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There’s been a great deal of confusion about the 1846-48 conflict between the United States and Mexico, just as there was then. I submit that much of the confusion has to do with how it both started and ended.
It had nothing to do with Texas…yet it was mostly about Texas, and it started in Texas.
Mexico was at war with Spain for ten years (1810-1821, triggered by the French invasion of Spain) and abolished slavery in 1829. But Mexican Texas wanted to keep its slaves, much to Mexico’s chagrin. To keep those slaves, Texas fought a war for independence that it won in 1836 with its Declaration of Independence on 2 March. That six-month long conflict—the one with the Alamo—had carved out about half of Mexico’s border with the US. The Republic of Texas, theoretically an independent republic, kept friendly relations with both Mexico and the United States, or at least it tried to. Relations with Mexico were testy, mostly over slavery and over the unclear borders. Disputes about the true border (Mexico claimed it was the Nueces River northeast of the Rio Grande) coastal islands, Indian incursions, and the lawless nature of the open deserts between them.
Then came Texas Statehood.
In December 1845, the US Congress approved Texas statehood and Mexico broke off diplomatic relations. This was because Mexico refused to recognize the validity of the treaty that its President Santa Anna signed (while a prisoner of war) that granted Texas independence. The border dispute was still there, only now instead of little Texas, Mexico was disagreeing with the whole United States. This didn’t phase Mexico, however, because the United States had not fared particularly well against Britain in its two wars with them, though it survived. Mexico boasted a European-trained army (part of it at least) three times the size of the Americans.
Patrolling or provoking?
James K. Polk of North Carolina won the November 1844 election and was inaugurated in March 1845. Very much the Southern gentleman, Polk was interested in limiting banks, extending slavery, removing the Cherokee west, and expanding the nation’s borders. He sent a substantial force (some 2,500 men) to the Mexico frontier after diplomatic relations had been severed. Since Texas was a hotbed of trouble with Mexico, what did everyone think was going to happen? While military activity can also be diplomatic leverage, if Mexico had been interested in settling its issues with the US diplomatically, why would they break off relations?
Well, now…
Historians know the proximate cause of the war as the Thornton Affair in April 1846. About 1,100 Mexican cavalry ambushed Seth Thornton’s command of two companies of dragoons east of Bluetown, Texas, just north of the Rio Grande, killing fourteen Americans and capturing sixty. The Mexicans, covering a Mexican invasion force sent to occupy the disputed territory between the rivers, proceeded until the “main” American force stopped them at Palo Alto and Resaca de Palma. As provocation for both sides, that was enough. President Polk sent Congress a request for war in May 1846.
The war was on…or was it?
War didn’t enter his calculus until the Thornton Affair? Yeah, sure; that’s what several Northern states thought: it a war to extend slavery, in part because that’s what the Southern states thought it was. While Southern volunteers flocked to the colors, Northern volunteers were somewhat more circumspect. The US Navy, however, was swift to blockade the main Mexican ports, which they never really contested. European observers were certain that Mexico would make quick work of any American forces foolish enough to invade. Mexico would hold its fire and allow the upstart Yanquis to wear themselves out.
The Thornton Affair was Mexico’s only major victory.
The US invaded Mexican territory not once but six times, in six different places. No matter what Mexican generals did, their raw conscripts firing from the hip could not overcome the American artillery and aimed American rifles. The one thing the Americans learned about war was to learn from others, and that meant the French and the Prussians. In addition, the Americans had that unique engineering school up on the Hudson at West Point. There, young men of all stations and walks of life learned to be officers, leaders of men. Mexican officers almost universally came from the upper classes of Mexican society, whose training amounted to learning to swing a saber from horseback.
Inevitably, inexorably, Mexico lost disastrously.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed on 2 February 1848, ended the war. The treaty transferred a little more than half of Mexico's prewar territory to the United States, including California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming. Mexico also gave up all claims to Texas and recognized the Rio Grande as the southern boundary between the two countries. For this bounty, the US paid $15 million and assumed $3 million in unpaid claims from US citizens against the Mexican government. Polk endorsed the treaty, but before ratifying it, the Senate removed a guarantee of Mexican land grants, particularly in Texas.
The impact of the conflict was monumental in more ways than one.
When the southern border of the US moved to the Rio Grande, it displaced Mexican families who had owned land as far north as the Arkansas River. The treaty added nearly as much territory to the United States as had the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Finally, in their diligent execution of the conflict, the West Point-trained junior officers showed Europe—and everyone else—that professional training had more value than blue blood. Many of those officers would go on to be senior commanders in 1861, when the guns around Ft. Sumter heralded civil war.
Stella’s Game: A Story of Friendships
There’s nothing to do with Mexico in Stella’s Game; it’s just time to talk about the Trilogy again.
Four teen friends try to navigate life and love amid the turmoil of the ‘60s in suburban Detroit. Their lives, seemingly so divergent, would at last come together in unexpected ways. Available from your favorite bookseller or from me if you want an autograph.
Coming Up…
Unsung Victory
War Without End
And Finally...
On 5 October:
1943: Aircraft from USS Lexington raids Wake Island in the central Pacific. Two days later, the Japanese garrison, fearing invasion, massacred the 98 surviving civilian contractors on the island, held over from the 1941 battle. The Americans hanged the Japanese garrison commander in 1947, and the remains of the contractors were reburied in Hawaii.
1969: “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” premiers on BBC1 in Great Britain. The surreal/sketch/black comedy series with John Cleese, Graham Chapman and the rest, was a send-up and exaggeration of everyday British life and the nobility. Not entirely brainless, the show lasted until 1974, releasing 45 episodes. No, there was no real Monty Python.
And today is NATIONAL DO SOMETHING NICE DAY. Also Be Nice Day. The goal of the day is to spread kindness and make the world a happier place by doing acts of kindness; minor, major, whatever. Given the surrounding atmosphere these days, great idea, huh?