War With Mexico Research Paper

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

Texans revolted against their Mexican government to seek for independence. This caused the Texas annexation and revolution.

The prelude to the war began in the 1830s when Mexico decided to open up their home to America. Due to the fact that Mexico was under populated, and had too much land they

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 battle for Texas’ independence was a hard battle. Many lives were taken, home destroyed, and families were torn apart. Texas residents wanted to break away from Mexico and become a self-governing republic inside of Mexico because they did not like Santa Anna’s laws. Mexico did not allow slave immigration, so Texas wanted to be a part of the United States that allowed slavery. But the main reason was that Mexico would not change or consider any government ideas that the Anglos and Mexicans had for Texas, and resulted in Santa Anna ruling and making all the laws and decisions. Santa Anna also overthrew the Mexican government and made himself the Mexican dictator. Stephen Austin came to try and settle the trouble caused by the suggestion of Texas’ constitution, but instead Santa Anna imprisoned him for a year.

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

James Polk felt that it was his duty to take it by force and took the matter under his control. Since John Tyler’s decision to hold off the war until Mexico made the initial attack, Polk took it upon himself to provoke the Mexicans. To accomplish this, he sent troops to the Rio Grande and marched them along the border until the Mexicans made their attack. After the report of the attack was delivered, Abraham Lincoln proposed the “Spot Resolutions” to find the exact location of the American bloodshed on “American soil”. However, the Spot Resolutions were built upon false statements; the Mexicans’ attack was premeditated and actually took place on Mexican land. Polk was successful in starting the desired Mexican War which ultimately led to the defeat of the weaker adversary Mexico and the attainment of California.

The Mexican War, or as it was called in Mexico, the American Invasion, was a very controversial event. Before the Mexican War, people from the US began moving to Texas. Texas was a disputed territory, as neither country agreed on who owned it. Mexico said they owned, while the US said that they did. There are many reasons to argue that the Mexican War should/should not have been started. The Mexican War should not have been started because US settlers in Texas broke Mexican law, the US invaded Mexico, and the countries had mixed up borders.

In 1845 Texas was annexed as a state, however disputes between America and Mexico remained concerning where the border would be located. President Polk at the time had no choice but to send troops due south to defend Texas and the Thornton affair, won by the Mexicans, would force congress to declare war on Mexico.

On May, 13 1846, the United States officially went to war with Mexico. Before this declaration had taken place, Texas had broken away from Mexico and became independent, but the mother country believed this had been done illegally and that Texas’ land still belonged to them, because they’d held General Santa Anna at gunpoint. After ten years, America annexed the Lone Star Republic, which greatly angered Mexico. Fuel was only added to the fire when the two countries couldn’t agree on Texas’ border, arguing between the Rio Grande, where the United States believed they owned up to, and the Nueces River, where Mexico thought the border was. On April 25, 1846, United States’ soldiers were patrolling the disputed territory along the Rio Grande, Mexican troops fired at them, injuring and killing sixteen.

During the time of 1830, the Americans believed in “manifest destiny”. There was a spike in the population, as cheap and fertile land caught the attention of Americans to take on the hardships of the Overland Trails to Oregon and California. A lot of the Americans from the south ended up migrating to the Mexican part of Texas with their slaves, so that they would be able to grow cotton. But the Mexican government wouldn’t authorize slavery and once 1830 approached, they ended up prohibiting any further immigration. During the conflict between the Texas colonist and the Mexican government, this ended up resulting in the Texas Resolution, in which there became the creation of the separate Republic of Texas in 1836. As the US made it adamant that they were going to try everything in its power to not have a war with Mexico, this was one of the reasons as to why Texas didn’t become a state until another decade.

Mexico and its governments were also encouraging the border attacks and were warning them that the war against the United States would come at any moment. The Mexican cavalry faced soldiers who belonged to the United States, in the disputed area under the command of General Zachary Taylor in 1846, that time, the Mexican government killed 12 soldiers. They then besieged an American fort along the Rio Grande. Taylor, who asked for help from others and, with the help of superior guns and artillery, could beat the Mexicans in the Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma wars. After those wars, Polk told the United States that the "cup of indulgence had been finalized, even before Mexico passed the borders of the United States, invaded our territory and killed American human beings in American territory."

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

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.

The War with Mexico occurred between the borders of Mexico and America in 1846. After Texas gains independence, more battling continues with Mexico. During this time Catholics, who are anti-slavery, religious people, and Protestants, people who are pro slavery, and who are split from the Catholic Church, were arguing about that if slavery should be allowed or not. America wants to send an envoy, which is a person who goes to different places and buys land for their country, to Mexico, but they refuse to accept the envoy’s deal since they owned Texas, but because of the Manifest Destiny, a plan from God to extend America all the way to the Pacific Ocean, Mexico can’t have Texas because of God’s