Download This PaperForeign Relations Between Mexico and the United States in the Nineteenth Century, 1821-1910
PROFMEX WebJournal, Vol. 24, No. 12 (Fall 2019)
23 Pages Posted: 14 Apr 2020 Last revised: 23 Apr 2020
Abstract
This article received the 2019 PROFMEX (Consortium for Research on Mexico) Award for New Interpretation of U.S.-Mexican Relations. It is a translated and revised version of a book chapter in Patricia Galeana et al., Historia binacional México-Estados Unidos (INEHRM-Siglo XXI, 2018). The essay examines the relationship between Mexico and the United States from 1821 to 1910 by focusing on key sources of international tension. Traditional historiography has oversimplified this era, portraying it as one of monolithic U.S. domination, Mexican victimhood, and periodic warfare interspersed with political conflict. Yet the crises studied here show continual cooperation and the development of dispute-resolution mechanisms, such as reclamation panels and joint adjudications over bancos (riverine islands). The nineteenth century was in fact characterized by complex dealings and skilled diplomacy on both sides, in which neither country was consistently a unilateral actor, and has left a legacy of binational collaboration and institutions.
Keywords: Borders, comparative law, diplomacy, environmental law, extradition, foreign policy, foreign relations law, international arbitration, international claims, international law, international trade, law and society, legal history, Mexico, Monroe Doctrine, transboundary agreements, water law
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation