Also, in 1847, traveler Josiah Gregg said that "the whole country from New Mexico to the borders of Durango is almost entirely depopulated. The haciendas and ranchos have been mostly abandoned, and the people chiefly confined to the towns and cities."Hamalainen, 232 When American troops invaded northern Mexico in 1846 and 1847 they found a devastated landscape and a demoralized people. There was little resistance to the Anglo-Americans. Some Mexicans in the north perhaps hoped that the U.S. would be more successful in fighting the "barbarians" than Mexican forces had been.DeLay, 286 The U.S. victory in the Mexican–American War (1846–48) resulted in Mexico ceding vast territory to the U.S. and presented the Comanche with new challenges.
