Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/519

Rh But many years of internal desultory warfare, while fostering a martial spirit, reduced the army to a low ebb in sterling efficiency. Organization became defective; drill and instruction in military evolutions were interrupted, discipline was relaxed, and owing to want of money, the equipment of the troops was wretched in comparison with progress made in other nations. Thus in the war with the United States, Mexico, though able to send armies vastly superior in numbers into the field, was unable to cope with the enemy. The native Mexican was ready enough to fight, and did fight to the best of his power. Raw recruits by thousands shouldered their old-fashioned muskets, and untrained, ill fed, and miserably equipped, faced the foe over and over again, to die on battlefields while giving to the enemy the victory.

The disastrous result of the war was a severe lesson to Mexico; and when the French intervention came, her army had been raised to a higher degree of efficiency, and was not ill provided with improved weapons and war material. Since the successful issue of that struggle, her military strength has gradually increased. To the government the army has ever been a necessity, and to support it and render it efficient, the party in power has always directed its earnest attention.

When Diaz was firmly installed, one of his first cares was the reorganization of the federal forces. To raise them to an equality with those of foreign nations was a work of time, and put to the test his ability as a commander, statesman, and financier. The first object to be attained was numerical reduction. The late contests had called into the field a much larger number of troops than was necessary for a firm administration, and he began gradually to get rid of the excess, in due time converting a cumbersome number of men, unwieldy through defective regulations, into a smaller but far more compact and serviceable army.