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Mexico’s Dream of Reclaiming US Soil During WWI
Two bold plans to seize what was lost
Nearly 200 years after its conclusion, the Mexican-American War remains a controversial moment in history. From the flimsy justification for war to the overt land grab that followed, the United States easily swept through a nation that had only achieved its independence 25 years prior. After the war, the United States acquired 529,000 square miles of new territory, the third-largest land acquisition in US history and the largest done through conquest. The other two acquisitions, the Louisiana Purchase and the Alaska Purchase, involved monetary exchange rather than the exchange of artillery fire.
Unsurprisingly, the Mexican-American War leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of many, even to this day. Today, it seems unthinkable that the United States and Mexico would go to war or that Mexicans would support reclaiming their lost territory. But that was not always the case.
Before the United States was a global superpower, it was a regional power with an agrarian background and a taste for racism and violence. It was at the dawn of America’s transformation into a true global superpower that Mexico pondered whether or not it was feasible to take back what many saw as rightfully theirs.
