The Mexican War: Justified or Unjustified?
The Mexican War, or as it was called in Mexico, the American Invasion, was a very controversial event. Before the Mexican War, people from the US began moving to Texas. Texas was a disputed territory, as neither country agreed on who owned it. Mexico said they owned, while the US said that they did. There are many reasons to argue that the Mexican War should/should not have been started. The Mexican War should not have been started because US settlers in Texas broke Mexican law, the US invaded Mexico, and the countries had mixed up borders.
Before the Mexican War started, both the US and Mexico had mixed up borders. Mexico thought that their border was at the Nueces, making Texas part of Mexico.
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“General Zachary Taylor arrived at the Rio Grande” (Velasco-Marquez 327). The General and his troops were at the Rio Grande, which was deep into Mexico. They were practically invading! “In the eyes of the Mexican government, the mobilization of the US army was an outright attack (Velasco-Marquez 327). Since the army was already deep into Mexico, the government of Mexico took it as an attack. The Americans acted like a bandit, stealing from Mexico (Sumner 329). America tried to steal Texas, a huge body of land, from Mexico. The Mexican government had to protect their borders (Velasco-Marquez 327). Using this reasoning the Mexican government was completely justified in attacking the American troops. This evidence shows the US was not justified in going to war because they invaded Mexico.In conclusion the US should not have started a war because they invaded Mexico …show more content…
“The combination of American troops at the Rio Grande...angered the Mexican government.” (Roden 317). Mexico thought soldiers were deep into Mexico, while the US thought they were in Texas. “The incident occurred in the disputed territory” (Roden 315). According to this, no country really “owned” Texas. Mexico had the Nueces River as their border, while the US thought the Rio Grande to be the border (Roden 315). The borders were mixed up, so no one country was in their own land, nor could they know if they were invading another land. The Mexican government had to protect their border, the Nueces (Velasco-Marquez 327). This Information shows: Mexico’s border was at the Nueces. This was technically the real border. This evidence shows the US was not justified in going to war because the borders were mixed up. The US should not have gone to war because of mixed up
Texas and the United States believed that the proper borderline between Texas and Mexico was the Rio Grande, but for Mexico it believed that the border between them and Texas is the Nueces River.”(Hook) As you can see the United States and Mexico had different beliefs. This evidence shows the US was justified in going to war with Mexico because the US believed that Mexico had a smaller amount of land they what they think they have. But Mexico believes that it has more land. Mexico and the United States were fighting over the disputed territory which was between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, which made the tension between Mexico and the US more negative. “ on April 24th of April a party…..of sixty three men and officers, were… dispatched from the American camp up the Rio del Norte.(Doc B)” This evidence shows that Mexico had went against its boundary and fought with American men in the striped area where Mexico and the United states were already fighting for. This Made thing more difficult to handle because the Us and Mexico were already fighting for land and the probably made things worse between the two
The Mexican War was viewed as one of the most controversial wars in United States history. Originating from the annexation of Texas, or the lack thereof in Mexico’s eyes, the final spark to cause the war was an incident between soldiers of both countries in disputed land. Both Mexico and the US claimed to have been provoked by the other, and that they were only protecting their country. Many US citizens argued the war, as it appeared President Polk was using it for reasons other than self defense. By going to war with Mexico, the US faced the possibility of gaining much more of Mexico’s land and extending slavery in the country. The United States' decision to go to war with Mexico was based on a desire to extend slavery, to gain land they had
The disputed land was still Mexico’s. “While in Mexico we use the term ‘The US Invasion’...” (Marquez 327) Most Mexicans saw the war as an invasion: from their point of view, their home was in danger of being taken. “..reaffirmed the instruction to protect the border,...” (Marquez 327) Santa Anna, when instructing the order to protect Mexico’s true border, was merely responding to the needs of his country. When the United States Army came, Mexico saw a need to defend itself. (Marquez 327) An ambush was only needed to defend their territory when American troops trespassed on what Mexico considered its border. Apparently, settlers already settled lands that didn’t belong to them. (O’Sullivan 323) California territory belonged to Mexico. Any settling of the territory by any other people of citizenship besides Mexico’s is basically thievery. All of the evidence shows that there was no good reason for this war, and that the US is still not justified in the declaration of war. The disputed territory was still
With the widespread confusion and battles throughout the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, the U.S had offered a treaty to Texas, and shown in Document C “It would consider such an act ‘A declaration of War.’” Today Texans and American citizens believe that Mexico had attacked first, when in reality they were just defending their land. The U.S took Mexico’s land and had blamed them for attacking for the start of several battles and casualties when Mexico didn’t give up the land in the first place. Explained in Document D “Citizens of the United States had already begun to move
The Mexican-American War was a huge turning point for the future United States. The Mexican-American War was about United States wanting to fulfill their manifest destiny by having their land stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. So was it justified to take Mexico lands? The United states was justified in going to war with Mexico because we had rights and We would gain more land. Mexico might have been ‘dumb and distracted’, but they still should have some land for themselves.
The Mexican and American war was a very controversial war. Some think it was just and others think it was unjust. The war started after the Texas wanted to annex on to the united states. Mexico and Texas both thought they owned a strip of land in between But the Texans thought it was there. The undisputed territory both sides wanted and the U.S even was willing to pay for it, but Mexico turned it down! One event that sparked that was the president of the United States J. K. Polk wanting the war to happen. As so he sent troops to build a fort on the disputed territory in hopes of the Mexicans attacking. This plan worked and they attacked. So Polk got congress to declare war.
If you looked at a map of North America in the 1820's the countries would look a lot different. Mexico was as large as the United States, stretching from Guatemala in the south to Oregon in the north. The US was much smaller, but not for long. The Mexican War, or the "U.S. Invasion" (according to the Mexicans) started in 1846 and ended in 1848. In that short time the US gained a large chunk of territory including Texas and California and Mexico lost more than half of their land. Many Americans and Mexicans died fighting in the war but was this war justified ? I think that the Mexican war was not justified but provoked by the United States. The reasons why I think this is that Americans living in Texas violated the rules that Mexico had
The war the war was intense, but some of the soldiers wondered if the this war was justified to start. Many lives were lost during this terrible war. United Mexican States lost lots of it’s land and many soldiers died. This most likely weakened Mexico even more. The big question is was the United States justified in going to war with Mexico? There are many reasons going both ways, but there are some big reasons the us shouldn’t have gone to war. Some of the reasons are Mexico was still weak from winning their independence, Mexico never declared Texas entirely free, and the U.S. could try to work out a deal with Mexico to buy the land.
A final reason why the Mexican War was justified was that President Polk sent a message to the Senate to explain about going to war with Mexico. “I had ordered an efficient military force to take a position between the Nueces and Del Norte.” (Polk 325) This quote shows that the U.S. army marched and stayed between the Nueces and Del Norte to fight the Mexican soldiers. “Polk was a strong supporter of Manifest Destiny.” (Roden 317) This quote shows that Polk was in agreement in accepting and accomplishing the plan of God. Paraphrased information: Polk was elected in late 1844 and did not want just Texas, he also wants California, too. (Roden 317) This information shows that Texas isn’t the only state America should own. The United States had
“The Congress of Texas, by its act of December 19, 1836, has declared the Rio del Norte to be the boundary of that republic…” ~President James Polk. The Congress of Texas declared the Rio Grande the boundary.” (Doc B Paragraph 2-3) When this happened the Americans did not listen to the boundary and crossed it. There were two major problems with this. The first problem with this was that the Americans were bringing slaves into this slave free dominion. The second major complication was that the Americans were crossing the boundaries and claiming land that was the Mexicans. This evidence shows the US was not justified in going to war with Mexico because the Americans were stealing Mexican land. They were also crossing the boundaries, and stealing the land right after Mexico declared they were a slave free dominion. “Certainly Mexico...might justly charge our citizens with disgraceful robbery, while, in seeking extension of slavery.”~Charles Sumner. (Doc D Paragraph
One reason that the Mexican-American war was not justified is that the Americans took land from Mexico. The annexation of Texas is an example of America taking land, stated in Document C. That was very wrong of the U.S to do at the time due to security and legal reasons for Mexico. Then Americans tried to take more land from Mexico by sending troops to near the Rio Grande River. As a security measure, the Mexicans decided to attack the American soldiers, killing 16 of the Americans. This shows that Americans were not justified for going to war with Mexico because Americans decided to send soldiers to invade the undisputed part of land between Texas and Mexico.
The Mexican-American War was a result of Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was a belief that Americans had a god given right to expand their border all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Not only did Americans believe that they also had a right to the land, but they also believed that they had a moral duty to civilize its occupants, which included Native Americans, Mexicans, and Spanish speaking Catholics. According to Britannica, the Mexican-American War originated from the United States annexation of Texas in 1845. Texas had been in a border dispute with Mexico at the time of the annexation therefore, the conflict transferred to the U.S. Mexico claimed that the border ended at the Nueces River, and the United States claimed it ended at the Rio Grande River.
Right after the battle of the alamo when, americans won their Independence and won Texas over, still Americans were looking for more land to concur. In 1848 there was fighting near the Rio de Norte near the north bank. On that day 16 americans out of 70 died in that battle, but for the mexicans the number of deaths are unknown. Was the United States Justified in going to war with mexico. The United States had no reason in going to with mexico because the americans were stealing from mexico, and that president Polk was trying to take over california which was still owned by mexicans. This was why Americans went to war with mexico.
“The Texans won their independence from Mexico in 1836.” (Roden 317) This quote shows that Texas was never a part of Mexico after 1836 and was bought by the United States.“The map shows that there are boundaries between Texas and Mexico.” (Roden 315) This shows that Texas is independent and that they should be the ones making the choice to annex into America. Texas had asked the U.S. Congress for nine years for them to annex their land. (Roden 317) This information shows that Texas wanted to be part of the United States and the congress wanted to extend their land. Texas finally decided to call its boundaries in the U.S. They were now within America’s boundaries. All of this evidence shows the U.S. was justified in going to war because Texas’ boundaries were within the United States. They had signed a document saying that Texas would now be part of their
First, we annexed texas. second, during the war we took nearly half their land, and after that, we still could not even compromise by making the border of texas the Nueces river. This evidence shows the US was not