Nueces stripes

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The Nueces Strip extends southwest of the Nueces River to the present-day border between the United States and Mexico

The Nueces Strip ( also called the Nueces Strip or Wild Horse Desert ) is a strip of land up to 240 kilometers wide between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. The invasion of the area by US troops in 1846 was one of the initiators of the Mexican-American War . The strip of land was officially recognized as belonging to the United States with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo , which ended that war in 1848.

Even after the territorial claims were clarified, the strip of land remained known for its harsh and brutal living conditions. There were repeated clashes between settlers and Indians as well as between Anglo-Americans and settlers from Mexico. It became one of the main operational areas of the Texas Rangers in the second half of the 19th century .

Claiming the Nueces Strip as one of the initiators of the Mexican-American War

Since the annexation of Texas on February 19, 1845, some US-American politicians have taken the view that the Rio Grande represents both the southern and the western border. However, this claim was by no means secured. Under Mexican administration, the border between the states of Texas and Coahuila had been the Nueces River . According to the Mexican point of view, this continued to form the border despite the independence of Texas. In the United States, too, the requirement for the Rio Grande as a border was controversial. Even Secretary of State James Buchanan found the claim doubtful.

Despite these concerns, US President James K. Polk insisted on these demands and ordered General Zachary Taylor to move his army near the Rio Grande. Taylor referred in the Nueces strip, i. H. south of the Nueces River but far north of the Rio Grande, a camp. The transfer of US troops to Mexico-claimed territory south of the Nueces River was provocative; however, the Mexican government took no countermeasures other than sending soldiers to the Rio Grande on condition that they stay south of the river. Polk asked Taylor repeatedly to move closer to the Rio Grande, the last time on January 13, 1846. Taylor delayed the march and did not reach the Rio Grande until March 28, 1846. General Pedro de Ampudia demanded that Taylor move to an area north the Nueces River should withdraw. Taylor refused and began building a fort across from Matamoros and sealing off the Rio Grande. When Mexico did not respond immediately, Polk decided to ask Congress for a declaration of war against Mexico. Before this happened, word reached Polk that Mexican troops had crossed the Rio Grande on April 25, 1846 and attacked and defeated two dragoon companies with 500 cavalrymen under Captain Seth B. Thornton. In this battle, the Americans lost 63 soldiers. Polk then went to Congress and argued that a declaration of war was not necessary - it was enough to state that Mexico's action was a state of war.

Texas Rangers in the Nueces Strip

In 1874, the west of Texas was covered with pillaging and murdering Mexican and Indian gangs along the Rio Grande , and a new ranger unit was formed under Captain Leander H. McNelly . In the spring of 1875 they fought against the worst gangs in the Nueces Strip and took several months to curb the gang activities there. When chasing bandits or recovering stolen cattle, the rangers did not stop at international borders, but also operated in the national territory of Mexico. In the next few years they also hunted down more than 3,000 Texan outlaws, such as the bank robber Sam Bass and the notorious gunman and serial killer John W. Hardin .

The Nueces flick in fiction

  • In the 1986 Pulitzer Prize- winning novel Way into the Wilderness (Original: Lonesome Dove ), Larry McMurtry describes the path of two former Texas Rangers , parts of which are set in the Nueces flick.
  • In his 2014 Pulitzer Prize-nominated novel The Son , Philipp Meyer addresses, among other things, the clashes between Anglo-American settlers and settlers from Mexico in the Nueces Strip.

literature

  • George Durham, Clyde Wantland: Taming the Nueces Strip. The Story of McNelly's Rangers . Foreword by Walter Prescott Webb . University of Texas Press, Austin 1962, 178 pp. ISBN 978-0292780484 , English (no German translation available)

Single receipts

  1. ^ A b Robert Leckie: The Wars of America. Evanston / London / New York 1968. p. 325.
  2. ↑ William Dusinberre: Slave Master President. The Double Career of James Polk. New York 2003, p. 133.
  3. ↑ a b Timothy J. Henderson: A Glourious Defeat. Mexico and its War with the United States. New York 2007. p. 148
  4. ^ A b William Dusinberre: Slavemaster President. The Double Career of James Polk. New York 2003, p. 135.
  5. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wehler: Principles of American Foreign Policy I: 1750-1900. From the English coastal colonies to an American world power. Frankfurt a. M. 1984. p. 127.