Can it be done? Nothing is off the table. Weaker/incompetent America, stronger/competent Mexico, alliance with a European empire, your choice.
How could Mexico have won the Mexican-American War?
- Thread starter TheEmperorYT
- Start date
Stable Mexico, Rebuilds it's economy, Strong Army and Navy, I think that's what you need at most
Making Mexico strong enough would be very difficult, but probably doable. The problem I see is that making Mexico that stable would probably also butterfly away the Texas revolution, which would butterfly away any recognizable form of the Mexican-American War.
"Fifty-four Forty or Fight" turns into the United States having to fight both the Britian and Mexico at the same time. I am not sure the United States makes this "mistake".
That was only ever a slogan and not something Washington would have instigated a war over, certainly not concurrently with a war in Mexico.
I have a slightly different idea that could help, so if Bolivar hadn't died in 1830 he was going to Europe but I find it very, very hard to believe he wouldn't go to Mexico to help at some point in the same vein Francisco de Paula Santander, possibly the most effective statesman to come out of the Latin American Revolutions offered to go to Mexico during his exile and very nearly did leave to fight as a soldier but instead went to Colombia to accept the presidency, if in an Alternate Universe he doesn't go back for whatever reason, maybe both him and Bolivar manage to mend their relationship and help reform Mexico having learned from the failures of the Gran Colombia.
This is one I've always been very interested in. But I want to see, how Mexico becomes more stable, not just take it as a given that happened to get that way somehow, and therefore they can win. I guess I'm more interested in the process of attaining stability than I am in the war. Not really a military history person.
Yes, this is really the interesting part. A starting point, if you don't want to go with a pre-War of Independence POD, is to have a better Victoria presidency. In OTL he did create a merchant marine and established the military academy. Perhaps he could reject Lucas Alamán's proposal of expelling all the Spaniards, which did happen in OTL and severely affected the country's economy, as well as trying to reduce the influence of the masonic lodges and the army. This could perhaps enable Gómez Pedraza to assume the presidency without being deposed by Guerrero and prevent the "new president every other month" that was so prevalent in Mexico during the 19th century and therefore laying the bases for much stronger institutions.
This is just a start, because there would still be a lot of problems, stemming from both the colonial period and the destruction caused by 11 years of war. But, as I mentioned, I think a good start is avoiding the civil unrest the plagued the nation from the get-go. Then we can start talking about re-building the economy and having a more efficient army and navy (the latter would probably prevent the US for landing directly in Veracruz and forcing them to take the long North-South route).
Deleted member 177304
- The 1808 Coup against Viceroy Jose de Iturrigaray is thwarted
- Iturrigaray declares independence and wins a much briefer War of Independence
- The newly independent Mexico is far more stable and fosters close relations with Britain
- The Texas Revolution is either butterflied away or crushed.
- If any Mexican-American War happens it ends in a stalemate
- Iturrigaray declares independence and wins a much briefer War of Independence
- The newly independent Mexico is far more stable and fosters close relations with Britain
- The Texas Revolution is either butterflied away or crushed.
- If any Mexican-American War happens it ends in a stalemate
Of course in OTL. Never say never in ATL. What if the British forced it and gave the US not choice? Or someone in Britian decided to force the issue because the US was in a war with Mexico?