University of Colorado at Boulder Assistant Professor Brian DeLay is featured in a two-hour television special titled "The Mexican-American War" premiering Friday, Sept. 29, at 6 p.m. MDT on The History Channel.
Hosted by boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya, the program tells the story of the controversial war and includes re-creations of its key battles based on notes and memoirs from soldiers who fought on both sides of the conflict 160 years ago.
Throughout the program, scholars and authors from the United States and Mexico will share facts, views and opinions about the two-year war that ended with the United States acquiring nearly half of Mexico's territory.
"I can't imagine the United States rising to global dominance without the territory acquired in the war," said DeLay, of CU-Boulder's history department. "We rarely talk about the war against Mexico, but it is absolutely critical to our national history."
DeLay's research focuses on how American Indians, including Apaches, Comanches and Navajos, influenced the relationship between the United States and Mexico in the years leading up to the war, which began in 1846. During the program he explains how American Indians influenced the course and outcome of the war between Mexico and America.
"Up until now American Indians haven't been part of the story," DeLay said.
After Mexico achieved independence from Spain, conflicts between American Indians and Mexicans increased across the northern part of Mexico, he said.
"Indian warriors raided Mexican ranches and towns, killing men, kidnapping women and children and stealing tens of thousands of animals," DeLay said. "When able, Mexicans responded by doing the same to Indians. All told the conflicts claimed thousands of lives."
At the same time, Americans were moving west following their "Manifest Destiny," the belief that they had a God-given right to expand across the continent.
For many American Indians, the advantages of peace were outweighed by the potential profits from war, which included bartering their spoils from raids with American traders, according to DeLay.
The raids forced many people in Mexico to flee south, or to larger cities, shattering the rural society and economy in northern Mexico. They also changed the way Americans and Mexicans viewed each other, he said.
"By 1846, a majority of U.S. politicians saw Mexico being invaded by Native Americans and essentially said 'Hey we'll be doing you a favor by conquering this area and saving you from Indians,' " DeLay said.
The war ended with a treaty that gave the United States title to land that now includes the states of Texas, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.
DeLay was an undergraduate at CU-Boulder and joined the faculty in 2004 after receiving his doctorate in history from Harvard University.