September 21, 2005
Historical Events of the
Mexican War (1846-1848)
By: Dr. Frank J. Collazo
Introduction: The report is organized into three sections or topics. Section One is the Chronology of the Texas revolution and Mexico-USA War during 1846-1848 that outlines the sequence of events leading to the war. The scope of the report encompasses the Mexico government under the Spanish Empire, and the Texas revolution that provided the spark that triggered the Mexico-USA War. The border dispute between the Rio Grande and Nueces River bordering Texas was the prime factor contributing to the Mexican War.
On several occasions, the Mexicans voiced their concerns to
the USA government to no avail.
President Polk’s ambitions for expansion were a motivating factor for
the USA. An analysis of the post war
consequences and effects of the war on both countries are discussed
herein. The war has created long term
consequences and emotional feelings among the Mexican American population for
over a century. Section Two is a
historical fact about how the war was conducted and won by the USA. Upon conclusion of the war, the United States paid Mexico an indemnity of
$15 million and assumed over $3 million in claims that U.S. citizens had
against the Mexican government. Mexico
lost about half of its territory.
Section Three is President Polk’s profile highlighting his
accomplishments during his term in office.
Chronology of the
Mexican-USA War: This section is organized into two
parts. Part I is the chronology of the
Texas Revolution, and Part II is the sequence of events of the Mexican USA War.
1826 - A brief revolt known as the Fredonian
Rebellion was an attempt by two Anglo-American brothers to establish an
independent republic.
1830 - The revolt, which was not supported by
most Anglo-Americans, was unsuccessful, but was one factor that led Mexico to
prohibit the immigration of Anglo-Americans in the decree of April 6, 1830.
1834 - When Mexican President Antonio López de
Santa Anna set aside the nation’s democratic 1824 constitution and assumed
dictatorial powers in 1834, Texans resisted his authority.
1835 - A battle resulted in which the Texans
defeated Mexican soldiers near Gonzales, Texas, on October 2, 1835.
1835 - Stephen Austin and two others were sent to
the United States to secure loans. The
Texans quickly gathered an army and marched to attack the Mexican garrison at
San Antonio. In December, a volunteer
force led by Ben Milam defeated the Mexicans and forced them to surrender and
later to retreat to the south, across the Río Grande.
1835-1836 – A revolution and rebellion in late 1835 and
early 1836 by residents of Texas, then a part of northern Mexico, against the
Mexican government and military.
Texas was part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas,
and its residents were governed as citizens of Mexico. Texans won all the major
battles in the fall of 1835, at Gonzales, Goliad, and San Antonio, and declared
that they were fighting to restore a democratic government in Mexico.
1836 - After taking San Antonio,
many Anglo-Americans returned to their homes, leaving about 150 men in the
town, many of who were volunteers from the United States. Despite rumors that Santa Anna was amassing
troops at the Río Grande, most Texans believed that he would wait until late
spring before invading Texas. On
February 23, 1836, however, Santa Anna’s forces entered San Antonio and the
Anglo-Americans withdrew to the Alamo, a former mission in San Antonio. William B. Travis, the commander of Texan
forces at San Antonio, sent pleas for reinforcements, but only 32 men from
Gonzales answered the call. For 13 days
the small force defended the Alamo against more than 2000 Mexican troops.
On March 2, 1836, during
the siege of The Alamo, a convention of Anglo-American Texans had met at
Washington-on-the-Brazos and declared independence from Mexico. The delegates chose David G. Burnet as
provisional president, named Sam Houston commander-in-chief of all Texan
forces, and adopted a constitution that protected the institution of
slavery. It was otherwise similar to
the Constitution of the United States, but not in all respects.
On March 6, the
Alamo fell and its defenders were killed, including Tennessee-born frontier
hero, pioneer, and politician, Davy Crockett, and Georgia-born pioneer, James
Bowie.
Mexican forces in
other battles at San Patricio, Agua Dulce, and Refugio overwhelmed small groups
of Texans. In a retreat from Goliad,
Colonel James W. Fannin and approximately 280 men surrendered at nearby Coleto
Creek on March 20, 1836, and were marched back to Goliad. A week later, as an example to Anglo Texans,
most of the prisoners were executed by order of Santa Anna in what came to be
known as the Goliad Massacre.
Houston, who had been
negotiating with the Cherokee to prevent them from aiding Mexico, returned to
take command of the revolutionary army just in time to learn that most of his
forces had been killed at Goliad. He
decided to retreat toward the east and to entice Santa Anna and his forces away
from their supply lines, which were near San Antonio. Houston destroyed crops and supplies as he retreated to deny food
to the Mexican troops. Streams of
Anglo-American families fled eastward as the Mexican armies advanced and the
Texan forces retreated. Convinced that
surrender meant death after the executions at Goliad, Anglo-American Texans
became determined to resist.
Houston’s army increased
daily as volunteers from the United States came to Texas to aid the
revolution. He had slightly more than
900 men under his command when he camped at San Jacinto opposite Santa Anna’s
force of about 1300 soldiers. Santa
Anna failed to post guards, and shouting the battle cry, “Remember The Alamo!
Remember Goliad,” the Texans attacked on the afternoon of April 21, 1836. Completely surprising the Mexican Army, they
killed, wounded, or captured most of Santa Anna’s troops in the brief
battle. The Texans suffered 9 dead and
30 wounded, one of who was Houston, shot in the ankle. Santa Anna was captured the next day, an
event that essentially marked the end of the revolution.
He signed the Treaty
of Velasco in which he agreed to order Mexican troops still in Texas to retreat
south of the Río Grande and persuade the Mexican government to accept the independence
of Texas. Mexico refused to acknowledge
Texan independence but made no serious effort to regain control. Meanwhile, Texans elected Sam Houston as the
first president of the Republic of Texas and secured recognition from the
United States and eventually from several major European countries.
1841 - Negotiations resumed after John Tyler became president of the United States, and Sam Houston was elected president of Texas for the second time in 1841.
1845 - The 28th state of the American union was signed on December 29, 1845.
1700-1800 - This weak political control
was matched by the decline of Catholic religious authority in the region in the
late 1700s and early 1800s.
18TH
Century - The Spanish Crown
moved to limit the wealth and power of Franciscan and Jesuit religious orders
by taking over much of their property.
1767 - The Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish
colonies in 1767, and the Crown auctioned off their buildings and
property. The federalists who wanted to
limit the power of the Catholic Church were also hostile to the Franciscan
order, which caused many Franciscans to flee to Europe.
1820 -
By the 1820s the number of missionaries in the northern
frontier regions had dropped off sharply.
The Catholic Church did not have the funds or the clergy to fill the
void after the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries left the frontier.
1820-1830 -
The 1820s and early 1830s saw a number of military
rebellions in Mexico in which federalists, who supported constitutional democracy
and wanted to limit the power of the Roman Catholic Church, clashed with
centralists who wanted a centralized dictatorship based in Mexico City, and
opposed reforms intended to weaken the church.
1821 - After 1821 the northern
regions of Mexico became increasingly integrated with the United States. Before Mexico won independence from Spain in
1821, Spain had forbidden trade between Santa Fe, in the New Mexico territory,
and the United States. After independence, Mexico began to encourage
trade. The inauguration of the Santa Fe
Trail in 1821 linked Independence, in western Missouri, to Santa Fe and
extended the Missouri trade into Chihuahua, a city in north central
Mexico. This growing trade led the
northern Mexican provinces to seek manufactured goods from the United States
rather than areas in southern Mexico.
1821-1845 - During the Mexican period of Texas
history, from 1821 to 1845, Spanish and Mexican maps and documents reaffirmed
the Nueces River as the boundary. But
the Anglos in Texas, and their backers in the United States, insisted that the
western boundary was the Río Grande. At
stake were not merely the 150 miles that separated the Nueces from the Río
Grande in southern Texas, but the thousands of square miles of territory to the
northwest that also fell within the claim (including half of New Mexico,
several hundred miles west of the headwaters of the Nueces River). See note #4
1824 - Under Mexico’s first national
charter, the constitution of 1824, the territories of Coahuila and Texas were
established as one Mexican state: Tejas y Coahuila.
1825 - A group of Texas colonists
received permission from the Mexican government to colonize an area in eastern
Texas known as Nacogdoches. By the time
they arrived, however, other settlers had already claimed the region. The Texas colonists threatened to expel
anyone who could not produce a valid land title. After the original settlers protested, the Mexican government
denied the Texans permission to colonize the region. See Note #2
In December 1826, a group
of 16 Texas colonists went to Nacogdoches and proclaimed the region to be the
independent Republic of Fredonia. The
next month about 60 men, mostly Mexicans, rode to Nacogdoches to capture the
rebellious Fredonians. The small
garrison of Fredonians soundly defeated their attackers in the only battle of
the rebellion. When Mexican troops
arrived at Nacogdoches a short time later, the republic had been dissolved and
the leader of the colonists had fled to Louisiana.
1830 - Although the Fredonians were not
successful, by the 1830s the population of Mexican Texas included many
immigrants from the United States.
These Anglo-American colonists were angry over Mexican attempts to deny
autonomy to Texas and were unhappy with a colonization law that prevented
immigration from the United States into Texas.
They were also wary of Catholic laws and customs.
1835 - They revolted and established Texas as an
independent republic. The Texas
Revolution included the battles of the Alamo, Goliad, and San Jacinto. When hostilities ceased, Mexican General
Antonio López de Santa Anna agreed to withdraw his troops across the Río Grande
and recognize the independence of Texas.
The Mexican congress rejected the agreement, and many Mexicans assumed
the nation would regain Texas. It soon
became apparent, however, that Mexico was in no position to retake Texas by
force.
The federal republic
was overthrown by centralists.
1836 - The next year the 1824 constitution was
replaced by laws, which concentrated political power in the capital and took
power away from the states.
1836-1845 - The Lone Star Republic, as it was known,
remained independent from 1836 to 1845, when the United States Congress
approved a joint resolution annexing Texas. Mexico considered this annexation
an act of aggression, and the Mexican diplomat in Washington, D.C., broke off
negotiations and went home.
1845-1849 - At the same time, the
United States was expanding aggressively.
President James K. Polk (1845-1849) and his administrators sought trade
outlets to the Pacific Ocean and had their eyes on the coasts and bays of
Texas, Oregon and California.
Land-hungry settlers were moving across the Mississippi River into the
cotton fields and cattle lands of Louisiana and East Texas. Fur trappers and New England merchants were
looking for pelts and hides along the Gila River—which runs through the current
U.S. states of Arizona and New Mexico—and moved from there into southern
California.
The westward migration
of U.S. citizens was encouraged by Manifest Destiny, a belief that territorial
expansion by the United States was both inevitable and divinely ordained. Those
who believed in Manifest Destiny also believed that the culture of the United
States was superior to other cultures and that republican forms of government
and democracy should be expanded in order to “civilize” other peoples. Although Manifest Destiny was criticized by
some people as blatantly racist, it enjoyed support among U.S. citizens and
politicians in the mid- and late 1800s.
1845 -
On June 23, 1845, General Zachary Taylor, in command of
approximately 1500 regulars, was ordered to leave Louisiana for Texas. By July he was in Corpus Christi, about 320
km (200 mi) north of the Río Grande.
1846 - President Polk ordered Taylor and his
troops to enter disputed territory between the Nueces and the Río Grande. Another detachment was moved to Fort Texas
(present-day Brownsville, Texas) across the border from Matamoros, Mexico. By April 1846 the two nations stood on the
brink of war.
Taylor’s forces
clashed with Arista’s at Carricitos on the northern bank of the Río
Grande. Polk used this skirmish to
justify his war message to Congress when he declared that Mexico had “shed
American blood on American soil.”
Although a young congressman from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln
challenged Polk to show him the spot where blood had been shed, a majority of
the members of Congress were ready to approve a bill authorizing war.
May 8, 1846 - President Polk signed the declaration
of war; the first major engagement of the Mexican War began. This was the Battle of Palo Alto, which took
place along the Gulf Coast north of Matamoros and the Río Grande. Taylor pitted his approximately 2,200 troops
against Arista’s 3200 Mexican soldiers.
The U.S. artillery inflicted heavy casualties on the Mexicans while
Taylor reported only 16 men killed or wounded.
The next day another pre-war battle occurred south of Palo Alto at
Resaca de la Palma, sending the Mexicans reeling back to Matamoros. See Note # 5.
1846 - The declaration of war had been signed by
President Polk, and five days later Matamoros fell to the United States. Arista retreated and was relieved of his
command. See Note #5.
General Stephen W. Kearny,
commanding the Army of the West, was the first to mobilize, when his army of
1500 men departed Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in June of 1846 and began the
900-mile trek to Santa Fe.
In the meantime, U.S. settlers in northern California had
revolted against Mexican rule in June of 1846 before news of the declaration of
war had even reached them. Led by
Colonel John C. Frémont, the settlers captured a fort at Sonoma, north of San
Francisco, and proclaimed the establishment of the Bear Flag Republic.
The Navy Commodore
John D. Sloat, commander of U.S. naval forces along the Pacific Coast, ordered
the U.S. flag raised at Monterey, about 140 km (87 mi) south of San Francisco,
and formally claimed California for the United States. A few days later, U.S. forces occupied the
port of San Francisco. Sloat, in poor
health, transferred his command of the naval forces to Commodore Robert
Stockton in late July.
Taylor’s Army of the
Center, now 6000 strong (half of whom were Texas volunteers) had moved through
Camargo toward the city of Monterrey in northwestern Mexico. General Pedro Ampudia commanded the troops
protecting Monterrey. While he was
preparing the defenses of the city, centralist President Paredes was overthrown
in Mexico City by federalist forces, including General Santa Anna, who had
returned from exile in Cuba.
The federalists
promptly restored the 1824 constitution.
General Ampudia, evidently influenced by the fall of Paredes, became
indecisive and added to the confusion and demoralization of his troops. The battle began in September, and after
three days of fierce fighting, Taylor was able to outflank the Mexicans and
begin closing in on the city.
On September 25 the
fighting was over, and General Ampudia asked for a truce. Taylor agreed to permit the Mexican army to
withdraw from the city and an eight-week truce began. The arrival of Doniphan, whose forces had attacked and occupied
Chihuahua, fortified Taylor’s base and made most of northern Mexico secure for
U.S. forces. After President Polk
criticized the leniency of the truce, Taylor informed General Santa Anna that
he would end the agreement before the eight weeks were up.
The Mexicans
evacuated the town before the U.S. troops arrived on August 19; Kearny was able
to take Santa Fe without firing a shot.
Although the occupation was initially peaceful, U.S. troops were soon
harassed by Mexican and Native American (primarily Pueblo) attacks. After August 19, Kearny divided his army
into three groups in order to attack or control various strategic locations
simultaneously. One contingent would
remain to pacify Santa Fe, while another, under Colonel Alexander William
Doniphan, was dispatched south to Chihuahua in north central Mexico. The third group, under Kearny’s command, was
sent west to California to assist U.S. forces already fighting there.
When Kearny and his troops
finally arrived in southern California in December; U.S. forces had already
captured Los Angeles, but had been driven out a short time later. On December 6, Kearny’s army fought Mexican
troops under Captain Andrés Pico.
Kearny was wounded and his troops almost annihilated.
By 1846 the church’s
presence on the Mexican frontier had diminished, with empty parishes in places
where friars once proudly served.
Because one of the primary goals of the missionaries was to convert
Native Americans to Christianity and pressure them to adopt Hispanic customs,
the decline of the religious orders also meant a decline in the influence of
Hispanic culture and Catholicism in the region.
1846-1848 - Mexican War, conflict between the United
States and Mexico, lasting from 1846 to 1848.
The war resulted in a decisive U.S. victory and forced Mexico to
relinquish all claims to approximately half its national territory.
1847 - In January U.S. forces attacked and
recaptured Los Angeles, forcing the surrender of hundreds of Mexicans and
effectively ending Mexican resistance in California.
About half of
Taylor’s troops were reassigned to General Scott to help in the attack on
Veracruz. Santa Anna learned of
Taylor’s weakened position and immediately began marching an army of 18,000 to
20,000 men north from San Luis Potosí in central Mexico in hopes of catching
him by surprise. Taylor was alerted of
the march, however, and prepared his defenses at Buena Vista, about 70 km (45 mi)
west of Monterrey. Only about 15,000 of
Santa Anna’s troops completed the march; the rest had died, been abandoned, or
deserted along the way.
The two armies met
in February 1847, with the Mexican forces outnumbering U.S. troops three to
one. Although Santa Anna’s assaults on
Taylor’s defenses did much damage and Mexican troops almost overran the U.S.
positions, Taylor’s artillery performed well and the attack was eventually
repulsed. Although both sides would
claim victory, the battle ended in a stalemate. Santa Anna, with a few war trophies in hand (some flags and three
cannons) withdrew from the battlefield to resolve a dispute in Mexico City,
leaving northern Mexico to the invaders.
Scott’s Army of the
Occupation, with some 10,000 men, landed on the Mexican coast south of the
harbor of Veracruz. The invasion was
accompanied by a bombardment that launched approximately 6,700 shells at the
city. Hundreds of Mexican civilians were killed. Civilian corpses piled up in the streets; buildings, including
hospitals, were gutted by fire; and a yellow-fever epidemic raged. After two days, the siege was over, and the
Stars and Stripes replaced the Eagle and Serpent of the Mexican flag. While 67 Americans had been killed or
wounded, the Mexican civilian and military dead numbered between 1000 and
1500. Civilian casualties outnumbered
their military counterparts two to one.
See Note # 6.
The opposing forces
met in mid-April at a mountain pass near Cerro Gordo, about 80 km (about 50 mi)
northwest of Veracruz. Scott outflanked
the Mexicans and attacked from the rear.
The Mexican defense soon disintegrated, and Santa Anna barely escaped
capture. He fled west to Puebla, but
the citizens there would not cooperate with him. When Santa Anna went on to Mexico City, Scott and his army took
Puebla unopposed.
While Scott’s troops rested
for the summer in Puebla, Santa Anna went about preparing the defenses of
Mexico City. With the Mexican states
refusing to lend money to the federal government, and the city government
uncooperative, the capital was placed under martial law. To combat the U.S. forces, the Mexican army
organized several companies of foreign residents and deserters from the U.S.
Army into units that were known as San Patricios (Saint Patricks).
The war came
to the outskirts of Mexico City, with engagements at Contreras and
Churubusco. In both instances the U.S.
forces were superior in leadership, tactics, and technology. At Churubusco, in late August, the Mexicans
fought bravely and refused to yield ground to the better-equipped
Americans. The battle was won with
hand-to-hand combat.
One of the final battles
of the war began early on September 8 when General Scott’s artillery began
bombarding fortifications at Molino del Rey and Casa Mata in Mexico City. Cavalry and infantry charges soon followed
and U.S. forces captured the positions before mid-morning. This left Chapultepec Castle, just east of
Molino del Rey, as the only fortified position that remained in the city. At the crest of a 60-meter (200-foot) hill
and surrounded by a huge wall, the castle included the buildings of the
National Military Academy. A handful of
cadets were among the more than 800 Mexican defenders at the castle. Six of the young cadets—who would come to be
known as the Niños Heroes—chose to die fighting rather than surrender to
the U.S. troops.
After a mortar
attack on the morning of September 13 failed to breach the fortification, Scott
ordered his troops to storm the castle with pickaxes and crowbars. After a bloody assault, U.S. troops
prevailed and raised their flag over the castle. The war was over.
General Scott
entered the center of the capital and the United States prepared to negotiate
peace. The U.S. losses at Molino del
Rey, Casa Mata, and Chapultepec included 130 killed and 703 wounded; Mexican
losses are unknown, but it is estimated that nearly 3,000 died in the Mexico
City battles.
The fighting was
over, and General Ampudia asked for a truce.
Taylor agreed to permit the Mexican Army to withdraw from the city and
an eight-week truce began. The arrival
of Doniphan, whose forces had attacked and occupied Chihuahua, fortified
Taylor’s base and made most of northern Mexico secure for U.S. forces. After President Polk criticized the leniency
of the truce, Taylor informed General Santa Anna that he would end the
agreement before the eight weeks were up.
1848 -
During the next few months, negotiations continually broke
down. Mexico, although decisively
defeated, refused to negotiate a peace treaty. Polk became convinced that the Mexicans were stalling. He was also being pressured to acquire more
territory from the vanquished Mexico.
Consequently, he ordered the U.S. negotiator, Nicholas Trist, to return
to the United States. Knowing that his
departure would mean an end to negotiations, and possibly more problems for
Mexico, Trist persevered. Eventually,
on February 2, 1848, a treaty was signed at the village of Guadalupe Hidalgo, a
few miles outside of Mexico City.
The Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo ended the war, set the southern boundary of Texas, and ceded the
Mexican territories of New Mexico and California to the United States. The United States paid Mexico an indemnity
of $15 million and assumed over $3 million in claims that U.S. citizens had
against the Mexican government.
Although Mexico lost half of its territory, it did manage to save Baja
California and have it linked by land to Sonora to the east.
The treaty was
ratified on March 10, 1848, by the United States and on May 19, 1848, by
Mexico.
Note #1 - The pilgrimages to Chapultepec Park in
Mexico City every September 13 honor the young military cadets (Niños Héroes)
who chose to die rather than surrender to U.S. troops at the end of the war.
Note #2 - Central to the events
leading up to war were the Fredonian Rebellion (1826), the Texas Revolution
(1835-1836), and the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845.
Note #3 - With diplomatic relations
broken, President Polk sent diplomat John Slidell as a special envoy to Mexico to
negotiate a dispute over the boundary between Texas and Mexico. Throughout the colonial era the western
boundary of Spanish “Tejas” had been the Nueces River.
Note #4 - When Mexican newspapers
discovered that Slidell also had secret instructions to negotiate for the
purchase of California and New Mexico, they threatened rebellion if Mexican
president José Joaquin de Herrera negotiated with the United States. The president promptly informed Polk that he
had nothing to discuss with Slidell.
Herrera was then overthrown by General Mariano Paredes, and Mexico
prepared to assert its authority over Texas by mobilizing an army of 5,200
troops near the mouth of the Río Grande under the command of General Mariano
Arista.
Note #5 - The U.S. strategy called
for a three-pronged offense: The Army of the West would take New Mexico and
California; the Army of the Center would seize northern Mexico; and the Army of
Occupation would carry the war into Mexico City. The navy would provide logistical support, escort the transport
of troops to Mexico, guard the army’s bases from the sea, and blockade the
coasts along the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific.
Note #6 -
Santa Anna had just arrived in Mexico City when news of the
Veracruz defeat arrived. He secured
from the Catholic Church a promise of a loan to finance the army and then
rushed off toward Veracruz to meet the U.S. troops that were heading west to
Mexico City.
Shortly after the conquests,
Catholic missionaries—Jesuits until 1571, Franciscans and Dominicans after
that—attempted to convert Native Americans to Christianity. They established missions not only at the
centers of the new empire but also in New Mexico and Florida. Spanish Jesuits even built a short–lived
mission outpost in Virginia.
After defeating indigenous
peoples, Spanish conquerors established a system of forced labor called
“encomienda.” However, Spanish
governmental and religious officials disliked the brutality of this system. As time passed, Spanish settlers claimed
land rather than labor, establishing large estates called “haciendas.” By the time French, Dutch, Swedish, and
English colonists began arriving in the New World in the early 17th century;
the Spanish colonies in New Spain (Mexico), New Granada (Colombia), and the
Caribbean were nearly 100 years old.
The colonies were a source of power for Spain, and a source of jealousy
from other European nations.
Mexico
Under the Spanish Empire: The peninsulares (rebellious movement) desired stability in
Mexico and overthrew the viceregal (Government in power) government when it
allowed the Creoles influence. As a
result, the great Viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico), a huge region of more than
six million people, was governed by some 15,000 peninsulares. A dynamic timeline "Coup d'état"
in Mexico was organized in secrecy to overthrow the government. Two years later, a widespread rebellion
erupted.
Background: The Mexican War, conflict between the
United States and Mexico, lasted from 1846 to 1848. The war resulted in a decisive U.S. victory and forced Mexico to
relinquish all claims to approximately half its national territory. Mexico had already lost control of much of
its northeastern territory as a result of the Texas Revolution
(1835-1836). This land, combined with
the territory Mexico ceded at the end of the war, would form the future U.S.
states of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah, as well as
portions of the states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.
Mexico’s territorial loss
signified the end of any likelihood that Mexico, rather than the United States,
would become the predominant power in North America. As the first conflict in which U.S. military forces fought almost
exclusively outside of the country, the Mexican War also marked the beginning
of the rise of the United States as a global military power.
Many Mexicans, meanwhile,
deeply resented their loss to the “Colossus of the North,” viewing the conflict
as an unnecessary war that had been thrust upon Mexico by a land-hungry United
States. This nurtured a fear of the
United States—sometimes bordering on hatred—among some Mexicans that have been
kept alive and popularized through corridos (secret uprising), the folk ballads
of Mexico. The war also generated a new
feeling of patriotism and national pride in the young nation, evidenced today
by the pilgrimages to Chapultepec Park in Mexico City every September 13 to
honor the young military cadets “Niños Héroes”-(Young heroes) who chose to die
rather than surrender to U.S. troops at the end of the war.
Causes of the
War:
The two major issues behind the war were the
inability of the Mexican government to establish political and economic control
over its vast northern frontier, including the Mexican state of “Tejas y
Coahuila.” The westward movement and
dynamic expansionism of the United States during the 19th century was the
secondary reason for the war.
Lack of Mexican
Control: Under Mexico’s first national
charter, the constitution of 1824, the territories of Coahuila and Texas were
established as one Mexican state: Tejas y Coahuila. However, the central government in Mexico
City had enormous difficulty exercising direct control over events in these
northern regions of the country, due to a variety of problems. The most important of these were civil war
and religious turmoil.
The 1820s and early 1830s
saw a number of military rebellions in Mexico in which federalists, who
supported constitutional democracy and wanted to limit the power of the Roman
Catholic Church, clashed with centralists who wanted a centralized dictatorship
based in Mexico City and opposed reforms intended to weaken the church. In 1835 the federal republic was overthrown
by centralists. The next year the 1824
constitution was replaced by laws, which concentrated political power in the
capital and took power away from the states.
For the next decade, various competing factions of centralists
controlled the Mexican government. The
political turmoil of this period, as well as the centralization of power in
Mexico City, made it difficult for the Mexican government to exercise its
authority in the northern frontier regions such as Texas.
This weak political control
was matched by the decline of Catholic religious authority in the region in the
late 1700s and early 1800s. In the 18th
century, the Spanish Crown moved to limit the wealth and power of Franciscan
and Jesuit religious orders by taking over much of their property. The Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish
colonies in 1767. The buildings and
property by the Jesuits were auctioned off by the Crown. The federalists who wanted to limit the
power of the Catholic Church were also hostile to the Franciscan order, which
caused many Franciscans to flee to Europe.
By the 1820s the number
of missionaries in the northern frontier regions had dropped off sharply. The Catholic Church did not have the funds
or the clergy to fill the void after the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries
left the frontier. By 1846 the church’s
presence on the Mexican frontier had diminished, with empty parishes in places
where friars once proudly served.
Because one of the primary goals of the missionaries was to convert
Native Americans to Christianity and pressure them to adopt Hispanic customs,
the decline of the religious orders also meant a decline in the influence of
Hispanic culture and Catholicism in the region.
US Expansion:
After 1821 the northern regions of Mexico became
increasingly integrated with the United States. Before Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, Spain had
forbidden trade between Santa Fe, in the New Mexico territory, and the United
States. After independence, Mexico
began to encourage trade. The inauguration of the Santa Fe Trail in 1821 linked
Independence, in western Missouri, to Santa Fe and extended the Missouri trade
into Chihuahua, a city in north central Mexico. This growing trade led the northern Mexican provinces to seek
manufactured goods from the United States rather than areas in southern Mexico.
At the same time, the
United States was expanding aggressively.
President James K. Polk (1845-1849) and his administrators sought trade
outlets to the Pacific Ocean and had their eyes on the coasts and bays of
Texas, Oregon and California.
Land-hungry settlers were moving across the Mississippi River into the
cotton fields and cattle lands of Louisiana and East Texas. Fur trappers and New England merchants were
looking for pelts and hides along the Gila River—which runs through the current
U.S. states of Arizona and New Mexico—and moved from there into southern
California.
The westward migration
of U.S. citizens was encouraged by Manifest Destiny, a belief that territorial expansion
by the United States was both inevitable and divinely ordained. Those who
believed in Manifest Destiny also believed that the culture of the United
States was superior to other cultures and that republican forms of government
and democracy should be expanded in order to “civilize” other peoples. Although Manifest Destiny was criticized by
some people as blatantly racist, it enjoyed support among U.S. citizens and
politicians in the mid- and late 1800s.
Factors
Influencing the War: Central to the events leading
up to war were the “Fredonian Rebellion” (1826), the Texas Revolution
(1835-1836), and the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845.
In December 1826, a group
of 16 Texas colonists went to Nacogdoches and proclaimed the region to be the
Independent Republic of Fredonia. The
next month about 60 men, mostly Mexicans, rode to Nacogdoches to capture the
rebellious Fredonians. The small
garrison of Fredonians soundly defeated their attackers in the only battle of
the rebellion. When Mexican troops arrived at Nacogdoches a short time later,
the republic had been dissolved and the leader of the colonists had fled to
Louisiana.
The Texas
Revolution: Although the Fredonians were not
successful, by the 1830s the population of Mexican Texas included many
immigrants from the United States. These
Anglo-American colonists were angry over Mexican attempts to deny autonomy to
Texas and were unhappy with a colonization law that prevented immigration from
the United States into Texas. They were
also wary of Catholic laws and customs.
In 1835 they revolted and established Texas as an independent
republic.
The Texas Revolution
included the battles of The Alamo, Goliad, and San Jacinto. When hostilities ceased, Mexican General
Antonio López de Santa Anna agreed to withdraw his troops across the Río Grande
and recognize the independence of Texas.
The Mexican congress rejected the agreement, and many Mexicans assumed
the nation would regain Texas. It soon
became apparent, however, that Mexico was in no position to retake Texas by
force. The Lone Star Republic, as it
was known, remained independent from 1836 to 1845, when the United States
Congress approved a joint resolution annexing Texas. Mexico considered this annexation an act of aggression, and the
Mexican diplomat in Washington, D.C., broke off negotiations and went home.
Disputed Borders: With diplomatic relations broken,
President Polk sent diplomat John Slidell as a special envoy to Mexico to
negotiate a dispute over the boundary between Texas and Mexico. Throughout the colonial era the western
boundary of Spanish “Tejas” had been the Nueces River. During the Mexican period of Texas history,
from 1821 to 1845, Spanish and Mexican maps and documents reaffirmed the Nueces
River as the boundary. But the Anglos
in Texas, and their backers in the United States, insisted that the western
boundary was the Río Grande. At stake were not merely the 150 miles that
separated the Nueces from the Río Grande in southern Texas, but the thousands
of square miles of territory to the northwest that also fell within the claim
(including half of New Mexico, several hundred miles west of the headwaters of
the Nueces River).
When Mexican newspapers
discovered that Slidell also had secret instructions to negotiate for the
purchase of California and New Mexico, they threatened rebellion if Mexican
president José Joaquin de Herrera negotiated with the United States. The president promptly informed Polk that he
had nothing to discuss with Slidell.
Herrera was then overthrown by General Mariano Paredes, and Mexico
prepared to assert its authority over Texas by mobilizing an army of 5,200
troops near the mouth of the Río Grande under the command of General Mariano
Arista.
On June 23, 1845, General Zachary Taylor, in command of approximately 1500 regulars, was ordered to leave Louisiana for Texas. By July he was in Corpus Christi, about 320 km (200 mi) north of the Río Grande. That next year, on March 8, 1846, Polk ordered Taylor and his troops to enter disputed territory between the Nueces and the Río Grande. Another detachment was moved to Fort Texas (present-day Brownsville, Texas), across the border from Matamoros, Mexico. By April 1846 the two nations stood on the brink of war.
The War:
On April 24 Taylor’s forces clashed with Arista’s at
Carricitos on the northern bank of the Río Grande. Polk used this skirmish to
justify his war message to Congress when he declared that Mexico had “shed
American blood on American soil.” Although a young congressman from Illinois
named Abraham Lincoln challenged Polk to show him the spot where blood had been
shed, a majority of the members of Congress were ready to approve a bill
authorizing war.
On May 8, before Polk
signed the declaration of war, the first major engagement of the Mexican War
began. This was the Battle of Palo
Alto, which took place along the Gulf Coast north of Matamoros and the Río
Grande. Taylor pitted his approximately
2200 troops against Arista’s 3200 Mexican soldiers. The U.S. artillery inflicted heavy casualties on the Mexicans
while Taylor reported only 16 men killed or wounded. The next day another pre-war battle occurred south of Palo Alto
at Resaca de la Palma, sending the Mexicans reeling back to Matamoros. Finally, on May 13, Polk signed a
declaration of war, and five days later Matamoros fell to the United
States. Arista retreated and was
relieved of his command.
The U.S. strategy called
for a three-pronged offense: The Army of the West would take New Mexico and
California; the Army of the Center would seize northern Mexico; and the Army of
Occupation would carry the war into Mexico City. The navy would provide logistical support, escort the transport
of troops to Mexico, guard the army’s bases from the sea, and blockade the
coasts along the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific. It would also aid the capture of Monterey, a key coastal port in
central California, and assist in the capture and occupation of Tampico and
Veracruz on Mexico’s Gulf Coast.
California
and New Mexico
Santa Fe, New
Mexico: General Stephen W. Kearny,
commanding the Army of the West, was the first to mobilize when his army of
1,500 men departed Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in June of 1846 and began the
900-mile trek to Santa Fe. With the
Mexicans evacuating the town before the U.S. troops arrived on August 19,
Kearny was able to take Santa Fe without firing a shot. Although the occupation was initially
peaceful, U.S. troops were harassed by Mexican and Native American (primarily
Pueblo) attacks.
After August 19,
Kearny divided his army into three groups in order to attack or control various
strategic locations simultaneously. One
contingent would remain to pacify Santa Fe, while another, under Colonel
Alexander William Doniphan, was dispatched south to Chihuahua in north central
Mexico. The third group, under Kearny’s
command, was sent west to California to assist U.S. forces already fighting
there.
In the meantime, U.S.
settlers in northern California had revolted against Mexican rule in June of
1846, before news of the declaration of war had even reached them. Led by Colonel John C. Frémont, the settlers
captured a fort at Sonoma, north of San Francisco, and proclaimed the
establishment of the Bear Flag Republic.
The republic was short lived, however.
On July 7, 1846, naval commodore John D. Sloat, commander of U.S. naval
forces along the Pacific Coast, ordered the U.S. flag raised at Monterey, about
140 km (87 mi) south of San Francisco, and formally claimed California for the
United States. A few days later, U.S. forces occupied the port of San
Francisco. Sloat, in poor health,
transferred his command of the naval forces to Commodore Robert Stockton in
late July.
When Kearny and his troops
finally arrived in southern California in December, U.S. forces had already
captured Los Angeles, but had been driven out a short time later. On December 6, Kearny’s army fought Mexican
troops under Captain Andrés Pico.
Kearny was wounded and his troops almost annihilated. In January U.S. forces attacked and
recaptured Los Angeles, forcing the surrender of hundreds of Mexicans and
effectively ending Mexican resistance in California.
Northern Mexico:
Meanwhile, in August 1846, Taylor’s Army of the Center,
now 6,000 strong (half of whom were Texas volunteers) had moved through Camargo
toward the city of Monterrey in northwestern Mexico. General Pedro Ampudia commanded the troops protecting
Monterrey. While he was preparing the
defenses of the city, centralist President Paredes was overthrown in Mexico
City by federalist forces, including General Santa Anna, who had returned from
exile in Cuba. The federalists promptly
restored the 1824 constitution. General
Ampudia, evidently influenced by the fall of Paredes, became indecisive and
added to the confusion and demoralization of his troops. The battle began in September, and after
three days of fierce fighting, Taylor was able to outflank the Mexicans and
begin closing in on the city. On
September 25 the fighting was over, and General Ampudia asked for a truce.
Taylor agreed to
permit the Mexican army to withdraw from the city and an eight-week truce
began. The arrival of Doniphan, whose
forces had attacked and occupied Chihuahua, fortified Taylor’s base and made
most of northern Mexico secure for U.S. forces. After President Polk criticized the leniency of the truce, Taylor
informed General Santa Anna that he would end the agreement before the eight
weeks were up.
In early 1847 about half
of Taylor’s troops were reassigned to General Scott to help in the attack on
Veracruz. Santa Anna learned of
Taylor’s weakened position and immediately began marching an army of 18,000 to
20,000 men north from San Luis Potosí in central Mexico in hopes of catching
him by surprise. Taylor was alerted of
the march, however, and prepared his defenses at Buena Vista, about 70 km (45
mi) west of Monterrey. Only about
15,000 of Santa Anna’s troops completed the march; the rest had died, been
abandoned, or deserted along the way.
The two armies met
in February 1847, with the Mexican forces outnumbering U.S. troops three to
one. Although Santa Anna’s assaults on
Taylor’s defenses did much damage and Mexican troops almost overran the U.S.
positions, Taylor’s artillery performed well and the attack was eventually
repulsed. Although both sides would claim
victory, the battle ended in a stalemate.
Santa Anna, with a few war trophies in hand (some flags and three
cannons), withdrew from the battlefield to resolve a dispute in Mexico City,
leaving northern Mexico to the invaders.
Mexico City:
Despite defeat in the north and constant political bickering
in Mexico City, the Mexicans were still unwilling to sue for peace. Believing it impractical to march across the
desert south of Monterrey, the U.S. military command ordered Taylor to reassign
the best half of his troops (the regulars) to General Winfield Scott, the man
selected to occupy Veracruz on the Gulf Coast.
In March 1847 Scott’s
Army of the Occupation, with some 10,000 men, landed on the Mexican coast south
of the harbor of Veracruz. The invasion
was accompanied by a bombardment that launched approximately 6,700 shells at
the city. Hundreds of Mexican civilians
were killed. Civilian corpses piled up
in the streets; buildings, including hospitals, were gutted by fire; and a
yellow-fever epidemic raged. After two
days, the siege was over, and the Stars and Stripes replaced the Eagle and
Serpent of the Mexican flag. While 67
Americans had been killed or wounded, the Mexican civilian and military dead
numbered between 1,000 and 1,500.
Civilian casualties outnumbered their military counterparts 2 to 1.
Santa Anna had just arrived
in Mexico City when news of the Veracruz defeat arrived. He secured from the
Catholic Church a promise of a loan to finance the army and then rushed off
toward Veracruz to meet the U.S. troops that were heading west to Mexico
City. The opposing forces met in
mid-April at a mountain pass near Cerro Gordo, about 80 km (about 50 mi)
northwest of Veracruz. Scott outflanked the Mexicans and attacked from the
rear. The Mexican defense soon
disintegrated, and Santa Anna barely escaped capture. He fled west to Puebla, but the citizens there would not
cooperate with him. When Santa Anna went on to Mexico City, Scott and his army
took Puebla unopposed.
While Scott’s troops rested
for the summer in Puebla, Santa Anna went about preparing the defenses of
Mexico City. With the Mexican states
refusing to lend money to the federal government, and the city government
uncooperative, the capital was placed under martial law. To combat the U.S. forces, the Mexican army
organized several companies of foreign residents and deserters from the U.S.
Army into units that were known as San Patricios (Saint Patricks).
In August the war came
to the outskirts of Mexico City, with engagements at Contreras and
Churubusco. In both instances the U.S.
forces were superior in leadership, tactics, and technology. At Churubusco, in late August, the Mexicans
fought bravely and refused to yield ground to the better-equipped Americans. The battle was won with hand-to-hand combat.
One of the final battles
of the war began early on September 8 when Scott’s artillery began bombarding
fortifications at Molino del Rey and Casa Mata in Mexico City. Cavalry and
infantry charges soon followed and U.S. forces captured the positions before
mid-morning. This left Chapultepec
Castle, just east of Molino del Rey, as the only fortified position that
remained in the city. At the crest of a
60-meter (200-foot) hill and surrounded by a huge wall, the castle included the
buildings of the National Military Academy.
A handful of cadets were among the more than 800 Mexican defenders at
the castle. Six of the young cadets—who
would come to be known as the “Niños Heroes” (Young heroes)—chose to die
fighting rather than surrender to the U.S. troops.
After a mortar
attack on the morning of September 13 failed to breach the fortification,
General Scott ordered his troops to storm the castle with pickaxes and
crowbars. After a bloody assault, U.S.
troops prevailed and raised their flag over the castle. The war was over. On September 14, General Scott entered the center of the capital,
and the United States prepared to negotiate peace. The U.S. losses at Molino del Rey, Casa Mata, and Chapultepec
included 130 killed and 703 wounded; Mexican losses are unknown, but it is
estimated that nearly 3000 died in the Mexico City battles.
Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo:
During the next few months, negotiations continually
broke down. Mexico, although decisively
defeated, refused to negotiate a peace treaty. Polk became convinced that the
Mexicans were stalling. He was also
being pressured to acquire more territory from the vanquished Mexico. Consequently, he ordered the U.S.
negotiator, Nicholas Trist, to return to the United States. Knowing that his departure would mean an end
to negotiations, and possibly more problems for Mexico, Trist persevered. Eventually, on February 2, 1848, a treaty
was signed at the village of Guadalupe Hidalgo, a few miles outside of Mexico
City.
The Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo ended the war, set the southern boundary of Texas, and ceded the
Mexican territories of New Mexico and California to the United States. The United States paid Mexico an indemnity
of $15 million and assumed over $3 million in claims that U.S. citizens had
against the Mexican government.
Although Mexico lost half of its territory, it did manage to save Baja
California and have it linked by land to Sonora to the east. The treaty was ratified on March 10, 1848,
by the United States and on May 19, 1848, by Mexico.
Consequences of the War: Although the United States
won the war, it was less than a total victory.
The U.S. forces suffered a mortality rate of 153.5 per 1,000, compared
to 98 per 1,000 that the Union forces lost during the American Civil War
(1861-1865). The high mortality rate
included deaths from accidents, executions, and plagues of smallpox and
syphilis. At least 12,000 U.S. lives
were lost during the war, but fewer than 1,800 were battle deaths.
Mexico was ill
prepared for the conflict that later matured into full-scale war. Although Mexico had the numerical advantage
in troops, and Mexican forces fought bravely and with resolve, U.S. forces beat
them decisively in battle after battle.
Mexico’s internal political battles and the refusal of the Mexican states
to help finance the war effort seriously undermined Mexico’s numerical
advantages. In addition, Mexican troops
that were lucky to be armed with muskets were no match for trained U.S.
soldiers with breech-loading rifled guns.
Compared to the U.S. military, the Mexican forces were plagued by
outmoded artillery, corrupt officers, and poorly trained men. Although no reliable records were kept of
Mexican casualties, they outnumbered those of the U.S. forces in most major
battles of the war.
Effects of the
War on the United States: The Mexican War added
substantial territory to the United States.
Not counting Texas, which had been annexed by the United States prior to
the war, the victory increased the area of the country by approximately 66
percent. The West, including the
Southwest, would become a source of basic resources and a market for industrial
goods from the industrialized northeast.
In 1848 gold was discovered
at Sutter’s Mill in northern California, launching the California gold
rush. Silver mines were opened in
Nevada, while copper began to be mined in Arizona and Utah at the turn of the
century. In the mid-20th century New
Mexico’s uranium mines became important for the production of atomic power. San Diego and San Francisco, blessed with
two of the best natural harbors in the world, would soon host major U.S. naval
facilities. These lands, plus
investments in health, education, and machines, helped sustain U.S. economic
growth between the American Civil War and World War I (1914-1918).
But there were hidden
costs to this territorial bounty. John
C. Calhoun, the seventh vice president of the United States (1825-1832), had
earlier warned about territorial conquests and their potential disastrous
results. The expansion of slavery in the
newly acquired Mexican territories became the major constitutional and
political issue that led to the Civil War.
The Mexican War was also
a proving ground for many Americans who fought in the Civil War. The names of those who fought for Taylor and
Scott amounted to a roll call to military greatness: William Tecumseh Sherman,
Stonewall Jackson, George Meade, Franklin Pierce, Ulysses S. Grant, and Robert
E. Lee, to name a few. From the U.S.
Navy came David G. Farragut and Franklin Buchanan. And the inclination Americans have for electing military heroes
to the presidency was exercised when Taylor, Grant, and Pierce were elected to
that high office. A fourth, Jefferson
Davis, who also fought in the Mexican War, was chosen president of the
Confederacy.
Effects on
Mexico:
The Mexican heritage was more tragic. Mexicans mourned the loss of so much territory and many developed
a profound distrust of U.S. citizens, as well as a fear of further “Yankee”
imperialism. The chaos of war unleashed
several political revolts and Native American rebellions in Mexico, including
the Caste War of the Yucatán (1846-1853), in which Maya peasants overran and
briefly controlled almost all of the Yucatán Peninsula.
The United States also
continued to intervene in Mexican affairs, both economically and
militarily. United States investors
sought rights-of-way for railroads, and U.S. miners and oilmen fought for
Mexico’s natural resources throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. American filibusters—military adventurers
who were not part of a regular army—and U.S. soldiers and sailors intervened in
Mexico several times over the next 70 years.
During the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), the United States sent 11,000
troops into the state of Chihuahua to pursue forces under the command of Pancho
Villa, a Mexican revolutionary general.
United States forces also occupied Mexico’s two major ports, Tampico and
Veracruz, for several months in 1914.
The Mexican War and continued
U.S. intervention threw a shadow over U.S.-Mexico relations until after World
War II (1939-1945). Although relations
between the two countries have improved, the conflict still burns brightly in
Mexico’s collective memory, as demonstrated by the annual September 13
commemoration of the war and the tragic deaths of Mexico’s Niños Héroes.
Summary: The weak political control was matched by the decline of
Catholic religious authority in the region in the late 1700s and early
1800s. The Jesuits were expelled from
the Spanish colonies in 1767. The
buildings and property owned by the Jesuits were auctioned off by the
Crown. Mexican President Antonio López
de Santa Anna set aside the nation’s democratic 1824 constitution and assumed
dictatorial powers. In 1834 Texans
resisted his authority.
Texas was part of the Mexican
state of Coahuilay, and its residents were governed as citizens of Mexico. Texans won all the major battles in the fall
of 1835, at Gonzales, Goliad, and San Antonio, and declared they were fighting
to restore democratic government in Mexico.
On February 23, 1836, however, Santa Anna’s forces entered San Antonio
and the Anglo-Americans withdrew to The Alamo, a former mission in San
Antonio. William B. Travis, the
commander of Texan forces at San Antonio, sent pleas for reinforcements, but
only 32 men from Gonzales answered the call.
For 13 days the small force defended The Alamo against more than 2000
Mexican troops.
On March 2, 1836, during the siege
of The Alamo, a convention of Anglo-American Texans had met at
Washington-on-the-Brazos and declared independence from Mexico. The delegates chose David G. Burnet as
provisional president, named Sam Houston commander-in-chief of all Texan
forces, and adopted a constitution that protected the institution of
slavery. In a retreat from Goliad,
Colonel James W. Fannin and approximately 280 men surrendered at nearby Coleto
Creek on March 20, 1836, and were marched back to Goliad.
A week later, as an example to
Anglo Texans, most of the prisoners were executed by order of Santa Anna in
what came to be known as the Goliad Massacre.
Houston, who had been negotiating with the Cherokee to prevent them from
aiding Mexico, returned to take command of the revolutionary Goliad. The Alamo! “Remember Goliad,” the Texans
attacked on the afternoon of April 21, 1836.
Completely surprising the Mexican Army, they killed, wounded, or
captured most of Santa Anna’s troops in the brief battle. The Texans suffered 9 dead and 30 wounded,
one of who was Houston, shot in the ankle.
Santa Anna was captured the next
day, an event that essentially marked the end of the revolution. On May 14 he signed the Treaty of Velasco in
which he agreed to order Mexican troops still in Texas to retreat south of the
Río Grande and to persuade the Mexican government to accept the independence of
Texas.
Sam Houston was elected president
of Texas for the second time in 1841.
President Polk signed the declaration of war; the first major engagement
of the Mexican War began. U.S. settlers in northern California had revolted against
Mexican rule in June of 1846, before news of the declaration of war had even
reached them. On August 19, 1846
Mexicans evacuated the town before the U.S. troops arrived on August 19; Kearny
was able to take Santa Fe without firing a shot. On September 14, 1847, General Scott entered the center of the
capital and the United States prepared to negotiate peace.
On September 25, 1847, the
fighting was over, and General Ampudia asked for a truce. Taylor agreed to permit the Mexican Army to
withdraw from the city and an eight-week truce began. By 1846 the church’s presence on the Mexican frontier had
diminished, with empty parishes in places where friars once proudly
served. The war resulted in a decisive
U.S. victory and forced Mexico to relinquish all claims to approximately half
its national territory. In January U.S.
forces attacked and recaptured Los Angeles, forcing the surrender of hundreds
of Mexicans and effectively ending Mexican resistance in California.
On February 2, 1848, a treaty was
signed at the village of Guadalupe Hidalgo, a few miles outside of Mexico
City. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
ended the war, set the southern boundary of Texas, and ceded the Mexican
territories of New Mexico and California to the United States. The United States paid Mexico an indemnity
of $15 million and assumed over $3 million in claims that U.S. citizens had
against the Mexican government.
Although Mexico lost half of its territory, it did manage to save Baja
California and have it linked by land to Sonora to the east.
Texas Revolution, Contributed by
Adrian Anderson, Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Mexico War, Contributed By:
William Dirk Raat, Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Latin America Independence,
Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved.
Mexico under the Spanish Empire,
Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved.
19th Century Frontier Family,
Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved.
Mexican War Map, Microsoft ®
Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
United States History, Contributed
By: James Clyde Sellman, Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003
Microsoft Corporation. All rights
reserved.
President James Polk Profile,
Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved.
War and Conflicts, Microsoft ®
Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
World Events, 1845-1849, Microsoft
® Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Westward Movement, Contributed by
Elliot West, Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003
Microsoft Corporation. All rights
reserved.
US War Center, web site: http://www.cwc.lsu.edu
Historical Text Archive, web site:
http://historicaltextarchive.com/
Nineteenth Century Project, web
site: http://www.furman.edu/~benson/docs/
The Overland Trail, web site: http://www.over-land.com/links.html
US Canel Corps, web site: http://www.outwestnewspaper.com/camels.html
The Key to the Constitution of the
United States of America, "We the
People", Patriotic Education Incorporated, Baltimore, Maryland.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference
Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.