US gave citizenship to all Mexican citizens living in that territory and forgave individual debts as well.
But the point is simple: you can keep going back in history and find one group wronging another forever. We took that area from the Mexicans, who themselves only had it b/c they were a Spanish colony that took it from the Aztecs and Mayans among others, and the Aztecs took it from the Toltecs and a long list of other tribes, and that goes back thousands of years.
Screaming about fairness in things such as war and national expansion is silliness. It's never fair, and when someday the US falters and we lose out to someone else the cycle will have come full circle yet again.
This article by a Mexican historian argues that the treaty that granted us California, etc. is an emotional scar that Trump has torn open with his rhetoric. Also it is somehow invalid and that Mexico is the party being wronged and not the US as Trump has claimed. They don't have much of a legal case other than that the treaty somehow wouldn't hold up to modern standards. We paid $15 million at the time for that land and that apparently was too low.
I have a simple answer: I'll support the US giving back that territory as soon as the country of Mexico, which is a nation formed by Spanish conquest, gives back everything they took from the Aztecs, Mayans, and the various Anasazi and other descendant tribes living in the US west when they showed up with their missions and Spanish nobility landowners.
Yes, we fought a war and part of the settlement was that land. Abraham Lincoln btw even argued against the somewhat trumped up justification for the war with his "Spot Resolutions" in Congress, but we went to war, we won, and we got some booty for it.
The same way the Spanish took over what is now Mexico, repressed the much larger and more organized populations of that area, and established colonial rule for nearly 300 years. That doesn't even mention how about 30 years before the US/Mexican war the then "Empire of Mexico" annexed what is now most of Central America, or the near endless various uprisings against corrupt leaders that led to near constant conflict in Mexico.
IMO our terms were fairly generous. We did compensate for the land (albeit a good price but not outrageous when you consider France sold the Louisiana Territory for the same basic amount about 50 years sooner, but the Louisiana territory didn't consist of large swaths of desert. Also the US gave citizenship to all Mexican citizens living in that territory and forgave individual debts as well.
But the point is simple: you can keep going back in history and find one group wronging another forever. We took that area from the Mexicans, who themselves only had it b/c they were a Spanish colony that took it from the Aztecs and Mayans among others, and the Aztecs took it from the Toltecs and a long list of other tribes, and that goes back thousands of years.
Screaming about fairness in things such as war and national expansion is silliness. It's never fair, and when someday the US falters and we lose out to someone else the cycle will have come full circle yet again.