In today’s excerpt – in 1836, a small group of “Texans” living in northern Mexico rebelled against that country in a quest for independence, in some part because Mexico had outlawed slavery. Mexico’s General Santa Anna failed to quell that small rebellion, then was captured and lost that territory. He was released and allowed to return to Mexico, where he regained the leadership of the country, rationalizing his defeat by comparing his loss to Napoleon’s war against the Russians. However, the bitter humilation of defeat stayed with Santa Anna and the Mexican nation, and led directly to the Mexican America War of 1845. There Santa Anna again lost – and had to cede a vast portion of the country from New Mexico to California to the United States: