Marquis de Lafayette Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Marquis de Lafayette - Essay Example It is unfortunate that Lafayette’s extraordinary accomplishments have faded from memory and that the thorniest issues he tackled such as racism, slavery, class difference, religious intolerance are still seen as major challenges in both America and France. On July 31, 1777, the Continental Congress introduced Lafayette, 19 to George Washington after Washington had taken command of the Colonial Army two years before and there were few foreigners interested in the American cause. Although the Congress told Washington that Lafayette’s commission was purely honorific, he was not informed about it and Washington complained about Lafayette’s expected command of a division. This made the success of American Revolution in doubt and for more than a year, there were only two critical victories in Trenton and Princeton and the army only succeeded at evasion and retreat. Washington was worried that perhaps Philadelphia could fall to the enemies and therefore the only thing h e had was the young French teenager, Lafayette (Gaines Web). Earl explains that Washington was later given a leeway on making decision regarding Lafayette’s role in the war and by September, he was riding with Washington into battle where he was wounded at Brandywine Creek (85-89). Washington’s personal physician then attended him and the history tells that Washington believed in Lafayette as a son and Lafayette treated him as a father. He treated Lafayette with fatherly tenderness however, the two men sometimes differed and could work against one another and their interaction symbolizes problematic relations between their two countries. Nevertheless, the friendship between the two continued for all the time Washington lived despite challenges and this friendship can be linked with the implausible French-American relationship. Lafayette always showed his sincere devotion and support of Washington, which made him seek for Washington’s approval before carrying out any military duty (â€Å"New-York Historical Society† Web). Volunteering to aid America in their quest to secure independence was a crucial role that Lafayette played in a foreign nation. Learning that the British troops had evacuated Philadelphia, on June 19, 1778, Washington commanded his men to pursue the British across New Jersey and Lafayette advised Washington to send more soldiers to attack the rear of the British. Lafayette, alongside other officers including Wayne and Green explained that the general attack should be initiated if the results were favourable and Washington agreed to the plan. Lafayette then asked Lee who had initially been offered the command but contemplated disaster to let him lead the command. With Washington approval, Lafayette took the command and advanced to meet the British troops but upon further consideration, lee felt that Lafayette’s success might tarnish his name against the congress (â€Å"New-York Historical Society† Web). Nevertheless, Lafayette refused to relinquish the command and he promised that he would only resign the command in favour of Lee if he does not find the enemy of which he did in the evening and lee assumed the charge of the division. Unfortunately, Washington and his men caught up with the British the following day thus prompting him to order lee to attack the enemy and that he would advance with other men to defeat the enemy. Surprisingly, upon

Preformance Managemant Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Preformance Managemant - Essay Example For instance, there are assumptions that managers might undertake when taking evaluation of an employee. Sometimes, the responses from an employee may not be reflective of the potential and skills that he possesses. Thus, at this point, it is expected that the manager would assume faulty quotes for the employee’s service within the organization. At some point, the main essence of performance appraisal or management may not be fulfilled because the manager may be biased or have an opinion which is built before the appraisal process (Cardy and Leonard). As per research, another reason which has been noted to affect managers is the psychological underpinning of performance management. At some point, managers may feel that they are insecure about their own positions because performance management requires a lot of evaluation and understanding. It should be noted that managers feel burdened with the strategic planning of needed for performance management within an organization (Cardy and Leonard). Finally, the most important reason behind resistance of managers towards performance management is the fact that they would have to set targets for their subordinates. As a result, it is expected that some of the subordinates would show resentment towards the managers. Therefore, an air of miscommunication arises that does not make the team and manager feel confident or communicative about each other (Cardy and Leonard). Other than this, it is noted that managers would focus on day to day achievements of the individuals. But it is ineffective because managers should look at employees as team members. It is due to this reason that they stay motivated and communicative within an organization. Secondly, managers believe that all employees are similar which only false assumptions are. Managers need to understand that all employees have different responsibilities and skills. Thirdly, managers often

How Technology Helps in Communication Essay Example for Free

How Technology Helps in Communication Essay If we talk about what are the tools that we can use in developing communication, than I say that â€Å"technology is one of the tools that we can use for communication†. Worlds are globalizing, we cannot depend on only one medium. We are lucky to have science gift that is technology. Communicating involves giving, receiving and making sense of information. Children do this by using non-verbal means of communication, talking, listening, thinking, and understanding. In time, the skills of reading and writing enrich this experience. Communicating is a two-way activity; as well as learning to share their experiences with others children also learn to interpret what others are sharing with them. They communicate in many different ways including facial expressions, gestures, body movements, sounds, language and for some children, through assistive technology. Children’s language is more than words, phrases and sentences. It includes art, Braille, dance, drama, music, poetry, pictures, sculpture, signing, and stories. While most children eventually master spoken and written language as their key means of communicating, they continue to speak through their gestures, body movements and expressions to a greater or lesser extent. Some children with special educational needs may need additional and consistent support throughout their lifetime to practise, learn and perfect the art of non-verbal communication. Language technologies are information technologies that are specialized for dealing with the most complex information medium in our world: human language. Therefore these technologies are also often subsumed under the term Human Language Technology. Human language occurs in spoken and written form. Whereas speech is the oldest and most natural mode of language communication, complex information and most of human knowledge is maintained and transmitted in written texts. Speech and text technologies process or produce language in these two modes of realization. But language also has aspects that are shared between speech and text such as dictionaries, most of grammar and the meaning of sentences. Thus large parts of language technology cannot be subsumed under speech and text technologies. Among those are technologies that link language to knowledge. We do not know how language, knowledge and thought are represented in the human brain. Nevertheless, language technology had to create formal representation systems that link language to concepts and tasks in the real world. This provides the interface to the fast growing area of knowledge technologies. In our communication we mix language with other modes of communication and other information media. We combine speech with gesture and facial expressions. Digital texts are combined with pictures and sounds. Movies may contain language and spoken and written form. Thus speech and text technologies overlap and interact with many other technologies that facilitate processing of multimodal communication and multimedia documents. Although existing LT systems are far from achieving human ability, they have numerous possible applications. The goal is to create software products that have some knowledge of human language. Such products are going to change our lives. They are urgently needed for improving human-machine interaction since the main obstacle in the interaction between human and computer is merely a communication problem. Todays computers do not understand our language but computer languages are difficult to learn and do not correspond to the structure of human thought. Even if the language the machine understands and its domain of discourse are very restricted, the use of human language can increase the acceptance of software and the productivity of its users. Language technologies helps in developing listening and speaking skills Being a good communicator is crucial to children’s development. The adult encourages children to communicate by listening to them, interpreting what they are saying, responding to them, and by modeling good communication. The adult also provides an environment which motivates children to interact with each other and the adult, and with the objects and places in it. By capturing children’s interest and curiosity and challenging them to explore and to share their adventures and discoveries with others, this environment can fuel their thinking, imagination and creativity, thereby enriching communication. These early experiences support children in becoming confident and competent communicators Natural language interfaces enable the user to communicate with the computer in French, English, German, or another human language. Some applications of such interfaces are database queries, information retrieval from texts, so-called expert systems, and robot control. Current advances in the recognition of spoken language improve the usability of many types of natural language systems. Communication with computers using spoken language will have a lasting impact upon the work environment; completely new areas of application for information technology will open up. However, spoken language needs to be combined with other modes of communication such as pointing with mouse or finger. If such multimodal communication is finally embedded in an effective general model of cooperation, we have succeeded in turning the machine into a partner. The ultimate goal of research is the omnipresent access to all kinds of technology and to the global information structure by natural interaction. In an ambitious but not too far-fetched scenario, language technology provides the interface to an ambient intelligence providing assistance at work and in many situations of daily life. Language technologies can also help people communicate with each other. Much older than communication problems between human beings and machines are those between people with different mother tongues. One of the original aims of language technology has always been fully automatic translation between human languages. From bitter experience scientists have realized that they are still far away from achieving the ambitious goal of translating unrestricted texts. Nevertheless, they have been able to create software systems that simplify the work of human translators and clearly improve their productivity. Less than perfect automatic translations can also be of great help to information seekers who have to search through large amounts of texts in foreign languages. The most serious bottleneck for e-commerce is the volume of communication between business and customers or among businesses. Language technology can help to sort, filter and route incoming email. It can also assist the customer relationship agent to look up information and to compose a response. In cases where questions have been answered before, language Technology can find appropriate earlier replies and automatically respond.

Evaluation Of Formal Strategic Planning Business Essay

Evaluation Of Formal Strategic Planning Business Essay What is strategic planning. As in daily life when people have choices or plans to make, down to the simplest things as in, what will we do this weekend?, businesses need to form plans or strategies to know their way forward with a goal for the business to reach in order to maintain the success of the business and to achieve objectives. All members within a group must know of the plans made in order to follow them with the desire to be successful within their environment for continued growth, success and also to move with the ever changing world in which we live. It is important for management to set out a game plan to continually strengthen the performance of their company. A strategic plan will state how a business should conduct themselves for a period of time in order to achieve these desired goals, this can be seen as a means to an end, looking forward to where changes need to be made and setting out a plan in order to reach that point using strategic methods. Jasparro R.J. (2006) states that strategic planning can help companies to think and act strategically, develop effective strategies, clarify future directions, establish priorities, improve organisational performance, build teamwork and expertise, and deal effectively with a rapidly changing environment. This has proven difficult in recent years and the following report will go into more depth as to the reasons why certain conditions may impact Strategic Planning. Nature of Formal Strategic Planning To form a plan, a business will have to look at both the external and internal environments surrounding their specialist area. It is at this point a company will decide on their competences and look at what the company is best at doing. They may then look at how they can expand on their strengths and look at what their competitors are doing within the same area. They need to know what makes them special and stand out from the crowd, what makes customers turn first and foremost to them, then look at the options they have at that moment in time to maintain the momentum and the returning business. It is at this point in the planning stage that they may look at perhaps not doing something which may be good for the company at a later date and maybe it is not the right time to make such changes yet. There should be a clear distinction between formulation and implementation. Formulation is in the planning process, implementation is carrying out the plans made using SWOT and PESTEL. Five Forces Analysis is a technique for identifying the forces which affect the level of competition in an industry and scenario planning is a technique that builds various plausible views of possible futures for a business. The five forces framework takes into account the potential entrants to the market (threat of entry), buyers (buying power), suppliers (bargaining power), substitutes (threat of substitutes) all leading toward Competitive Rivalry as outlined below: Porters Five Forces Template from thevirtualconsultancy.com PESTEL, an analytical tool which considers external factors and helps a business think about their impacts, allows us to look at Political, Environmental, Social, Technological, Economic and Legal factors which might affect companies. This is a broader plan than a SWOT analysis which concentrates more on the internal factors of a company, on the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Both SWOT and PESTEL need to be taken into account when considering major changes for any company. Key Characteristics of Strategic Planning Upon consideration of PESTEL and SWOT, a company will be required to look closely at their present work ethics and see where changes are required to help the company improve. Companies also have to limit their weaknesses and see opportunities for the business to thrive for the future. External matters will need to be considered such as recession, the time of year, inclement in weather, looking at the global market, is there a need to outsource certain aspects of the business, will this be cheaper for the company, will it cause more threats? The characteristics of strategic planning are weighing up PESTEL and SWOT matters and forming a plan to overcome or take advantage of the market in which they are in at that specific moment in time. The strategy needs to be frequently reviewed against prevailing external and internal environments. An Intended Strategy is when a company will write down their plan for employees and management to follow, this plan may become a Realised Strategy when this will need to be reformed and another plan made to reach the next level. Sometimes however, these plans are not met and a company will need to sit down with their board of directors and look at an Emergent Strategy, this could be down to major changes within their market, inclement in weather for some companies or many other factors but companies are still required to find a way out of their Unrealised Strategy and to move on from that with another Intended Strategy. Planning is a huge factor in Formal Strategic Planning. Evaluations of Formal Strategic Planning In evaluating strategic planning, business intelligence interprets a need to constantly monitor how the strategy and the objectives are being implemented and to note whether or not the company have overcome problems using their plan or not. If they have not, then the way the strategic plan was set out will need to be restructured to combat the problems and redesigned to provide competitive advantage for the organisation. Drago, W., Clements, C. (1999) indicates that leadership qualities of management and staff should be taken into consideration when applying any strategic plan. This article outlines the necessity to draw on the strengths of your staff and their traits to incorporate this into your overall strategic plan helping you to attain the overall outcome required. Advantages/Strengths of Formal Strategic Planning Strategic planning models the future of the company and allows everyone to see that they are working toward the same mission statement or the same goal. It outlines a paradigm showing strengths and a focus on where the company sees its future. It can add stability to the workforce who can see the company making future plans. Failure to make plans could mean a company becoming stuck in the middle if they have not differentiated enough to gain market share. Through planning, it can be said that companies will learn their market better, know their competitors views and decide whether they need to change their product or become more diverse sticking to a related market or taking their products into another dimension. For example, Virgin began in the early eighties with Virgin music, moving onto Virgin Atlantic and now they have broadened to Virgin media and phones. They recognised that they needed to change their market at specific times in order to continue expansion through planning or foreseeing the future of the company thus increasing their market power. In the early days, Virgin music was used to balance cash flows in order to move into the Virgin Atlantic area and spread risks throughout different branches of the same company. Disadvantages/Weaknesses of Formal Strategic Planning It can be said that in todays economic environment that planning is not always effective, as the market is changing constantly, almost on a daily basis making it difficult to plan anything at all. It is difficult to control anything which is out of our own hands as per the external factors mentioned earlier within this report. A business model could be flawed and may not have had enough thought put into in the initial process which could lead to failure for a business. Personnel could change and a company may need to restructure a plan according to a new setup of staff. A number of external or internal factors or changes can make targets unobtainable. When plans change, and an emergent approach is required to combat weakness in the formal planning, it can reflect that management arent focused totally on the initial goal with a willingness to compromise which could prove time consuming and inefficient due to its flexibility. Mintzberg (1994) states that strategic planning often spoils strategic thinking, causing managers to confuse real vision with the manipulation of numbers, this reflects upon the fact that managers can lose sight of reality and instead remain focused on the strategic plan instead of their vision and may not have a desire to change. Uncertain Dynamic Environment It is indicated in a journal written by Pateli, A.G., Giaglis, G.M. (2005) that researchers are linking performances between business models and strategic planning to take into account strategy, industry and resource based effects outlining that companies are required to look at the broader spectrum and link outside influences with their internal influences. The strategy influence indicates considering such matters as where a company is within their market area, should they expand, should they outsource, are their staff equipped to deal with change, is training required, the need to focus on goals and realise if their potential could be realised or perhaps moving towards a different area entirely for the moment in order to survive as a business. The industry influence will concentrate more on the internal market, looking directly at competition and forward planning, find out if they are equipped to cope with such changes and if not, what steps are required to be taken in order to stay ahead of the game. Johnson G et al (2008) indicates that knowledge complexity of an industry or organisational complexity with larger companies (perhaps local governments with various sectors) makes it difficult to plan anything strategically within the global recession. Managers need to be aware of constant environmental scanning and know what is going on around them in order to know the future direction they face. Using emergent strategies may work best for companies. In this environment, companies will be aware of the constant forces of change outwith their control and realise ways in which to overcome these. Political issues are constantly changing too and at present we face the possible emergence of an Independent Scotland. Although it is said that Scottish people will have more say over ones government and more political freedom, they also face greater economic risks, less security and more differences with England and possible further insecurities with the Euro. Obviously for individual companie s, this could be a time of considerable change and a need to be equipped to face both outcomes. Businesses will need to look closely at both scenarios and have emergent strategies to deal with problems they may face. Challenges of Uncertain Dynamic Environment Within our Uncertain Dynamic Environment, despite the potential advantages of formal strategic planning approaches, it can be of limited benefit to organisations. In a highly volatile global economy, there is a need to act quickly and effectively to change and uncertainty. Contribution/Roles of Formal Strategic Planning in Uncertain Dynamic Environment The role of formal strategic planning comes under scrutiny in an uncertain dynamic environment as it can be shown to have some sort of effect if a company has proven effective in its ability to foresee external †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Scenarios are visions of the future, a look at what may happen. Conclusion Is planning worth it? Planning is not necessarily strategic thinking. Thinking is intuitive and entrepreneurial based on ideas and a foresight for something a person or a company might want in the future. This is based on questions of what if? and complex thinking. Planning is bureaucratic and can mean that management are overly complicated which can result in faulty decisions. A plan created by a bureaucracy could be overburdened by needless steps and obstructions that would hinder actually getting the task completed in a timely and efficient manner. Bureaucracy is often taken to mean inefficiency and absence of practical considerations. Orders made by people that do not have to follow those orders and really do not understand (or possibly even care) what their orders actually require. However, a certain amount of planning within any business or life decision has to be made to a certain degree with a view to being totally versatile in order to make major changes as and when required to move to the next level. Strategic planning is not easy and has challenges, but the hurdles could be worth overcoming.

Censorship and Political Misinformation Essay -- Censorship

Introduction In 1944, after the Red Army invaded Poland and imposed the communist system upon it, large groups of Polish society resisted the attempts at social conversion inspired by Marxist ideologies and Soviet example. Many social echelons were effected by the new social engineering which included, "expropriations, ideological and organizational unification, and party and state control over social, political, and economic life." (Karpinski. 1997). Writers, artists and educators had success bypassing such strict censorship and were able to deliver their messages to the public, teaching values different than the ones officially approved by their government. After 1956, Polish historians, sociologists, and philosophers were able to publish valuable works that were free of Marxist ideological obligations. Some authors chose to bypass censorship completely by publishing abroad. The development of unofficial, uncensored, and underground publishing in the 1970's broadened the channels of public c ommunication. Radio Free Europe and other Western radio stations broadcast works published abroad and in the underground, giving them stronger resonance throughout the world. Typically, controlling ideological unification, regulating flow of information, and neutralizing critical opinion are the focal points of government controlled censorship. For centuries, the Chinese people have been isolated from the rest of the world due to the People’s Republic of China, or PRC, government’s strict censorship laws. Though the rise of the Internet has increased the flow of information within China, all information is heavily scrutinized by the current censorship machine known as the Golden Shield Project, colloquially referred to as the Great Fi... ... Road Blocks. Washington: GPO, 2006. Web. Pierson, David. "China: Online Call for Protests in China Prompts Crackdown - Latimes.com." Los Angeles Times - California, National and World News - Latimes.com. 26 Feb. 2011. Web. Schrage, Elliot. "Testimony: The Internet in China." Official Google Blog. 15 Feb. 2006. Web. Solomon, Richard. Mao’s Revolution and the Chinese Political Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971 United States. Federal Communications Commission. Fiscal Year 2008 Performance and Accountability Report. Washington: GPO, 2008. Web. Watts, Jonathan. "China's Secret Internet Police Target Critics with Web of Propaganda | Technology | The Guardian." The Guardian. 14 June 2005. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. Karpinski, Jakub, and Tibor Dessewffy. "Dissidents--Then and Now". Transition. Feb. 21 1997: 14-23. SIRS Researcher. Web. 02 Feb. 2011.

The Perception of African Americans in the Media and How it Affects The

The Perception of African Americans in the Media and How it Affects Their Self-Identity There has been much debate over the perception of African Americans in the media and how it affects their self-identity. It is easy to find examples of bias in portraying African Americans, but not a lot of causal research to prove that it causes problems with self-identity. A case can even be made that the amount of media presence by African Americans, whether biased or un-biased, has greatly helped to unify and give voice to a small minority group. The role of the media in the social identity of African Americans According to the United States Census Bureau (2001), 12.3% of all people reporting as one race reported they were â€Å"Black or African American†. This ethnic identity is now the second biggest minority in the United States. It also refers to a group of people who have been in this country for as long as it has existed. However, through the persecution of slavery, the rigors of segregation, and the continuing latent prejudice; African Americans are still searching for their true identity. African American Identity Just as children that were adopted tend to long for a true identity most of their lives, so is the plight of the African American. Stolen from their homeland and forced into enslavement in a new country, African Americans were basically victims of identity theft. Although much progress has been made in the way of an American identity for African Americans, a true identity has not yet been found. According to W.E.B DuBois (1903) â€Å"The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self†. (p. 68) Many African Americans feel the same as Kali Tal (1996) when she says, â€Å"After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world – a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world.† She also states, â€Å"One ever feels his twoness – an American, a Negro, two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled arrives; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.† A quick look at American histor... ...ly 25, 2004 from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/timeline/early_01.html Tal, K. (1996) The Unbearable Whiteness of Being: African American Critical Theory and Cyberculture The Kali Tal Homepage Retrieved July 25 fromhttp://www.freshmonsters.com/kalital/Text/Articles/whiteness.html U.S. Census Bureau (2001) Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin. Census 2000 Website Retrieved July 25, 2004 from http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01cn61.html Woods, K. M. (1995) An Essay on a Wickedly Powerful Word Poynter Online Retrieved July 25, 2004 from http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=5603 Afro-phobic or Afro-publicist 15 Worthy, D. (2004) Cosby’s Rant Reverberates Through the Black Press NCM Retrieved July 25, 2004 from http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id= c3a1cf5b268909dfee0db53722131aee Young African-Americans Against Media Stereotypes (2004) Black Athletes and the Media. YAAMS WEBSITE Retrieved July 25, 2004 from http://www.yaaams.org/blackathletes.shtml Young African-Americans Against Media Stereotypes (2004) The NBA and White Wives. YAAAMS Website Retrieved July 25, 2004 from http://www.yaaams.org/whitewives.shtml

Mexican War and the Austrian Succession War

The two nations that wrestled in the Mexican War were both ill prepared and ill-equipped to fight.  Ã‚   The United States, whose population largely did not expect a war with the Mexicans almost immediately following the independence struggle in Texas, naturally did not arm its soldiers.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Though Congress voted to declare war in an overwhelming majority, it did not readily act to enlarge the army or navy until after the declaration.  Ã‚   Indeed, there were less than 10,000 troops on any of the few expeditions launched by the government in Mexican territory. If the United States was not prepared for a struggle with the Mexicans, the latter was less than suited for the conflict.  Ã‚   At the time, Mexico was languishing under the on-again, off-again rule by the war hero and tyrant Santa Anna.  Ã‚   He had fought against the Texans, lost and was ejected by an angry mob, leaving only a general or another to stand in his place.   When the latter became unpopular, Santa Anna would return and rule Mexico anew.   Prior to the Mexican War, the dictator was again toppled by mutinous soldiers, a General Paredes, and his own capital, Mexico City.  Ã‚   When the Mexican government did declare war against the United States, several factions throughout the country â€Å"declared† themselves against the government.   In the midst of this, Santa Anna was called in again to take the reins. Thus it was that the Mexican War utilized a small number of troops, and its subsequent major engagements involved less than 5,000 troops at any one time.  Ã‚   The objectives of the Americans, at the outbreak of the War had been to force the annexation of California and resolve the border dispute between it and Mexico.  Ã‚   These were the initial goals, and it was only out of sheer paralysis in Mexican politics that the war was dragged on and led to the long American march to Mexico. This was not at all different from any of the wars fought among the major powers of the 17th and 18th century for dynastic succession, particularly the Austrian Succession.  Ã‚   In idea it was the challenge of the succession of Maria Theresa as Empress of Austria.   In practice, it was primarily the Prussian goal of seizing the Austrian province of Silesia.   Dynastic wars like this were limited to regions of conflict, and were soon ended once an army of one power had been decisively defeated, or had reached their objectives.  Ã‚   Oftentimes, allies would agree to a separate peace with their enemies, and the war would only be prosecuted to its totality if the sovereignty of one nation were endangered. At the outbreak of war the Mexicans had 20,000 men on the roles, and 24,000 officers.   Most were not even prepared to go to war, and were hundreds of miles away from the fighting. The subsequent American punitive expeditions in California were reminiscent of the engagements between Prussia and Austria during the Austrian Succession.   Much of the initial fighting in that war occurred in Silesia, and gradually spread, but was mostly limited to the southern German territories. The fighting in California was mostly between armies in the mere hundreds; the decisive battles of Rio San Gabriel, and La Mesa were fought off between Americans in the hundreds and native Californians with less than that number.  Ã‚   In the former, the Californian artillery failed them, and in the latter the Californians had mere cavalry lancers to the American rifles. The fighting, meanwhile, in Northeastern Mexico, and on the road to Mexico itself, was harder fought.  Ã‚   Zachary Taylor fought a hard-fought, stalemate in the city of Monterrey, where the able Mexican commander General Pedro de Ampudia held off 2,638 American troops to his 3,140, for two days with great losses.  Ã‚   Eventually the fighting degenerated to the city streets, and Taylor, rather than have to go through the effort of a protracted battle against the enemy, agreed to an armistice with the Mexicans.  Ã‚   The general soon broke this agreement, and resumed the march to Mexico. The rampant demoralization of Mexico made the American campaign easier, as the Mexican military command was disjointed, and divided.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Like Maria Theresa going off herself into the field of battle, Santa Anna, after being forced out of exile by his government, promptly took its reins, levied 16,000 troops by sheer will, and marched off to meet Taylor himself in Buenavista.  Ã‚   When General Taylor finally faced the Mexican army, in the Battle of Buena Vista, 4,000 of Santa Anna’s troops had died of hunger, disease and desertion. They were exhausted when they faced the enemy.  Ã‚   Nevertheless, through the discipline of the ranks, the Mexican forces had at one point outflanked and near to routing the enemy, but for the timely reprieve of American artillery that drove the Mexican chargers off.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Defeated, Santa Anna was forced to march humiliatingly all the way back to Mexico City. These were the only major battles in the war that involved armies of thousands, and they were concentrated on the cities and employed siege warfare.  Ã‚   The battles that were fought before that time were greatly smaller in scale as to the battles fought between the Austrians and the Prussians in Silesia, or the Austrians against the Prussian ally in Bavaria. Like the Austrian Succession War, however, these Mexican-American engagements involved sweeping cavalry attacks.  Ã‚   The necessity of battle would compare Santa Anna with the despairing Queen of Austria, but the tactics he wielded were reminiscent of the Prussian Frederick. California having been occupied by the Americans, and Santa Anna having been defeated, the Americans would have assumed the Mexicans would sue for peace.  Ã‚   Indeed, Mexico fragmented yet again upon news of the defeat.  Ã‚   However, like Maria Theresa before him, who faced the Prussians alone and with no European ally left both during and after the First Silesian War (which was part of the Succession War), Santa Anna and his government refused to make peace, forcing the sending of another American expedition this time to force peace upon the capital. This was the army of General Winfield Scott, opening the campaign by an ambitious amphibious assault on the city of Vera Cruz.  Ã‚   Following the city’s surrender after a violent trade-off of artillery fire, Scott marched off to Cerro Gordo, where Santa Anna with a force of 12,000 men prepared to ambush them.  Ã‚   A forward regiment of the American commander discovered the hidden location, and Scott moved away from the line of ambush and outflanked the enemy, killing 1000 to 3000. The dynastic, limited wars of Europe were prone to disunity in command.  Ã‚   France and Prussia had been united in an alliance against Austria, in the second phase of the war; when Prussian troops had been used to siphon off the Austrian invasion in France, the latter country’s army refused to aid their allies.  Ã‚   So, too, in the course of the American campaign leading to the capture of Mexico City, General Gabriel Valencia, who held numerical superiority over the Americans, was ordered to withdraw just as the Battle in Contreras was already set.   Santa Anna promptly left the general and his army to be sizably crushed by the Americans.  Ã‚   The subsequent battle of Chapultepec where a greatly outnumbered enemy force was abandoned by Santa Anna. Finally, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded almost half of Mexico to the Americans.  Ã‚   Like Austria acceding to the Silesian loss, Mexico resigned to the loss of Texas.  Ã‚   Unlike the Austrian War, however, they also lost the California territory, as well as land that would comprise New Mexico.  Ã‚   It was a limited, set-piece campaign by the Americans, though it was not the first in the latter’s history.   The lack of discipline and unity of command of the armies of 17th and 18th century Europe haunted the Mexican army; Santa Anna acted more of a mercenary than a general. Had he prosecuted the war more competently, he would at least have forced better concessions from the Americans, for at the time of Buena Vista, most of California had already been lost.  Ã‚   The Mexican general could at least have fought battles that would have shaped the terms on the bargaining table.   As it was, brilliant though he might have been, Santa Anna lacked the fiber of integrity that Maria Theresa had. References Ritchie, D. A.   & Altoff A. & Wilson, Dr. R.  Ã‚   (1985).   Heritage of Freedom: History of the United States.   New York: MacMillan Publishing Company. Simpson, L.B.   (1966).   Many Mexicos.   Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Durant, W. (1965).   The Age of Voltaire.   New York: Mahony & Roese. Mexican-American War. (n.d.) Retrieved April 9, 2008 from Wikipedia.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican-American_War.