>>17901996
>join with mexican spics in 1846 to fight against fellow whites in the mexican american war
shitposters learned about the San Patricios? Based, I love talking about them.

So a huge part of why so many Irish defected to form the San Patricios is due to the very poor treatment they suffered in the US Army; this was in the era of all the nativist carry on, so many of these men (who had arrived in the USA in the prior few years, having fled poor conditions in Ireland) were terribly mistreated. Others, however, were likely simply prisoners of the Mexican Army who were convinced or coerced to join them-then finding a new community in the San Patricios. The San Patricios actually continued to exist after the war, and were used to suppress Royalist revolts.
>fight for lincoln against the south
They were convinced to do so by influential Irish leaders in the north, who believed Irish participation in the Union Army would be a greta way to improve the standing of the rapidly developing "Irish-American" community. Some also joined up to get military experience to hopefully later use in the Fenian Movement.

Really interesting history; the San Patricios in particular were fascinating. Spain had plenty of polticians and military leaders with Irish parentage in the 19th Century; Juan O'Donojú was one, the last Viceroy of New Spain. His parents had moved to Spain from Ireland to evade the infamous Penal Laws.

Irish influences over Latin America is a really, really cool topic.