Mexico after independence
Mexico obtained independence from the Spanish Empire with the Treaty of Córdoba in 1821 after a decade of conflict between the royal army and insurgents for independence, with no

Challenges in Mexico
Mexican Army
The Mexican Army emerged from the war of independence as a weak and divided force. Only 7 of the 19 states that formed the Mexican federation sent soldiers, armament, and money for

Texas Campaign
Thornton Affair
President Polk ordered General Taylor and his forces south to the Rio Grande. Taylor ignored Mexican demands

New Mexico campaign
After the declaration of war on May 13, 1846, United States Army General Stephen W. Kearny moved southwest from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in June 1846 with about 1,700 men in his Army of the West. Kearny's orders were to

Nueces Strip
By the Treaties of Velasco made after Texans captured General Santa Ana after the Battle of San Jacinto, the southern border of Texas was

Opposition to the war
In the United States, increasingly divided by sectional rivalry, the war was a partisan issue and an essential element in the origins of the American Civil War. Most Whigs in the North and South opposed it; most Democrats

Landings and siege of Veracruz
Rather than reinforce Taylor's army for a continued advance, President Polk sent a second army under General Winfield Scott. Polk had decided that the