Historical Milestones and Turning Points: The Construction of U.S.-Mexico Relations in the Nineteenth Century

The authors of this article focused on a series of events that were decisive for the construction of the U.S.-Mexico relationship in the 19th century. The article is divided into two parts, corresponding to clearly differentiated cycles in the bilateral relationship. The first is characterized by the dispute over territory, which represented a legacy of colonial empires and southern expansionism by slave-owners. The latter emerged as a result of the wars of the 1860s in the two countries, which saw the relationship reoriented towards cooperation, against a backdrop of economic, social and cultural processes; conflict did not disappear but was processed through diplomacy.