History Main / MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack

In 1846, the United States Congress declared war on Mexico following a border skirmish between a Mexican cavalry detachment and a U.S. patrol. Long story short, the US army fought all the way to Mexico City, Mexico lost the fight, and the Mexican government signed the Guadalupe-Hidalgo treaty, in which Mexico transferred to the USA the territories that are nowadays covered by California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and parts of Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming, and Oklahoma -- that is, around 60% of its territory (though only a very small part of its population or gross national income) -- in exchange for the sum of 15 million dollars (accounting for inflation, that's about $390 million in 2012). This was later followed by the sale of La Mesilla / purchase of Gadsden for the purpose of building a transcontinental railroad.

In 1836 the Republic of Texas [[RememberTheAlamo separated]] from its previous [[Usefulnotes/{{Mexico}} Mexican]] rule. After spending the better part of their one sovereign decade attempting to join the United States, Texas was annexed by the USA in 1845. The United States offered Texas security, stable rule, and economic survivability, as many had families in the United States and feared that Mexico had plans to strike once more at Texas, hence this trope. The United States also would protect [[ValuesDissonance the settlers' right to own slaves]] -- these settlers, first invited to Texas by the Mexican government after agreeing to follow Mexican law, balked at Mexico's ban on slavery in 1829, which these slave-owning settlers very much disagreed with. The new Texas immigrants from the United States became known as Texicans while the original Hispanic locals were called Tejanos. Texas (or Tejas as it was called at the time) was originally granted a one-year exemption from the 1829 ban, but Mexican president Anastasio Bustamante ordered that all slaves be freed in the law of April 6th, 1830 which also prevented further emigration to Texas from the United States and increased import taxes. This law didn't stop further immigration as Americans continued to settle Texas illegally. To circumvent the law, many Anglo colonists converted their slaves into indentured servants for life. The slavery aspect is something Texans unsurprisingly tend to gloss over when discussing their state's history. After Santa Anna overthrew president Anastasio Bustamante in 1832 the Mexican government started giving concessions to Texas that included a repeal on the emigration ban, more representation to Texas, and the right to trial by jury. However, Santa Anna had other plans as he overturned the 1824 constitution in 1835 and ordered all state legislatures and militias to be disbanded. The Tejano governor of Texas refused and when Mexican authorities attempted to seize a cannon used for defense against Comanche raiders it led to the Battle of Gonzales which sparked the Texas Revolution.

** During the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, due to the fact Germany's eastern border wasn't definitively fixed, UsefulNotes/TheBonnRepublic was making the following sentence resume its policy toward the East : Germany called, they want the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Former_eastern_territories_of_Germany Ostgebiete]]'' back. This ended after the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, by which Germany recognized the borders and abandoned its claim to Eastern territories. This has also become moot with the European Union and the Schengen Visa allowing Germans to travel back to their ancestral homes in Silesia and Pomerania.

Thus, whenever in speculative fiction you see the United States somehow [[FallenStatesOfAmerica greatly weakened]], or in the past before the USA became a superpower, you can pretty much be assured the back story will involve Mexico [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica invading]] and conquering at least Texas and California. This is particularly ironic, because Mexico's economy right now is smaller than both Texas and California.[[note]]in fact, California's economy is more than double the size of Mexico's[[/note]] ; in fact should Mexico hypothetically succeed this very moment in recovering just these two states, the Mexican economy would practically ''quadruple'' its size, but then again, [[EverythingIsBigInTexas it IS Texas]]. For the same reason, in the event of the United States breaking apart it's probably more plausible for California and/or Texas to take over Mexico than for the reverse to happen.

* In the comedy ''Film/VivaMax'', the eponymous General Maximillian is driven to near insanity when the Mexican woman he has a crush on spurns him and insults his capacity as a military officer. He assumes that, naturally, the best way to impress her is to recapture the Alamo.
* A news story near the beginning of ''Film/RoboCop1987'' describes rebels in Mexico rattling the U.S. borders.
* In ''Film/EscapeFromLA'', all of Latin America has been united under [[DirtyCommunists the Shining Path]] and is about to invade the US. Revolutionary agent Cuervo Jones kidnaps and brainwashes the President's daughter in order to seize control of the "Sword of Damocles" EMP satellite superweapon, and plans to use it to lead off the war. Snake Plissken is sent into the ruins of UsefulNotes/LosAngeles in order to retrieve the weapon and stop the invasion.
* In ''Film/GentlemenExplorers'', an AbsurdlyHighStakesGame of poker is organized between representatives of Prussia, Mexico and the USA. The USA's stake is the territories it took off Mexico in the Mexican-American War.

* ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr''. Southern Mexico provides staging areas for an "Army of Economic Liberation" to invade an ostensibly demilitarised United States. The invaders get their ass handed to them due to [[RobotWar secret technology]] the US has been hiding. When Mexico subsequently collapses, many other nations think it's not a coincidence.
* Inverted in ''Literature/ItCantHappenHere''. The Windrip regime invades Mexico as a means of spreading its empire and encouraging patriotism among the masses. Played with in that the regime falsely claims Mexico attacked America as justification for the war.
* In ''1920: America's Great War'', Imperial Germany defeated France in 1914 and the war never exploded into UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. In 1920 Germany has allied itself with Mexico and a weak US government has not been able to prevent them from shipping a small army over to Mexico. With the US army undermanned and under equipped and with President Woodrow Wilson incapacitated due to a stroke, Germany and Mexico launch an invasion of the US. The Mexican army invades Texas and a German army invades California. Despite initial successes, it becomes clear that a conquest of Texas is impossible due to the logistics and the real goal of the invasion is California. With the rail road lines sabotaged and the German Navy's control of the sea, California is cut off from reinforcements and if the Germans can manage to take San Francisco they will be very hard to dislodge. The Germans assume that the US will accept the loss of California and sue for peace rather than fighting a long war of attrition to regain it.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Friedman George Friedman,]] in his novel ''The Next 100 Years'', details his very broad political predictions for the 21st century and states that Mexico will at least attempt this by 2100, due to Mexico's likely stabilization (he points out China has been in chaos in the recent past and overcome that chaos), its population growth and the US population decline.

* ''Series/{{Chase|NBC}}'': In the episode Repo the criminal they are chasing is a believes that America stole the territory and doesn't believe in the authority of the police, making comments about it to most people he meets.

* Its spiritual sequel ''TabletopGame/TwentyThreeHundredAD'' had Mexico still holding Los Angeles, Arizona, and New Mexico, but not Texas.
* Inverted in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Cyberworld'': the US occupies much of Mexico (though there are still border controls in place to keep Mexican third-class citizens from traveling to the "Upper 48").

* Soviet troops in ''RedAlert 2'' invade via Mexico (or at least we see a Apocalypse Tank crushing a "Welcome to Texas" sign).

* In ''Tom Clancy's HAWX'', the eponymous squadron flies to Ciudad Juarez due to Mexican rebels going into the United States to escape retribution from government forces.

* In the ''VideoGame/KaiserreichLegacyOfTheWeltkrieg'' mod for ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron'', if the [[DividedStatesOfAmerica Second American Civil War]] breaks out Mexico has the option of seizing the opportunity to try and reclaim the lost border territories.
* ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron IV'' itself added a new decision tree for Mexico with the ''Man the Guns'' expansion. Should Mexico go fascist or communist, it can launch wars of conquest throughout Latin America and the Caribbean before turning its eyes north to the United States, as you rescind the Mexican Cession and redeem Aztlan.

* It is rumoured that the undeclared reason why the British Army was sent into [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles Northern Ireland]] in 1969 was to forestall any attempt by the Irish Republic to move its military forces into the predominantly Catholic border counties, in order to preserve peace and prevent ethnic cleansing of Roman Catholics by Protestants. (And incidentally to reinforce the Republic's claim to sovereignty over the whole island of Ireland - you could read this as "Dublin called - we want the Six Counties Back".) It is known the Republic mobilised its armed forces, including reservists, and sent them North in the summer of 1969 to answer the emergency. Informed opinion is that South Armagh, County Tyrone and County Derry would have been occupied for peacekeeping and humanitarian reasons (but the Prot areas would have been left for the British to deal with as their problem).

[[caption-width-right:265:''[[RussianReversal THE BORDER CROSSED US!]]'']]

[[caption-width-right:265:''[[{{Film/Machete}} THE BORDER]] [[RussianReversal CROSSED US!]]'']]

Thus, whenever in speculative fiction you see the United States somehow [[FallenStatesOfAmerica greatly]] [[DividedStatesOfAmerica weakened]], or in the past before the USA became a superpower, you can pretty much be assured the back story will involve Mexico [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica invading]] and conquering at least Texas and California. This is particularly ironic, because Mexico's economy right now is smaller than both Texas and California.[[note]]in fact, California's economy is more than double the size of Mexico's[[/note]] ; in fact should Mexico hypothetically succeed this very moment in recovering just these two states, the Mexican economy would practically ''quadruple'' its size, but then again, [[EverythingIsBigInTexas it IS Texas]]. For the same reason, in the event of the United States breaking apart it's probably more plausible for California and/or Texas to take over Mexico than for the reverse to happen.

* UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI delivered the Zimmermann Telegram, which offered to give Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to Mexico if it sided with Germany. The British decrypted the message and sent it to the U.S. before the Mexicans could even get around to responding. This was pretty much the last straw that drove the U.S. to enter the war against Germany. After actually receiving the Zimmerman Note, Mexican President Carranza had the Mexican Army's General Staff analyze it and what Germany was offering, and turned down the offer on the grounds that 1) holding and occupying the states in question would have been a nightmare; 2) Mexico was [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution kind of in the middle of a civil war at the time]], which was kind of a drain on resources; 3) German financial assistance was meaningless in that the only country capable of supplying Mexico enough arms to attack the United States was ''the United States itself!'' and 4) No German military assistance was immediately forthcoming due to Germany's own situation in Europe and Allied shipping patrols in the Atlantic. Carranza correctly concluded that the Zimmerman Note was a case of Germany saying to Mexico "LetsYouAndHimFight" in an effort to keep the U.S. out of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Domestically, he also feared that getting Mexico involved in a foreign war would imperil his relatively new regime by giving an opportunity for his political opponents (''cough''*''Pancho Villa''*''cough''*[[note]]And Emiliano Zapata and Félix Díaz and Álvaro Obregón and a host of others too, but especially Villa[[/note]]) to either side with the Americans and take control that way or to win glory and followers by fighting the Americans, which followers could then be turned against him. (Indeed, Villa had been trying to provoke the Americans into invading Mexico for the past two years in the hopes of doing exactly the latter, and he was enough of an opportunist to try the former.)

* UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI delivered the Zimmermann Telegram, which offered to give Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to Mexico if it sided with Germany. The British decrypted the message and sent it to the U.S. before the Mexicans could even get around to responding. This was pretty much the last straw that drove the U.S. to enter the war against Germany. After actually receiving the Zimmerman Note, Mexican President Carranza had the Mexican Army's General Staff analyze it and what Germany was offering, and turned down the offer on the grounds that 1) holding and occupying the states in question would have been a nightmare; 2) Mexico was [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution kind of in the middle of a civil war at the time]], which was kind of a drain on resources; 3) German financial assistance was meaningless in that the only country capable of supplying Mexico enough arms to attack the United States was ''the United States itself!'' and 4) No German military assistance was immediately forthcoming due to Germany's own situation in Europe and Allied shipping patrols in the Atlantic. Carranza correctly concluded that the Zimmerman Note was a case of Germany saying to Mexico "LetsYouAndHimFight" in an effort to keep the U.S. out of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Domestically, he also feared that getting Mexico involved in a foreign war would imperil his relatively new regime by giving an opportunity for his political opponents (''cough''*''Pancho Villa''*''cough''*[[note]]And Ernesto Zapata and Félix Díaz and Álvaro Obregón and a host of others too, but especially Villa[[/note]]) to either side with the Americans and take control that way or to win glory and followers by fighting the Americans, which followers could then be turned against him. (Indeed, Villa had been trying to provoke the Americans into invading Mexico for the past two years in the hopes of doing exactly the latter, and he was enough of an opportunist to try the former.)

* UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI delivered the Zimmermann Telegram, which offered to give Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to Mexico if it sided with Germany. The British decrypted the message and sent it to the U.S. before the Mexicans could even get around to responding. This was pretty much the last straw that drove the U.S. to enter the war against Germany. After actually receiving the Zimmerman Note, Mexican President Carranza had the Mexican Army's General Staff analyze it and what Germany was offering, and turned down the offer on the grounds that 1) holding and occupying the states in question would have been a nightmare; 2) Mexico was [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution kind of in the middle of a civil war at the time]], which was kind of a drain on resources; 3) German financial assistance was meaningless in that the only country capable of supplying Mexico enough arms to attack the United States was ''the United States itself!'' and 4) No German military assistance was immediately forthcoming due to Germany's own situation in Europe and Allied shipping patrols in the Atlantic. Carranza correctly concluded that the Zimmerman Note was a case of Germany saying to Mexico "LetsYouAndHimFight" in an effort to keep the U.S. out of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Domestically, he also feared that getting Mexico involved in a foreign war would imperil his relatively new regime by giving an opportunity for his political opponents (''cough''*''Pancho Villa''*''cough''*[[note]]And Ernesto Zapata and Félix Díaz and a number of others too, but especially Villa[[/note]]) to either side with the Americans and take control that way or to win glory and followers by fighting the Americans, which followers could then be turned against him. (Indeed, Villa had been trying to provoke the Americans into invading Mexico for the past two years in the hopes of doing exactly the latter, and he was enough of an opportunist to try the former.)

* UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI delivered the Zimmermann Telegram, which offered to give Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to Mexico if it sided with Germany. The British decrypted the message and sent it to the U.S. before the Mexicans could even get around to responding. This was pretty much the last straw that drove the U.S. to enter the war against Germany. After actually receiving the Zimmerman Note, Mexican President Carranza had the Mexican Army's General Staff analyze it and what Germany was offering, and turned down the offer on the grounds that 1) holding and occupying the states in question would have been a nightmare; 2) Mexico was [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution kind of in the middle of a civil war at the time]], which was kind of a drain on resources; 3) German financial assistance was meaningless in that the only country capable of supplying Mexico enough arms to attack the United States was ''the United States itself!'' and 4) No German military assistance was immediately forthcoming due to Germany's own situation in Europe and Allied shipping patrols in the Atlantic. Carranza correctly concluded that the Zimmerman Note was a case of Germany saying to Mexico "LetsYouAndHimFight" in an effort to keep the U.S. out of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Domestically, he also feared that getting Mexico involved in a foreign war would imperil his relatively new regime by giving an opportunity for his political opponents *''cough''*''Pancho Villa''*''cough''* to either side with the Americans and take control that way or to win glory and followers by fighting the Americans, which followers could then be turned against him. (Indeed, Villa had been trying to provoke the Americans into invading Mexico for the past two years in the hopes of doing exactly the latter, and he was enough of an opportunist to try the former.)

* UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI delivered the Zimmermann Telegram, which offered to give Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to Mexico if it sided with Germany. The British decrypted the message and sent it to the U.S. before the Mexicans could even get around to responding. This was pretty much the last straw that drove the U.S. to enter the war against Germany. After actually receiving the Zimmerman Note, Mexican President Carranza had the Mexican Army's General Staff analyze it and what Germany was offering, and turned down the offer on the grounds that 1) holding and occupying the states in question would have been a nightmare; 2) Mexico was [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution kind of in the middle of a civil war at the time]], which was kind of a drain on resources; 3) German financial assistance was meaningless in that the only country capable of supplying Mexico enough arms to attack the United States was ''the United States itself!'' and 4) No German military assistance was immediately forthcoming due to Germany's own situation in Europe and Allied shipping patrols in the Atlantic. Carranza correctly concluded that the Zimmerman Note was a case of Germany saying to Mexico "LetsYouAndHimFight" in an effort to keep the U.S. out of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Domestically, he also feared that getting Mexico involved in a foreign war would imperil his relatively new regime by giving an opportunity for his political opponents *''cough''* Pancho Villa *''cough''* to either side with the Americans and take control that way or to win glory and followers by fighting the Americans, which followers could then be turned against him. (Indeed, Villa had been trying to provoke the Americans into invading Mexico for the past two years in the hopes of doing exactly the latter, and he was enough of an opportunist to try the former.)

* UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI delivered the Zimmermann Telegram, which offered to give Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to Mexico if it sided with Germany. The British decrypted the message and sent it to the U.S. before the Mexicans could even get around to responding. This was pretty much the last straw that drove the U.S. to enter the war against Germany. After actually receiving the Zimmerman Note, Mexican President Carranza had the Mexican Army's General Staff analyze it and what Germany was offering, and turned down the offer on the grounds that 1) holding and occupying the states in question would have been a nightmare; 2) Mexico was [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution kind of in the middle of a civil war at the time]], which was kind of a drain on resources; 3) German financial assistance was meaningless in that the only country capable of supplying Mexico enough arms to attack the United States was ''the United States itself!'' and 4) No German military assistance was immediately forthcoming due to Germany's own situation in Europe and Allied shipping patrols in the Atlantic. Carranza correctly concluded that the Zimmerman Note was a case of Germany saying to Mexico "LetsYouAndHimFight" in an effort to keep the U.S. out of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Domestically, he also feared that getting Mexico involved in a foreign war would imperil his relatively new regime by giving an opportunity for his political opponents *''cough''* Pancho Villa *''cough''* to either side with the Americans and take control that way or to win glory and followers by fighting the Americans, which followers could then be turned against him. (Indeed, Villa had been trying to provoke the Americans into invading Mexico for the past two years in the hopes of doing exactly the latter, and he was enough of an opportunist to try the latter.)

* UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI delivered the Zimmermann Telegram, which offered to give Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to Mexico if it sided with Germany. The British decrypted the message and sent it to the U.S. before the Mexicans could even get around to responding. This was pretty much the last straw that drove the U.S. to enter the war against Germany. After actually receiving the Zimmerman Note, Mexican President Carranza had the Mexican Army's General Staff analyze it and what Germany was offering, and turned down the offer on the grounds that 1) holding and occupying the states in question would have been a nightmare; 2) Mexico was [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution kind of in the middle of a civil war at the time]], which was kind of a drain on resources; 3) German financial assistance was meaningless in that the only country capable of supplying Mexico enough arms to attack the United States was ''the United States itself!'' and 4) No German military assistance was immediately forthcoming due to Germany's own situation in Europe and Allied shipping patrols in the Atlantic. Carranza correctly concluded that the Zimmerman Note was a case of Germany saying to Mexico "LetsYouAndHimFight" in an effort to keep the U.S. out of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Domestically, he also feared that getting Mexico involved in a foreign war would imperil his relatively new regime by giving an opportunity for his political opponents to either side with the Americans and take control that way or to win glory and followers by fighting the Americans, which followers could then be turned against him. (Indeed, Pancho Villa had been trying to provoke the Americans into invading Mexico for the past two years in the hopes of doing exactly that.)

* UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI delivered the Zimmermann Telegram, which offered to give Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to Mexico if it sided with Germany. The British decrypted the message and sent it to the U.S. before the Mexicans could even get around to responding. This was pretty much the last straw that drove the U.S. to enter the war against Germany. After actually receiving the Zimmerman Note, Mexican President Carranza had the Mexican Army's General Staff analyze it and what Germany was offering, and turned down the offer on the grounds that 1) holding and occupying the states in question would have been a nightmare; Mexico was [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution kind of in the middle of a civil war at the time]]; 3) German financial assistance was meaningless in that the only country capable of supplying Mexico enough arms to attack the United States was ''the United States itself!'' and 4) No German military assistance was immediately forthcoming due to Germany's own situation in Europe and Allied shipping patrols in the Atlantic. Carranza correctly concluded that the Zimmerman Note was a case of Germany saying to Mexico "LetsYouAndHimFight" in an effort to keep the U.S. out of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Domestically, he also feared that getting Mexico involved in a foreign war would imperil his relatively new regime by giving an opportunity for his political opponents to either side with the Americans and take control that way or to win glory and followers by fighting the Americans, which followers could then be turned against him. (Indeed, Pancho Villa had been trying to provoke the Americans into invading Mexico for the past two years in the hopes of doing exactly that.)

* UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI delivered the Zimmermann Telegram, which offered to give Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to Mexico if it sided with Germany. The British decrypted the message and sent it to the U.S. before the Mexicans could even get around to responding. This was pretty much the last straw that drove the U.S. to enter the war against Germany. After actually receiving the Zimmerman Note, Mexican President Carranza had the Mexican Army's General Staff analyze it and what Germany was offering, and turned down the offer on the grounds that 1) holding and occupying the states in question would have been a nightmare; 2) German financial assistance was meaningless in that the only country capable of supplying Mexico enough arms to attack the United States was ''the United States itself!'' and 3) No German military assistance was immediately forthcoming due to Germany's own situation in Europe and Allied shipping patrols in the Atlantic. Carranza correctly concluded that the Zimmerman Note was a case of Germany saying to Mexico "LetsYouAndHimFight" in an effort to keep the U.S. out of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

* In ''Film/GentlemenExplorers'', an AbsurdlyHighstakesGame of poker is organized between Prussia, Mexico and the USA. The USA's stake is the territories it took off Mexico in the Mexican-American War.

* Inverted by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/51st_state#Mexico the suggestion]] that Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León would be on the shortlist of Mexican states to join the U.S., being closer to [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texas]] than the rest of Mexico. Also, as recently as the 1980s the annexation of Baja California was proposed as a means of alleviating Mexico's foreign debt owed to the United States.

In 1836 the Republic of Texas [[RememberTheAlamo separated]] from its previous [[Usefulnotes/{{Mexico}} Mexican]] rule. After spending the better part of their one sovereign decade attempting to join the United States, Texas was annexed by the USA in 1845. The United States offered Texas security, stable rule, and economic survivability, as many had families in the United States and feared that Mexico had plans to strike once more at Texas, hence this trope. The United States also would protect [[ValuesDissonance the settlers' right to own slaves]] -- these settlers, first invited to Texas by the Mexican government after agreeing to follow Mexican law, balked at Mexico's ban on slavery in 1829, which these slave-owning settlers very much disagreed with. The new Texas immigrants from the United States became known as Texicans while the original Hispanic locals were called Tejanos. Texas was originally granted a one-year exemption from the 1829 ban, but Mexican president Anastasio Bustamante ordered that all slaves be freed in the law of April 6th, 1830 which also prevented further emigration to Texas from the United States and increased import taxes. This law didn't stop further immigration as Americans continued to settle Texas illegally. To circumvent the law, many Anglo colonists converted their slaves into indentured servants for life. The slavery aspect is something Texans unsurprisingly tend to gloss over when discussing their state's history. After Santa Anna overthrew president Anastasio Bustamante in 1832 the Mexican government started giving concessions to Texas that included a repeal on the emigration ban, more representation to Texas, and the right to trial by jury. However, Santa Anna had other plans as he overturned the 1824 constitution in 1835 and ordered all state legislatures and militias to be disbanded. The Tejano governor of Texas refused and when Mexican authorities attempted to seize a cannon used for defense against Comanche raiders it led to the Battle of Gonzales which sparked the Texas Revolution.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Interestingly, averted in ''Fanfic/IncompatibleSystem''. While a few of the southern states are now allied with Latin America after a near-WorldWarIII had caused a severe case of DividedStatesOfAmerica, Texas is proudly, crazily and loudly independent.
[[/folder]]

Needless to say, the thought of being formerly such a huge country that lost so much land supposedly means that every single Mexican has at one point dreamed of getting back the "Lost Territories",but, Mexico having[[note]]As of 2020[[/note]] roughly one hundredth of [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks America's military budget]], this desire is all but a pipe dream. There is a [[TruthInTelevision truth in television]] aspect here, as activist groups like La Raza and [=MEChA=] have stated in their charters the goal of bringing back to Mexico much of its former land, but what if, in fiction, the USA were weakened enough (or Mexico made powerful enough) to make this dream come true?

Needless to say, the thought of being formerly such a huge country that lost so much land supposedly means that every single Mexican has at one point dreamed of getting back the "Lost Territories", and of course, Mexico being next to the U.S. [[CrapsackOnlyByComparison a crapsack world by comparison]], this desire is all but a pipe dream. There is a [[TruthInTelevision truth in television]] aspect here, as activist groups like La Raza and [=MEChA=] have stated in their charters the goal of bringing back to Mexico much of its former land, but what if, in fiction, the USA were weakened enough (or Mexico made powerful enough) to make this dream come true?

Needless to say, the thought of being formerly such a huge country that lost so much land supposedly means that every single Mexican has at one point dreamed of getting back the "Lost Territories". And of course, Mexico being next to the U.S. [[CrapsackOnlyByComparison a crapsack world by comparison]], this desire is all but a pipe dream. There is a [[TruthInTelevision truth in television]] aspect here, as activist groups like La Raza and [=MEChA=] have stated in their charters the goal of bringing back to Mexico much of its former land, but what if, in fiction, the USA were weakened enough (or Mexico made powerful enough) to make this dream come true?

Needless to say, the thought of being formerly such a huge country that lost so much land supposedly means that every single Mexican has at one point dreamed of getting back the "Lost Territories". And of course, Mexico being next to the U.S. [[CrapsackOnlyByComparison a crapsack world by comparison]], this desire is all but a pipe dream. There is a [[TruthInTelevision truth in television]] aspect here, as activist groups like La Raza and [=MEChA=] have stated in their charters the goal of bringing back to Mexico much of its former land.

But what if, in fiction, the USA were weakened enough (or Mexico made powerful enough) to make this dream come true?

Thus, whenever in speculative fiction you see the United States somehow [[FallenStatesOfAmerica greatly]] [[DividedStatesOfAmerica weakened]], or in the past before the USA became a superpower, you can pretty much be assured the back story will involve Mexico [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica invading]] and conquering at least Texas and California. This is particularly ironic, because Mexico's economy right now is smaller than both Texas and California.[[note]]in fact, California's economy is more than double the size of Mexico's[[/note]] ; in fact should Mexico hypothetically succeed this very moment in recovering just these two states, the Mexican economy would practically ''quadruple'' its size. But then again, [[EverythingIsBigInTexas it IS Texas]]. For the same reason, in the event of the United States breaking apart it's probably more plausible for California and/or Texas to take over Mexico than for the reverse to happen.

** The annexation of the entirety of Mexico was actually a consideration in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War, but domestic political disputes (ie slavery) put an end to that idea. Many in the South [[ValuesDissonance worried that this would result millions of new, non-white US citizens]] while in the North it was worried that this would create additional slave states and tilt the Senate's balance decisively in favor of preserving slavery.

* Most of the brief history of the Republic of Texas involved fending off various attempts by the Mexican government to retake Texas, including a number of land invasions and naval battles (including a brief alliance between the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Yucatan, another state which had seceeded from Mexico). This period of conflict led directly into the Mexican-American War after the expanding United States finally agreed to annex Texas.

See also DividedStatesOfAmerica. Sister trope of RussiaCalledTheyWantAlaskaBack. {{Eurabia}}, the idea of Europe being taken over by Muslim immigrants, is the loose European version of this trope. See also [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revanchism revanchism]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irredentism irredentism]] which were actual, primarily European, examples of this phenomena.

But what if, in fiction, the USA were weakened enough to make this dream come true?

Thus, whenever in speculative fiction you see the United States somehow [[FallenStatesOfAmerica greatly]] [[DividedStatesOfAmerica weakened]], or in the past before the USA became a superpower, you can pretty much be assured the back story will involve Mexico [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica invading]] and conquering at least Texas and California. This is particularly ironic, because Mexico's economy right now is smaller than both Texas and California.[[note]]in fact, California's economy is more than double the size of Mexico's[[/note]] ; in fact should Mexico hypothetically succeed this very moment in recovering just these two states, the Mexican economy would practically ''quadruple'' its size. But then again, [[EverythingIsBigInTexas it IS Texas]].