When Turner meets Prescott : a historiographical analysis of the untold connection between the Napoleonic War in Spain and the Mexican-American War

Abstract

Excerpts of this historiographic essay will accompany the introduction of the first thesis linking the Spanish War of Independence (1808-1814) and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). Despite the influence of Spain on the conflict in Mexico, there is little work connecting the two wars. This essay demonstrates that – due to changing perspectives in the United States – the traditional Anglo-Saxon Turnerian east-to-west geographical approach to American history is currently being amended by scholars to include a south-to-north bidirectional narrative that should not only include New Spain, Mexican, and borderlands literature, but also Spanish historiography encompassing the romantic nineteenth century.