Modern Mexico was forged from a collision of worlds: great indigenous civilisations, a brutal Spanish conquest, three centuries of colonial rule, and hard-won independence — followed by the loss of half its territory to its northern neighbour. This course follows Mexico's journey from the fall of the Aztecs to the modern nation. (It continues from our course on the Maya, Aztec and Inca, picking up the story of Mexico as a country.)You'll begin with a sweeping overview of Mexican history, then witness the Spanish conquest — Hernán Cortés and the fall of the Aztec empire — that founded colonial New Spain. You'll follow Mexico's fight for independence from Spain, and finish with the Mexican-American War, the conflict that cost Mexico roughly half its land. Honest note: the conquest and colonisation brought catastrophic death and disease to indigenous peoples, and Mexico's history is long and contested — this is an introductory sketch that can only touch the highlights, including the later Revolution.
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migrants paleo indians arriving over the bering land bridge from siberia to build a civilization you need four things people a stable climate access to water and a staple food crop these secret ingredients were bountiful in the south lush rivers domesticated maize plants only the occasional drought and soon enough the olmecs with access to some of america's most virulent crops three important cities emerged on three river systems civilization was born along with it came culture and trade it's a lot easier to pass down knowledge if you all live in one place the olmecs are considered the mother civilization of all central america for good reason spreading their way further outward while trading with every other pre-columbian civilization that would follow mysteriously almex eventually faded from their prominence perhaps due to their rivers silting up but the hard work was already done and knowledge had spread all the way down those trade routes [Music] it is not surprising to see the various civilizations that sprang up on those old trade routes the maya who had existed for centuries in the guatemalan highlands had descended into yucatan for trade and had learned a thing or two about this whole new civilization thing but what made them particularly successful was their abundant access to limestone which is not only great for building cities that can endure all manner of erosion and earthquakes but also great for filtering clean drinking water in underground caves the first major power in the region kaminali juyu rose up to prominence for its control of the obsidian trade from there the maya would spread further into the patton basin and then into yucatan building from limestone as they went and then all of a sudden nothing abandoned cities defunct trade networks and derelict monuments the mysterious pre-classical mayan collapse archaeologists have been scratching their heads about what led to this downfall was it war was it famine we just don't know there is nothing written about it nothing we have records of anyway and even less in the way of archaeological findings which only gets more confusing with what comes after the classical mayan period is probably the one you're most familiar with most of their scientific achievements comes from this area including the long count calendar which caused a bit of a stir back in 2012 for its supposed prediction of the end of the world but there is no evidence that the maya ever actually you know thought this this was both the most prosperous period and the one we know most about with cities and monuments recording dates and events using their calendars and science and engineering feats advancing their understanding of the natural world power returned in the form of powerful city-states not much unlike classical greece or modern monaco i guess city-states are a lot rarer these days but anyway as you may expect having a whole bunch of cities in one area competing for resources is kind of a recipe for disaster in the long run and these mayan ones were no exception a great example of this was the war between its two most powerful cities tikal and kalakmal a conflict which has its origins in the invasion and subsequent installation of a new dynasty in tikal by the great city of teotihuacan wait wait wait who the heck are these guys uh welcome to yet another one of mesoamerica's great mysteries teotihuacan was an absolutely massive city all the way over here in the valley of mexico its people as well as who built it is unfortunately lost to time but at its peak for about five centuries it ruled the trade between the vibrant civilizations of the south and the nomads of the north and with such power and grandiosity they were often meddling in the affairs of cities all over central america their hostile takeover of the throne of tikal would so destabilize the geopolitics of the region that the aforementioned war would dominate the later part of the classic maya life for three centuries and then almost out of nowhere again nothing cities abandoned and trade ceasing similar to the situation that happened before the classical mind collapse is one of the greatest mysteries of the historical and archaeological world political and mercantile power simply vanished without any obvious historical culprit theories range as to what caused this the constant warring probably didn't help but equally perplexing is that even teotihuacan itself had collapsed earlier with evidence of riots and looting against the ruling class did whatever caused the great city's inhabitants to rise up against their rulers also eventually lead to the classical mind collapse who knows what we do know is that the post-classic period would never rise up to the maya's former glory and would remain as a warlike in-fighting civilization until its own collapse at the hands of the spanish but now let's return to central mexico for a moment what became of the ruins of teotihuacan well as you'd imagine these guys left one pretty big power vacuum and with such a prosperous area it wasn't long before one of their more militarized subjects the toltecs fill the void but more of a conquering type than a ruling type it is really their descendant civilizations that become important the aztecs the aztecs actually came comparatively late to the pre-columbian game considering how powerful they were but how they actually started was an alliance of three former tall tech cities the most important of which was to notch title and it is here we finally get a great founding myth with a unique mexican flavour the story goes that the meshikas people built their city on an island after they had a prophecy of an eagle with a snake landing on a cactus there not deterred with the prospect of drowning the maestro cast built an explosively massive city not only easy to defend but also to supply with food and water from the lake that surrounded it the so-called triple alliance between tenochtitlan and its neighbours would form what we now know as the aztec empire which is quickly able to conquer much of the former toltec lands and yes they are also known for their extensive practice of human sacrifice because the idea was that the gods blessed them when given human blood kinda hard to argue that when you're the most powerful empire in the continent at the time and one way they captured slaves for human sacrifice was through ritual warfare the so-called flower wars the aztecs have earned their place firmly within the mexican national consciousness thanks in large part to them being the last great formidable empire in north america when the spanish arrived now i've used the term pre-columbian a lot during this video and that's not because the famous sailor christopher columbus ever actually went to mexico but rather refers to an event called the colombian exchange the eastern hemisphere's discovery of this new world which would eventually become known as america was massively important to history hard to overstate really the period was the largest cultural religious and economic exchange the world has ever known fundamentally and irrevocably changing the trajectory of both the old world and the new concurrent to this exchange was conquest if you're going to pick a european nation to discover and then begin the conquest of central america with the least amount of chaos you probably wouldn't want to have picked 16th century spain they were after all at the end of the reconquista a centuries-long process of expelling muslims jews practitioners of paganism and witchcraft from iberia backed by the catholic church at the same time they were increasingly hungry to gain wealth previously controlled by the muslims and they had just discovered a previously unknown landmass to the west so it seemed like the perfect place to start driven by tales of golden cities and swathes of people to convert to christianity early colonizers of central america were conquerors so-called conquistadors such as the famous hernan cortes cleverly allying himself with various cities that the aztecs had conquered cortes destroyed tinuchitlan and upon its ruins would build a new city mexico meaning place of the mexicas the viceroyality of new spain would be the new power in the region merchants conquistadors explorers and pirates soon arrived in the thousands to this new colony many enslaving the natives in a system called the encomienda along with them came missionaries and religious zealots with the goal of converting the heathens from what they perceive to be their barbaric pagan religion burning their historical and scientific writings fearing them as being works of the devil the spanish conquests were particularly devastating period for mexico the maya for example were weak and disunited and should have been easy pickings but they took decades to conquer fighting in dense jungle in guerilla warfare ambushing the spanish and laying complicated booby traps forever fueling the idea that the new world was a barbaric and uncivilized place the real war however was not against the spanish but against diseases measles influenza typhoid yellow fever and especially smallpox amerindian peoples of the new world had no exposure to these diseases before the colombian exchange combining these epidemics with asymmetric warfare against the more advanced weaponry and technology of the europeans modern estimates vary on the death rate of these conquests some ranging as high as 90 percent to the north with the chichi mecca a confederation of nomadic indians who were so powerful that the spanish fought the longest and most expensive war of their entire colonial venture trying to subjugate them being defeated time and time again before eventually resorting to diplomacy but why were the spanish willing to compromise silver many of the most prominent conquistadors were motivated by wealth when the aztec goal turned out to be not quite as bountiful as expected explorers went in search of minerals elsewhere and they found the jackpot in zakatas silva flooded the market from this mine making colonizers and the spanish rich beyond measure new spain's silver production was rivaled only by peru and so bountiful that the inflation rate would not only flood the international market but also bring about the temporary economic collapse of both new spain and even china how's that for a weird achievement besides silver and cash crops the spanish maine as it was known also dealt in other less savory trade slaves although relatively few african slaves ended up in mexico itself the wealth created by those silver mines has a lot to do with the demand increase for these west african captives and so the transatlantic slave trade was born like elsewhere in latin america new spain enforced a strict caste system which defined a social hierarchy on racial grounds with spaniards at the top followed by spaniards born in new spain then mixed race and finally the lowest of them all native american indians let's not mince words here this was a way of controlling people making it harder for the disenfranchised to succeed in society and also keeping their elites loyal and happy it is in this strange new geopolitical landscape that the defining characteristics formed of what it meant to be mexican or what it eventually meant anyway and perhaps nothing was more important than the identity of being catholic catholicism was already immensely important to the spaniards but to make it a truly mexican religion it would need to appeal to everyone else and so it would be by the miraculous apparition of our lady of guadalupe perhaps no greater symbol of mexico's devout the image which appeared to an aztec named juan diego was interpreted as a christian incarnation of the goddess tanatsin and to the spaniards as a native incarnation of the virgin mary as a mestizo she was half spaniard half native and so the lady would forever symbolize the unity of these two races and the faith would spread throughout the land blending christian beliefs with american ones forming a truly unique flavor of christianity even blending long practice traditions of venerating the dead with hallowtide to form what would become known as dia de muertos the day of the dead in fact cultural blending in essence is what makes mexico what it is today everything from food music the aforementioned religion alcohol and even its people is a blend of spanish and amerindian influences today mexico is the largest mixed-race nation in the world with more than 80 of its citizens belonging to the mestizo classification although life was already hard in new spain due to the economic collapse it was the new spanish monarchy the bourbons reforming the colony that really made life more difficult the bourbon reforms aimed to boost the production and exports in the new world and to make the colony more economically dependent on spain itself and in a time when mestizo is in creoles with a vast majority of the population it's not hard to see that the elite peninsularos were the only ones who really benefited from this the growing discontent was also taking place during the enlightenment when all sorts of power dynamics were being scrutinized so it makes sense that revolution was soon on the doorstep all it needed was a catalyst which would come confusingly in the form of the french when napoleon invaded spain he basically threw centuries of political establishment out the window putting his brother on the throne and making all manner of a mess in spain's colonies who really didn't know how to react when instability arrives in long-established power dynamics that is usually when revolutions happen and with new spain it is no different peninsularis just wanted the old bourbon king back the creolos just wanted to get rid of the peninsularis and the mestizos just wanted to get rid of both the peninsulars and the creoles because they couldn't really tell the difference anyway soon the whole nation was up in arms with competing aims that changed over time but toward the end of the uprising it was all gun ho for independence getting all the factions to agree what they were fighting for was the real challenge however and would only be duct-taped together in a compromise called the three guarantees mexico would be founded on the principles of unity independence from spain and catholicism the war lasted 11 years fought not only with napoleonic spain but also the restored bourbons the new nation would be named after their aztec ancestors upon which they had built their capital city but the aztecs never called themselves aztecs but rather mashikas and their land was mexico but history tends to call this era the first mexican empire because one it had an emperor and two it ruled much of what we call central america as well and putting it diplomatically the empire came to an end after just two years mostly because factions who supported one of the three guarantees always just kind of felt that they didn't much care for the other two beyond you know winning a war and so the whole thing kind of just fell apart because nation building is hard so hard in fact that the next century is what you would call a very messy time if mystery is a great word for pre-columbian mexico then instability would be the word for post-independence split into two factions the liberals and the conservatives constantly overthrowing one another central america politely opted out in 1823. texas impolitely opted out in 1835 when the second mexican republic came to power they wanted texas back which was a bit hard for them to do when the united states annexed it in 1845. mexico would fight a devastating war with the us losing not only texas but nearly half of their territory in the process which as you can imagine didn't really help with stability so if you've ever wondered why this half of america has so many spanish names now you know better sharing the blame for mexico's instability though would be an early charismatic leader named lopez de santa anna serving as president a whopping 12 times as an autocrat deeply unpopular for losing the war and ceding so much land to america he was exiled in 1855 the same year a radical new set of changes called the liberal reform came into place which as you might guess with a name like that ruffled more than a few conservative feathers which began the reform war only with the help of the united states with the liberals under benito juarez able to push the conservatives back i really wish i had more time to talk about this era but the main thing to take away here is that the conservative elites continue to be a problem in mexico quietly waiting for an opportunity to strike and come back to power and that opportunity rather confusingly again was french turns out that wars are pretty expensive and mexico was beginning to rack up something of a significant debt especially with france france also saw a really good opportunity to work with the conservative monarchists to bring back the mexican empire so as to counteract the influence of the growing united states fair enough really and so began the second french intervention in mexico because believe it or not they'd actually briefly done this before back in 1938 during the pastry war good name by the way there's nothing quite like a foreign enemy to rally the country together after briefly declaring the second mexican empire the french were soon driven out one of the most famous legacies of the war was the battle of puebla where on the 5th of may or cinco de mayo the numerically inferior and outgunned mexican army defeated the french providing a huge morale boost to the nation especially for the liberals who had defended the country rather than the conservatives who had supported the french but before anyone really had time to bask in this great victory a general name porfirio diaz led a coup against the president in 1876 mainly because he was against the practice of president serving more than one term just by the way he served seven terms himself porfirio was something of a dictator and established order with an iron fist running unopposed in a bid to provide some stability for mexico to encourage foreign investment and for all intents and purposes the country did modernize and the economy did start doing really well if by that you mean that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer but so what else is new unfortunately porfirio hadn't really made a plan for a world without porfirio and after failing to step down as promised in 1910 and jailing his opponent the country had had enough soon it was revolution diaz was voted out in favour of one francisco madero but to a nation in absolute chaos madeira managed to be unpopular with both the left who thought he was too conservative and the right who thought he was too liberal leading to his own ousting and assassination during the ten tragic days victorio huerta who had led the coup had taken it too far the country wanted madeira out of office but murder they could not stand by huerta was himself ousted by the revolutionaries during the first world war and now with no president and large bands of armed revolutionaries roaming the countryside it's not hard to guess what came next the mexican civil war with 1.5 million lives lost 1 in 10 of the total population the devastating war concluded with the constitutionalist faction of venustanio carranza being victorious but stability was not a luxury mexico would enjoy for long president after president was assassinated in the 1920s before plutarco cayes came to power enraged by what he believed to be the true root of mexico's problems catholics another war would erupt with mexico's devout cristeros the armies of christ seeking religious freedom the political party established by these revolutionary presidents by the way would remain in power in mexico until the year 2000 to give you something of an insight into the rampant instability that characterized mexico's 20th century mexico today still has its problems although they have come very far the situation in latin american countries provides an interesting insight into understanding the post-colonial world we tend to think of the decolonization timeline as america got it first africa and asia got it last and all other countries got it somewhere in between where in that timeline it happened really did matter informing the nations we see today lots of major world events happened in this timeline each with its own influence on the world mexico was still struggling with the deeply entrenched political status quo of their spanish rulers during their independence movement providing a petri dish for class warfare class warfare is only exacerbated in times of intellectual proliferation such as during the enlightenment which if well armed will almost always escalate to war wars fought not only on the battlefield but also in people's minds conservatives and liberals disagreed on the fundamental way to see the world who they were who they are now and who they want to be and history or the romantic idea of history has arguments to support either side at either time conservatives had after all benefited from the land policies of the spanish and the liberals had benefited by the intervention of foreign powers extra points for fighting the french foreign intervention where have we heard that story before if mexico's history teaches us anything above all else it's that change is sometimes painfully slow and what changes do happen don't necessarily benefit everyone and sometimes if you want that change bad enough you would overthrow the neighboring city revolt against the foreign overlords or take out political opponents whether you stand to benefit or not the most challenging question i've had to ask myself when writing this video was in the western world when did we stop thinking of stability as a luxury because my intuition says mexico probably never did the conquistadors have been subjected to centuries of propaganda called the black legend and it is important to understand that the propagators were mostly spain's rivals the british but dismissing these conquistadors actions a simple exaggeration or myth is equally problematic i've shared a series called the butterfly effect on this channel quite a few times because it really is just a stunning series with gorgeous animations and production quality the episode on hernan cortez is a great way to understanding the beginning of the colonial era in mexico hernan cortes is a very controversial figure not only in mexican history but arguably the world and it is important for us to understand the less savoury periods for intellectual honesty you can watch this series or any other on curiosity streams thousands of documentaries and titles when you head to curiositystream.com while curicity stream is a great place for high budget documentaries you'll also get free access to nebula where creators like myself and many other educational creators built a platform that we control nebula is a place for us to make different content take risks and be freed from the youtube algorithm and support of nebula supports all its creators check out some of these amazing nebula originals such as tom scott's amazing new show money with mike boyd wendover productions among others all this incredible video on macau china's golden child by polymatter curiosity stream supports nebula and this channel and by signing up you not only get access to tons of great content but you'll also be supporting myself and other ed youtubers get started today with curiosity stream and nebula by heading to curiositystream.com s u i b h [Music] this video took a long time to make thank you all for your patience i hope you enjoyed it i hope everyone is staying safe i recorded this script probably like two months before you're hearing it so i'm still stuck in quarantine i hope everyone is staying indoors staying safe and staying healthy alright everyone until next time [Music] you
the mexican-american war it is the year of 1830 even though Mexico got its independence some years earlier in 1821 from Spain after a revolution and an armed conflict which lasted over a decade the country was in total chaos looking at the map of that time we can see a larger Mexico than the one we know today a stretched country one of the biggest at that time the newly independent nation was in dire straits after eleven years of war no plans or guidelines were established by the revolutionaries so internal struggles for control of a government ensued Mexico suffered a complete lack of funds to organize a country of around 4.5 million square kilometers at that time Mexico faced the threats of emerging internal rebellions and of invasion by Spanish forces from their base in nearby Cuba this government was characterized by instability and it was ill-prepared for international conflict when war with the Americans broke out only two decades later in 1846 the United States was an expansion and the country was much bigger than it was when it became independent the United States of America expanded deeper into the Native American territories and they purchased the huge Louisiana territory from the French although the country was expanding there was an opportunity for more due to Mexico's internal problems several regions rebelled and tried to break away Texas gained its independence from Mexico in 1836 initially the United States declined to incorporate it into the Union largely because northern political interests were against the addition of a new slave state the Mexican government was also encouraging border raids and warning that any attempt at annexation would lead to war since the Mexicans still considered Texas as part of their land nonetheless annexation procedures were quickly initiated after the 1844 election of Polk who campaigned that Texas should be reacts and that the Oregon Territory should be reoccupied pulk also had his eyes on California New Mexico and the rest of what is today the u.s. Southwest looking to expand Pulte offered to purchase those lands but the offer was rejected and soon after he instigated conflict by moving troops into a disputed zone between the Rio Grande and Nueces River that both countries had previously recognized as parts of the Mexican state of Coahuila the tension grew more and more over the disputed lands Texas was annexed by the United States on December 29th 1845 and became the 28th state however the United States inherited the southern and western border dispute with Mexico which it refused to recognize Texas as independence or the us's offers to purchase the territory thus through this act the tensions between the two countries transformed into a war [Music] on April 25th 1846 Mexican cavalry attacked a group of US soldiers in the disputed zone under the command of general Zachary Taylor killing about a dozen they then laid siege to an American fort along the Rio Grande Taylor called in reinforcements and was able to defeat the Mexicans of the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca De La Palma following those battles pulk told the US Congress that the cup of forbearance had been exhausted even before Mexico passed the boundary of the United States invaded our territory and shed American blood upon American soil on May 13th Congress declared war while no official declaration of war ever came from Mexico in terms of how the war began the situation is debatable we have an ill-prepared Mexico with internal revolts and an emerging power that looks to expand more and more Mexico was weaker but the US did not want to look like a bully even so ulysses s grant who had opposed the war but served as an army lieutenant in taylor's army claims and his personal memoirs that the main goal of the US Army's advance from the Nueces River to the Rio Grande was to provoke the outbreak of war without attacking first to debilitate any political opposition to the war after Mexican Independence there was a man Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana a controversial character who in the first place didn't support Mexican independence from Spain but then fought in support of it he then backed the monarchy of the Mexican Empire then revolted against the Emperor and then supported a republic the country tried to find its path and these shocks led to more trouble and weakness over time Santa Ana served 12 non-consecutive presidential terms over a period of 22 years after the u.s. declared war on Mexico in 1846 an internal coalition including forced out President Mariano Parra Dez sought a return to a federal republic with Santa Ana as the president he wrote a letter to Mexico City stating he did not care to return to the presidency but would like to come out of exile in Cuba to use his military experience to reclaim Texas for Mexico president Valentin Gomez furriers driven to desperation accepted the offer and allowed Santa Ana what was unknown for the current president furius is that Santa Ana has been secretly dealing with US representatives to sell all contested territory to the u.s. at a reasonable price on the condition that he be allowed back in Mexico through the u.s. naval blockades and so Santa Ana returned to Mexico taking his place at the head of the army once in this powerful position he went back on his word declaring himself president and prepared to fight off the US forces invasion the Americans achieved two victories at the Battle of Palo Alto and Resaca De La Palma general Steven Watts Kearny and his troops started to advance in the disputed territory and in New Mexico the American troops encountered no Mexican forces when they arrived on August 15th they enter Santa Fe and claimed the New Mexico Territory for the United States without a single shot being fired Tierney declared himself the military governor of the new territory and August 18th and he established a civilian government a temporary legal system was created now known today as the Kearney code Kearney set out for California on September 25th 1846 in December of 1846 after the successful conquest of New Mexico parts of Kearney's army of the West moved into modern-day Northwest Mexico they were led by Alexander doniphon continuing what ended up being a year-long 5,500 mile campaign but in the territory a rebellion that happened known as the Taos revolt there were multiple separate skirmishes but the US military moved quickly to subdue the revolt meanwhile the commander of the US Navy's Pacific squadron John D Sloat had received orders to seize San Francisco Bay and blockades California port captain John Seif Ramon leading a u.s. topographical expedition to survey the Great Basin entered the Sacramento Valley in December 1845 pheremones party was at upper klamath lake Oregon Territory when it received words that war between Mexico and the US was imminent the party then returned to California on Sloat's orders Fremont brought one hundred and sixty volunteers to Monterey in addition to the California battalion on July 15th Sloat transferred his command of the Pacific squadron - Commodore Robert F Stockton who was more militarily aggressive general Castro and Governor Pio Pico wrote farewells and fled separately to the Mexican state of Sonora Stockton's army entered Los Angeles unopposed on August 13th at that point he sent a report to the Secretary of State that California is entirely free from Mexican Dominion meanwhile US Colonel Stephen W Kearney had performed a march across New Mexico and the Sonoran Desert and crossed the Colorado River in late November 1846 on December 7th 100 Lancers under general Andres Pico brother of the governor fought Kearney's army of about 150 at the Battle of San Pasquale the wounded Kearney pushed on until he had to establish a defensive position on a hill general Pico kept the hill under siege until a 215 man American relief force arrived a 600 man American force under Kearney began a 150 mile march to Los Angeles On January 8th 1846 the Stockton Kearney army defeated the Mexican force in the two-hour battle of Rio San Gabriel the Treaty of Cal when go was signed which marked the end of armed resistance in California the conflict continued elsewhere the Mexican Army's defeats at Palo Alto and Resaca De La Palma caused even more political turmoil in Mexico led by Zachary Taylor 2,300 US troops crossed the Rio Grande and proceeded south the hard-fought battle of Monterrey resulted in serious losses on both sides the Mexican forces were under general pedro de ampudia Anakin's they repulsed Taylor's best infantry American soldiers were not familiar with urban warfare they marched straight down the open streets and were caught by surprise by well-hidden Mexican defenders even though the Mexicans repulsed the Americans general Taylor created an eight-week armistice with the Mexican army allowing them to evacuate in return for the surrender of the city under pressure from Washington Taylor broke the armistice and occupied the city of Saltillo on February 22nd 1847 Santa Ana personally marched north to fight general Taylor with 20,000 men the 4600 Americans had entrenched at a mountain pass called Buena Vista the Mexicans suffered desertions on the way north and arrived with 15,000 men in a tired state knowing that his numbers were still superior he demanded the surrender of the US Army but was refused thus he attacks the next morning Santa Anna flanked the US positions by sending his cavalry and some infiltrate up the steep terrain that made up one side of the pass while a division of infantry attacked frontally along the road leading to Buenavista being superior in numbers the Mexicans had nearly broken the American lines at several points but suffered heavily from the American Horse Artillery even though the initial reports of the battle as well as some propaganda news credited victory to the Mexicans instead of attacking the next day Santa Anna retreated having heard word of a rebellion and upheaval in Mexico City some military historians agree that the US Army probably would have been defeated if the Mexicans had gone through with their final attack an important detail for the United States to have success in the war against Mexico was to secure its naval presence across Mexico's coasts the US Navy cleared the way for US troops and supplies especially to Mexico's main port of Veracruz even before hostilities began in the disputed northern region the US Navy had created a blockade the US President did not send reinforcements to Taylor's army for a continued advance instead he sent a second army under General Winfield Scott he transported to the port of Veracruz by sea to begin an invasion of the Mexican Heartland on March 9th 1847 Scott performs the first major amphibious landing in US history in preparation for the siege of Veracruz the city replied the best it could with its own artillery against the extended barrage but because of the numerical superior force of the Americans the Mexicans surrendered the goal was obviously the capital scott marched westward towards mexico city with almost 9,000 troops on April 2nd 1847 Santa Ana had set up a defensive position around the main road about 50 miles northwest of Veracruz at Cerro Gordo Santa Ana had entrenched with 12,000 troops and artillery that were trained on the road where he expected Scott to appear and catch him by surprise however general Scott had sent 2600 cavalry troops ahead they reached the pass on April 12th and the Mexican artillery fired upon them revealing their positions the Battle of Cerro Gordo started the Americans won the battle and continued to their advance even though the guerrillas harassed the American troops with his remaining forces General Winfield Scott advanced on Mexico City the capital was laid upon by a series of battles around the right flank of the city defenses after the American victories at the Battle of Contreras and Battle of Churubusco peace negotiations started which broke down on September 6 1847 with the subsequent battles of Molino Del Rey and Chapultepec and the storming of the city gates the capital was occupied Scott became military governor of occupied Mexico City his victories in this campaign made him an American national hero desertion was a major problem for the Mexican army depleting forces on the eve of battle most soldiers were peasants who had loyalty to their village and family but not to the generals who had conscripted them often hungry ill under-equipped only partially trained and never well-paid the soldiers were held in contempt by their officers and had little reason to fight the Americans now that the US had gone far beyond the territorial gains it envisioned by invading central Mexico with its dense population the question was raised whether to annex Mexico itself but many oppose this idea due to cultural differences over extension and the huge instability this would cause the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave the u.s. control of Texas Alta California and nuevo Mexico those territories were organized in other states over time in return Mexico received fifteen million dollars an approximation of just 443 million today which was less than half the amounts the US had attempted to offer Meck to go before the areas were sparsely populated and that is probably the reason for such a low cost for the US with Texas and the secession from Mexico the u.s. gained more than 900,000 square miles of land the Gadsden Purchase was another acquisition for the United States and fixed the current border between Mexico and the USA [Music] you