The Controversial Conflict From the American Revolution to more modern wars like Vietnam and Iraq; wars have always been controversial subjects for Americans. One American war that had very apparent sides with strong opinions was the Mexican-American war. This war was started after James Polk was elected president in 1844. He wished to extend the American territory to the pacific ocean; congress also voted to annex Texas. Because of this, he decided to send troops to Texas and an envoy into Mexico, but this angered the Mexicans, so the envoy was asked to leave Mexico. Polk was angered by this treatment so on May 9, 1846, the war began. The united states were not justified in going to war with Mexico for multiple reasons, including that the …show more content…
Joshua Giddings believed the war was one of the many Americans who believed the war was unjust. He stated in his speech given to the House of Representatives that,”This war was waged against an unoffending people, with ought just or adequate cause; for the purposes of conquest”(Doc E). This citation shows the unfairness of the cause of the Mexican-American war. It shows that the war was caused by the need to conquer Mexico. Giddings believed that the war had the unjust purpose of expanding American territory by conquering Mexico. Many Americans like Joshua Giddings believed that starting a war to expand America’s territory was unfair to Mexicans and not a justified cause for going to …show more content…
Another American who felt strongly about the war was Ulysses Grant, a war general and 18th U.S. President. He believed that the Mexican American war was unjust because of how the American government acted. Famously, in response to an interview question, he stated that ” The wickedness was not in the way our soldiers conducted it, but in the conduct of our government in declaring war”(Doc C). Grant and many Americans believe that the war was provoked by the government, specifically president Polk and his decision to send troops into Texas and start fighting at the Rio Grande. These decisions made by Polk and the American government unjustly provoked Mexico and its decision in fighting in the war. The unjust decisions made by the American government ultimately started the Mexican-American
Following this, President Polk declared war on Mexico. The United States was justified in going to war with Mexico because it was our manifest destiny to take the continent and
The second reason why America was justified in going to war with Mexico was that Mexico didn’t have a very good government. In document A paragraph 3 John L. O’Sullivan said,”Mexico never can exert any real government authority over such a country.” America took Texas, because Mexico can’t govern very well. If Mexico was still owning Texas it would probably be chaos. America had a stronger government than Mexico. Some people thought it was America’s duty to make Texas part of the United States. John L. O’Sullivan said,” California will, probably, next fall away from Mexico… Imbecile and distracted” (Doc A paragraph
The Mexican-American movement started in 1846 and ended in 1848. The US and Mexico were fighting over the border. The Mexican-American War was a disputed boundary between the U.S. and Texas on the Nueces Strip. Mexico did not recognize Texas as an American Territory and Texas's admission to the U.S. I think the war was not justified because the U.S. brought slaves into Texas and Mexico had outlawed slavery.
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 Mexican-American War was driven by the idea of "Manifest Destiny" (Which is the belief that America had a God-given right to expand the country's borders from sea to sea) This belief would eventually cause a great deal of suffering for many Mexicans, Native Americans and United States citizens. Following the earlier Texas War of Independence from Mexico, tensions between the two largest independent nations on the North American continent grew as Texas eventually became a U.S. state. Disputes over the border lines sparked military confrontation, helped by the fact that President Polk eagerly sought a war in order to seize large tracts of land from Mexico.
The Mexican-American War was a battle fought between the United States government under president James Polk, who believed it was their “manifest destiny” to conquer and claim the land across the continent to the Pacific, and the divided unprepared government of Mexico. When Texas became independent from Mexico in 1836, Texas requested to become part of the United States Union twice, both cases were unsuccessful. One of the main causes of this decline was that the northern states opposed the idea of adding another slave state to the Union. And let's not forget the other reason for the United States decision, the looming threat from Mexico stating that any attempt at annexation would lead to a war. However, when Polk was elected president in
is unjustified is that they started the war intentionally by president Polk. In the background essay it says “Polk was a strong supporter of manifest destiny.” This is saying that Polk would do anything too complete the manifest destiny, even go to war with Mexico? What is manifest destiny first off, it is the belief of the U.S. expanding from coast to coast. Polk was land hungry and desperate to complete the manifest destiny, he went to war with Mexico not only over Texas but over California too. In the essay it states “Mexican soldiers had fired upon Americans on Texas side of the Rio Grande, President Polk had a reason to go to war.” Polk waited for a “valid” reason to go to war with Mexico. This makes the war unjustified, because Polk wanted this to happen he gave the Mexicans a reason to attack so he can declare war. Polk is the bad guy he only wanted land and waited to strike at Mexico by giving them a reason to PROTECT themselves. Thats all Mexico did was protect themselves, Polk is unjustified and so is the U.S. ( background
The Mexican-American War was a conflict between the United States and Mexico. It took place on 25 April, 1846 and ended on 2 February, 1848. President Polk played a huge part in the United States government's involvement with the Mexican-American War. Not all of the American citizens supported the war. There were many individuals who were against it they just was not for it. Henry David Thoreau, an American writer and philosopher, strongly opposed the war by declaring the United States actions as unethical.
The Mexican American War began on April 25, 1846. This placed the first U.S. armed conflict chiefly fought on foreign soil. It marked politically dividend and militarily unprepared Mexico against its expansionists-minded administration of U.S. President James K. Polk. Polk strongly believed the United States had an evident future to go across the continent in the Pacific Ocean. The border encountered along the Rio Grande, which began with a fight, followed by a series of numerous victories the United States. When the dust cleared, Mexico had lost roughly one-third of its region. The regions included all the states such as Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Utah. At the end of the U.S. Mexican War, historians have divided into their explanations. Some historians hold United States accountable while others put the blame on Mexico. The studies of the literature show majority of writers have taken into consideration that neither country entirely unimpeachable.
The Mexican American War was a short war that lasted between 1846-1848, which entailed the United States and Mexico fighting for territory. Due to the presidential election between James K. Polk and Henry Clay many Americans were now pushing to the west of the country. In 1944, President Polk was sworn into office in 1845. James K. Polk strongly believed in the notion of Manifest Destiny; a belief that America was destined by God to grow and expand from coast to coast. This led to the main cause of the war with America wanting to push towards the western side of the United States.
The Mexican-American War was incorrectly named; it was not simply Americans vs Mexicans, but a war between opinions. America’s war with Mexico: a war for land, for the sake of Manifest Destiny, or perhaps, a war to be started and ended in victory by… a thief. This war was supported and criticized by Americans and Mexicans alike. Manifest Destiny was a belief that it was God’s Plan to for America to expand to the Pacific Ocean, and a very controversial belief, at that. Before this war of opinions, the US already created a tense relationship with its neighbor by providing aid to the Texas Rebellion, and later annexing Texas. The United States was not Justified in going to war with Mexico because Texas was signed over, with no extra land, America was obviously itching to go to war, and settlers agreed to become Mexican citizens in the first place
The Mexican-American war determined the destiny of the United States of America, it determined whether or not it would become a world power and it established the size of the United States of America. Perhaps the war was inevitable due to the idea of Manifest Destiny - Americans thought they had the divine right to extend their territory. The Mexican-American War started mainly because of the annexation of the Republic of Texas (established in 1836 after breaking away from Mexico). The United States and Mexico still had conflicts on what the borders of Texas was, the United States claimed that the Texas border with Mexico was the Rio Grande, but the Mexicans said that it was the Nueces River, so the land in between were disputed and
The American and Mexico war had an effect on many people all around the world. Many people also stole things and killed each other just so they can live and be free. The war between America and Mexico had many conflict between each other. Many amount of lives was lost, and half of Mexico’s territory was lost. Not so many good things happened, like many tensions had emerged between Mexico and America. The U.S was more unjustified than justified for many different reasons. Although the United States war against Mexico resulted in the gaining of America’s most valuable land, the war itself was unjust because they wanted to protect the citizens, U.S wanted to expand slavery, and sent soldiers to their land which they thought was going to be a good idea.
War is declared by leaders, but the real leaders are the ones who fight it. The Mexican War, it was one of the main wars after the Alamo. The Mexican War was a war between Mexico and America. The United States was not justified in going to war with Mexico because they stole land, owned slaves, and broke Mexico’s rules.
How the United States stretched from sea to shining sea by being fair and unfair sometimes. The Mexican war started on April 25, 1846 when Captain Seth Thornton of the United States Army and his 70 sailors were attacked by greater Mexican force. This happened in the disputed territory north of the Rio grande, reports say that 16 Americans were killed and the number of Mexican soldiers that were killed it unknown. Was the United States justified in going to war with Mexico? The United States was justified in going to war with Mexico because of manifest destiny, border distributes, and annexation of Texas.