Although many Americans did not take the war seriously, the Mexican-American War of 1846 was responsible for the thousands of both Mexican and American deaths, and permanently left a scar on the the U.S’ relationship with Mexico. In 1846, the U.S declared war on Mexico after shots were fired at American soldiers on the “Texas side” of the Rio Grande, which the Americans believed was the border between Mexico and the U.S. The war was very controversial, and many Americans vigorously opposed President Polk’s decision to declare war. However after winning the war, the U.S gained most of Mexico’s territory in the West, completing the Manifest Destiny (BGE). Was the U.S. right to go to war with Mexico? The United States were unjustified in going …show more content…
believed Mexico could not govern their territory properly, Mexico still owned and had authority over California. The U.S. was not justified in going to war with Mexico because they ignored Mexican authority by settling in California, Mexico’s territory, and established slavery in disputed territory when it was against Mexican law. According to John L. O’Sullivan’s “Annexation”, “The Angelo-Saxon foot is already on [California’s] borders...armed with the plough and the rifle…” (Doc A). The U.S. believed that Mexico “never can exert any real governmental authority over such a country” (Doc A), so they set up towns along the borders of California with armed soldiers in line. These actions were used to pressure Mexico into an attack, so the U.S. could annex California. Charles Sumner states in “Objections to the Mexican-American War”, “Slaveholders crossed the Sabine [river between Louisiana and Texas] with their slaves, in defiance of the Mexican Ordinance of freedom.” (Doc D). Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, and one of their founding laws was the ban of slavery. In spite of this, the U.S. broke Mexican law and established slavery in disputed territory.The U.S. used tactics such as angering and pressuring the Mexicans, which helped provoke a war that was …show more content…
was not justified to declare war with Mexico because of the ignorance of Mexican authority, the robbery of disputed/Mexican-owned land, and the order from Polk which provoked the war. The U.S. were allowed by Mexican government to settle into the provenance of Texas. After settling in the nutritious and fertile farmland, the U.S. settlers rebelled against Mexican law and established slavery in Texas. The U.S. robbed disputed/Mexican-owned land, which led to confusion spreading into Mexico and the U.S. because of unofficial borders. Polk provoked a Mexican attack by ordering soldiers onto Mexican borders, which led to the Mexicans attacking out of pressure. Conflicts involving foreign relations still occur today, even if they are unnecessary. Hopefully in this day of age, the U.S can sort out their conflicts peacefully, unlike their choices in
The Mexican-American War was not a major turning point in the debate over slavery, it merely highlighted the growing sectional tensions. These growing tensions had existed long before slavery and would continue to increase in tenacity in the years leading up to the Civil War. Prior to the Mexican-American War, there was already growing sectional differences about how slavery should be handled. There was an effort to keep the balance of free and slave states so neither side would have an edge politically, such as when Missouri would only be admitted as a slave state as long as Maine, a free state would be there to balance it out. After the Civil War when popular sovereignty was put in place to determine whether slavery would be allowed, violence
In 1844 James K. Polk was elected president. As an avid expansionist and believer in manifest destiny, there was no one more driven to push America’s border further west and no one more prepared to defend these new acquisitions. This is exactly what Polk did during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), caused by a dispute over the border of the newly acquired state of Texas. Mexico believed the border to be marked by the Nueces River, the United States believed it to be further southwest along the Rio Grande. This dispute was settled in 1848 by the Treaty of Guadalupe which allowed the annexation of Texas to be recognized by Mexico and gave the Mexican Cession to the United States in exchange for 15 million dollars paid to Mexico. With the
Americans, inspired by the idea of manifest destiny meaning it was their God given right to rule the entire, mass, amount of land from ocean to ocean. Thanks to this vision it quickly sent current land occupiers, Californios or Mexico, and the United States in two completely different directions. In 1846, Mexican soldiers rose up against United States forces. On May 31, 1846 President James K. Polk declared war. A small California Republic, The Bear Flag Revolt, seized Sonoma for naval forces to occupy in hopes of wining the war. The Mexican War didn’t bring about much fighting just a hot potato game of territory conquering, but in January of 1847 Andres Pico a Mexican official surrendered to U.S. lieutenant John Fremont (Uschan 10). Formally in May of 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was reviewed by both temperamental parties and after approval from the United State...
Between the idea of manifest destiny and the moral dilemma that the United States faced, controversy emerged and America was, once again, divided. However, despite the controversy, the United States was not justified in going to war with Mexico. Manifest destiny is a concept that conceals the atrocity known as racism. John O’Sullivan uses the idea of manifest destiny in an attempt to explain the reason behind overtaking Mexico: “Imbecile and distracted, Mexico can never exert any real government authority over such a country”
America’s war with Mexico had its supporters and its critics. In 1821 Mexico was declared free from the mother country, Spain. Mexico was stretched from Guatemala to Oregon. It was equal to the size of the United States. It had emptiness near their northern lands. In order to have a bigger population was to welcome settlers from America. America declared war with Mexico because Texas applied to the United States of America for annexation, they were turned down because Congressmen thought it would anger Mexico. Then things changed and James K. Polk was the president and he annexed Texas for land and Mexico didn’t like that they took Texas. In 1846-1848, at Texas the U.S. and Mexico had a war. Critics ask does the U.S. have a right to go to war with Mexico. Manifest Destiny was annexation, Alamo, and envoy. The Mexican War
After the Texas independence war, Mexico doesn’t recognize Texas’s independence because their president, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, was captured during the Texas independence war. Although we didn’t get to annex Texas because it would be a slave state and an unbalanced between free and slave states. Texas finally got annexed in 1845 which was one of the causes that started the Mexican American War. The other cause is that President James Polk wanted California, so he offered Mexico $30,000,000 dollars for New Mexico, California and to have the border of Texas at the Rio Grande. He sent an American diplomat, John Slidell, to Mexico City. When John Slidell came to Mexico City, Mexico refused to even to see or talk to him. Polk was determined to get that territory from Mexico. So James Polk knew he was going to war with Mexico but he needed to get the country on his side, so Polk had to get Mexico to attack first. Polk sent General Zachary Taylor to build a fort on distributed territory on January 1846 to drag Mexico to attack. On April 25th, 1846 Mexican cavalry attacked the fort, and the United States army won on the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. Polk’s plan was planned out perfect. He went to Congress on May 11th and told them Mexico attacked us on our soil. On May 13th, 1846 Congress declared war on Mexico.
In the text, it states “I had ordered an efficient military force to take the position between the Nueces and Del Norte [Rio Grande] had ordered. This had become necessary, to meet a threatened invasion of Texas by the Mexican forces …”. The quoted text tells when the US leader told its armies to be ready to attack the Mexican territory. That is why the United States did not have any good reasons to go to war with Mexico. One other example that Americans had no good security “thus occupying the territory in dispute and increasing the possibilities of a confrontation” this proves the US did not know what they were doing by going into the land they didn’t own. The United States was not justified in going into war with Mexico because they did not have good plans on how to attack the Mexicans by not getting injured. (President James Polk’s War Declaration, A Mexican
But with no luck the U.S settlers did no such thing to listen to the rules, they were Protestant and pro-slavery, so they increasingly ignored any Mexican authority. Given the fact that Mexico had welcomed U.S citizens to settle on their land, were the U.S. justified to start a war with Mexico? No, the U.S. had no right. The United States were not justified because the citizens strongly believed in Manifest Dynasty, Polk, at the time the U.S president had been disappointed over not having the land of California, and Polk had provoked the Mexican government to attack U.S troops. Polk’s actions had showed how greedy he was of having control, so absorbed his power for new and more land.
At the time before the outbreak of the war, Mexico was given two options; give into the United States and sign over much of their land to the U.S, forever branding Mexico as cowards, or to do whatever was necessary to defend their land and their people. This ultimatum gave Mexico no fair choice, ultimately forcing them into the war. This angered many people including Americans at the time, and is still used as a key argument today.
America’s war on Mexico was a clear case of imperialism by taking over most of Mexico's land and taking their recourses. California and Texas once belonged to Mexico but because America used military force and had greed for land,power,and money.So before all this was happening, back before the war the Americans wanted to move to Texas for alot more land. But a lot of Americans wanted to move in. The American immigrants were moving into Mexico too fast and started breaking the three important rules.There were more Americans than Mexicans in Texas. America neglected Mexico and had everything stolen from Mexico, Their resources,money,and of course what we call now our “states”. As Cesar Chavez said “Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.” Mexico was stolen from America and they shouldn't dare call themselves innocent for what they have done,they are the
The Mexican-American War was a conflict between the United States and Mexico in which Mexico fought to defend itself from the U.S, while the Americans wanted to annex Texas and gain some more land from Mexico. This was a very important war because it determined whether the U.S. would become a powerful nation, and be on par with France, Great Britain, and Russia. Also, it determined how big the U.S. would be. At the start of the war, the president at that time was James K. Polk, and he strongly favored U.S. expansion. He, like many other Americans, believed in Manifest Destiny, which is the belief that it was the God-given right of the U.S. to spread across the continent. It was because of the Manifest Destiny that
The U.S gave Mexico resources. Source A says, “The Anglo- Saxon foot is already on [California’s] borders…marking its trail with schools and colleges, courts and representative halls, mill and meeting houses” (O’Sullivan). The U.S government are giving resources courts. Ect. The U.S is improving with California. The US is justified to go to war with Mexico because they want to help them out by providing them with resource.
During President Polk’s presidency, America grew by two-thirds, the term “Manifest Destiny” was coined, and America went to war for land in 1846 with the Mexican-America War (U.S. History.org, 2017). In February 1846, Texas became a state (a slave state) then Oregon became a state in June. Later that month, Polk declared war against Mexico and the Mexican-American War would be fought until 1848 and ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Schultz, 2013). The treaty not only ended the war, but allowed America to acquire a large amount of land in exchange for $15 million and set the boundaries between Mexico and America (Schultz,
Manifest destiny, the idea that America had a divine right to expand her territory from coast to coast, fueled and justified expansionism in America during the 18th century. One of the events during the Romantic era that was the product of manifest destiny was the Mexican-American War (1846-48) under the Polk administration. President James K. Polk invoked the ideology of manifest destiny in order to justify sending General Zachary Taylor to tempt Mexico into a war after they refused to sell Mexican territory to the United States, which presently includes California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. Obviously, there were many drawbacks to the entitlement American’s felt to the Western frontier and inevitably cause much harm to “the Other” that got in the way of American expansionism, namely
In the Mexican American War the United States took half of Mexico’s land. It all started when Mexico made a deal with settlers and they didn't follow the terms that were agreed upon. Mexico had given Texas its independence and it was annexed by the US but they still wanted more land. Eventually Texas and the US invaded Mexico and declared war. I think America was unjust in declaring war with Mexico because Americans broke Mexican law, invaded Mexico, and used Manifest Destiny as an excuse.