The Mexican-American War occurred from 1846 to 1848, and was extremely beneficial to the United States. It marked the first conflict that America was involved in on foreign soil, and had numerous causes and effects. However, the Americans had opposing views on the Mexican War. For example, some Whigs and northerners were very critical, but the majority of Americans favored it. Abraham Lincoln, being an Illinois Congressman at the time, argued against the president to find out the exact spot on the U.S. where American blood was being shed. If this place was on U.S. territory, he would support the war. If not, he would oppose it. (Boyer. “American Expansionism.”). The Mexican War was inspired by the idea of “Manifest Destiny”. This is “the belief that America had a God-given right, or destiny, to expand the country's borders from ‘sea to shining sea’.” ("The History Guy: The U.S.-Mexican War (1846-1848)." This idea caused suffering for Mexicans and Native Americans in the near future, due to the Americans seizing their …show more content…
The President had a desire for the United States to control more land. Also, Polk was a strong supporter of manifest destiny and believed that it was America’s right to conquer all of North America to the Pacific Ocean. (“Mexican-American War”). To the Americans, it was okay for them to take over the Native Americans land without feeling guilty. This desire to expand the U.S. to make it a larger and a more powerful country helped influence the Mexican War. Ever since the Louisiana Purchase, American citizens have been inching their way westward for settlement. They made homes on land that was not theirs in the first place, which angered many people, such as the Mexicans and the Native Americans. ("The History Guy: The U.S.-Mexican War (1846-1848).". Nevertheless, these actions did not benefit the U.S. for having a good relationship with these
One reason the Mexican War was not justified, was because the americans stole mexican land. American settlers only saw it as being part of the bigger plan of manifest destiny. In document D There is evidence of the american fault. For example: The mexicans had only recently gained their independence from spain as did many other latin american countries; so they had only recently gained their territory before it was to ripped from them again by America. Also, american slave owners wanted to occupy Texas to expand the slave holding territory.
“In the eyes of the Mexican government, the mobilization of the US army was an outright attack on Mexico”(Doc C paragraph 3). America was getting their military ready for battle. Maybe if President Polk hadn’t been so greedy with Texas, he wouldn’t have sent troops down there in the first place to protect it. This quote shows the Mexican War was unjustified because US troops entered Mexican territory first starting the war. “In July 1845, he sent American troops under General Zachary Taylor into the disputed area of southern Texas”(Background Essay Paragraph Seven). This once again proved the same reason that America sent troops into Mexico first driving Mexico to protect themselves. Mexico had good reasons for attacking our troops first. American troops were on Mexican territory and they were probably just about to shoot as well. This reason shows that America was not justified to go to war with Mexico because American troops trespassed on Mexican
Mexican-American War DBQ As a result of the Mexican-American war, Mexico lost more than half of its territory to the United States. The Mexican-American War took place from April 1846 to February 1848. The ongoing discussions about the annexation of Texas at the time had caused tension between the two countries. The President of the United States at the time was President Polk.
One reason that the Mexican War was not justified was that Polk was the one that wanted and provoked the war. This is what President Polk said, “... I had ordered an efficient military force to take a position between the Nueces and the Del Norte(Rio Grande).”(Polk, 325) This quote shows that Polk purposely brought a military force into Mexico because of what they thought was a threat that threatened Texas. This is also what Polk said in his war message, “...sixty-three men and officers, were...dispatched from the American Camp up the Rio Del Norte,...to ascertain whether the Mexican troops had cross, or were preparing to cross, the river…”(Polk, 325) This information provides an example that the Americans were basically planning and waiting
As Texans began demanding freedom, they deciding to away from Mexico, causing tensions between the United States and Mexico. In 1845, tensions began to lead to threats between the two countries when the United States decided to annex Texas into their country and ultimately led to the Mexican-American war. The U.S. was not justified in going to war with Mexico. A reason is that James K. Polk, president at the time, decided to send American soldiers onto disputed territory which Mexico thought was theirs. Doc C is an article written by Jesus Velasco-Marquez discussing the Mexicans viewpoint on the war with the United States in 1846. According to Doc C,¨In the eyes of the Mexican government, the mobilization of the US army was an outright attack
This quickly caused Mexico to become defensive. According to Document C, “In the eyes of the Mexican government, the mobilization of the US army was an outright attack on Mexico.” President Polk was a firm believer in Manifest Destiny. He believed it was God's plan to extend America's territory to the Pacific Ocean. Although his goal was to annex Texas, he also had his mind set on purchasing California from Mexico.
that President Polk had no right to do what he did. It is said that
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.
Mexico and the United States were very different countries. The United States was protestant and really strong supporter of slaves. Meanwhile Mexico was Catholic and anti-slavery. Sure enough in 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico. This war caused an immense part of Mexico’s territory to get annexed. This was a controversial war that had supporters and critics, but the question still remains: Was the Mexican American war really justified? Of course not. This war was an excuse for the expansion of slavery, it was provoked by President Polk, and the annexation of Mexican territory was considered to be illegal.
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 War of 1846-1848 was one of major importance to U.S. history, but has since fallen into annals of obscurity. It was the nation’s first war fought on foreign soil: a war that advocated the concept of “manifest destiny”, the United States God-given right to claim territory for the establishment of a free democratic society (Stevenson 2009). Even though many historians claim the war was forced on Mexico by slaveholders greedy for new territory, President John Polk viewed the war as an opportunity to defend the annexation of Texas, establish the Rio Grande as its border, and to acquire the Mexican territories of California and New Mexico (Stevenson 2009).
The Mexican American war was greatly beneficial to the U.S., but was it worth the cost of nearly 38,000 lives? The war lasted two years, with America emerging victorious and taking more than half of Mexico’s land. Although the conflict resulted in the U.S. gaining her most valuable land, nevertheless the war itself was unjust due to a multitude of reasons, such as the unwarranted Texas revolution, the selfish belief of Manifest Destiny, and the illegitimate intentions of President Polk.
Polk had said that Mexico were planning on an invasion and declared war on Mexico. This didn’t show that we show not be afraid or fear military ambition. It showed how selfish man can be just to gain more territory because they believed that it was their right to expand the country. Mexico only wanted what was theirs after claiming independence from Spain, and not have it taken away. Texas was under Mexico law, and Mexico banned slavery. Many Americans settlers did live in Texas at the time and knew it was against Mexico’s law but still had slaves anyways. The war lasted for three years, but soon Mexico decided to sign a peace treaty that gave territories to America. America paid Mexico 15 billion for lands that are known today as California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and
The Mexican American War was a very controversial event. The Americans believed in their “Manifest Destiny” which prompted them to annex the territory of Texas which, in turn, initiated the war on April 25, 1846. Texas was annexed to the Union as a slave state on December 29, 1845. This upset all of the Free states along with the Mexicans but the Southerners were in favor of the war because it gave them more strength when fighting for slavery. While there were many different beliefs about the Mexican-American War throughout the United States, these beliefs generally were the same within a region.
In 1846 throughout 1848, a war to conquer land from Mexico were orders held by James K. Polk. An unjust war is about to occur, In 1846 Texas becomes Independent from Mexico and the United States. To begin with, Mexico approves for the Americans to settle onto Texas with one condition to not bring slaves along with them. During this time period, slavery was one of the most important political concerns and they opposed slavery. The Americans didn’t hold the values of anti-slavery, during this time they valued Manifest Density strongly. Accepting some restrictions from Mexico placed was nothing compared to its own destiny to occur from preventing America to stretch outward towards the Pacific Ocean. The main conflict started with the annexation of Texas, a dispute on the nation’s border, the Mexicans consider the Nueces river to be the border of Texas as for Americans that wasn’t enough land so they consider, Rio Grande the border. A way to aim to