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The Mexico/US border
Monday 15 May 2006 20:00-20:30 (Radio 4 FM)
Allan Little analyses four parts of the world where the 'tectonic plates' of history keep bringing the regions into the news headlines generation after generation.
Allan travels to Arizona and Mexico border towns to meet Mexican migrants about to embark on a 100-mile trek across the desert to find work in the US. He explores the part 'Manifest Destiny' played in the United States' claim to just over half of Mexico's territory when it re-drew its border in the late 19th Century.
It propelled the US into war with Mexico, but also halted it from going further as concerns were voiced in Congress about the effects of incorporating other races into the 'perfect democracy' that the United States was establishing.
As one interviewee puts it: "They wanted Mexico but not the Mexicans". Does 'Manifest Destiny' still play a part in US foreign policy today?
