Wanted to add a little tidbit to the chewing gum tale from what I’ve heard/read. Not sure of validity but ties in well with story.
After defeat by the American army in the Spanish-American War, Gen’l Santa Ana, disgraced in Mexico, flees to the U.S. Among the items he traveled with was barrel of the Chiclezapote tree sap. He meets Thomas Adams, essentially gives Thomas the idea for the gum and later becomes his supplier for the sap.
Cheers,
Bryan
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Link: The amazing history of chewing gum - The Straight Dope
Sort of a nitpick, but the general’s name is Santa Anna.
Santa Ana is (around here) best known for being the county seat of Orange County, California.
Here’s the Wikipedia link to Santa Anna:
Antonio López de Santa Anna - Wikipedia
Don’t think you mean the Spanish American war. I think you’re talking about the Mexican-American war. Actually, Santa Anna got involved in the chicle business after the Mexican-American war (but before the Spanish American war).
It was the Texas War of Independence where Santa Anna first disgraced himself. Much of Northern Mexico was upset at Santa Anna’s rule autocratic rule and quite a few states in Northern Mexico declared their independence. Santa Anna’s army was able to quash most of these independence movements and nearly quashed Texas’s independence movement too. General Houston was on retreat , and It looked like Houston, his army, and many refugees were heading towards the U.S. border. Certain victory was in Santa Anna’s grasp.
Then, with the Texas army just a couple of miles away, Santa Anna and his army took a nap. The Texas’ surprise attack utterly defeated the Mexican army in less than 30 minutes. Santa Anna was captured and forced to sign a peace treaty with Texas. He was first sent to Washington DC to talk with President Jackson to help implement the treaty, but while in Washington, he was thrown out of the Mexican government and wasn’t allowed to return.
Santa Anna came back in the Pastry War. The French invaded Mexico in 1838 (just a couple of years after the Texas War of Independence), and Santa Anna fought the French forces in Veracruz where he lost a leg. This rehabilitated his reputation in Mexico.
After the Pastry War, Santa Anna once again became president of the Mexico and quickly became a dictator. He became so unpopular that he was forced into exile once again in 1845.
In 1848 with the threat of a war with the U.S., he offered his services to Mexico declaring he had no political ambition, but simply wanted to help his country. At the same time, he negotiated with the American government that if they let him back into Mexico through the American blockade, he’d take over the government and sell all the disputed land to the U.S. The U.S. allowed him back through the blockade where he took over the Mexican government and reneged on his deal with the U.S.
After the disastrous Mexican American war, he went once more into exile. By 1853, he was back in power, and sold the Gadsden Purchase to the U.S. By 1855, due to the Gadsden Purchase, he was back in exile.
It was during this final exile where the the gum connection comes into play. Santa Anna was living in Staten Island in 1869 as a house guest to Thomas Adams, plotting once again to take over the Mexican government. Santa Anna convinced Adams that he could use the chicle to make rubber and thus make a lot of money. Adams became a business partner with Santa Anna, bought a ton of chicle from Santa Anna, but was unable to produce rubber. Because of this failure, Adams and Santa Anna dissolved their business relationship.
Once the partnership was broken up, Adams figured out that chicle made a good chewing gum base.