The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 1, Issue 1, April 2015 | Page 47

Mexico, thanks to American threats of military action and surplus American
firearms that were increasingly finding their way into the hands of Mexican
Juarista fighters.
The wars of the United States have often been the mileposts used by
historians to divide its history. Anyone familiar with the history of the United
States will at once know the general time frame being examined by its relation to
a past or future war; the “ante-bellum” term is very familiar example to describe
the years preceding the Civil War, along with the “interwar years” of the
twentieth century. The Mexican affair was different; Americans did not
experience any additional bloodshed so close on the heels of the Civil War. There
were no banner headlines proclaiming its events, no returning troops to receive a
hero’s welcome as they would have marched down Pennsylvania Avenue. This
affair was a success without the body counts, which has not attracted a great
amount of re-examination.
America’s response to European troops on its southern border may
appear strictly regional to some, yet an examination of the events that occurred
during this time will show that there were global consequences the original
protagonists involved never dreamed of. From altered relations to the Holy See,
which was never able to reclaim lands in Mexico confiscated from the Church, to
the rolling back of European immigration and settlers who had come with
Maximilian’s blessing, the consequences were significant. The absence of actual
hostilities and memorable battles perhaps has ensured that America’s response to
the French intervention in Mexico is little appreciated by those who study
American or global history. Regardless, this was not only a crucial time in
America’s history, it would have impacts of global importance as the Monroe
Doctrine was revived and strengthened, while at the same time the prestige of an
emperor who ruled over a global empire was so damaged that soon its effects
would remove him from the world’s stage. Two empires, Mexican and French,
fell and were permanently replaced by two republics. America had a hand in this
and more.
Notes
1. Richard Worth, America in World War I (New York: World Almanac Library, 2007), 6.
2. Ole Holsti, Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy, rev. ed. (Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press, 2009), 16, http://site.ebrary.com/lib/apus/docDetail.action?
docID=10315953&p00=%22american%20isolationism %22 (accessed July 2, 2011).
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