ABSTRACT
This chapter contains a brief historical sketch which will put the existing system into a broader perspective. The livestock sector is one of the most important to the world economy. The Southwest mission system declined soon after the Mexican Revolution. The Mexican War culminated in the grant of the Spanish Southwest to the United States with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. Manufactured goods traveled southwest and unprocessed products, including hides and livestock, returned. There, as well as throughout the Spanish Southwest, the locus of settlement was the mission, each a self-contained and self-supporting community. In North America, livestock production can be divided into four periods: the Colonial Era, the New West, Development, and Maturity. The American Revolution is popularly perceived as a general uprising of the population against tyranny. In truth, the War was quite restricted, involving only a small part of the population in limited areas.
