Dbq Mexican War

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.

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

Also, in question was what the US should do with the addition of Mexican citizens? “The slavery issue, so skillfully handled in the Missouri Compromise, was reopened by the addition of new territory…” . Should they be welcomed as citizens or should they be used as slaves to help the poor US economy? The State of Massachusetts was against the Mexican War. Massachusetts believed that the United States only wanted to go to war with Mexico to expand slavery. They saw the war as unfair since the US was more powerful and put together than Mexico, with a stronger military and more resources. The US had a far better advantage and Massachusetts recognized that and protested the war. In the Massachusetts Protests the Mexican War, 1847 it states that “…to take military possession of territory in dispute between the United States and Mexico, and in the occupation of Mexico; and that it is now waged ingloriously,—by a powerful nation against a weak neighbor—unnecessarily and without just cause…” . Abraham Lincoln and John Quincy Adams were both in support of not going to war. However, slavery was the main concern, “with the triple object of extending slavery, of strengthening the "Slave Power," of obtaining the control of the Free States, under the Constitution of the United States” . This was the main argument on why the United States went to war. It was not only for more land but for the expansion of

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

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

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 United States was not justified in going to war with mexico because of the disobedience of Mexico’s freedom ordinance, an international belief of manifest destiny, and a dispute of territorial borders.

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.

Most importantly, Texas disobeyed Mexico for many reasons, like their greedy actions. The U.S wanted to expand slavery in Mexico for a main purpose.

They accused us of robbing land from them. “Restless Spirits discontented at home… the work of rebellion sped” {Doc. D Paragraph 3} We then accused our newcomers from Texas of stealing the land. “...Might just charge our citizens with disgraceful robbery…” {Doc. D Paragraph 3} This evidence shows the US was unjustified in going to war with Mexico because we were the ones who stole the land from them but blamed our newcomers, because Mexico did not yet know these newcomers so would most likely not bring much harm. Mexico only wanted the disputed territory to make up for the land we robbed from them, they didn’t want any

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

Americans that were slaveholders were bringing their slaves to Mexico. The problem was that slaves were not allowed at all. This caused the Americans to then start rebelling against Mexico’s laws. This evidence shows the US was not justified in going to war because the Americans had no right to break Mexico’s slave laws. Mexico became slave free so they could hopefully win Texas back. Americans should not have invaded Mexican land. The Mexicans had no choice, but to stop this. (Doc D, Paragraph 1-3) “Slaveholders crossed the Sabine with their slaves, in defiance of the Mexican ordinance of freedom.”~Charles Sumner. (Doc D Paragraph

Majority of wars in the United States were controversial, and the war with Mexico was no exception. After Mexico became a free nation, The Mexican leaders wanted to grow their populations. To do so they invited Americans to Texas. This did not turn out well for Mexico since Mexico was against slavery and the Americans that immigrated to Texas were from the south and proslavery. Later when Texas wanted to annex into the united states, but the Congress did not want this because they knew it would cause problems with Mexico and they did not want to risk a War with them. Also, they did not want to add another pro-slavery state to the union. After John K Polk was elected he wanted Texas and California into the union because he was a strong believer in manifest destiny. He believed that if Texas was admitted as a state then it would support manifest destiny. Then

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

However, the provisions were never passed and their rights were eroded. The rights that were promised by this treaty were never kept. According to Zarate, “most of the century of the rule passed with little concern from Anglo society about the education of the Mexican American. Mexican American were immigrants, instead of residents, which their ancestors have been, living for 200 years. They were foreigners, and enemies who had to be controlled and kept in their place.” Americans did not take the consideration that the land was from Mexico before them. The land before them had different people, language, and culture. Having the American people officially controlling the Northwestern land, made them view the land as American. Thus, the Mexican people were put to the side because they were