The Truth about the War with Mexico

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United States started the war with Mexico due to its imperial ambitions and need for territorial expansion. America was modernizing itself and getting ready to engage in competition with Europe. Capitalism and modernization fueled the competition for resources to feed the industries, and the markets to sell the manufactured goods. A country in this world was either an exploiter or the exploited by that order of things. Being neither one of those was the hardest to achieve. Americans decided to be exploiters; therefore, they needed to engage in competition with Europe, a group of empires dominating the world. To successfully compete with Europe, America needed the natural resources and advantage over trading routes Asia to engage profitable in business with Asian territories. Another reason Americans engaged in war with Mexico was to avoid domestic instability and chaos that would slow down its imperial progress. Issues of economic crisis and slavery were vital to solve. The U.S needed to justify their actions; thus, they put the blame on Mexico for starting the war. The War with Mexico was a significant event since it was the largest U.S military expansion for the reasons of modernization covered up as an act of self-defense.
American imperialists had in mind to control the West Coast even before the Louisiana Purchase. “But no historian has yet dramatized the story of how Americans began, even before they acquired Louisiana, to view the ocean as their next frontier.” Acquiring the West Coast would give U.S shorter trading route to Asia than Europe had, and a path for further territorial expansion. At the same time, Americans would have controlled vast natural resources like gold and agricultural properties. In 1830s and 40s, w...

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...ks Cited

Barragan, Miguel. Dispatch on Texas Colonists. Edited by Howard Zinn, and Anthony Arnove. New York, NY: Seven Stories Press, 2009.
Bauer, K. Jack. “Mexican War,” Handbook of Texas Online, last modified June 15, 2010, accessed May 2, 2014, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qdm02
Douglass, Frederick. Address to the New England Convention. Edited by Howard Zinn, and Anthony Arnove. New York, NY: Seven Stories Press, 2009.
Hitchcock, Ethan Allen. The Diary of Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock. Edited by Howard Zinn, and Anthony Arnove. New York, NY: Seven Stories Press, 2009.
Williams, Appleman William. Empire as a Way of Life. Brooklyn, NY: Ig Publishing,
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____. “The Mexican American War,” PBS.org, last modified _____, accessed May 5,
2014, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/grant-mexican-american-war/.

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