I don’t think we could have colonized and reformed Mexico any more than we can reform Afghanistan today.
I disagree. Afghanistan has never been colonized. It’s too tribal and lacks the natural resources that would make colonization profitable. Mexico on the other hand has been colonized by just about everybody who ever passed through. The country has the natural resources to make it profitable to station an occupation force there and the people have a surf mentality. The current government is little more than colonization by the ruling class yet there is no serious freedom movement by the subjugated population.
Santa Anna was a dictator who Polk could have replaced with an American military ruler when we beat the snot out of them in 1847. Had he done that it would have improved the living standard of most of the population.