18461846–1848 · Chapultepec, Mexico City

Mexican–American War and the fall of Mexico City

James Walker's painting of US troops storming the hilltop castle of Chapultepec in September 1847 — Archival image: James Walker. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

After the United States annexed Texas, a border dispute became war in 1846. Winfield Scott's army marched inland from Veracruz and in September 1847 stormed Chapultepec Castle, where six cadets remembered as the Niños Héroes died, before taking the capital. In the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico ceded about half its territory, including California and most of the American Southwest.

Sites

Site 1: Chapultepec Castle (National Museum of History)Hilltop castle stormed by US troops, now the national history museum.Map ↗
Site 2: Monumento a los Niños HéroesSix marble columns at the park entrance honouring the fallen cadets.Map ↗
Site 3: Museo Nacional de las Intervenciones, ChurubuscoFormer convent fought over in August 1847, now a museum of foreign invasions.Map ↗

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