History is Written by the Victors

[Tupac]

Whether they chose to fight to the death or not is a subject open to debate. Some say that they surrendered and were slaughtered by the mexicans.

[Tom5572]

History according to a German bus driver:

I was on a Memorial Day trip honoring the Fallen at the Battle of the Somme's cemetery. We just pulled up to our hotel in St. Quinten (sp?). The owner of the hotel comes running out yelling in French how we could not park there and block his entrance. The bus driver, Dieter, gets out, in a very calm German accented English and says, "Hey Frenchy, you shut up, or we take over your country again." The hotel guy hung his head and went back inside. We almost died laughing.

[guncrasher]

The fact is mexican army was full of a bunch of spineless cowards back in the 1830/40s/50s and deserved every defeat they took and every life they lost. The atrocities they committed during the battles they fought rivaled the slaughter of US military personnel during WW2 by the Japanese. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliad_massacre

They didn't take prisoners - I sure wish the texans had done the same thing.

pretty sure the us cavalry slaughter of 100's of native american indians, women, children, and old people was just a figment of their imagination.  and the "trail of tears" was just a made up story.

and I am pretty sure every single german/italian/japanese pow was treated according to the Geneva convention.  and of course vietnam civilian casualties were just by mistake.

and I am being sarcastic here as a we arent saints either.  crap happens in every war.

just look what happened to thousands of pow during the civil war.  I am pretty sure they were also treated with the utmost respect being that they were american pows being held by other americans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andersonville_National_Historic_Site

semp

[Tupac]

touche'

[Ack-Ack]

Were you hoping to read the version where Texas loses? Without reading it I would presme it covrs their view well. The Mexicans certainly have a much different story to tell. In fact, I know many text books teach that all of this was illegal and Mexico should own California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. It is called Azetlan. They likely tell the version a hippie would love. The one that America sucks and is the source that is all that is wrong. haha

Boo

When I was younger and spent a year living with relatives in Mexico City, none of that stuff you claim was in the school text books I had.  My nephews and niece that live in Mexico were never taught that nor was anything of the sort in their text books as well.  Don't feed the fire by spreading BS.

ack-ack

[Selino631]

it seems the Federal Government is choosing what the state public education centers teach in schools. If the government doesn't want us to learn it, its not there.

thats all i have to say about that.

[BaDkaRmA158Th]

pretty sure the us cavalry slaughter of 100's of native american indians, women, children, and old people was just a figment of their imagination.  and the "trail of tears" was just a made up story.

and I am pretty sure every single german/italian/japanese pow was treated according to the Geneva convention.  and of course vietnam civilian casualties were just by mistake.

and I am being sarcastic here as a we arent saints either.  crap happens in every war.

just look what happened to thousands of pow during the civil war.  I am pretty sure they were also treated with the utmost respect being that they were american pows being held by other americans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andersonville_National_Historic_Site

semp

Thank you for having reason. No one is treated well in a war.


Check this out, imagine this thing barking on a battlefield.
http://oldbritishguns.com/the-37mm-hotchkiss-revolving-cannon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotchkiss_gun

"They were used at the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, and again in Cuba for the attack on San Juan Hill and in the Spanish–American War."

Willing to bet they had a huge impact.

[PR3D4TOR]

It was partly a religious war, which increased the level of atrocities committed on both sides.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick's_Battalion

[mthrockmor]

Ack Ack, its there now and its even spilling into US curriculum. Part of a radical element that has developed over the past 20 years or so.

Boo

[ink]

everything you read in text books...see on TV....hear on the news.... is put out by someone who has an agenda of there own...

what I find absolutely hilarious is someone arguing about something that happened before they were born (even centuries) like its gospel....

people suk period all they care about is themselves...until the crap hits their fan...then they are all gung ho.....


we are a sad excuse for a "Human/human  race" we are a virus that needs to be scrubbed off the face of the earth.


soon  


ok maybe a bit harsh....

[Shuffler]

Mthrockor, war is something that is surlegal in the same sense that art can be surreal.  I never said that the US was the source of all evil- I was complaining about here way that the story was told.

Tupac- I don't see that in the article at all.  The commanding officer sought to avoid carrying out the orders.  That's not to say that I'm not disturbed by the event, but he wasn't evil relative to his peers.  Nowadays, sure, he should have been discharged from the army.  Regarding the Texans approach to prisoners, why on earth would you want more brutality in a war?  Isn't it awful enough already without more blood and bodies?

The men at the Alamo were soldiers who chose to fight to the death.

I'm sorry for letting this thread get out of hand...

-Penguin

Your knowledge of Texas history is on the short side. Many at the Alamo were not soldiers. They volunteered. In the end they found that there would be no reinforcements. Their bravery gave Houston the time to assemble more men for the battle at San Jancinto.

As I type this, I am about a mile from the Monument at the San Jacinto Battlegrounds.

[vonKrimm]

I can't believe it.  I can't believe that the authors of my history book did a two page touch-down dance on the Mexican-American war.  Call me a dirty, unpatriotic, anti-American hippie but by the time that they started cheering Zachary Taylor's paramilitary campaign of conquest on I was moaning "Oh, please, make it stoooop!".  I know that Texas buys lots of textbooks, but have these authors no spine? 

That's just me, though, have you guys encountered similar things in History class?

EDIT: To be clear-

It's that the passage was written like it was some grand adventure- not a war.  They made Texans look like heroes when they took the powers of the Federal Government into their own hands.  That's why I'm so riled up.

-Penguin

1: No watermelon that history is written by the victor; they are the ones with the will and means to write, the losers are too busy re-building.

2: Authors write to make money; in order to make money they need to sell their book; in order to sell their books, they need to appeal to buyers.  Trying to sell a book that deals with the Texas War Against Mexican Aggression by making the Mexicans sympathetic/Texans unheroic in the face of overwhelming Mexican superiority will not be purchased by Texas school districts.

So really, your gripe is against economic forces......