We visited Chapultepec castle the other day, and it was very interesting for a number of reasons. First, it has a dominating, 360 degree view of Mexico City. Second, it was the sight of an ancient retreat for Aztec nobility. Third, it was the seat of government for Mexico, both under the short-lived Latin empire of Maximillian I and then the 19th century Mexican Presidents which followed him. But mostly because it was the site of the last battle of the Mexican-American War. Or the American invasion, as it is known down here.
Views of 
modern Mexico City 
from Chapultepec
Most US historians now agree with Mexico’s view of the conflict, buttressed by ample evidence from those involved. Ulysses S Grant, who fought in the war as a lieutenant, said “I was bitterly opposed…and to this day, regard the war…as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation.” Then congressman Abraham Lincoln thought the war was immoral, intended to further the spread of slavery, and threatened our Republican values. Former President and congressman John Quincy Adams called it “a most unrighteous war.”
On September 13th, 1847, a combined force of US Army and Marines stormed the defenders of the castle, which included several cadets from a Mexican military academy there. The American victory sealed the fate of the Mexican government, gave the US Marine Corps the first line of its anthem (“From the halls of Montezuma”), and established the Mexican legend of the Niños Heroes or Child-Heroes.
Six teenage cadets refused the order to retreat from the buildings atop the summit, and instead continued to fight. Plaques memorialize where they died; one took the Mexican flag before it could be seized and jumped over the cliff literally with the flag as his shroud. Mexico does not make a big deal about the US invasion, but the story of the Niños Heroes is learned by all children in school.
It is a little strange being in a museum and seeing the US military playing the role of the heavy. Even stranger is seeing captured US battle streamers as prizes of battle.
So much of the US-Mexico relationship goes back to this war. The historical consensus is President Polk, a southerner, wanted more territory where slavery could spread, ensuring a majority of slave states in the US Senate. Polk sent the US Army into disputed territory in Texas, and US Grant’s memoirs confirm the Army was directed to act provocatively to elicit a Mexican attack.
As a result of the war, Mexico lost almost half its territory, including California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, and parts of New Mexico and Colorado. Try to think of the United States without these lands! The US became a Pacific power, and a generation of military officers honed the skills which they would employ against each other in nearly every major battle of the US Civil War. After this aggression, Mexico did not trust the United States again for over 100 years. The Mexican view was aptly summed up by Porfirio Díaz, the Mexican President and later dictator, who said “Poor Mexico, so far from God, and so close to the United States.” It is nothing short of amazing the relationship has improved as much as it has, given how our mutual histories turned on the event.
Wow, a soldier that know Marine Corps lore. Not only is Chapultepec in my hymn, it is in my novel.