From: Matt Carminito
Date: 4/4/00
Time: 6:19:25 PM
Remote Name: 155.247.244.78
Matt Carminto History 67 4/3/00
Mexico was very important to the United States in the early to mid 1800s. It played a significant role in the expansion of the U.S., despite the fact that the means of the expansion were not always positive. In 1820 there were about 40,000 people living in what is now known as present day New Mexico. This part of Mexico did a lot of sheep raising and mining. However, the U.S. could not benefit from those goods immediately. Mexico had to first be granted independence from Spain, which it received in 1821. It then took on the areas which are now known as Texas, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. With all this new territory the Republic of Mexico adapted a free trade policy with the United States and the two sides benefited commercially. In the 1820s, Mexico also encouraged Anglo-American colonists to settle in Texas. These settlers eventually developed a friction with the Mexican government over slavery issues and the policy that all colonists had to covert to Roman Catholicism. Independence was then declared on March 2, 1836 and after a war Texas was no longer a part of Mexico. The United States would then annex Texas some years down the road. The territory of Texas breaking away from Mexico to become a part of the U.S. was only the beginning. The United States would later gain much more land as a result of the Mexican War. New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado all became areas that belonged to the United States government.