User:Prablek/sandbox

Article Revision Idea

I am going to edit the History of Mexico Article to include the struggles of the Mexican Republic with "los indios." The article mentions the Comanche but does not mention the Apache and also the American involvement in supplying the Apache. I will use the Jacoby reading as a base and then find corroborating sources for including Apache/American involvement in the article.

Article to be Put into "First Republic of Mexico"

Challenges of the New Republic

Apache Under Spanish Rule

The republic would largely adopt Spanish policy (see "Native American Raids") with regard to the Apache, establicimiento, or the system by which the Spanish sought to settle the Apache and make them sedentary by offering these Apaches de Paz (Peaceful Apaches) advanced goods and land in exchange for peace and abandonment of nomadic lifestyle.

The End of Apache Colonization and Worsening of Native American Raids

Even since independence in 1821, Mexico faced an insufficient defense network left behind by the Spanish against the Comanches and Apaches in the Northern States. Even going so far as to include a royal signature, Pre-Republic Mexico reinstated Spanish indian policies to the letter. While some peace treaties did exist between locals and los indios, the peace did not last long, as Apaches would often simply take their violence elsewhere when villages proved to be too difficult to raid. With these ineffective policies in place, combined with an ever evolving and adapting Comanche Empire, the Early Republic faced a formidable foe with an inadequate infrastructure. The lack of appropriate defense against raids may not have been so large of a problem for the Republic, if establicimiento had not all but been forgone by 1830's, with post-independence 1820's economic instability causing many regions to drastically reduce rations to the Apaches de Paz.

American Involvement and Prelude to War

While United States exacerbation of border relations with the Mexican Republic is well-documented among Mexican petitions to the United States government, Americans would also exacerbate relations with Mexico by crossing the border and empowering the Mexican's enemies: the Apaches. In addition to Comanche raids, the First Republic's northern border was plagued with attacks on its northern border from the Apache, who were supplied with guns by American merchants. Goods including guns and shoes were sold to the Apache, the latter being discovered by Mexican forces when they found traditional Apache trails with American shoe prints instead of moccasin prints. The vicious cycle of heightened violence between Mexicans and Apaches only firther destablized the Republic, with bloody and often excessivley violent exterminations of Apaches. Discontent among the northern states reached a peak in 1837, when the governor of the State of Sonora decared that "the United States has already as much as declared a state of war between our two nations" with regard to both the annexation of Texas and the illegal enterings/selling of weapons committed by United States' citizens.