Fake news, in this case 19 April 1842, the New Orleans Advertiser asserted that Mexico had offered to cede the Californias to England in return for seven million dollars. This was not so long after the US had gained independence from Britain (so rather incendiary) and just before the US-Mexico war of 1846-8.

That war is probably less prominent in the history textbooks east of the Atlantic - but the entire episode of how the US came to take what os now Texas, New Mexico and California from Mexico bears some interesting similarities to modern day politics and war, maybe think US, Middle East here.

See more at http://fooddeserts.org/images/000Mexico.htm

I'll leave you to draw any more parrallels yourself.

Dr Hillary J. Shaw
Director and Senior Research Consultant
Shaw Food Solutions
Newport
Shropshire
TF10 8QE
www.fooddeserts.org