Treason Town: Cities as Traitors During the US-Mexican War

During the Mexican-American War, many Mexican cities and towns surrendered without a fight.  Not only that, is some cases the leading citizens joined forces with the Americans, effectively turning traitor.  In this paper, Kelsey Foster argues that the local concerns of the various towns overshadowed the national concerns of Mexico.  Foster demonstrates this with two particular towns: Santa Fe, New Mexico and La Paz, Baja California.

In the case of Santa Fe, the locals were fully aware of the impending invasion of an American army.  The governor requested aid from the government and also from the neighboring state of Chihuahua.  No aid was provided.  Nonetheless, a local army was raised and deployed, but when the US Army approached, the New Mexican army disbanded before any shots were fired.  General Stephen W. Kearny arrived in Santa Fe and raised the American Flag.  The locals had decided that an inevitable military loss on behalf of the Mexican nation that was more often a hindrance than a help was not in their interests.  However, when Kearny moved on to California and left US Volunteers to 'police' New Mexico, the calculus shifted.  Where regular Army troops had been a benefit, volunteer troops became a blight.  Now there was fighting in New Mexico, not for the interests of Mexico but for the local interests of New Mexico.  When the war ended, most New Mexicans chose to remain on the American side of the new border rather than repatriate to Mexico.

Where Santa Fe had weeks of warning of the approaching US Army, La Paz saw an American warship arrive in the harbor and demand the city's surrender.  Baja California was a neglected region, not having had an official communication with the central government in two years.  As such, Governor Palacios Miranda felt very little attachment to Mexico.  No resistance was offered to the Americans and, in fact, many citizens joined the Americans to fight insurgents.  Much of the insurgency was driven by local rivalries rather than Mexican patriotism.  When the war concluded and Baja California was left on the Mexican side of the new border, many of those who actively aided the Americans were forced to move to the United States.

An interesting paper, but I'm not sold on the idea of localism as painted.  Mexico was not a functioning republic, but more of a loose confederation of formerly Spanish territory.  Neither New Mexico nor Baja California had any involvement in the War of Independence (1810-1821).  New Mexico had rebelled from Mexico just a few years earlier (1837) and both Californias (Alta & Baja) were distant and mostly ignored territories.  Alta California had rebelled in 1836 and had long been neglected by Mexico, and Spain before that.  When Santa Anna abrogated the Constitution of 1824, many states declared independence: Texas, Yucatan, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Tabasco.  The national bonds of Mexico were extremely weak.  That was not helped by the capricious and rapacious nature of the series of governments in Mexico City over a short period of years.  The two cities discussed had almost no contact with the central government and thus localism was the default, rather than a balancing act.  Tampico, a major port for Mexico, also surrendered without a fight and became a hub of American activity.  Yucatan was an independent state during the war and even asked for American support for their becoming independent.  Such support was not given and it was soon part of Mexico again.  Many cities and towns between Vera Cruz and Mexico City also surrendered without a fight and cooperated with the American Army.  

Worthwhile for those interested in the era.