Hi, folks. Recently, I'd finished re-reading both Patrick Martin's classic 50 State America trilogy(TL-76 to the AH fan community), as well as the original fan spinoff, For Want of a Mission. (which went up until Jan. of 2001-25 years past the original, save a few excerpts at the end)
As much as I liked both of them, I can't help but wonder one thing at the moment; why, exactly, did he have Mexico go thru so much internal trouble during the 1820s and 1830s, and again from the late 1870s until the 1920s? IOTL, Mexico's republican system of government had it's troubles, but it never failed to the extent that it did under Santa Anna and certain other leaders did in that timeline. Granted, it was somewhat plausible on the whole, but I felt that Mexico could've done a lot better in regards to domestic policy, even if they still lost some of their northern territory; the bit about Porfirio Diaz, I felt, was particularly tragic, especially after coming after a man like Benito Juarez.