Through Manifest Destiny, the U.S. conquered many new territories. Ever since the U.S. became its own country, they always wanted more land. They thought that the Manifest Destiny gave them the right to expand and conquer more land. The United States were offered a deal known as the Louisiana Purchase which doubled their size. Even after they received this land, they were thirsty for more. They wanted to have Texas as their own. After Texas got their independence from Mexico, President Polk annexed it. Polk had his eye set on California next. But before he could get California, he had to deal with border dispute in Texas, leading to the war with Mexico. So, did the United States have a good reason to go to war with Mexico? The answer is simple, the U.S. was not justified into going to war with Mexico. This is proven through the Manifest Destiny, border disputes, and an American viewpoint on the war. The Manifest Destiny did not provide a valid reason to start a war with Mexico. The U.S said that “Mexico never can exert any real government authority over such a country” (Doc A). From …show more content…
got their land from Mexico through war. The war with Mexico killed many people for the United States personal benefit of getting more land. At the beginning of the essay we had one question, was the United States justified in going to war with Mexico. The answer to this debatable question was that the United States did not have a good reason to go to war with Mexico, This was proven by the Manifest Destiny showed that “God’s” words told the U.S. to go out and take other people's land, which is totally wrong. Next border disputes occurred leading the U.S. to use it as an excuse to start the war with Mexico. And lastly the American viewpoint showed that the U.S. did not follow the laws of having Texas as a slave free place. These topics all show that the United States had to use something to make an excuse to start the war since they had no good reason to do
Rodolfo Acuña and Norman A. Graebner take opposing standpoints on this topic. Acuña takes the standpoint that the Americans took advantage of the Mexican government, which was young and unstable at the time. He argued that the United States waged an unjust war solely for the acquisition of new lands. His excerpt from Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, 3rd Edition provided the basis for his argument. On the other hand, Graebner took the standpoint that President James Polk pushed a policy, enforced by a stronger nation, to force Mexico to sell New Mexico and California and recognize the annexation of Texas to the United States without starting a war. His argument was taken from his article “The Mexican War: A Study in Causation”. Both sides of the American Imperialism argument contain their own strengths. However, after the examination of the articles, Graebner proposes a more convincing
In Frederick Jackson Turner’s essay, he talked about how he thought the West was where true American character was formed and that the West was the birthplace of democracy. However, in my perspective I don’t only feel that Turner was inaccurate in his analysis, but also very racist and selfish. I believe that Turner wanted to justify why taking over the West would be so necessary and beneficial to Americans. He stated several things in his essay that were obviously undermined by many primary sources in Hollitz’s book. At the time Americans took on the ideology of Manifest Destiny, which basically was the belief that Americans were destined to expand from coast to coast in North America despite the fact that there was people already occupying land on
The war between the United States and Mexico was brutal, but yet very interesting.“Today, we stand as a united country and are much closer to the ideals set forth in our Constitution that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The first sentence of this quote is a perfect example of the Mexican American War, the we were supposed to be united. Manifest Destiny states that we as the United States are bound to have all the land, God wants them to. The war between Mexico and the United States started in 1846, should the United States go to war with Mexico. The United States was indeed justified to go to war with Mexico, because 16 Americans lost their lives in a battle with Mexico, second, Mexicans were mad about the revolution, and Mexico treated U.S. diplomats poorly.
John Sullivan founded the manifest destiny movement (Doc A). This idea of God leading the U.S. westward into new territory spread, reaching the president, James K. Polk. He liked this idea, for he wanted to gain more land, especially from Mexico. James Polk was greedy for more territory, as he was a Democrat, who supported annexing Texas and Oregon. Using manifest destiny to obtain this land for the U.S. meant more Americans would support the westward expansion. Therefore, Polk was able to send Americans, particularly farmers, westward, which would soon cause great conflict with Mexico, leading to war. Polk sent multiple representatives to Mexico, wanting to make deals for land in Mexico’s possession (Doc E). One specific person Polk sent was WIlliam Emory. He went to offer a friendship with Mexico and to state reasoning for the U.S. invading Mexican territory. James Polk knew the Mexican Republic was angry at America for invading Texas. So, logically, he sent one of many “ambassadors” to create a peace treaty, and offer a friendship supplying benefits, such as protection for Mexico. Although, Mexico declared the U.S. as “invaders” and rejected the proposed treaties. Though it may seem former president James Polk was pro-manifest destiny, and genuinely wanted a national agreement of peace with Mexico, he was really eyeing their land, where he could obtain the territory, and
Behind the scenes of Manifest Destiny, what really transformed the country was the ability to move products across great distances and the Erie Canal was a huge turning point for economic growth in America. Opened in 1825, the Erie Canal was the engineering breakthrough of the nineteenth century: Its four waterways would connect manufacturing and eastern ports with the rest of the country. Farmers could now ship their goods, they could move out, come down the Hudson River and this way of commuting became a part of a global economy. This Moment would bring about the thought of expansion which will become the fuse to enormous economic growth that will ultimately in the next century, become the belief of manifest destiny. The nation that both reflected the pride which reflected American nationalism, and the idealistic image of social perfection through God and the Church caused the nation to separate.
Many believed that the United States was fulfilling their Manifest Destiny by extending their Democratic ideals and to extend the boundaries of the area of freedom. Many also feared, like President Polk, that Great Britain and France would take control of territory—such as that of California—if the United States did not. In addition to this, many believed it to be completely justified due to the fact that Mexican soldiers were the first to fire upon U.S. soldiers initiating the start of the war. At the time of the Mexican-American War, Anti-Slavery was a large controversial topic.
As more Americans moved west and into Texas it became evident. that there was going to be a continued clash between Mexico and the white frontiersmen who quickly flooded. certain areas of the world. The American government wanted to purchase this valuable land but eventually it was taken by Americans. frontiersmen where it was declared its own realm.
In 1845 the U.S attempted to Annex Texas. Basically America wanted Texas to become one of the states rather then and independent nation by itself. At this time Texas was an independent nation that was not a part of America or Mexico. Mexico wanted to keep Texas neutral if not a part of its own country. When the U.S attempted to annex Texas Mexico became outraged, " In November 1843 Mexico had warned that if the United States should commit the 'unheard-of aggression' of seizing an integral part of 'Mexican territory' Mexico would declare war " (Bound for the Rio Grande, 62). Despite the warning the U.S attempted to annex Texas. In doing so Mexico retaliated by breaking off all diplomatic relations with the U.S. Mexico felt that the U.S was insulting them by not taking them seriously when they threatened with war. So at this point America showed a very large interest in possessing Texas. America was very close to actually acquiring Texas when they made their first mistake in the war.
By taking the Mexicans land, we fought many battles that we unneeded. Mexicans adapted very quickly to the American lifestyle and began to populate many farms and towns in the US. But some were not as pleased with the change. Most Mexicans were thought of as dirty and below Americans, so in that way they were treated. But overcoming that Mexicans were hard workers and took many jobs at that time for lower wages, the same is true to this day.
Throughout 1846 to 1848, the Mexican-American War marked the initial U.S armed warfare fought on foreign soil. Texas obtained its independence from Mexico in 1836. Originally, the United States refused to make it part of the union. There were many reasons as to why the Mexican-American War surfaced, those being the: manifest destiny, westward expansion, economics, and slavery. America was ready to expand westward and would, even if it meant going to war. But the main cause was the Texas Annexation. The Mexican government was persuading border attacks and forewarning that any effort at annexation would result in war.
While women in Mexico and the United States were both fighting for their rights, their choices and actions were shaped by the world around them. Between the years of 1846 and 1848, the United States and Mexico had been at war with one another. The United States attacked Mexico because they believed themselves to be entitled to their land. They called this entitlement Manifest Destiny. The United States was ultimately victorious, this was an enormous defeat to the Mexican people and they were forced to give up approximately half of their territory. This defeat came shortly after Mexico had declared its independence.
The Mexican-American War marked the first American military battle to be fought on foreign soil. The Mexican American War was mainly driven by the idea of “Manifest Destiny”; the belief that the United States had a right to spread across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. The motives that were really behind Manifest Destiny was the acquisition of new territory ,and the Americans wanted territories which were relatively uninhabited by people they considered inferior, such as Indians, blacks and Mexicans. President Pork provoked war with Mexicans with the aim of pushing Mexico into negotiating with Americans. To achieve this, he was willing to threaten them with war. His aim was to convince Mexicans
One reason that the Mexican War was not justified was because the Americans invaded Mexican land and went beyond approved borders. “The congress of Texas, by its act of December 9, 1836, had declared the Rio de Norte to be the boundary. ” This quote shows that there were set boundaries and Americans made up their own without Mexico’s permission. “Polk sent John Slidell to Mexico City to try
The great fear of a war with Mexico would have also inevitably have still have taken place. Manifest Destiny would have push for the war because it was the only way to get to the Pacific.
The United States did what they had to do in order to show other countries that we were a strong independent country. We were no longer a weak country that was connected to Britain. For the American-Mexican War President James K. Polk had to do what he had to do. He wanted Texas as one of our states and so did Mexico. In order to annex Texas we had to go to war.