The Brown Bess Musket of the Mexican Army,The Brown Bess is typically viewed as the musket of empire

The Brown Bess Musket of the Mexican Army,The Brown Bess is typically viewed as the musket of empire for the British Army during the 18th century and early 19th century.  Britain has always had a relatively small army compared to other world powers, and after the Napoleonic Wars much of the army was demobilized and disbanded. This left Britain with a large surplus of arms, many of which were old and outdated.  One major buyer of British military surplus was Mexico, a largely agricultural nation which had no means to produce weapons of their own.  So the new nation purchased most of their arms from other nations, more specifically Britain.Most of the Brown Bess muskets delivered by the British were Long Land Pattern, Short Pattern, and India Pattern muskets that were surplus from the Napoleonic Wars.  After seeing heavy use, many were old and worn, thus they were often sold at a discount.  Thousands were purchased and were used to arm the largely peasant conscript army of the Empire of Mexico.  The Mexican Brown Bess would become the main arm of Mexican Army under the command of General and President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.  It saw action during the Texas Revolution in 1835 and even continued in use during the Mexican American War in 1846.While serviceable and functional in the 1820’s and 30’s, the continued use of the Brown Bess by Mexico would later become a detriment for its army.  When the United States declared war on Mexico in 1846 the flintlock Brown Bess was still the main weapon of the Mexican Army. By then the Brown Bess was considered a quaint antique, with its flintlock firing mechanism obsolete whereas most other nations had adopted more effective and reliable percussion muskets.  During the Mexican American War, the Mexican Army was always at a grave disadvantage, as the old flintlock Brown Bess was no match for the American’s modern percussion Springfield M1842 musket which was more accurate and more reliable.  Furthermore some American soldiers were armed with even more advanced Hall breech loading rifles and Colt revolvers. Mexico’s inferiority of arms and inability to modernize was one of many factors that led to a resounding American victory and terrible defeat for Mexico.  Indeed the defeat was costly as vast territories of the American Southwest were ceded to the United States, reducing Mexican territory by almost half in 1848. -- source link

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