Brandon Morgan

This project historicizes the theme of violence in the United States-Mexico Borderlands through an examination of the history of the rural region that centers on the towns of Columbus, New Mexico, and Palomas, Chihuahua. Various forms of violence, including military campaigns against the Chiricahua Apache, raids on the Palomas customs house, the reallocation of resources along racial lines through the imposition of the border, and Mexican revolutionary campaigns, proved to be simultaneously destructive and constructive at the turn of the twentieth century. Although public discourse and histories of the borderlands often treat violence as the formative force in the region, this project aims to reorient the existing literature by contributing a more nuanced understanding of violence along the United States-Mexico border.