Like a story, human history is a story of change over time. Empires rise and fall, lands change hands, and new countries are built. Mexico is no different in this regard. Mexico's struggle to create a functioning government allowed the United States to acquire its northern frontier. How could this happen? During the 1800s, tired of being considered inferior to Spanish-born elites and seeing the success of the American Revolution, Mexico engaged in a bloody revolution. However, it was a long and expensive process that, although it ended in Mexico's favor, came at a high price. An estimated two million Mexicans died [webpage online] and hundreds were injured. However, this was not the only problem: with the absence of Spanish officials, most of whom ran the government, Mexico found itself with a fragile government, a terrible economy, and enormous debt. Weber describes this problem in his book. A profound change in Mexico's political, economic, religious, and social institutions had begun before independence, and the process was far from complete. As the nation struggled to overcome the effects of the ruinous civil war that had given it its life, it continued to falter under repeated economic crises, conflicts between church and state, the machinations of predatory and often illiterate army officers, the challenge of local leaders whose regional interests ran deeper than their loyalty to the nation and threats of foreign invasion. Therefore, Mexico had many problems to deal with after the revolution, and many more problems to come. The New Governments Mexico's first government was little more than a dictatorship, before it too was overthrown in 1823. Ultimately, Mexico had no fewer than twelve changes in government, its pol...... middle of paper ...... profoundly affects Mexico”xvi compared to the Mexican settlers who were simply struggling to survive on land that no one could or would defend from either the Americans or the Indians. The Lost Mexican Frontier After a short and rather embarrassing war in 1846, Mexico was forced to give up most of the territory in its northwest to the United States. This was the result of a large population of Americans that Mexico could neither get rid of nor stop, which ultimately led to the Mexican isolating himself from his homeland, as well as the inefficient government that Mexico struggled to achieve but was made difficult due to the following reasons, a failed legacy of Spain, multiple changes in political governments, low birth rate of Mexicans (especially after the Mexican Revolution), large debt, low tax revenues, corruption and vast social gaps.