Why Did The Us Go To War With Mexico Dbq

The U.S was not justified in going to war with Mexico. One reason is because the United States was demonstrating imperialism, and was greedy for land. In document A it says “ Mexico never can exert any real government over such a country….The Anglo-Saxon foot is already on [California's] borders....armed with the plough and the rifle.”This shows how the U.S is power hungry. They just won Texas and now they already they want to take even more from Mexico. They are even talking bad about Mexico saying “Mexico never can exert any real government authority over such a country.” This is trying to make the United States look good, and Mexico looks like they cannot govern.

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.

America was justified in going into war with Mexico because they wanted to respect their soldiers,Texas was now an American state,and Mexico lost control of the land.It took four people to cause the Revolutionary War,and it only took 16 men to start the Mexican-American War.In order to respect the American soldiers that were killed,America needed to go to war.Document B it states, “Texas had determined to annex herself to our union,and under these circumstances,it was it was plainly our duty to extend our protection over her citizens soil.”(Doc B)When Texas declared its independence,it was known to soon become an American state.Texas was seen as a sister to America and they wanted to protect the land that was invaded.On Document A it states,

[Tension arose between the United States and Mexico when the United States decided to annex Texas, but the two countries couldn’t come to an agreement about where the border was. When sixteen American soldiers were patrolling along the north of the Rio Grande River, Mexicans shot every one of them dead, thus making the United States declare war on Mexico.] The U.S. was not justified in going to war with Mexico.*One reason is that the shooting of the U.S. troops occurred on disputed territory, so Mexico believed that the United States was invading their land.* [Doc C is an informative article about Mexico’s viewpoint of the war, written by Jesus Velasco-Marquez in 2006.] Doc C states,

Was the United States Justified in Going to War with Mexico? War with Mexico, Justified or not? The Mexican war took place in 1846, Mexico, this war was a result of built up tension, from Texas becoming a state, and the attack above Rio Grande. Was the United States justified in going to war with Mexico? The United States was not justified in going to war with Mexico because we took there land, an unreasonable war prize, and attacked them in disputed territory One reason the Mexican war was not justified was, we took their land.

[Texas was a great place to grow cotton because of great climate, and it was a big piece of land. Two groups of Tejanos and Americans began complaining about each other. The leader of Mexico General Antonio Lopez De Santa Ana soon stopped Texas from letting Americans into it because they were not following the rules. Americans wanted to annex Texas but the Mexican Government did not let the United States get Texas that easy.] The United States was Justified in going to war with Mexico.* One reason why The US was justified in going in war with Mexico was because The US wanted All of Texas so they can reestablish slavery and get a lot of cotton out of it.* [The author of this

My first reason of why they did not have proper reasoning into going to war with Mexico is that they stole land from them. John L. O`Sullivan quotes, “California, will, probably, next, fall away from Mexico.”(Doc.A) Charlie Summer, Massachusetts state legislature, also quotes,”At this period,citizens of the U.S. had already begun to[move] into Texas. The idea was, that this extensive province ought to become a part of the United States.”(Doc.D). The evidence that I have found for this argument shows the

The Mexican war was unjustified because they were way too obsessed in expanding the United States because of manifest destiny. In document D it stated that the United States was way over obsessed about expanding the U.S because they thought that it was gods will, but they did not pay any attention to where they were trying to expand the United States. This evidence shows that the U.S was unjustified in going to war with mexico because they were over obsessed in gods will, manifest destiny. Deciding to go to war with Mexico was unjustified because of them bringing slaves into the Mexican territory. Document D states that, “Certainly [Mexico] … might justly charge our citizens with disgraceful robbery,while, in seeking extension of slavery [our own citizens denied] the great truths of American freedom…” This quote means that the citizens wanted slavery but the Mexicans did not want the Americans to bring slaves into their

The final reason that America was unjustified in fighting this war was, the Americans broke the treaty and brought in slaves. The Mexicans considered U.S troops as an act of war (Doc C) , they thought a broken treaty was a sign of war. In document D, the Americans crossed into Mexico’s land with slaves in defiance of Mexico’s laws. In document A, it states “Current wave of immigration In document C, it clearly says that the Americans forced the treaty to be signed unknowingly, which means they defied laws and broke the peace treaty of the two countries

In Document C, it states that Americans called this war the “Mexican American War”, but in Mexico’s eyes, it was called “The American Invasion”. This was because Americans thought that that land belonged to them, and that Mexicans were the ones who were invading. For Mexicans, the Americans were invading their territory. This entire thing was a big misunderstanding, leading to the war. This shows that America was not justified because that incident was a large misunderstanding for both Mexico and

Incidentally, a few years later the discussion of the annexation of Texas to the United States had begun, but required years of debate before the final decision came in December of 1845 where Texas joined the Union as a slave state. This issue of slavery caused much of the debate in whether or not to accept Texas into the Union as doing so may have further disrupted the status quo by upsetting the political balance in Congress and in the country. All the while, Mexico remained another source of concern as people thought the annexation of Texas would cause some sort of trouble with them. Despite all of this, Texas was eventually annexed with its own new state government and constitution to go along with it. Although it had already been defeated by Texas in their revolt, Mexico remained angry at the annexation of Texas and began the Mexican-American War spanning all of 2 years, from 1846 to 1848 bested by the American army. This resulted in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, establishing the Rio Grande as the United States-Mexican border. Along with the establishing of set borders, Mexico accepted the United States annexation of Texas and it agreed to sell California and the rest of the territory north of the Rio Grande to the U.S.

The United States would be able to govern this land, though. Another detail that could be used is how American blood was spilt on American soil, which is talked about in document B. This is not something that can be forgotten. This means that Mexico attacked Americans that were on American soil. They killed several American soldiers in the attack.

“Other nations have hostile against us, hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent”(Doc A Para 2). United States were fighting over Mexican to reclaim Texas to be part of the country. In July 1845, John L. O’Sullivan feels like the US should annexing Texas and California (Doc A Para 1). He thought that the Mexicans were dumb because they didn’t have any government authority over a country. The Mexico wanted to expand their lands. The invasion took place in April 24th when sixteen American were killed and wounded (Doc B Para 4). The argument is Americans justified in going to war with Mexico. The United States was justified in going to war with Mexico because territory,slaves, and invasion.

The first reason why America was not justified into going to war is because it states that “ But now, after reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil.” This explains Polk didn't say the whole story. But if he did say the whole story Congress would have voted differently but because he didn’t American went to war with Mexico.

This treaty granted Texas independence from Mexico. Regardless of this, Mexico and Texas still fought over border lines which brewed negative stereotype of the Mexicans from Americans. Later, Texas joined the United States, and this idea angered Mexico. Border disputes forced both countries to send their troops to enforce the border lines, a standoff followed. A clash between the armies in 1846 led to the commencement of the war.