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Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

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Painting of the Battle of San Pasquale in the U.S.-Mexico War.

Borders May Change, But People Remain

The legacies of conflict—and their increasingly accessible images in a global age—frame the shared bonds of trauma in keeping their memories alive.
by Emiliano Aguilar via Public Books on April 24, 2025
Painting of the US army entering the city of Guadalupe Hildaglo

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Annotated

Signed February 2, 1848, the treaty compelled Mexico to cede 55 percent of its territory, bringing more than 525,000 square miles under US sovereignty.
by Liz Tracey via JSTOR Daily on February 2, 2023
John Gast's 1872 painting "American Progress," in which Miss Columbia, a personification of the enlightening United States, is depicted leading pioneers over the western plains.

Two Years That Made the West

In a momentous couple of years, the young United States added more than a million square miles of territory, including Texas and California. 
by Elliott West via American Heritage on July 3, 2024

The United States Didn't Really Begin Until 1848

America, you’ve got the dates wrong. Your intense debate over which year marks the real beginning of the United States—1619 (slavery’s arrival) or 1776.
by Joe Mathews via Zócalo Public Square on October 5, 2021
Afghan children standing in rubble
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Invading Other Countries to ‘Help’ People Has Long Had Devastating Consequences

For more than a century, U.S. wars of invasion have claimed a humanitarian mantle.
by Joel Zapata via Made By History on September 10, 2021

Immigration Enforcement and the U.S.-Mexico Border

A microsyllabus on the history of the U.S.-Mexico border, refugees, and deportation.
by Adam Goodman, Maddalena Marinari, Evan Tarapata, María Cristina García via The Abusable Past on September 11, 2019
Conservative protesters hold signs and flags at a Tea Party protest.

Lone Star Futures

Texas might have been a place to start a conversation about widening the scope of civil liberties, but it has also been a place where those liberties end.
by Emma Pask via Public Books on June 19, 2025
1851 map showing Mexico and Texas

The Dentist Who Defrauded Two Governments—and a Historian, Part I

What happens when forged documents enter the historical record?
by David McKenzie via Contingent on September 26, 2022
Ballet Folklorico de la Tierra del Encanto dancers entertain attendees during the Cinco De Mayo Fiesta on the plaza in Mesilla, N.M., on May 6, 2017.
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Cinco De Mayo: American As Apple Empanadas

Cinco de Mayo has deep roots in Mexican American history.
by Ruben A. Arellano via Made By History on May 5, 2022
Photo of California gold fragment found by John Sutter in 1848

A Pacific Gold Rush

On the roads and seas miners traveled to reach gold in the United States and Australia.
by Mae Ngai via Lapham’s Quarterly on August 25, 2021
The cover of Dunbar-Ortiz's book alongside a picture of Mexican workers awaiting entry into the U.S.
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The Border and the Contingent Status of Mexican Workers

An excerpt from the most recent book, "Not 'A Nation of Immigrants': Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion."
by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz via HNN on August 24, 2021
A border sign

Borders Don’t Stop Violence—They Create It

The “border” is not a line on the ground, but a tool that enables violence and surveillance.
by Karl Jacoby, Monica Muñoz Martinez via Public Books on July 7, 2021
The city of Tulsa, with smoke billowing above the Black neighborhood of Greenwood

Burned from the Land: How 60 Years of Racial Violence Shaped America

The Tulsa race massacre of 1921 was one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history. It was also part of a larger pattern across the country.
by Tami Luhby, Breeanna Hare, Channon Hodge via CNN on May 30, 2021
Screenshot of map showing post offices between 1848 and 1895.

Gossamer Network

An interactive digital history project chronicling how the U.S. Post was the underlying circuitry of western expansion.
by Cameron Blevins, Yan Wu, Steven Braun via Northeastern University on March 31, 2021
Photo of an interracial couple

On California’s Eugenicist Past

Jane Dailey considers the power of the law to reinforce racism.
by Jane Dailey via Literary Hub on November 17, 2020
A sign at a beach warning of sewage contaminated water.
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San Diego and Tijuana’s Shared Sewage Problem Has a Long History

U.S. imperialism and private enterprise in the region have created ecological peril.
by Kevan Q. Malone via Made By History on June 2, 2020
Trump speech script with "Corona" crossed out and changed to "Chinese" Virus.
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Stop Calling Covid-19 a Foreign Virus

Medical xenophobia has dangerous ramifications.
by Mark A. Goldberg via Made By History on March 26, 2020

The Real Story of the 49ers

The reality of the early gold-rush prospectors was not nearly as benevolent as the mascot’s wide smile may suggest.
by Bruce Barcott via The Atlantic on February 2, 2020

The Long-Forgotten Vigilante Murders of the San Luis Valley

How history forgot Felipe and Vivián Espinosa, two of the American West’s most brutal killers—and the complicated story behind their murderous rampage.
by Robert Sanchez via 5280 on December 2, 2019

Water is for Fighting

How a profit-driven approach to water rights left the west high and dry.
by Sparky Abraham via Current Affairs on July 8, 2019
'Hanging of the San Patricios following the Battle of Chapultepec' by Samuel E. Chamberlain

During the Mexican-American War Irish-Americans Fought for Mexico in the 'Saint Patrick's Battalion'

Anti-Catholic sentiment in the States gave men like John Riley little reason to continue to pay allegiance to the stars and stripes.
by Francine Uenuma via Smithsonian on March 15, 2019
Artist Titus Kaphar says that his 2014 Columbus Day Painting—which greets "Unseen" visitors in the first gallery—was inspired by his young son’s conflicted and confusing study of the putative discoverer of America.

Two Artists in Search of Missing History

A new exhibition makes a powerful statement about the oversights of American history and America’s art history.
by Alicia Ault via Smithsonian on April 4, 2018

A Border Crosses

After a Rio Grande flood shifted a 437-acre strip of land from Mexico to Texas, the area was the site of a long border dispute.
by Paul A. Kramer via The New Yorker on September 20, 2014

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