Haas, Lisbeth. “War in California, 1846-1848.” California History, vol. 76, no. 2/3, 1997, pp.
331–355. JSTOR, doi: 10.2307/25161671. This is a long narrative of the conflicts and tension between America and Mexico. It is not until several pages later that the event of the Bear Flag Revolt is approached, and it is made clear that the U.S. government had confidence in eventually annexing California, so expeditions was sent out to explore the area. There is a brief account of the taking of Sonoma and the actions that was taken upon General Vallejo, and once Sonoma was occupied by Americans, a flag with a bear and a lone star was made in order to proclaim California as an independent Bear Flag Republic. This article provided a far more wide perspective
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John A. Hawgood reflects on the Bear Republic revolt in this work;. it starts out with an introduction to the beginnings of unrest within Alta California under the rule of the Mexican government and how that tension was then stoked to flames and rebellion by several others-- one of them being John C. Fremont, or as he was known: Captain Fremont. This rebellion became known as the Bear Flag Movement/Revolution, and it is said that Fremont could have easily stopped the movement. It would never have come to be if it wasn’t for his advice, which had provoked those who were the most excited among the American settlers. I found it interesting how apparently later, the actions of other American forces towards other people, specifically the inhabitants of the land which they was able to take, was said to have brought shame upon Fremont rather than pride-- especially since it was him who helped to jumpstart the revolution but yet refrained from taking any true responsibility. If one is interested in learning more about how the beginnings of the California Republic came to be and why, this article holds a good deal of new information in relations to the infamous event of the Bear Flag Revolution and on those from both sides who partook in the …show more content…
Part one, “The Coast of Cathay”, speaks of the tales of the Spaniards, Mexicans, and Californios. The chapters within progresses from the conquistadors and how that resulted in Mexico, and then to Californios, and how they came to be within America. The second part is titled “Bear Flag Rising”, and it highlights many characters who played their roles within the taking of California, such as: James Knox Polk the 11th president of the United States, and John C. Frémont. The last part, “Conquest” speaks of the warfare between America and Mexico, and the conquest of various areas such as Santa Fé, Los Angeles, San Gabriel, and others. This book highlights the full story of the process in how Mexico lost California to the United States, and this will help me to get a wider perspective on the history behind the Bear Flag, as it provides in-depth background information regarding California’s
In this section his initial thoughts show through. “But losers matter, especially in the history of early America.” Many different regions of early America are examined in their years of early conquest when native populations started their descent. The biggest theme throughout the section is the effect that conquistadors and explorers had on the native population in their search for gold and glory. The information that is given is not typical of what is learned of early America, but tries to really focus on the most important figures of the time and there voyages. For example, when talking about the Plains nations and there explorers, Coronado and De Soto a tattooed woman woman is brought up who had been captured by both explorers at different times and different places, but little is known about her. “Of the tattooed woman who witnessed the two greatest expeditions of conquest in North America, and became captive to both, nothing more is known.” This point captures the main idea of the theme and what many know of this time. Horwitz aims to point out the important facts, not just the well known
C. W. Hackett, ed., Historical Documents relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773, vol. III (Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1937), 327-35.
This historical document, The Frontier as a Place of Conquest and Conflict, focuses on the 19th Century in which a large portion of society faced discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and religion. Its author, Patricia N. Limerick, describes the differences seen between the group of Anglo Americans and the minority groups of Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics Americans and African Americans. It is noted that through this document, Limerick exposes us to the laws and restrictions imposed in addition to the men and women who endured and fought against the oppression in many different ways. Overall, the author, Limerick, exposes the readers to the effects that the growth and over flow of people from the Eastern on to the Western states
Hogeland, William. The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the frontiers rebels who changed America's Newfound Sovereignty. New York: Scribner, 2006.
“California is a story. California is many stories.” But whose story is heard? What stories are forgotten? In the memoir, Bad Indians, Native American writer and poet Deborah A. Miranda constructs meaning about the untold experiences of indigenous people under the colonial period of American history. Her memoir disrupts a “coherent narrative” and takes us on a detour that deviates from the alleged facts presented in our high school history books. Despite her emphasis on the brutalization of the Indigenous people in California during the colonization period, Miranda’s use of the Christian Novena, “Novena to Bad Indians,” illustrates an ‘absurd’ ironic stance amidst cruelty and violence. The elocution of the Novena itself, and the Christian
Rosales, F. Arturo. Lecture 2/14 Film The US-Mexican War Prelude. Weber, David J. - "The 'Path of the World'" Foreigners in Their Native Land: The Historical Roots of Mexican Americans.
Thesis: The nine years of Texas’s independence were long and seemed to be dragged out. Were those nine years unnecessary and could it have been done in a shorter period of time? 13 October 1834 was the first revolutionary meeting of the American citizens who’d settled in Mexico, in the area soon to be known as Texas. The people attempted a movement that soon was laid to rest by the Mexican Congress. Attempts at independence were silenced for the time being and the elections of 1835 proceeded forward.
In Flags of our Fathers, by James Bradley, the author researches about the lives and backgrounds of the six veterans that lifted the American flag on Iwo Jima suspecting his father participated in that historic moment. The six seniors just finished high school and later enlisted in the armed forces. They came from diverse backgrounds and held different positions in the military but later fought together as a group and defeated the Japanese troops in the most famous US military victory in the Pacific during World War ll. The summary of this book is simple but there are several main ideas in this bestseller of which one important message is that the writer targeted this book towards Americans to persuade them that people
In February 2, 1848, the final armistice treaty Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, through which the United States government got the access to entire area of California, Nevada, Utah plus some territory in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming. As a compensation, the United States government paid 18.25 million dollars to Mexico.( Pecquet, Gary M., and C. F. Thies. 2010) However, apart from the death of people, Mexico lost half of its territory in this war, which initiate Mexican’s hostile towards American. In addition, after the Mexican-American war, there was an absence of national sense in Mexican, which had a negative effect on the unity and development of the country.
Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.
For this book review I decided to review the work of Matthew Restall's Seven Myths of Spanish Conquest. Restall has written numerous books before but this one takes on a different meaning. For this book he debunks many of the theories for the success of the Spanish conquest on the Americas during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Understanding the distinctions in historical terms between what is a myth and actually true has proven to be a difficult task. Within this book's seven chapters Restall addresses a specific myth of the conquest namely, the myth of exceptional men, of the king’s army, of the white conquistador, of completion, of (mis)communication, of native desolation, and of superiority. Within each chapter the author eases the
Monroy, Douglas. Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California . 1990.
In the early twenty-first century, there was a continued concern on immigration in the United States that focused primarily on the immigration of Mexicans across the border into the U.S., especially California. Already many white native Californians began to notice a change in the surrounding culture as more Mexican immigrants entered the country. This change inspired many to express their thoughts on this transition of culture and society, including Victor Hanson, author of “Mexifornia.” Hanson speaks from his own experience as a farmer in Selma, California, dealing with whether Mexican immigrants are a racial group attempting to maintain their own identity within American culture or a people striving to assimilate and blend into American
The history of the Western hemisphere is full of war and conquest. One of the most significant and defining of those conquests is the downfall of the Mexica/Aztec Empire. While there are many other events to choose from, this one stands out since it was one over one of the largest empires in Central America. It is also important to look at because of the immense cultural impact it had. The story of this takeover reads like a movie script, a small band of Spaniards single handedly takes down the most powerful empire in Central America. It was an epic battle, which unfortunately led to the destruction of a magnificent culture. As in any major historical event there are many underlying themes and storylines that come together to make the event happen. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec is no different. Three major themes are seen in this struggle. One of them is the incredible advantage that the Spaniards technology gave them over the Aztecs. A second major theme is the greed that fueled the conquests in the New World. The last major theme was the effect of the political divisions and rivalries within Montezuma’s Central American Kingdom. As this historical event progressed each one of these themes began to intertwine until they became an almost unstoppable force.
In the article review “ How the West was Lost” the author, William T. Hagan explains that in a brief thirty-eight year period between 1848 and 1886, the Indians of the Western United States lost their fight with the United States to keep their lands. While nothing in the article tells us who Hagan is, or when the article was written, his central theme of the article is to inform us of how the Indians lost their lands to the white settlers. I found three main ideas in the article that I feel that Hagan was trying to get across to us. Hagan put these events geographically and chronologically in order first by Plains Indians, then by the Western Indians.