United States intervention in Mexico

United States–Mexico War
Part of United States expansion to the Pacific Ocean
Clockwise from top left: Winfield Scott enters the Plaza de la Constitución after the fall of Mexico City; American soldiers engage the retreating Mexican forces during the Battle of Resaca de la Palma; the American victory at Churubusco on the outskirts of Mexico City; Battle of Cerro Gordo.
Date September 13, 1846 – February 2, 1848 Location Mexico (including Texas, New Mexico, California and the territories of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Utah; and present-day Northern, Central and Eastern Mexico) Result American victory Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Casus belli: Thornton Affair; annexation of Texas to the United States Territorial changes Mexican recognition of United States sovereignty over Texas (among other territories). Mexico loses more than half of its territory.
Belligerents
Centralist Republic Second Federal Republic	United States California Republic
Commanders and leaders
Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga Antonio López de Santa Anna Mariano Arista Pedro Ampudia Pedro María Anaya Nicolás Bravo José María Flores José de Urrea Antonio Canales Rosillo John Riley	James K. Polk Zachary Taylor Winfield Scott Stephen Kearny William Jenkins Worth John Drake Sloat Robert Field Stockton Joseph Lane Henry Stanton Burton Thomas Childs William B. Ide
Strength
40,000 soldiers and militiamen	76,800 soldiers
Casualties and losses
5,000 killed in action 4,000 civilians killed	1,733 killed in action (1,721 soldiers, 11 marines, 1 sailor) 4,152 wounded 11,550 dead from disease

The United States intervention in Mexico, also called the Mexican–American War or the United States–Mexico War (Mexican-American War in English), was an armed conflict that pitted Mexico against the United States between 1846 and 1848. It began as a consequence of the expansionist ambitions of the United States, whose first step was the creation of the Republic of Texas, which separated from the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas (see Texas independence). Other triggers were the entry of the American army into the area between the Nueces and Bravo rivers and the demand for compensation from the Mexican government for the damage caused in Texas during its war of independence.

The Americans landed at Veracruz and conquered the Mexican capital, after which the Mexicans were forced to sign the peace of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by which the United States annexed the Mexican territories of Alta California, New Mexico and Texas, which today form the present-day states of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and part of what is now called Wyoming.

Background

The American invasion of Mexico has its background in this case in the expansionist policies of the United States that had been observed since 1809: the purchase of Spanish Louisiana from Napoleon Bonaparte, who had acquired it from Ferdinand of Bourbon, in 1803, and the signing of the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, by which Spain ceded the Florida peninsula, are some examples.

Mexico achieved its independence and the United States sent Joel Robert Poinsett as its representative to sign a boundary treaty called the Treaty of Velasco, in which the United States unsuccessfully attempted to annex the Mexican province of Texas. Subsequently, a process of peaceful occupation began in which thousands of American emigrants, farmers and adventurers, settled in that region with or without the permission of the Mexican authorities; from 1823, with the permission of the Mexican government, Stephen Austin began bringing Anglo-Saxon emigrants to Texas. On August 25, 1829, Poinsett offered five million dollars for the territory of Texas.

Expansionist ambitions on the part of the United States had already been observed since 1809. The Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico was not yet independent) at that time began negotiations with the government in Washington to define the boundaries between the northern frontier of New Spain and the United States. In this way, he believed, the impulses of that country would be checked. The efforts of the already fragile Spanish viceregal government (which, in the midst of the Napoleonic Invasion of Spain against France, was losing control over its colonies in America) concluded with the signing of the Adams–Onís Treaty, by which Spain ceded Florida, already occupied by American troops; in exchange, the United States undertook to make no further territorial demands (France had also sold them Louisiana, in 1803). The American government had also asked the Spanish Crown to be allowed to enter the territory of New Spain with many facilities in exchange for being loyal to the Spanish Crown, professing the Catholic religion and making the land productive, conditions that the Americans obviously disregarded.^{As written, this is unclear.}

In 1821, Mexico achieved its independence from Spain. The United States wanted the facilities for the possession of land to continue, which the Mexican government allowed. In 1822, the American government recognized Mexico as an independent nation and sent Joel Robert Poinsett as its representative to sign a treaty of friendship and commerce. A boundary treaty was signed, but the United States government attempted to annex Texas in 1825, offering one million dollars for the purchase of the state. The offer was raised to five million two years later, but in both cases it was rejected by Mexico.

Settlement of Anglo-Saxon colonists in Texas

By 1834 many American colonists had settled in Texas, which was part of Mexico, with the permission of the Mexican government; Moses Austin was one of the main promoters of the arrival of Anglo-Saxon immigrants in Texas. This current was also encouraged and supported by Andrew Jackson, whose former collaborator, Samuel Houston, played an important role in the outcome of this peaceful invasion.

To the Mexicans it seemed unjust that the American colonists had received free land in Texas under conditions they considered generous, while the colonists found them unjust or onerous, such as the prohibition on owning slaves, which was illegal in Mexico, the obligation to speak Spanish, converting to Catholicism, and in addition, they were accustomed to low taxes and greater freedom of trade.^{Incomplete sentence.} When the period of free importation that the Mexican government had granted them ended, they refused to pay taxes and supported the smuggling of much cheaper products brought by American ships across the Gulf of Mexico. The rise to power of Antonio López de Santa Anna, who established a centralist regime and sought the compulsory disarmament of the colonists, later worsened the situation.

Some prominent generals, such as Manuel Mier y Terán, who was Commanding General of the Eastern Internal States, caused the Congress of Mexico, at the time when Anastasio Bustamante was governing, to accept a series of proposals, among which were the following:

• That Texas be inhabited by Spanish Mexicans.
• To establish trade between Texas and Veracruz, using the ports of Galveston and Veracruz.
• To build small forts between Texas and the United States.

Texas independence

Poster with the Declaration of the People of Texas, in 1835.

Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836, with a single Mexican, Lorenzo de Zavala, taking part in it, all the others being "rebel Mexican Texans" (originally from various and diverse states of the United States). The Mexican general José Urrea ordered the killing of around 1,000 Texan rebels at Goliad and Coleto. After suffering several defeats (the best known being the Battle of the Alamo), the rebels finally defeated the troops under the command of Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, capturing the President; while in prison he signed the Treaty of Velasco, in which he recognized the independence of the new state and the Rio Grande boundary. Mexico refused to recognize the validity of the Treaty, the independence of Texas and the new boundary (the boundary between the states of Tamaulipas and Texas was the Nueces River). In the following years there were some military incursions by Mexican troops, which even occupied San Antonio, but which ended up withdrawing on each occasion to the south of the Rio Grande. In 1845 Texas joined the United States as a state, and that event triggered the events that would lead to the war. That same year tensions grew between the two countries over these territories when the United States government offered to pay the Mexican debt to the American colonists if Mexico allowed the United States to purchase the territories of Alta California and New Mexico; the proposal was rejected by the Mexican government, diplomatic relations between the two neighboring countries were broken off, and the representative of the Mexican government, Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, withdrew from Washington.

The dispatch of troops by the American President James K. Polk to the disputed territory on the Texas border, between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River, ended up leading to the first clash between the troops of both countries, which took place on April 25, 1846, north of the Rio Grande, at the place called Rancho de Carricitos, when an American patrol of 63 men, under the command of Captain Seth Thornton, which was on an illicit reconnaissance mission, was ambushed by forces under the command of General Anastasio Torrejón.

This clash gave James Polk the motive to request a declaration of war against Mexico, and so the Congress of the United States declared war on Mexico on May 13, 1846, which would allow it to keep Texas and to seize the coveted and rich territories of Alta California and New Mexico as a war indemnity. The armed confrontation and the invasion of almost all Mexican territory would finally end with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the evacuation of the capital of Mexico from February 2, 1848.

Territorial organization of Mexico during the Central Republic. Outlined in red, the separatist territories.

California Republic

The California Republic, also called the Bear Flag Republic, was a state that arose as a result of the uprising carried out by the Californian colonists, most of them of American origin, on June 14, 1846, in the town of Sonoma, against the authorities of what had until then been the Mexican province of Alta California.

War between the United States and Mexico had been declared on May 13, 1846, but this news was not known in California until mid-July 1846. However, in the face of rumors of an alleged action by the Mexican government against the colonists in the territory, a group of three hundred armed men seized the town of Sonoma, raising a white flag with a bear and a star (the "bear flag") to symbolize the birth of the California Republic, independent of Mexico. The use of this flag gave rise to the name of the revolt: the "Bear Flag Revolt", its promoters being nicknamed "bear flaggers".

That same day, June 14, the rebels captured the former Mexican commander of Northern California, General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, who was the leader of the military company stationed at the Presidio of Sonoma. Sent to Sutter's Fort, he was imprisoned on August 1, 1846.

The bear flag

The first and only President of the brand-new Republic was the American pioneer William B. Ide, whose presidency lasted twenty-five days.

In April 1846, with the start of the war imminent, the federal government sent Colonel Rafael Téllez at the head of a large and very well-equipped military corps to embark for Alta California and help in the defense of the territory, much coveted by the United States. But on arriving at Mazatlán, Téllez rebelled against President Mariano Paredes de Arrillaga and remained in Sinaloa, where, in complicity with foreign merchants, he established a local strongman's rule in the southern part of the state and removed it from obedience to the local government. While this was happening, the American Pacific Squadron was landing marines in Alta California (July 1846), who, after a violent struggle, managed to defeat the Mexican colonists, left to their own forces, since in addition to Téllez's uprising in Mazatlán, another detachment sent via Acapulco was held back in that region by the strongman Juan Álvarez.¹

Declaration of war

Soldiers of the United States and Mexico at that time. Reconstruction.

The American government ignored the Mexican view that the southern boundary of Texas was the Nueces River and ordered General Zachary Taylor to station troops between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. For Mexico this was an occupation of territory belonging to Nuevo Santander, Mexican territory at that time, which encompassed what is today the State of Tamaulipas and the territory north of the Río Bravo (Rio Grande) as far as the Nueces River. General Pedro Ampudia sent General Taylor a letter demanding that he dismantle his fort and withdraw beyond the Nueces River. The letter was ignored, and the American troops advanced further south, to the mouth of the Rio Grande, where they began to build Fort Brown. The first armed clash took place on April 24, 1846, at a place called Rancho Carricitos, north of the Rio Grande, in the area that each of the two countries considered its own, when an American patrol of 63 men, under the command of Captain Seth Thornton, which was on a reconnaissance mission, was ambushed by lancers under the command of General Anastasio Torrejón.

President Polk immediately asked Congress for a declaration of war, beginning his speech with the famous words: "American blood has been shed on American soil..." (The clash had taken place in the zone of territory that the United States claimed as its own). The Congress of the United States declared war on May 13, 1846. Northern Americans and the Whigs (Republicans) in general opposed the war, while the slaveholding Southerners and the Democrats supported it. For his part, General Taylor unleashed hostilities even without having received news of the formal declaration of war between the two countries, and thus gave battle to the Mexicans under the command of Arista at Palo Alto and at Resaca de la Palma or Resaca de Guerrero, on May 8 and 9.

Mexico declared war ten days later, on May 23, 1846, thus facing a war for which it was prepared neither economically nor militarily, having an army that turned out to be not always equipped for combat, and according to the historian Vicente Riva Palacio, in his work México a través de los siglos, cited by Humberto Mussachio, "its commanders, more concerned with obtaining well-paid posts and other privileges, chiefly Santa Anna, acted, 'with their exceptions', driven by cowardice, greed and treason". In the official gazette of the Government of Mexico, the causes of the declaration of war on the United States were listed in the following terms:

"First. The Mexican nation, in its natural defense, finds itself in a state of war with the United States of America, for having openly and assiduously favored the insurrection of the colonists of Texas against the nation that had welcomed them into its territory and generously covered them with the protection of its laws; for having incorporated that same territory of Texas into the Union of said States by act of its congress, notwithstanding that it always belonged, by an undisputed right, to the Mexican nation, and that they recognized it as Mexican by the boundary treaty of 1831; for having invaded the territory of the department of Tamaulipas with an army; for having introduced troops into the peninsula of the Californias; for having occupied the left bank of the Río Bravo; for its arms having fought those of the Republic on the 8th and 9th of May of the present year; for having blockaded the ports of Matamoros, Veracruz and Tampico de Tamaulipas, directing its fire upon their defenses.
"Second. The government, as a consequence of the state of war provoked, initiated and maintained by the United States of America, shall dictate all the measures necessary for it to be sustained with the energy befitting the rights and dignity of the nation.
"Third. The government shall enjoy all the powers necessary in the branch of war to make it effective, prompt and efficacious against the United States of America, which has provoked, initiated and sustained it."

— June 16, 1846.

Battles

Battle of Monterrey

Battle of Chapultepec

After the declarations of war, American forces invaded Mexican territory at various points. In the Pacific, the naval force under the command of John D. Sloat was sent to occupy California and claim it for the United States, owing to concerns that Great Britain might also try to occupy the area. Sloat allied himself with Anglo-Saxon colonists in northern California who had previously declared an Independent Republic of California and had occupied several key towns.

The United States government ordered its army to attack the following points in Mexico: Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila and other points to the south. It also invaded Monterey (Alta California). In addition, the ports of Tampico, Frontera, Carmen, Guaymas, Mazatlán and San Blas, among others, were blockaded.

On August 7, 1846, the American commodore David Connor unsuccessfully attempted to take the Port of Alvarado, Veracruz. On October 15, 1846 he would fail again in the attempt at the Battle of Fort Santa Teresa, also in the municipality of Alvarado.

Meanwhile, United States Army troops (under the command of Stephen W. Kearny) occupied Santa Fe (New Mexico); Kearny then led a small force to California, where, after some initial setbacks, he joined the naval forces under the command of Robert F. Stockton to occupy San Diego and Los Angeles.

The main force led by Taylor continued across the Rio Grande toward the capital, defeating the forces of Pedro Ampudia at the Battle of Monterrey in September 1846, after fierce resistance from the people of Monterrey, who endured for several weeks the siege imposed by the invading army.

First Battle of Tabasco

On October 23, 1846, American troops aboard 7 ships under the command of Commodore Matthew C. Perry took the port of Frontera, Tabasco, which was without a garrison, and on October 25 they headed for the state capital, San Juan Bautista (today Villahermosa), summoning the Tabasco authorities to surrender, a request that was rejected by Governor Juan Bautista Traconis, thus beginning the First Battle of Tabasco, which ended on the afternoon of the 26th with a victory for the Tabasco forces, this being one of the few battles won by Mexico in this war. The Americans withdrew toward the port of Frontera, beginning a blockade to prevent the entry of food and supplies for the Tabasco troops.

Governor Juan Bautista Traconis asked the Mexican government for support with war materiel, but on not receiving it, on November 9 he declared Tabasco separated from the Mexican nation. However, on December 8, an act rectifying the separation was drawn up in the state capital.

At the same time the State of Yucatán became independent for the second time and a federalist uprising took place in Mexico City, overthrowing the government of Mariano Paredes and bringing about the return of Santa Anna from his Cuban exile in December 1846, with a new government being established with Valentín Gómez Farías as vice president and later as president. The former President of Mexico Valentín Canalizo was appointed Minister of War and Navy (Minister of Defense) on December 24, 1846.

Battle of La Angostura

Santa Anna personally marched north to confront Taylor at the Battle of La Angostura, known in the United States as the Battle of Buena Vista, on February 22 and 23, 1847. Despite winning the battle, at nightfall Santa Anna broke off the fighting, declaring himself the victor, and undertook an immediate retreat (much debated and criticized by Mexican historiography) that in practice amounted to a defeat and that surprised Taylor himself. What is not debatable is that the invasion was halted at this point.

Santa Anna left Gómez Farías as president of the country with the task of gathering resources to face the war. To that end, in January 1847 a law was issued authorizing the federal government to appropriate Church property worth 15 million pesos. In the face of this law, the people and the clergy rose up in arms in Mexico City, to the point that the enraged crowd prevented Gómez Farías from leaving the National Palace. Faced with this situation, Santa Anna was forced to temporarily abandon operations. Once in Mexico City, he annulled the decree in exchange for a "voluntary" contribution of 100,000 pesos from the clergy.

Taking of the port of Veracruz

Main article: Siege of Veracruz

Meanwhile, instead of reinforcing Taylor's troops for a continued advance, President Polk opened a second front, sending an army under the command of General Winfield Scott in March 1847, which was transported by sea, with part of Taylor's forces, to the port of Veracruz, to begin the invasion of central Mexico. The former president and Minister of Defense, General Valentín Canalizo, entered Veracruz at the head of the Eastern Division, but Canalizo already had differences over military strategy with Santa Anna regarding the defense of Mexican territory, since the Americans came armed with good shells and had bought Mexican spies as strategic support.

Scott took the port of Veracruz after a bloody bombardment in which many civilians died and marched toward Mexico City with the help of the Mexican Spy Company ("Company of Mexican spies"), a group of Mexicans who supported the American side and acted as guides, helping to win the battle of Cerro Gordo.

Fall of Villahermosa

Second Battle of Tabasco and taking of San Juan Bautista, capital of Tabasco, in 1847.

On the other front, on June 16, 1847, American troops under the command of Matthew C. Perry again attacked the Tabasco capital San Juan Bautista, in what became the Second Battle of Tabasco, but on this occasion, without sufficient food or military supplies, the capital fell into the hands of the Americans and Commodore Perry appointed General Vant Brunt Governor of Tabasco.

The Defense of Mexico City (August 19 – September 13, 1847)

After fifteen months of disasters and bad military decisions, they had the Mexican army cornered and a powerful invading army at the gates of the capital of the Republic, advancing through the towns located to the south. After Scott took Puebla without meeting resistance, the important battles of Lomas de Padierna, Churubusco and Molino del Rey took place.

Lomas de Padierna

At 10:50 p.m. on August 18, 1847, the Mexican Army of the North, commanded by General Gabriel Valencia, was defeated at the Lomas de Padierna, south of Mexico City, with which the most battle-hardened of the contingents that the nation could oppose to the invader disappeared. Although Valencia had received orders not to attack the enemy until the bulk of Santa Anna's army arrived, he abandoned his positions and attacked on his own in an act that was brave but of flagrant military indiscipline that ruined the plans of the Mexican high command.

The soldiers fought throughout the 19th on the outskirts of the city (at the Pedregal de San Ángel, San Gerónimo, Anzaldo and other positions), on terrain of difficult access. For their part, the forces of General Santa Anna hurriedly arrived at positions close to where the fighting was taking place. At dawn, the troops were still in their positions, trusting that the bulk of the army would attack the enemy rear, but Santa Anna ordered a retreat toward Mexico City, abandoning General Valencia's men to their fate.

Once the defeat was complete, Santa Anna ordered the forces to concentrate in the city, leaving in the rearguard, fortified in the Convent of Churubusco, the National Guard of the Federal District, made up of volunteers, as well as the Saint Patrick's Battalion, formed mostly of Irishmen who in 1846 had deserted from the American army.

Convent of Churubusco: heroic defense by General Pedro María Anaya

The convent of Churubusco was attacked on that same August 20. The disorder reigning among the national commanders had meant that the ammunition sent to the improvised bulwark was not of the right caliber, so that, after repelling the attackers several times and inflicting heavy losses on them, the defenders of Churubusco had to surrender to the invader. General Pedro María Anaya defended it as far as he could and with what he had. When General Twiggs asked Anaya where the ammunition, powder and munitions were, he replied: "If there were ammunition, you would not be here."

Afterwards, representatives of both governments agreed on an armistice to negotiate an end to the invasion. When the Mexicans discovered that Texas was no longer the reason for the war, but rather the American aim of obtaining more territory, the truce was broken on September 6, 1847.

Molino del Rey

On the 8th the Americans advanced on Molino del Rey, near Chapultepec, defended by the National Guard, and in a few hours, in one of the bloodiest battles in the history of Mexico, the national troops were defeated. The ring closed around the last Mexican bastion: Chapultepec Castle, defended by fewer than a thousand men, among whom were some cadets of the Military College, which had its seat there.

Chapultepec Castle

On September 13, after two days of fierce bombardment, the invaders stormed the Castle. At the foot of the ramp the San Blas Active Battalion was destroyed, its commander, Colonel Felipe Santiago Xicoténcatl, and almost all of its soldiers dying. Then the invaders advanced. They believed themselves victorious when, from the heights, the last defenders of national sovereignty fired accurately on them: the young cadets of the Military College.

The castle of Chapultepec fell in a defense in which the young cadets of that military school took part, several of them dying (those known as the Niños Héroes). During the assault, Generals Mariano Monterde (director of the Military College of Mexico) and Nicolás Bravo (formerly a hero of independence) were taken prisoner. A large number of civilians rose up in arms against the invaders in Mexico City; however, their efforts were in vain, while at the same time the Mexican central government was losing control of the country.

The fall of Chapultepec had two immediate consequences: the occupation of Mexico City by the Americans and the renewed resignation of Santa Anna from the presidency of the nation.

The battles for Mexico City were the last act of one of the most ill-fated episodes in the national history. Internal divisions, appalling military leadership, the absence of a unified political command and even personal pettiness and selfishness cost the country the loss of more than half of its territory, leaving it in an economic, political and moral bankruptcy from which it would take decades to recover. On the other hand, the acquisition of that territory by the United States would change the history of that nation, becoming one of the pillars of its growing economic power and accelerating its rise as a world power.

The Niños Héroes

The name Niños Héroes is given to 6 Mexican cadets¹ (aged between 12 and 18) who died in combat at the Battle of Chapultepec on September 12 and 13, 1847, during the American intervention, in which 46 cadets took part and which was defended by 3,000 soldiers. Of the cadets killed, five were student cadets and one a recently graduated cadet, Juan De La Barrera. Heroic Military College. Regarding this group, later official history (most notably in 1947)² distorted the facts at different stages, for nationalist purposes,² in order to highlight only these five students and the recent graduate of the Military College, although colonel Felipe Santiago Xicoténcatl was also highlighted in 1947, his remains being placed at the center of the Altar of the Fatherland.

Defense of Chapultepec Castle

End of the war

Negotiations over the Mexico–United States border during the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Main article: Mexican Cession

The Treaty of Cahuenga, signed on January 13, 1847, in Los Angeles, ended the disputes in California. The new government, headed by Manuel de la Peña y Peña, began peace negotiations with the United States that culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in the town of the same name (today part of Mexico City) on February 2, 1848. The treaty was drafted entirely by the United States and granted that country control over Texas, the territory in dispute between Mexico and Texas that comprised all the land north of the Rio Grande, and the territories known as Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México, appropriating what are today the States of Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma (what is known as the Mexican Cession). For Mexico it meant the loss of more than 2,100,000 km² (more than 800,000 square miles) of land, 55% of its territory at the time. In exchange, the United States would give it 3 payments and 15,100,000 dollars as war expenses and would cover the damages suffered by its nationals in Mexico. The annexed territories contained approximately 7,000 Mexican inhabitants in Alta California and about 100,000 inhabitants in New Mexico, although this figure only includes those of Spanish origin. Many indigenous tribes spoke Spanish and were not counted in those censuses, so the real number of inhabitants would have been much higher.

Combatants

American occupation of Mexico City. The flag of the United States flies over the National Palace.

Over the course of the war, 13,283 American soldiers died, but only some 1,733 in combat; the rest died from disease and unsanitary conditions, something quite common in the wars of the period. It is estimated that 25,000 Mexican soldiers died, but only 16,000 died in combat, from disease and other causes. Between 30% and 40% of the Mexican casualties remain in some way a mystery.

Saint Patrick's Battalion

A notable group of combatants who are remembered controversially —as heroes in Mexico, as traitors in the United States— were the members of the Saint Patrick's Battalion, a group of Catholic immigrants (most of them from Ireland) who abandoned the American army from the first military encounters and went over to the Mexican side. Some consider them deserters; however, other historical accounts hold that they were not, but rather that, in the words of the historian:

they were loyal to themselves, to the dream of being free that had brought them to America.

The change of sides came about out of sympathy for the Mexican cause, while at the same time the Irish were being used as cannon fodder by the Americans. This brought back to them the memory of English conduct in Ireland, where they had also been used as cannon fodder by the British. There was, moreover, a shared Catholic Christianity (in contrast to American society, which was mostly Protestant). Many died in the successive battles of the war, and those who were captured were branded as deserters and sentenced to forced labor, if they had enlisted before the declaration of war, or hanged, if they had done so after it. Instructions were given that the last thing they would see would be the lowering of the Mexican flag and the raising of the American flag at Chapultepec. A large number of these combatants, captured in the last battles, were led to a collective scaffold very close to the present-day Plaza de San Jacinto, a garden located in the San Ángel neighborhood of Mexico City, where today a monument stands in tribute to the battalion of Irishmen.

According to data from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the last American survivor of this conflict, Owen Thomas Edgar, died on September 3, 1929, at the age of 98.

San Blas Battalion

It took part in the Battle of Cerro Gordo and in the Battle of Chapultepec. During the Battle of Chapultepec, given the disorganization during the first moments of the fighting, Santa Anna ordered Felipe Santiago Xicoténcatl, together with the San Blas Battalion, less one company, to go to the castle to help General Bravo. However, they were unable to reach the top, and the battalion fought the enemy on the lower slopes and the incline of the hill; there were 400 Mexicans against 1,000 Americans, under the command of Pillow; nevertheless, at times they put Pillow in difficulties, and he had to request reinforcements from Worth.

The San Blas Battalion fought until it had almost completely disappeared. Only 20 soldiers survived, without a commander, without officers and without ammunition. Colonel Xicoténcatl was hit by 14 bullets as he went to save his battalion's flag; afterwards, he was picked up by some soldiers. The banner soaked with his blood is preserved to this day.

Chapultepec was lost and Mexico City fell into foreign hands. Only the memory of the heroes fallen in combat remained in the minds of the survivors. In 1853, when Santa Anna again occupied the presidency, he dedicated a tribute to the memory of the San Blas Battalion, promoting Felipe Santiago Xicoténcatl from lieutenant colonel to colonel for his heroic displays of valor in his last combat.

The San Blas Battalion was dissolved by official decree on October 23, 1855.

American reaction to the war

Opposition to the war

Abraham Lincoln in his thirties as a member of the United States House of Representatives and an opponent of the war. Photo taken by one of Lincoln's law students, around 1846.

In the United States, which was increasingly divided, the war was a partisan issue. Most Whigs in the north and south of the country opposed the war; most Democrats supported it. Southern Democrats, encouraged by the doctrine of manifest destiny, supported the war in the hope of adding territory in the south, which would be territory where slavery would be legal, and thereby avoid being outnumbered by the growing population of the north. John L. O'Sullivan, editor of the newspaper The Democratic Review, introduced this phrase in its context, asserting that "it is our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions."

Frederick Douglass, powerful African-American antislavery activist (circa 1847–1852), who opposed the war against Mexico.

The antislavery elements of the north feared the expansion of the slaveholders' power. The Whigs, in general, were interested in strengthening the American economy through industrialization, not in acquiring more territory. Among the most strongly opposed in the House of Representatives was John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts. Adams first made known his concern about expanding American territory in 1836 when he opposed the annexation of Texas. He continued with his arguments until 1846 for the same reason, that the acquisition of territory in the south of the country would add territory to the slave states. When the vote to go to war against Mexico reached the House of Representatives on May 13, Adams shouted his vote of "NO". Only 13 other representatives followed his example.

The former slave Frederick Douglass opposed the war and was disappointed to see the weakness of the movement against the war. "The determination of our slaveholding President, and the probability of his success in wringing from the people men and money to carry it on, is made evident by the puny opposition arrayed against him. None seem willing to take their stand for peace at all risks."

The Democrats wanted more territory. Northern Democrats were attracted by the possibilities offered by the far northwest. Joshua Giddings led a group of protesters in Washington, D.C. He called the war against Mexico an "aggressive, unholy, and unjust" war and voted against supplying soldiers and weapons. He said: "In the murder of Mexicans upon their own soil, or in robbing them of their country, I can take no part either now or hereafter. The guilt of these crimes must rest on others. I will not participate in them."

Another Whig, Abraham Lincoln, questioned the cause of the war and demanded to know exactly where Thornton had been attacked and where American lives had been lost. "Show me the spot!", he demanded. In the Senate, Thomas Corwin, a Whig from Ohio, gave a long speech in which he predicted a war for the presidency in 1847.

Speech by the American senator against the United States intervention in Mexico, characterizing it as imperialist and presidential

The Whig leader Robert Toombs of Georgia said: "This war is indescribable [...] We charge the President with usurping the war-making power [...] with robbing a country [...] which had existed for centuries and was now under the dominion of the Mexicans. Let us now put a stop to this greed. We have territory enough, heaven knows."

Northern abolitionists branded the war as an attempt by the slaveholders to strengthen the laws of slavery and thus secure their influence over the federal government. Acting on his convictions, Henry David Thoreau was jailed for not paying his taxes to support the war, and wrote his famous essay Civil Disobedience.

The Democratic senator David Wilmot introduced the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to prohibit slavery in the territories acquired from Mexico. This amendment did not pass, but it served to worsen relations between northern and southern senators.

Defense of the War

Besides alleging that the actions of the Mexican military forces in the disputed territories north of the Rio Grande constituted an attack on American soil, the war's defenders regarded the territories of New Mexico and California as barely part of Mexico and with only slight ties to the country. Their view was that these territories were unpopulated, ungoverned and unprotected from other frontier peoples, and that their populations, what few there were, came mostly from the United States. Furthermore, they feared that these territories would be acquired by their British rivals, who already held territory just north of California.

President James K. Polk brought up these points in his third annual message to Congress on December 7, 1847. In it, he scrupulously detailed his view and that of his cabinet regarding the origins of the conflict, the measures the United States had taken to avoid hostilities, and the justification for having declared war against Mexico. He also addressed the issue of the financial debts that the Mexican government still had to pay to various private American citizens. In view of Mexican insolvency, the cession of a large part of its northern territory seemed to be the only realistic redress that would serve as compensation. These arguments convinced the Democrats to rally behind him, which ensured that his pro-war proposals would pass the Senate successfully, and this in turn reinforced common support across the American nation.

Reaction of the press

War News from Mexico 1848

The press devoted itself to creating enthusiasm for the war. The lithographer Richard Caton Woodville satirizes, in War News From Mexico, the reactions of various segments of the American population. The lithograph is generally considered unfavorable to the pro-slavery motivations of the war.

Coverage of the war was an important development in the United States, since journalists as well as soldiers fighting in the war, for the first time, provided independent coverage of the war abroad. During the war, inventions such as the telegraph created new means of communication that kept the people up to date with news from witnesses to the events. One of the most important reporters was George Wilkins Kendall, a Northerner who wrote for the New Orleans newspaper Picayune and whose collection of soldiers' correspondence called Dispatches from the Mexican War constitutes an important primary source on the conflict. With more than a decade of experience reporting urban crime, the press realized the great public appetite for astounding news from the war. This news could be disseminated quickly and cheaply, since the printing revolution had preceded the war. This was the first time in American history in which the stories told by journalists, rather than the opinions of politicians, had more influence on public opinion. As well as the journalism that wrote reports, there were also war artists, who introduced a visual dimension to the war. Some of the most famous images were created by Carl Nebel.

On receiving constant reports from the battlefields, many people in the United States came to feel united as a community. News of the war always caused extraordinary excitement. In the spring of 1846, news of Zachary Taylor's victories at Palo Alto drew a crowd to celebrate in the town of Lowell, Massachusetts. New York celebrated the twin victories of Veracruz and Buena Vista in May 1847. Amid fireworks and illuminations there was a great march of 400,000 people. Generals Taylor and Scott became heroes and later went on to be contenders for the American presidency.

Political implications of the war against Mexico

• Mexico lost 50% of its territory during the war, ceding it to the United States. Santa Anna fled into exile in Venezuela.
• In the United States, victory in the war brought a surge of patriotism, and with the acquisition of the territories to the west —in 1846, the United States had acquired the southern part of Oregon— the beliefs of "manifest destiny" seemed to be fulfilled.
• While the philosopher and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson rejected the war as a "means of achieving the destiny of the United States", he had to accept that "most of the great results of history are brought about by discreditable means". The war made Zachary Taylor a national hero, a Southern Whig partisan, who was elected President in the elections of 1848.
• However, this period of national euphoria would not last long. The war had been widely supported in the southern states but was rejected by the northern states. This division developed extensively owing to expectations of how the expansion of the United States would affect the issue of slavery.
• At that time, Texas recognized the institution of slavery, but Mexico did not (slavery had been prohibited in Mexico since the signing of the federal constitution of 1824). Many northern abolitionists (antislavery advocates) saw the war as an attempt by slave owners to expand slavery and secure their continued influence in the federal government. The American writer Henry David Thoreau published his essay Civil Disobedience and refused to pay taxes to fund the war because he considered it an unjust war driven by imperialist interests.
• During the first year of the war, the Democratic congressman David Wilmot introduced a bill that prohibited slavery in any territory captured from Mexico. This bill, which became known as the Wilmot Proviso (clause), caused an immediate protest from Southerners on both sides of Congress, being a precursor of the Civil War.
• To Southerners it seemed that the north was prepared to abandon parity within the Senate, and the Wilmot clause inflamed hostility between the two sections. The bill itself was approved by the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate, with both votes along sectional lines.
• In 1848 the Democrats (pro-slavery) proposed a new solution to the question of which territories could be permitted slavery, known as "popular sovereignty". This allowed the voters within a territory to determine for themselves whether they would permit slavery within their territory. The Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854 made popular sovereignty over the lands more popular, undoing the Missouri Compromise. In protest at these actions, the Republican Party was organized that year by opponents of the expansion of slavery.
• Ulysses S. Grant, who served in the war under Scott's command, would later consider this war to be one of the causes of the American Civil War: "The occupation, separation and annexation [of Texas] were... a conspiracy to acquire territory out of which slave states might be formed for the American Union".

He also said I do not think there was ever a more wicked war than that waged by the United States on Mexico; it was following the bad example of European monarchies.

• Many of the high-ranking officers of the war of Intervention fought in the later Civil War, including Grant, Ambrose Burnside, George McClellan, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.

Some causes of Mexico's defeat

• The larger population of the United States – (20,000,000 against 9,000,000 people in Mexico) The United States, being closer to Europe and being a country open to immigration, had a larger population. In addition, the earlier acquisition of Louisiana, with fertile lands, caused the population to increase. In Mexico, by contrast, the population level remained static because of the years that the war of independence lasted. In addition, immigration was restricted to Catholics. Most of the territories north of the Rio Grande were desert and were populated by hostile native people, conditions unfavorable for colonization.
• Peace – With the exception of the War of 1812, the United States had a period of peace and political stability that lasted many years. In Mexico, internal political conflicts were always constant.
• The superiority of American weaponry – The standard musket of the period in Mexico was the Brown Bess, which had already been taken out of service by the United Kingdom, along with surplus from the Napoleonic Wars.
• Ammunition – While the United States employed machines that could manufacture lead balls at a rate of 40,000 per day per worker, Mexico used artisanal workshops operated by civilians who on a great many occasions delivered useless ammunition that jammed in the barrels owing to the use of "cold molds", poorly aligned and in bad condition. The lack of ammunition, the supply of provisions and the appalling quality of the gunpowder were also a problem for Mexico throughout the war.
• Quality of the weapons – American artillery was superior and had at its disposal a greater variety of ammunition, from solid lead balls and explosive shells to canister shot. They fired up to five times faster than their Mexican counterpart, the heavy and obsolete "Griveaubal" cannons.
• Factories – The United States was a nation fully immersed in the Industrial Revolution, Mexico was a fundamentally agricultural country, so while the country to the North manufactured its own weaponry in greater quantity, the Mexican army had to make do with its reserves of used weapons sold by the Europeans at discount prices.
• Little support – Only seven of the nineteen states of the Mexican Federation contributed men, weapons and money for the national defense.
• Naval disproportion – Mexico had only 15 warships while the United States possessed around a hundred. This allowed them to seize the customs houses and strangle Mexico's international maritime trade. In addition, it landed men at any point of the republic at will.

See also

• Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau.
• Punitive expedition against Francisco Villa
• United States intervention in Tabasco
• United States occupation of Veracruz (1914)
• First Battle of Tabasco
• Mexican Cession

References

General references

• Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, from Project Gutenberg (in English)
• The "Mexican War" (in English)
• Quotations by Ralph Waldo Emerson (in English)
• El Destino Manifiesto y la guerra entre Estados Unidos y México: Pasado y presente (in Spanish)
• La Guerra contra México y el Destino Manifiesto (in Spanish)
• [1] (in English)
• [2] (in English)
• [3]
• [4] (in English)

Bibliography

• Ortega Blake, Arturo. Frontera de papel, tres hermanos en la Guerra México-Estados Unidos. Mexico: Grijalbo, Random House Mondadori, 2004. ISBN 970-05-1734-9.
• Bethell, Leslie and others. América Latina independiente, 1820-1870. Barcelona: Cambridge University Press and Editorial Crítica, 1991.
• Connel-Smith, Gordon. Los Estados Unidos y América Latina. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1974. A study of the relations between the United States and the rest of the American continent.
• Halperin Donghi, Tulio. Reforma y disolución de los imperios ibéricos, 1750–1850. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1985. A clear and fundamental work, with an adequate bibliography.
• Hernández Sánchez-Barba, Mario. Historia de América. Madrid: Editorial Alhambra, 1981. A popular work.
• Martín Moreno, Francisco. "México Mutilado": Mexico, Editorial Santillana, 2004.
• John S.D. Eisenhower. "So Far from God: The U.S. War with Mexico, 1846-1848". UNIVERSITY of OKLAHOMA PRESS Norman, 1989.

External links

• La Guerra de Texas, 1847. Batallón de San Patricio (in Spanish)
• Some documents on the Treaty of Guadalupe and the situation of Mexico during the American invasion (in Spanish)
• PBS site about the war between Mexico and the United States
• The United States intervention in Mexico
• Historia de México — La guerra con los Estados Unidos (in Spanish)
• ilustrados.com La Guerra entre México y los Estados Unidos (in Spanish)
• La Guerra de México y los Estados Unidos (in Spanish)
• Invasión yanqui: La guerra entre México y los Estados Unidos, 1846–1848 (in Spanish)
• La Guerra entre Estados Unidos y México 1846 a 1848 on YouTube (part 1 of 2)
• La Guerra entre Estados Unidos y México 1846 a 1848 on YouTube (part 2 of 2)
• Apuntes para la historia de la guerra entre México y los Estados Unidos (in Spanish)