Comanche–Mexico Wars

The Comanche–Mexico Wars was the Mexican theater of the Comanche Wars, a series of conflicts from 1821 to 1870. The Comanche and their Kiowa and Kiowa Apache allies carried out large-scale raids hundreds of miles deep into Mexico. The raids were stimulated by the desire of Comanches to accumulate wealth through plunder, principally horses, mules, and Mexican captives for ransom or slaves who became integrated into the tribe. The raids escalated proportionally to Mexico's inability to defend its citizens during the turbulent years after it gained independence in 1821 and a large and growing market in the United States for stolen Mexican horses and cattle.

The Comanche launched their raids from Texas, usually in autumn. In Texas, a full moon in September was known as a "Comanche Moon" as the mounted Comanche raiders rode south to Mexico at night by the light of the moon. Comanche raids usually consisted of 200 to 800 warriors. The raiders penetrated 400 mi (640 km) into Mexico south of the Rio Grande. Forty-four raids are recorded from 1831 to 1848. During that period, the Comanche killed more than 2,600 Mexicans, captured more than 800 people, and stole more than 100,000 head of livestock. The Mexican defenders killed more than 700 Comanches.

When the US Army invaded northern Mexico in 1846 during the Mexican–American War, the region was devastated. After the mid-1850s Comanche raids into Mexico declined in size and intensity. Comanche power diminished due to a cholera epidemic in 1849, encroachment on their lands in Texas by white settlers, the near-extinction of the bison which was their principal source of food, and the U.S. Army's campaigns against them. The last known Comanche raid into Mexico was in 1870. In 1875, the U.S. army defeated the Comanches and forced them to live on a reservation in Oklahoma.