On this episode of the MODERN MEXICO PODCAST, host Nathaniel Parish Flannery speaks to historian Peter Guardino about the Mexican American War, a conflict that saw U.S. soldiers invade Mexico City and force Mexico to sell the U.S. a significant chunk of its northern terrain. Today, border cities such as El Paso and Juarez, Tijuana and San Diego have emerged as major population hubs, home to millions of residents and thousands of businesses that benefit from cross-border trade. But, at the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, much of the western swathe of the modern-day border zone was inhabited or visited by small groups of Spanish-speaking settlers and small groups of American traders and adventurers. Far from the population centers in central Mexico and the U.S.’s eastern seaboard, this border region was peripheral and not hugely important to economic and political dynamics in either the U.S. or Mexico. Peter describes the war as "tragic, unjust, and damaging." "Many people died. It was a war of conquest. President Polk and other expansionists wanted California and also New Mexico, [the territory that today is] Arizona, Colorado and Nevada. They were very interested in acquiring this territory. What Polk did was engineer a war to force Mexico to sell this territory," he explains. Peter talks about the research behind his new book, THE DEAD MARCH: A HISTORY OF THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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