"The Lost Empire of Mexico"
by Morgan Bedford
August 1996

     How was it possible for any empire to lose almost two and a half million square miles of property? Yet Mexico managed to do exactly that. It all started in 1521, when Cortez dismantled the Aztec Empire, forcing a superior civilization into oblivion. The word “Mexico” derives, incidentally, from one of the main tribes of the Aztecs called Mexica.

     When we speak of the Mexican Empire, we are talking about the contiguous land mass of Central and much of North America. The basic characteristic of this empire was the Spanish language, a welding factor that has continued, for the past 460 years.

     The Empire would survive New Spain, several emperors, many wars and numerous revolutions. But through out all this, the thread of continuity has been the Spanish language.

     Maximilian ruled as Emperor for more than three years. He was Austrian, his wife Belgian, his sponsor France. While his troops were French, their language had little permanent impact on the people and even less on the culture.

     But as things went from bleak to bad for Emperor Maximilian, the Empress Carlota returned to Europe to petition her brother-in-law, Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, as well as Napoleon III and even the pope, for help. All to no avail. Carlota’s mind snapped, and she was committed to an asylum in Belgium, Where she would linger on for another sixty(!) years. She died in 1927.

     The Mexican Empire reached its zenith in 1790; after that, it was all downhill. In that year, the Empire’s claim to the Pacific Northwest was relinquished. Their claim included British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Their right to these areas was based on the fact that the explorer Esperanza had allegedly discovered them first, and had claimed them under the “first there, first owns” principle. But the British had other ideas, and as the area was too far from Mexico to wage a successful war, the Mexican Empire dropped its claim.

     Some eight years later, the Empire would lose large parts of Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississipi, huge chunks of real estate that were relinquished under the Treaty of San Lorenzo El Real.

     The year 1800 saw the cede of Louisiana to France on a conditional basis, by which Napoleon agreed that this territory, would become a French protectorate. Napoleon, proving himself an unreliable business associate, soon sold the territory to the United States. This sale involved an area five times as large as Continental Europe, and in- cluded the present-day states of Louisiana, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Montana and Minnesota. This lost area is greater in size than modern-day Mexico.

     Then, in 1821, Central America Was lost: the countries we know as Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. This staggering loss came as a result of the French-Spanish War, which Jasted from 1808 till 1814, a war that saw the political demise of Napoleon. Yet Spain, financially exhausted, was unable to protect her empire in the New World. Then, with Mexico’s declaration of independence from Spain, Central America jumped on the bandwagon.

     Only in the last ten years, however, has Mexico finally given up its claims to parts of Belize, and at long last the British withdrew their troops from the area. Belize was Mexico’s last claim to their former empire, a domain which lasted for almost 460 years.

     But to continue our documentation of Mexico’s slow slide from the summit, we must back-track to 1835. In that year, Mexico lost Texas, an area larger in size than Belgium, the Netherlands, France and England combined.

     Then, in 1848, the loss of the Mexican-American War cost the losers New Mexico, Arizona and California. The Empire lost 2/5ths of her remaining territory in one fell swoop. But the downhill slide had not yet stopped.

     In 1853, the Gadsen Purchase straightened out the Mexican border along the southern edges of both New Mexico and Arizona. The price paid to Mexico was $10,000,000. This deal finished off President Santa Anna, who was serving his umpteenth term -mainly because Mexico never saw any part of the money. Yet Santa Anna died blind and broke in 1876. The rnystery remains: where the hell did the money go?

     And where would Mexico be today if they still held title to the nearly two and a half million square miles they once owned? For one thing, this country would now be the 4th largest (and probably one of the richest) in the world. The only comparable loss of territory in all of history involved the once mighty British Empire, upon whom (it could once be said) “the sun never sets.”

     But to return to our opening question. How was it possible for Mexico to lose so much territory? Since time immemorial, Empires have faded where there have been barriers of language and culture. This was one reason Britain lost India, Pakistan and Burma.

     There is, however, one great difference between Mexico and England: despite its horrendous loss of real estate, Mexico has yet to fully tap the vast resources it still owns, Mexico still has a great future in front of it -something that cannot be said for the once mighty British Empire.