[PenultimateManStanding]

Today seemed like a good day to refresh my memory on the war that resulted in the conquest and annexation of northern Mexico in 1848 by the US. Seems it went down like this: Mexico had invited American settlers into their underpopulated province of Texas. They had to give a loyalty oath to Mexico and become Catholic. Eventually these settlers rebelled and won independence from Mexico in 1836. When the independent state of Texas join the USA, there was resentment from Mexico and many border disputes and hostilities ensued. Meanwhile, America offered Mexico cash for California twice in 1835 and 1845 but was refused both times (the offers were $5 and $25 million). So it seems that there are two main components to what caused that war: the border conflicts over Texas and the Manifest Destiny ideology which proclaimed that God intended great things for America and it was an obvious goal of American statecraft to cross the continent to the Pacific and build the modern country we have now. The Americans lost 13,780 soldiers and the Mexicans fought quite bravely. Somehow I'd gotten the impression that it was a cake walk. It wasn't. The US paid Mexico $15 million even though they had defeated them. Very different times if you think about how WWI ended with vengeful demands of "reparations" from the defeated parties. It's a tricky thing to get into the mindset of earlier times. If any of you know more about this, I'd like to hear it.

[PenultimateManStanding]

13,780 may not seem like such a big number, but if you consider the US population then of about 17 million, it comes out to an equivalent of about 228,000 casualties on a per capita basis of today's population. It was a very bloody war.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Of course, an enormous fortune of gold came out of California, worth billions eventually, right after the conquest. I remember reading that California gold helped finance the war of the North against the South in the the 1860's. The hapless Mexicans just weren't populous enough in numbers back then. Perhaps that had something to do with the awful genocide of central American Indians who had been apparently more successful and numerous than their northern cousins before the Spanish arrival. Another facet of human history. Though I am fearful of the future that will come from going down the godforsaken path of fossil fuel exploitation and what it may bring when those fuels deplete, I can't help being fascinated and wistful about the past. Beam me up Scotty.

[Novus]

Ever since the end of the war and a further re-adjustment of the boarders in 1853 Mexicans have dreamed of Reconqista. The restablishment of Mexican sovrignity over the lands lost in war could very well become a reality in the not too distant future. Already the 1853 boarder is really just a line on the map with many towns north of the line being 100% mexican in population. The exact same tactic used to by Americans to take Texas is being used against us to take it back.

It kind of reminds be of the history of Rome. The Romans used their armies to establish a massive empire and then over time the Barbarians resetteled the land to the point where the boarders of the late empire were just lines on a map. Lands that were thought to be part of the empire were really 100% barbarian populated and controlled.