Quote Originally Posted by MikeF View Post
Good point Steve. I was wondering if you were going to bring this up. This weekend, I was thinking pre-Westphalian. I wondered how long it took many of the states outside the original 13 to consider themselves Americans and part of the US?

We didn't exactly ask Florida to join the Union. Andrew Jackson just kinda pulled them in.

v/r

Mike
For some it was quite a long time...and there were often competing issues and drives. To take the Arizona example, you had at least three or four distinct tribal groups, a recently-arrived Anglo population with divergent interests (although most were focused on mining, but there was the North-South current active along with a deep dislike for the tribal population) and a Hispanic populace that had only recently adjusted to the new arrivals. New Mexico had a similar experience, colored by the powerful presence of the Navajo peoples (prior to 1863 or 1864, at least). And as you get further north, the picture shifts to a degree.

I like to compare Arizona in some ways to Afghanistan due to the competing power centers and populations, who for some time were on an almost equal footing. The Apache and Pai peoples had been raiding and been raided by the Hispanic population for generations, and looked upon the Anglos as newcomers of uncertain disposition. The Anglos tended to view the tribal population as obstacles to the exploitation of the land's mineral resources, but they also viewed the national government (including the Army) as an obstacle to their preferred solution or unresponsive to their problem. In turn, many Army officers saw the Anglo population of Arizona as an obstacle to their preferred peaceful solutions. And to further color things, many of the Anglos were Southern sympathizers who let sectional differences color their responses to government actions or programs. Simplified picture to be sure, but I don't want to bore anyone too much with heavy details.