The Comanche Empire

by Pekka Hämäläinen

War-torn northern Mexico was also deeply divided, so much so that it can be asked whether Mexico itself had become a mere collection of semiautonomous provinces. Most northern provinces put little value in the policies emanating from the distant, neglectful Mexico City and harbored deep-seated antipathies toward one another. This antagonism had crystallized during the long decades of Comanche violence when most provinces adopted self-interested policies, which often brought destruction to neighboring communities. (Comanches themselves seem to have been well aware of these developments: an Anglo captive held in Comanchería reported how Comanches, when planning a large-scale invasion into Mexico in the late 1830s, “expected to be joined by a large number of Mexicans who are disaffected by the government.”) All this ate away at the already fragile sense of common identity, to the point that it was not unusual for high-ranking officers to openly rejoice when Comanche war parties left their departments for the neighboring ones. By 1846, northern Mexico was a compilation of disconnected communities with ambivalent identities and loyalties.”