The Mexican-American war, also referred to as the Mexican war, was a battle between Mexico and the U.S from 1846 to 1848. The war began after the U.S appropriation of Texas in 1845 and a brawl by the Mexican authority; Texas went up to Nueces River or the claim by the U.S that it stopped at the Rio Grande. During the Mexican war, the American forces regularly conquered Mexico. Consequentially, United States acquired about 500,000 square miles of Mexican land from the Rio Grande towards the Pacific Ocean (Turner, 2015). The Americans got the inspiration to fight hard in the war from the idea of Manifest Destiny, which dictated that America had the providential privilege to increase their territory towards the Pacific Ocean. The U.S diplomatic strategies to dialogue to reach a consensus regarding the Texas-Mexico boundary and buy New Mexico and Mexico’s California territories backfired. As a result, expansionist President of America James K. Polk got a rationale to vindicate a trial to acquire the territory forcefully. The paper looks into the Mexican War’s overall occurrences, including the causes and effects of the war on American society and politics.
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There were two primary causes of the Mexican American war. The first cause was mostly motivated by the idea of “Manifest Destiny.” According to the idea, the U.S had an ordained right to civilize and take over the whole continent. Many Americans migrated to the West looking for territory to settle in; the truth that the very land they went to occupy had indigenous occupants got overlooked. Instead, the belief and attitude that democratic Americans familiar with English would perform excellently in the land than the Native Americans dominated. Turner (2015) notes that President Polk spread the idea and vision of Manifest Destiny. He was willing to purchase most of the land to the Southwest of Mexico. But the Mexican Authority dismissed the offer. Consequentially, the unrelenting urge for President Polk to increase the number of Americans in the southwest lands grew and led to hiked tensions along the Mexican-American borders, hence triggering the Mexican-American eruption war.
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The second cause of the war was the Texas war of independence and Texas’s frequent inclusion in the United States. At the start of the 1830s, Mexico wanted more settlers in the northern region that was less populated than other areas. As a result, Mexico welcomed American citizens to live in Texas territory because they change to Catholicism and take an oath of allegiance to Mexico (Knight, 2019). Thousands of U.S. citizens embraced the invitation and shifted to the Mexican province of Texas. But it never took long before most of the new “Mexicans” and “Texians” got unsatisfied with the design the Mexican leaders operated the province. Therefore, in 1835, the Texans’ Revolution started as both the Americans and Mexicans living in Texas battled for independence from the Mexican authorities. Sam Houston incited Texas’s people to revolt against Santa Anna, the then Mexican president, and his armies. A final conquest led to the seizure of Santa Anna. He got forced to sign the Velasco Treaty that granted independence to Texas.
While the Mexican president was still under captivity, the Republic of Mexico and Texas continuously engaged in each other fights. Many Americans living in the U.S. sympathized with the American born Texans in this war. Consequentially, the Americans developed an extremely negative stereotype against the Mexicans and their government. Partially, because of unending hostilities with Mexico, Texas chose to reconcile with the U.S., and Congress approved this reconciliation in 1845 (Knight, 2019). This reunion made Mexico more furious with the U.S., and the unset border and disputatious land triggered serious problems. The troops from the two nations were sent to clam the territory between the rivers since they claimed ownership. Mexico claimed the Nueces River’s ownership to the northern border, while America wanted the Rio Grande River. The day the armies from both countries encountered at the Rio Grande and troops from Mexico opened fire, the Mexican American war started on April 25, 1846.
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The war with Mexico had numerous effects on the United States of America. According to Samora (2019), the war solved Mexico and Texas’s problems and helped the U.S accomplish the goals as indicated in Manifest Destiny. The war involving Texas would have made the state look smaller than it is today. The U.S government insisted that Texas be extended to the Rio Grande River. Consequentially, the boundary was installed at Rio Grande River- this is the present border of Texas. The war also helped the U.S. get massive pieces of land from Mexico, which is called currently known as the Southwest area of the United States of America. America got Nevada, California, and Utah. America also got some New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, and Colorado (Samora, 2019). By gaining these huge land pieces, America accomplished increasing its territory from the Atlantic Ocean up to the Pacific Ocean. Moreover, getting these lands hiked the division and discussion regarding the dominance of slavery as the South and North disagreed whether they should or should not live in these newly established states. Whether slaves should or should not live in any of these newly formed states was a factor that caused Civil War (Samora, 2019).
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In conclusion, the Mexican-American War formally got ceased following the Guadalupe- Hidalgo Treaty. The U.S gained the disputed Texan land, California, and New Mexico territory. Mexico’s government got paid $15 million – a similar sum of money offered to France to gain the Louisiana Territory. American soldiers won a distinguished victory. Although 13000 American armies got killed, they won nearly all the engagements of the war. Mexican government got stripped of almost half of its land, and the money given by the U.S. government could not console it adequately.
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