Jack of Harts

When the nation that became Mexico rebelled from Spain, not everyone agreed with the rebellion. There was in fact a rather impressive civil war over the whole affair. And the new Mexican government was not what you would call gentle towards those they defeated. They were declared rebels, not true combatants, and killed. Even those who surrendered. It was a long and bloody affair, and it culminated in the State north of the Rio Grande where the Texians lived. And the Texians were none to willing to accept the rule of this new government. They’d sworn loyalty to Spain, not these new guys. Many Texians were Americans by birth, while others were Mexicans who didn’t support the new guys. Why work with these new guys executing everyone they didn’t like when they could work with the United States? Of course the United States was still a long ways away and didn’t want a war with Mexico over old Spanish land. So the Texians and some American military volunteers fought, defeated, and captured the new ruler of Mexico. Got him to sign an agreement that Texias was independent of this new Mexico and everything was good. Everybody agreed. As history goes, agreements are often disagreed over.

The Continental United States of America has a pair of geographical borders and a pair of negotiated borders. The East and West Coast are fairly hard to dispute. The Northern Border is a mix of a geographical and arbitrary border that has not been disputed with Canada for over a century. The geographical border was formed after our 13 Colonies rebelled from Great Britain and the English loyalists moved north of the river and lakes we did not control. We later agreed that the rivers and lakes would continue to separate us until we ran out of rivers and lakes. Then we agreed upon an arbitrary border going all the way to the West Coast and that border has been good ever since. Our Southern Border’s history is a bit more interesting.

A nation must have strong borders to survive. History is filled with nations that did not maintain control of their borders and died. Many borders over history have been geographical. That river over there. The big stone next to the forest. That mountain range. Other borders are imaginary lines in the sand either claimed by the nation or agreed upon with other nations. Many wars have started because nations couldn’t agree on where the border was, or because one of them just wanted that piece of land and the other one didn’t agree to let them have it. What does a nation do when people claiming they own your land cross your border without your approval and take up residence on your land? If you are a nation that wishes to survive, you send them back where they came from. By force if necessary. History is filled with nations that did not do that and died.