Imagine a school yard bully terrorizing a child half his size. This bully was demanding the child’s lunch money despite the fact that he already had enough to buy a lunch. America acted like the bully and Mexico was the small child. The United States of America, fresh off the annexation of Texas were destined to go to war with the rival nation of Mexico. However, America lacked significant reasons to go to war with Mexico. The question many present day historians are asking is “Did the United States have enough reasons to go to war with Mexico?” The answer is no. Due to the fact that Manifest Destiny is wrong, the Undisputed Territory is undisputed, and America had no regard for Mexican law, America was not justified in going to war with Mexico. America was expanding. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson,the 3rd president of the United States, purchased a large amount of land, the Louisiana Purchase, which added 50% of land to America’s current size. …show more content…
This concept is widely accepted concept that even President Polk believes it to be true.They believe that “the Anglo-Saxon foot” is already on the west and that America might as well take that portion of the land. (O’Sullivan 323) The question that those settler should be asking themselves is whose land was it first? “Other nations have undertaken… hostile interference against us,... hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.”(O’Sullivan 323) These supporters of Manifest Destiny believe that the West is a God given right. However, would God, our father, want his children to die at the expense of more land? The answer to that question is no. These claims prove that Manifest Destiny is incorrect and is not reliable evidence that the United States was justified when they went to war with
First reason of why America was not justified in going to war with Mexico because was because of America's invasion. “ the troops commanded by General Zachary Taylor arrived at the Rio Grande across from the city of Matamoros, increasing the possibility of a confrontation”. In other word this this evidence shows that Americans were not justified in going to war with Mexico because it was an invasion crossing the mexican border and claiming land without any approval from the mexican government . “...Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon
The war started when the General sent John Slidell to Mexico City to buy California which furiated the Mexicans so they sent him back. When Mexico had fired on U.S, troops on the “Texas” side, the President found a reason to go to war with them even though the Mexicans were trying to protect the border from them. In the end, the U.S. won the war. Later on, Mexico achieved independence of the Spanish Crown and the U.S. had begun to move into Texas. I believe that the United States was not justified to go to war with Mexico because the U.S. had made an act of a declaration of war and Mexico was protecting themselves.
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
Mexico did not care about their boundaries, and Texas needed to be defended. This evidence shows that the United States was justified in going to war because Mexico was a bad government to Texas. The Mexican War was
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
Beginning in the early 1800s manifest destiny had no single root or cause, but became over time, a mindset which propelled the westward expansion of America. Manifest Destiny was the belief that the expansion of the United States throughout the continent of North America was both justified and inevitable. The actual term “Manifest destiny” was not coined until 1845 when an American columnist and editor, John O 'Sullivan, created it to promote the annexations of Texas and the Oregon Territory. However, before the term was coined, expansion had already been taking place in America for almost four decades. Beginning in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase, America had set in stone from early in its beginnings that the frontier was the future. To fulfill this belief, the United States needed to purchase the West from the French.
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 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.
In the first place, the Mexican War was not justified was because the U.S not having the right to take Mexico's land that was supposed to be theirs. In ¨Annexation¨ , John L. O'Sullivan stated that ¨Mexico can never exert any real government authority over such a country..¨ Mexico does not have any experience with controlling such a big area. He also stated that ¨.. Checking the fulfillment of our Manifest Destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.¨ this means that the U.S.
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 perception of history is often crafted by the information given and the information available, however, almost too often the facts accessible are warped by the viewpoints of others before they can be properly assessed. Differing outlooks thus explicate the controversial nature of historical events and why the motives and conclusions behind certain occurrences are called into question. The Mexican American war as many American historians would call it ushers a contrary tone in Mexico as their own historians would claim the “war” as United States invasion; the difference in referral is based on the different perceptions of the conflict. In the American viewpoint, the Mexican American War was driven by economic, social and political pressures to bolster United States territories, through the annexation of Texas. In the converse, it could be argued that Mexico did not declare a formal war against the United States but rather was interested in defending their country’s territorial integrity and resisting United State’s invasion. In a Mexican viewpoint then, the war was not a result of arrogance but a consequence of defending Mexican territory from United States invasion. Nonetheless the aftermath of the war produced immense repercussions, furthering American exceptionalism, slavery, and disregard for international borders prompting the inquiry of not only the unjust methods applied but the unjustified results.
The factors that started the Mexican War lay heavily on American shoulders. Whether if the factors were created by social, political or economical needs, they have all become the center of attention for the question of being a national interest or disgrace. However, the Americans felt that they existed for “…spreading the blessings of peace.” according to Andrew Jackson. There will always be controversy between the two sides of this matter, the Americans who feel that it had to be done, to the Mexicans who felt that it was an injustice done to their nation.
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 United States of America has been through many wars, wars concerning many things such as land oil, pride and respect. However, when the United States went to war with Mexico, it was planned over greed. The Mexican- American war was a war provoked by the United States, in efforts to expand the coasts of the country. Mexico was a small under privileged country who had previously to the war had already lost part of their country (Texas). Needless to say this war was cut throat and violent, it was however one of the smartest business decisions America has ever made.