American advantages in war with Mexico-
- US was larger, wealthier, and had a larger population to draw from for soldiers
- Mexicans lacked industry to supply arms and ammunition that the US had in abundance
- US had larger and better navy and more advanced artillery
- US had far more skilled and able officers who had been trained at West Point
- Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and William Sherman (names that will be significant in the Civil War)
- Mexicans divided because Santa Anna had resumed dictatorship
Events of the Mexican-American War:
US won a very one-sided war. The US won every major battle
New Mexico was quickly conquered by the summer of 1846.
The US Navy helped American settlers led by John C. Fremont capture California
- Until California could officially join the US, the conquering settlers organized the Bear Flag Republic
US forces struck deep into Mexico taking virtually everything and after bitter fighting took Mexico City by September 1847.
