Manifest Destiny

The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the enemy die for his. The War with Mexico was a fierce battle, and in the end, America was victorious. In 1846, war broke out between Mexico, and America. Texas had applied to annex (leave one country, and join another), and after multiple refusals, Congress succumbed to the Texans pleads. While Mexico was angry enough having a border dispute with the U.S., and the thought of losing Texas to the enemy was infuriating to them. In the past, Texas had been a country for about ten years. Even further back, Mexico even welcomed the Americans! After this war, America also tried to buy California. However, overall, the United States were not justified in going to war with Mexico

Manifest Destiny is the belief that it was God’s plan that America extends its territory all the way to the Pacific Ocean (Roden 317). In other words, all of North America is the United States, so no Canada, or Mexico! This however, is not valid at all, because the Americans cannot prove this theory to the Mexicans, due to the fact that is is only a belief. “Other nations have undertaken… hostile interference against us, ...hammering our power limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by God for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” (O’Sullivan 323). In this quote, the Americans use Manifest Destiny and their population increase as an excuse to take Mexico’s Land. For all the Mexicans know, the Americans could have made it up to have a reason for going to war. Evidence that supports the United States not being not justified in going to war with Mexico was that, the Mexicans did not know for sure that the Americans had God on their side, so they could be lying, and that would only cause more contentions among them. Another piece that supports that Manifest Destiny is not a good reason to go to war is that the Mexicans could say that God was on their side, and the Americans could not prove them wrong. Therefore, the United States was not justified in going

“U.S. historians refer to this event as “The Mexican War”, while in Mexico, we prefer to use the term, “The American Invasion”... “ (Marquez 327). In the eyes of Mexico’s government, they were being attacked and in the Americans eyes, the Mexicans were intruding on their land. Therefore, Mexico had a reason to attack America without trying to negotiate. Marquez supports,” ...In the eyes of the (Mexican) Government, the mobilization of the U.S. army was an outright attack on Mexico…”(Marquez 327). From the hook exercise, a map that shows the boundaries, explains that the Mexicans boundary was the Nueces River and the U.S. and Texas boundary was the Rio Grande. (Roden 315). This is important because it shows that the Mexicans were wrong about where they thought their boundary was. Polk has stated,” ...The Congress of Texas, by its act of December 19, 1836, had declared the Rio del Norte to be the boundary of the republic….”(Polk 325). This is important because the US and Texas did not ask Mexico first about what the border was, and that set Mexico off. Ergo, America was not justified to go to war, because of how they did not explain what the border was, causing Mexico to believe that America was