Pueblo, City, Empire

Abstract

This chapter explores how Los Angeles’s imperial aspirations at the end of the nineteenth century originated with figures such as Civil War veteran and diplomat William Rosecrans, who campaigned vocally for investors in Southern California to invest in Mexico and to tie the two regions together through financial networks. For context, it gives an overview of the Spanish empire in Los Angeles as well as the American ideology of Manifest Destiny that prompted the Mexican-American War. It then explores early investment connections between Los Angeles and Mexico through the figures of Rosecrans, Mexican president Porfirio Díaz, Mexican diplomat Guillermo Andrade, and Mexican American Ignacio Sepúlveda. These individuals were instrumental in creating an investment and trade network based in Los Angeles and extending into Mexico as early as the 1870s. Many of these individuals also advocated for the creation of an “informal” American empire to facilitate investment in Mexico and the growth of Los Angeles.