Mexican-American War

The British enforced the Monroe doctrine. Britain did it to keep its rivals out of the new world. Given the choice between a french buffer state and a larger United States, I would say the British would back its now ally and strong trade partner the USA over its long time rival France.
I think there was a misunderstanding. I wasn't saying the British didn't support the Monroe Doctine. I was saying they didn't support the Monroe Doctrine in order to allow the United States to conquer newly-independent Latin American countries for themselves.

The British would not be happy with either a French puppet or US annexation even if they would be forced to tolerate one or the other.
 
Thing is, roughly half of Mexico was sparsely populated enough that existing borders could be redrawn pretty easily. Meaning you’d very well wind up with a string of slave territories between 36º30’ and just above the Tropic of Cancer, with free below and above.
Yeah, but the slave states would be far less populated than the free states. So while the balanced number of Senators could be maintained, the representatives in the House certainly wouldn't be. This would also give the the free Mexican states more electoral votes.

If you create more slave states than free states to try to compensate for this, you end up with more slave state Senators, which will never fly for Northerners.
 
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