Yucatan Insurgency not a Mexican War

Mexican President Herrera prior to the Mexican War was willing to negotiate a sale of territory with the United States. The US would get all of Texas's claims minus the Nueces Strip and would purchase California and New Mexico north of the 37th parallel (the Mexicans being aware of where American settlers were flooding into California and of the 36-30 line of slavery in the US).

Let's say that this exchange happens and land-hungry Southern Politicians, realizing they've just been boxed in, push hard for the annexation of the Republic of Yucatan. The bill for the annexation of Yucatan had historically been passed in the House of Representatives and was blocked in the Senate because the Senate thought that being dragged into the Caste War would be far too much of a headache with the country already at war with Mexico.


The Mexican War historically was already considered an incredibly amoral thing by many including future presidents like Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S Grant. A drawn out protracted struggle in the Yucatan (a conflict that historically went on until the 1920s) would likely be much more morally outrageous. Perhaps it'd arouse antislavery sentiment a few years sooner?

Militarily many of the generals who cut their teeth in Mexico would possibly be fighting in Yucatan instead.


What if the US avoided the Mexican War and spent the late 1840s (and onwards) fighting a Yucatan Caste War?
 
Such a move would be reversed relatively quickly. Polk was able to gain support because he kept his aims achievable, relatively popular among most of the population, and really not that expensive to carry out. He liked the idea in OTL, but probably would not once he became aware of the resources needed. Remember, it was the Yucatan delegation that suggested the idea to the US, and not the other way around. There was no Anglo population in Yucatan, unlike in the Southwest and California, and there was no land necessary there for anything like a canal or transcontinental railroad.

As soon as the Democrats lose control of a House of Congress, pressure will be stepped up for some kind of autonomy for the Yucatan Republic, and possibly, they will not even be annexed to begin with but rather act as a protectorate of sorts (like Cuba post SpanishAmerican War).

I also think that if push came to shove, though, the Caste War could have been won for the Mestiszos had the US been on their side. It would have been a nasty kind of fight but I think it was winnable with American resources, soldiers, and persistence. But I don't think that would be how this plays out anyways.

The Yucatans, it must be remembered, wanted American help in smashing the British supplied Mayan uprising of 1848 that actually threatened coastal cities. This was not likely to be some kind of filibuster exercise via government policy. But then again, they were okay with Spanish help or even British reversal of policy and help, even if it meant giving up sovereignty.
 
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