Mexico Called. They Want Texas Back.: Difference between revisions

In 1835 the Republic of Texas separated from its previous [[Mexico|Mexican]] rule. After spending the better part of their one sovereign decade attempting to join the United States, Texas was annexed by the USA in 1845. The United States offered Texas security, stable rule, and economic survivability, as many had families in the United States and feared that Mexico had plans to strike once more at Texas, hence this trope. The United States also would protect the settlers' right to own slaves-- theseslaves—these settlers, first invited to Texas by the Mexican government after agreeing to follow Mexican law, balked at Mexico's ban on slavery in 1829, which these slave-owning settlers very much disagreed with. <ref>Texas was actually granted a one-year exemption from the 1829 ban, but Mexican president Anastasio Bustamante ordered that all slaves be freed in 1830. To circumvent the law, many Anglo colonists converted their slaves into indentured servants for life.</ref> The slavery aspect is something Texans unsurprisingly tend to gloss over when discussing their state's history.

In 1846, the United States Congress declared war on Mexico following a border skirmish between a Mexican cavalry detachment and a U.S. patrol. Long story short, Mexico lost, and the Mexican government ended up signing the Guadalupe-Hidalgo treaty, in which Mexico transferred to the USA the territories that are nowadays covered by California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Oklahoma -- thatOklahoma—that is, around 60% of its territory (though only a very small part of its population or gross national income)- for the sum of 15 million dollars ( accounting for inflation, that's about $313 million today). This was later followed by the sale of La Mesilla / purchase of Gadsden for the purpose of building a transcontinental railroad.

Thus, whenever in speculative fiction you see the United States somehow greatly weakened, or in the past before the USA became a superpower, you can pretty much be assured the back story will involve Mexico conquering at least Texas and California. <ref>Some Northerners would say [[Take That|good riddance.]]</ref> This is particularly ironic, because Mexico's economy is barely larger than Texas .<ref>And not even as large as California's; in fact should Mexico hypothetically succeed this very moment in recovering just these two states, the Mexican economy would practically ''triple'' its size.</ref>. But then again, [[Everything Is Big in Texas|it IS Texas]].

** The [[All There in the Manual|backstory]] states that Mexico is part of the World Socialist League, and the USSR faked a civil war there to justify a troop intervention -- whichintervention—which provided them a base to invade the USA.