Mexican American War

1846 to 1848

United States — versus — Mexico

Introduction : 

The Battle of Resaca de la Palma

The conflict most strongly associated in many people's minds with the Mexican American War, is the Battle of the Alamo, where 200 Texan frontier heroes fought and died to the man defending a fortified mission from the invading armies of Mexico. The only problem is, the Battle of the Alamo occurred in 1836, ten years before the actual Mexican-American War started. At the time, Texas was a province of Mexico, and the American government was not officially involved in any way. Nevertheless, the Texas Revolution, is key to understanding the events which followed it, and the Battle of the Alamo is rightly recounted as part of the story of the Mexican American War. The upshot of this famous battle, and the events which followed it, was that the Mexican province of Texas broke its ties to Mexico, and eventually joined the United States of America.

Likewise, the primary consequence of the Mexican American War was that the Mexican provinces of 'Alta California' and 'Nuevo Mexico' broke their ties with Mexico and became territories of the United States. And the process followed a similar pattern—declare war on Mexico, defeat them handily, and confiscate territory. The aims of the Mexican American War, were therefore, largely imperialistic on the part of the United States. On the other hand, Mexico's claim to the territory was relatively weak. Although the region had been part of the Spanish Empire in the New World for over 300 years, it had never been developed or settled. The first Missions were only established in California fifty years before the outbreak of the war the population of Spanish speakers in the region was very low. Mexico did not want to lose the territory, but neither had it done much to establish its dominion over the region.

Texas Rising : 1836

The last assault and fall of the Alamo

In 1821 Mexico declared itself to be independent from Spain and in 1824 established a constitution, patterned on the United States of America, providing for a federal government and relatively independent states governments. The northeastern-most province of Mexico was Coahuila y Tejas (Texas), and it was sparsely populated. In order to encourage colonization, Texas allowed English speaking families to settle as long as they agreed to abolish slavery and convert to Roman Catholicism. These restrictions were, however, largely ignored, and thousands of colonists flooded to the region from the American southeast. The central government in Mexico, during this period, was frequently in turmoil due mostly to irreconcilable differences between Liberal vs. Conservative political parties. In 1835, Santa Anna came to power, and abolished the Constitution of 1824, replacing it with a far more centralized government. The state of Texas, along with several other states, rebelled against the new government, and it was this rebellion that set Texas on the road to War with Mexico.

Once they declared their independence from Mexico, the Texans took the initiative, and in a series of minor skirmishes, took over Mexican stores and supplies, and drove away Mexican soldiers assigned to retrieve arms from state militias. The last Mexican garrison in Texas was stationed at San Antonio de Bexar, under Martin Cos, the brother-in-law of Santa Anna. The Texans besieged the city, and after a disorderly assault, Cos surrendered and agreed to withdraw from the territory.

Santa Anna had been too busing putting down other rebellions to send relief to Cos in Texas. When he got wind of the situation, however, he was infuriated and marched to Texas. The personal insult that he felt at his brother-in-law's defeat likely fueled the vengeance with which his army carried out the ensuing campaign. Santa Anna's army of over 2000 men drastically outnumber any contingent of Texans it encountered on its march. It defeated several troops of Texans, on its route to San Antonio, and took dozens of Texans as prisoners. At Goliad, however, Santa Anna suddenly gave orders to execute all prisoners of war, resulting in the massacre of 342 Texans, who has surrendered in good faith to the Mexicans. This outrage, along with the subsequent massacre of the defenders of the Alamo, did much to steel the Texans' resolve. Until word of these outrages reached the Texans, they were a disorderly and independent lot. From that point on, however, they were an indefatigable fighting force, with a score to settle. "Remember the Alamo!", and "Remember Goliad!", were battle cries that drove the Texans to victory against the Mexicans at San Jacinto, but also propelled the American forces against Mexico ten year hence.

The great American victory over Mexico was at San Jacinto, when a force of Texans led by Sam Houston, made a surprise attack on the camp of Santa Anna. The Mexican forces were not prepared to fight and in less than 20 minutes, 600 of their number were killed and over 700 taken prisoner, including Santa Anna himself. This essentially destroyed the Mexican army in the region and gained Texas its independence. In a stunning act of clemency, Houston agreed to release Santa Anna, the murderer of over 500 Texans. His stated reason for doing so, was that Santa Anna had signed a treaty recognizing the independence of Texas. As long as he was the duly elected President of Mexico, this treaty would be binding. Also taking into account Santa Anna's notorious dramatics, he considered that "he may or may not honor it [the treaty], but if we allow him to return to politics . . . he will keep Mexico in turmoil for years."

Mexican American War : 1846 to 1848

Major Ringgold struck by a cannon ball.

In 1845 Texas was admitted to the union as a slave-state and immediately thereafter, Mexico declared War on the United States of America. It was a symbolic gesture, however, since the Mexican government was in complete disarray, and in no position to actually commence hostilities. Many Americans did not fail to see the possibilities of gaining more territory, if hostilities should commence so there was a large pro-war party that sought any excuse to justify American aggression. Meanwhile, President Polk sought to avert a war by purchasing the territories that the United States sought after, Alta California and Santa fe Nuevo Mexico, but his offer was indignantly refused. At the same time, American settlers flocked to California, intending to declare their settlement "independent", and thereby provoke the Mexicans into action.

An excuse to declare war on Mexico eventually presented itself, when the U.S. sent a patrol to the disputed region near the Texas-Mexico border. When this activity succeeded in provoking an incident with the Mexican forces in the region, American war-hawks lost no time in declaring war, and sending a ready battalion to the area. The first battles of the war were at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, in the disputed territory. The Americans were victorious, and General Zachary Taylor led the Americans into Northeast Mexico. In the following months Taylor's troops fought a number of skirmishes, as well as major battles at Monterrey and Buena Vista. Although he prevailed in every event, the Mexican government was not willing to negotiate a peace on the terms offered by the United States.

In order to bring the war to a close, Polk sent a fleet directly to Veracruz, a costal town adjacent to Mexico City. The object of this expedition, led by Winfried Scott, was to force the Mexican government to negotiate. A force of over 12,000 Americans besieged Veracruz, the most heavily fortified city in Mexico and in six days gained a landing. It was not until they actually approached and entered Mexico City, after fighting several famous battles en route that they were able to force the Mexican government to concede to the terms dictated by the United States, namely the succession of the Southwest quarter of the United States, for the price of approximately $20,000,000. The territory ceded was composed of the modern states of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

Some Americans were puzzled at Mexico's refusal to negotiate any terms for a territory that they could not possibly defend. The United States had originally offered to pay over $25,000,000 for the parcel, which amounted to more than $300 per Mexican citizen, but instead of accepting this "generous" offer, the Mexicans subjected themselves to a series of humiliating defeats, and incurred a great loss of life and property damage. The reason for this was part honor, but largely political. Various parties were vying for power—the government changed hands several times during the war. The idea of surrender was so unpopular that any politician who even discussed it would be thrown immediately out of office—a bruising defeat was more politically viable, than an unpopular surrender.

	Image Links
The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas, from a water color by Robert E. Lee  in	As he faced his battalion there was no straighter back or better figure  in	As he stood there behind the guns he knew that his work had been well done  in
Captain May's Charge at Resaca de la Palma in	Taylor at Buena Vista  in Story of the Great Republic	Americans land at Vera Cruz  in History of the War with Mexico
Fillibusters in Texas  in History of the War with Mexico	Å in History of the War with Mexico	The City of Vera Cruz  in History of the War with Mexico
The fight for the Alamo in	The last assault and fall of the Alamo  in Story of Mexico	The Battle of Resaca de la Palma  in Story of Mexico
General Zachary Taylor's Great Victory at Resaca de la Palma  in True Stories of Our Presidents	Battle of Montery  in Young Folk's History of Mexico	Plan of the Alamo in Boys' Book of Border Battles
Major Ringgold struck by a cannon ball  in Boys' Book of Border Battles	The second dragoons at Resaca de la Palma in Boys' Book of Border Battles	What is the meaning of this racket?'  in Into Mexico with General Scott
The March to the City of Mexico  in Into Mexico with General Scott	Winfield Scott, General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States  in Into Mexico with General Scott	And all your army and guns can't keep them off.'  in Into Mexico with General Scott
...it appeared they were going to ambush me and take this turkey.'  in Into Mexico with General Scott	Campaign in the Valley of Mexico.  in Into Mexico with General Scott	Lieutenant Grant used this as a ladder  in Into Mexico with General Scott