Roots of the conflict in North Mexico

The 1832 boundaries of Comancheria, the Comanche homeland

The northern area of Mexico was sparsely settled and not well controlled politically by the
government based in Mexico City. After independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico contended with
internal struggles that sometimes verged on civil war and the northern frontier was not a high priority.
In the sparsely settled interior of northern Mexico, the end of Spanish rule was marked by the end of
financing for presidios and for subsidies to indigenous Americans to maintain the peace. There were
conflicts between indigenous people in the northern region as well. The Comanche were particularly
successful in expanding their territory in the Comanche–Mexico Wars and garnering resources.
The Apache–Mexico Wars also made Mexico's north a violent place, with no effective political
control.

Comanches of West Texasin war regalia, c. 1830

The Apache raids left thousands of people dead throughout northern Mexico. When the United
States Army entered northern Mexico in 1846 they found demoralized Mexican settlers. There was
little resistance to US forces from the civilian population.[10]
Hostile activity from indigenous people also made communications and trade between the interior of
Mexico and provinces such as Alta California and New Mexico difficult. As a result, New Mexico was
dependent on the overland Santa Fe Trail trade with the United States at the outbreak of the
Mexican–American War.[11]
Mexico's military and diplomatic capabilities declined after it attained independence and left the
northern half of the country vulnerable to the Comanche, Apache, and Navajo. The indigenous
people, especially the Comanche, took advantage of the weakness of the Mexican state to
undertake large-scale raids hundreds of miles into the country to acquire livestock for their own use
and to supply an expanding market in Texas and the US.[12]
The Mexican government's policy of settlement of US citizens in its province of Tejas was aimed at
expanding control into Comanche lands, the Comancheria. Instead of settlement occurring in the
central and west of the province, people settled in East Texas, where there was rich farmland and
which was contiguous to southern US slave states. As settlers poured in from the US, the Mexican
government discouraged further settlement, with its 1829 abolition of slavery.
In 1836, Mexico was relatively united in refusing to recognize the independence of Texas. Mexico
threatened war with the United States if it annexed the Republic of Texas.[13] Meanwhile, U.S.
President Polk's assertion of Manifest Destiny was focusing United States interest on westward
expansion beyond its existing national borders.

Designs on California

Mexico in 1824: Alta California was the northwesternmost federal territory

During the Spanish colonial era, the Californias (i.e., the Baja California peninsula and Alta
California) were sparsely settled. After Mexico became independent, it shut down the missions and
reduced its military presence. In 1842, the US minister in Mexico, Waddy Thompson Jr., suggested
Mexico might be willing to cede Alta California to settle debts, saying: "As to Texas, I regard it as of
very little value compared with California, the richest, the most beautiful, and the healthiest country
in the world ... with the acquisition of Upper California we should have the same ascendency on the
Pacific ... France and England both have had their eyes upon it."
US President John Tyler's administration suggested a tripartite pact that would settle the Oregon
boundary dispute and provide for the cession of the port of San Francisco from Mexico. Lord
Aberdeen declined to participate but said Britain had no objection to U.S. territorial acquisition
there.[14] The British minister in Mexico, Richard Pakenham, wrote in 1841 to Lord Palmerston urging
"to establish an English population in the magnificent Territory of Upper California", saying that "no
part of the World offering greater natural advantages for the establishment of an English colony ... by
all means desirable ... that California, once ceasing to belong to Mexico, should not fall into the
hands of any power but England ... daring and adventurous speculators in the United States have
already turned their thoughts in this direction." But by the time the letter reached London, Sir Robert
Peel's Tory government, with its Little England policy, had come to power and rejected the proposal
as expensive and a potential source of conflict.[15][16]
A significant number of influential Californios were in favor of annexation, either by the United
States or by the United Kingdom. Pío de Jesús Pico IV, the last governor of Alta California, was in
favor of British annexation.[17]