Yucatán, Texas, & the Limits of U.S. Expansion in the Gulf of Mexico, 1821-1860

Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Perez, Abdiel
- Graduate Program:
- History
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 19, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Kathryn Merkel-Hess Mcdonald, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies
Cathleen Cahill, Major Field Member
Amy Greenberg, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Adam Thomas, Outside Unit Member
Christopher Heaney, Major Field Member
Matthew Restall, Outside Field Member - Keywords:
- Texas
Yucatán
Gulf of Mexico
Mexico
Mexican Republic
Lorenzo de Zavala
Maya
Yucatec Maya
Sam Houston
Texas Revolution
Texas Republic
Manifest Destiny
Caribbean
Cuba
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
Republicanism
Nationalism
Slavery
Civil War - Abstract:
- This dissertation chronicles the twin trajectories of Yucatán and Texas between 1821 and 1860, to explore why, despite all of Yucatán’s strategic advantages and conducive conditions, it was not annexed by the United States as Texas was. Histories of Texas and U.S. expansionism often overlook Yucatán, so this dissertation positions Yucatán as a counterpoint to Texas’s path in the first half of the nineteenth century. Both had unique colonial backgrounds, were geographically isolated from the Mexican heartland, held economic potential, and harbored latent separatist tendencies that, over the time period of this study, either became more pronounced or were rendered dormant. In contrast to the tales of Texas’s exceptionalism and its perceived inevitable ascension from the geopolitical gravity of Mexico and into the orbit of the United States, I weave in Yucatán’s course to underscore that the Texas Republic’s survival relied on Yucatán synergistic rebellious inclinations. Overall, I assert that the close relationship developed between Texas and Yucatán in the 1830s and 1840s created the conditions for Texas’s survival until its annexation into the U.S., and simultaneously increased Yucatán’s chances to separate from Mexico. However, whatever leverage Yucatán’s leaders had leading up to and during the U.S.-Mexico War (1846-1848) was squandered by their society’s continued exploitation of the Maya, who comprised the majority of the peninsula’s population. In this critical period of transnational conflict and shifting boundaries, tensions in Yucatán stemming from the Maya’s history of political and economic disenfranchisement prompted the Maya to engage in a momentous war against the peninsula’s elites. Though the chances for Yucatán to become part of the U.S. were at their highest here, they would not come to pass, thus outlining limits to the United States’ expansion in the nineteenth century.