How Does Manifest Destiny Legitimize The Mexican-American War?

The Mexican War or Mexican-American War is a war that had occurred from 1846-1848 and the legitimacy of the war depends only on the idea of Manifest Destiny. The war was a conflict that began with a territory dispute between the United Mexican States and the United States of America. Many historians would argue that the conflict was inevitable and that the fight between territories was unavoidable as the United States had already began its path of seizing land by any means necessary including winning conflicts and purchasing land. The Mexican people were not the only people who were attacked and defeated for land, and the list of people also includes the Native Americans at the time that populated much of North America. Although many would

argue that there was no legitimacy to the war however Manifest Destiny is what provided legitimacy.

The war between the United States and Mexico occurred as a result of Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny as defined by Robert J. Miller a historian states, “Historians have for the most part agreed that there are three basic themes to Manifest Destiny.
1. The special virtues of the American people and their institutions;
2. America’s mission to redeem and remake the world in the image of America, and;
3. A divine destiny under God’s direction to accomplish this wonderful task.”
Essentially, Miller is stating what the justifications for the Mexican war were. Manifest Destiny was, at the root, these three different aspects that Americans had largely believed. The Americans were given this right by God that could not be opposed. This is what they believed. The thesis begs the question: How exactly does Manifest Destiny legitimize the war?

When viewing the Mexican War, one has the potential to take a number of possible positions either for or against the war. However there were two main positions that one is able to take. Based on the common belief systems at the time of the war, both of the positions were justified and entirely legitimate; however due to the change in belief systems one position is become more legitimate while the other became less legitimate. The positions were: the Mexican position, which would state that the Mexican War was not legitimized because it was just a war intended to steal land and purely was unnecessary, and the American position which would state that the Mexican War was legitimized due to Manifest Destiny and the right given upon Americans to continue heading West and gaining land because God had given that right to them.

In modern day, there are many historians who historically investigate the Mexican War, that would argue that the war was not legitimized, and that the war was simply an attack to steal land, and an act that was entirely devoted to political and religious gain.

Even if the United States wanted only to acquire land assuming that the country’s intentions did not lie in starting a war, the thesis still begs the question: How exactly does Manifest Destiny legitimize the war? In order to answer this question one must first define all of the key terms in the question. Manifest Destiny was defined early by Robert J. Miller but what exactly is the definition of “legitimize”? In order to properly answer the thesis question one must define legitimize in the context of the Mexican War. In Merriam Webster, legitimize is defined as, “to make legitimate”. Legitimate is defined as “allowed according to rules or laws,” or “real, accepted, or official,” or “fair or reasonable”. Therefore the entire transitive definition of legitimize is “to be allowed or accepted according to laws, rules, or reasonability.” In other dictionaries, such as the Oxford dictionary and Dictionary.com, the definitions

match.
It is important to mind that the word legitimize is not the same as justified.

Justified would imply that there is some type of universal reasoning that would state what occurred because of the war was a good outcome. The purpose of the thesis is not to justify the Mexican War but to simply see to what degree did Manifest Destiny legitimize it. Based on the definition of legitimize, all that is needed to legitimize it is either a law or a rule that allows for the war to be accepted. Manifest Destiny is that “rule” that allows for the American people to accept the war thereby making it legitimate.
The reasons for legitimizing the Mexican War were quite simple at the time. The only things needed to legitimize the war were Manifest Destiny, opposing Christian values, and weapons. The reason this was only needed was because the majority of the country at the time was Christian and Christian ideas such as determinism could help legitimize the war. The idea that the United States’ destiny to expand westward was already present inside of the mindset of Americans long before the war had started. This mindset helped drive the forces of the American government and people to eventually spark the Mexican

War.
The Mexican War was entirely an attack against the Mexican people. It was a war that was fueled by the ideas of Manifest Destiny, and Manifest Destiny was so ingrained in the people that it was unavoidable that the war between Mexico and the United States would occur. A conversation that was had on PBS with David M. Pletcher, a professor at Indiana University, actually discussed the Mexican War and Manifest Destiny. The conversation was a question-and-answer type of discussion and the first question posed was, “What were the driving forces behind the United States' quest for Manifest Destiny during the 19th century?” Pletcher’s entire response both involved a definition for what Manifest Destiny was as well as the reason why it’s a reason to legitimize the War. Part of his response is as follows, “Manifest Destiny was a conviction that God intended North America to be under the control of Americans. It’s a kind of early projection of Anglo-saxon supremacy and there’s a racist element to it.” In this statement, he’s clearly stating that Manifest Destiny is only intended for Americans and this was due to the idea that God himself bestowed the United States with the right to control all of North America. Early in his response Pletcher mentioned that the United States wanted land and by using God and Manifest Destiny as an “excuse”, it allowed for America to convince itself to enter and take the land.
As I stated earlier, Manifest Destiny was only a part of the legitimization of the war. Another reason for the war to be legitimate was the opposing Christian values of the people. In the idea of Manifest Destiny, it was God himself who had given the right to Americans in order to expand westward and that same right was entirely