The Mexican-American War

The Mexican-American war determined the destiny of the United States of America, it determined whether or not it would become a world power and it established the size of the United States of America. Perhaps the war was inevitable due to the idea of Manifest Destiny - Americans thought they had the divine right to extend their territory. The Mexican-American War started mainly because of the annexation of the Republic of Texas (established in 1836 after breaking away from Mexico). The United States and Mexico still had conflicts on what the borders of Texas was, the United States claimed that the Texas border with Mexico was the Rio Grande, but the Mexicans said that it was the Nueces River, so the land in between were disputed and claimed by both the United States and Mexico.

Hostilities started on April 24th, 1846, 2000 Mexican cavalry crossed the Rio Grande and attacked an American troop of 63 men. This was called the Thornton Affair, 11 troopers were killed and the rest were captured. After that, the Mexicans started bombing Fort Brown, the United States sent General Zach Taylor with 2400 men to relieve the fort. The Mexican general Mariano Arista with 3400 men rushed out to meet them. When the congress heard of the news, they declared ¡§American blood has been shed on American soil¡¨ and they declared war on Mexico. The Americans used a new artillery method called flying artillery, in which mobile light artillery was mounted on horse carriages and the cannoneers were mounted too, in addition, the shells exploded on impact, devastating the Mexican artillery, the Arista tried to route the Flying Artillery with the Mexican Cavalry but did not succeed. The American Artillery demoraliz...

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...them, plus, the northern territories of Mexico were not populated, so it was very inviting for them. So, basically, it was the Americans invading Mexican territory and the Mexicans were just defending their selves from the invading settlers. The Mexicans were also angered by the annexation of Texas, which used to be apart of Mexican territory.

The outcome of this war was that, American made huge land gains and got tons of raw resources which paved the road to its future power and prosperity. America gained almost all of the lands it has now except for Alaska and Hawaii. The raw resources made industrialization easier and the land increased agriculture, it also increased slaves, because there were more plantations, which needed more slaves.