THREAT OF RECONQUEST AND NEED FOR INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION - HISTORY - 2025

When speaking of the threat of reconquest and the need for international recognition, we refer to the attempts of the Spanish army to recover Mexican territories during the mandate of King Fernando VII.

These warlike confrontations developed until 1829. However, Spain did not recognize Mexico as a free republic until December 28, 1836, when a peace treaty was signed between the nations.

After achieving independence, Mexico had to deal with attempts to reconquer Fernando VII. Source: Francisco Goya

The independence of Mexico began on September 27, 1821; However, the territories of this nation were not protected from possible Spanish reconquests. For example, the lands of San Juan de Ulúa were still under the command of the Iberian Peninsula.

For this reason, the Prime Minister of War, Antonio de Medina Miranda, decided to take the castle of San Juan de Ulúa, as he feared some act of invasion by the Crown. In addition, at that time Mexico had notorious weaknesses in naval power, so it had to act before the Spanish weakened its defenses with greater rigor.

War clashes over the territory of San Juan de Ulúa

In San Juan de Ulúa was José García Dávila, a Spaniard who had been appointed as governor of Veracruz.

Dávila had proposed to defend the fortress with two hundred soldiers of artillery, infantry and ammunition, with the help of Antonio López de Santa Anna. This amount encouraged the Mexicans, since it was a reduced defense.

However, Spain decided to send 2,000 soldiers from Cuba, not only to protect the fortification of San Juan de Ulúa, but also to try to penetrate the territories that were already considered legally Mexican.

Due to the overwhelming Spanish forces, Emperor Agustín de Iturbide decided to negotiate with the Spanish, since the Mexicans did not have the necessary ships to face the 2,000 soldiers who had come from Cuba.

These negotiations did not achieve any agreement between the parties; However, they established a period of peace between the two nations.

Arrival of Antonio López de Santa Anna and the placement of Francisco Lemaur

With the arrival of Santa Anna to the city of Veracruz in 1822, negotiations between the Mexican and Spanish authorities began to break down, especially when the Crown decided to remove Dávila to place Francisco Lemaur, whose political and military leanings were much more radical. than its predecessor.

Lemaur made the fortress a safe place for gathering foreign merchants. He also implemented laws that violated Mexican sovereignty. In addition, this soldier considered that all the points adjacent to the fortress should be under Spanish rule, as happened in the cases of the Anchorage and Sacrifices.

In 1823 the negotiations came to an end when the Spanish decided to bombard the port of Veracruz, causing more than six thousand civilians to move to escape the place.

After this bombardment, the Mexican government decided to put an end once and for all with the Spanish attempts to reconquer, although it did not have an adequate naval army to fulfill the objective.

The plan of José Joaquín de Herrera

José Joaquín de Herrera, Secretary of War and Navy, decided to go to the Mexican Congress in order to demand that the authorities acquire all kinds of war vessels, in order to stop the entry of the Spanish and attack their troops.

In other words, Herrera proposed to block the reinforcements that Spain received from the Cuban territories.

Thanks to this, the Mexican authorities bought a squad under the command of Pedro Sainz de Baranda y Borreiro, who managed to recover the territories of San Juan de Ulúa on November 23, 1825.

Attempted reconquest in 1829

In 1829 Spain tried to reconquer the Mexican territories from Cuba, so Isidro Barradas was appointed to contain the army of the Crown. However, the exiled Spaniards wanted to convince Barradas that Mexican citizens wanted to return to the Spanish yoke.

After dealing with the tide and rebel soldiers, the Mexicans were finally able to take Fortín de la Barra, culminating in the confrontation between the Mexicans and the Spanish.

For his part, Barradas achieved the capitulation in Pueblo Viejo and reaffirmed the capitulation in Tampico. Thanks to this victory, the Mexican authorities were able to consolidate Independence.

Need for international recognition

After the Independence of Mexico in 1821, one of the main problems that the new Latin American nation had to face was obtaining international recognition.

The most necessary recognition was that of Spain; however, as mentioned in previous paragraphs, the Iberian Peninsula remained reluctant to assume the loss of another territory of the Indies.

Participation of Great Britain and the first countries to recognize Mexico as an independent territory

It is necessary to bear in mind that Mexican independence, together with the need for its recognition as a nation, developed in an international context in which travel and maritime routes were of total importance. For this reason, countries like Great Britain played a very important role.

The participation of Great Britain was decisive within the Spanish-Mexican conflict, since the independence of Mexico meant that Great Britain could preserve the freedom of traffic of maritime travel, with which it had developed in recent decades.

In other words, the British Empire needed to ensure the import of raw materials, so it found it convenient to establish a network of markets that extended beyond Europe. Because of this, Great Britain was one of the first nations to accept Mexico as a free country.

Likewise, several Latin American countries also accepted the independence of Mexico almost immediately, together with the United States (with whom Mexico later faced in order to recover the territory of Texas).

Last countries to recognize Mexico

The last countries to recognize Mexico as an independent nation were the Vatican and France, which finally relented between 1830 and 1836. In order to get French approval, the Mexican authorities had to carry out several negotiations.

On the other hand, the Vatican refused to admit the independence of Mexico due to its close relations with Spain. However, in the middle of the 19th century, both countries gave in and signed peace and trade agreements with the Mexican nation.

References

1. Landavazo, M. (2018) The reconquest, the prince and the island: Great Britain and the Spanish recognition of the independence of Mexico. Retrieved on June 5, 2019 from UNAM: historicas.unam.mx
2. Piñeirua, L. (sf.) International conflicts and territorial dispossession: threat of reconquest. Retrieved on June 5, 2019 from Red Magisterial: redmagisterial.com
3. A. (2015) History II of Mexico: international conflicts and territorial dispossession. Retrieved on June 5, 2019 from Mexican History: historiamexicana04.blogspot.com
4. A. (nd) Spanish attempts to reconquer Mexico. Retrieved on June 5, 2019 from Wikipedia: es.wikipedia.org
5. A. (sf) International relations of Mexico between 1821 and 1855. Retrieved on June 5, 2019 from Wikiwand: wikiwand.com