Challenge: Have a realistic POD that allows the US to annex everything north of Veracruz

I assume you mean just within Mexico. Otherwise... conquering everything above that latitude will be difficult. Let the badboy wars begin!

Europa Universalis jokes aside, I'll presume the former. In that case, you need a US wanting to annex all of Mexico, as large portions of Mexico's population are above that line. And that's... difficult with the US from OTL; you'd need an alternate one nearly from the start.

The farthest south the US could annex and integrate would likely be Zacatecas, and that's pushing it. The US only annexed territory it planned to integrate into itself at this time. It didn't conquer and establish colonies in the traditional sense until 1898.
 
Would a successful Crittenden Compromise or something like that have provided incentive for the South to conquer northern Mexico in order to add them as slave states?
 
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