What Role Did Race Play In The U.S. War With Mexico?

The Mexican American war was chiefly determined by the thought of “Manifest Destiny”; the conviction that the United States had a God-provided right to dwell in and enlighten the whole world. As elevating number of Americans wandered in search of land towards the west, the reality that the majority of those lands had occupants living in them got overlooked. As a substitute, the approach and conviction that autonomous English-speaking America would do better work with the land than the Native American reigned. The president Polk shared and guided the dream of manifest destiny, and offered to purchase much of the southwest territory of the Mexico. However, the refusal of the offer by the Mexican government and the unbending of the Polk to populate the area resulted in tension in the two nations. As a result it is clear that the racism was the major cause of the war as other factors follow.

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The Mexican- American War of 1846 to 1848 marked the initial U.S. armed disagreement mainly fought on the alien land (Bauer, p5). The war resulted after the Unite States refused to include Mexico in the union principally because northern political intentions were in opposition to the accumulation of a new slave state. In addition the Mexican administration was also cheering boundary raids and forewarning that any effort at seizure would direct to war. It rutted a politically alienated and militarily ill-equipped Mexico in opposition to the expansionist-minded government of the United States. Moreover, the was headed by the president James Polk, who supposed that the Unite State had a “manifest Destiny” to extend from corner to corner continent to the Pacific Ocean. He handed over the War Message to Congress before declaring the war with Mexico. It was a boulder battle that along the Rio Grade that initiated the fighting that left Unite States with a series of triumphs. On the other hand by the time the war ended, Mexico had lost around one-third of its land counting almost all what is present California, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona.

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Causes of the Mexican American War were numerous and complex, but one thing is basic. Texas and America were strong-minded to unite, and Mexico was in the same way strong-minded to put off that from (Bill, p6). It is probable that Mexico could have been conveyed to make out Texas liberty and finally even their capture by the United States (Barker, et al., p 33). However, the promptness and swiftness of American deed together with the Mexican endeavors to prevent the capture of Texas by the United States brought the war. As a result, it was the declination of Mexican to recognize Texas independence and the yearning of Texans for statehood with American longing for the westward extension set the stage for the war.

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After the war was declared in May 13, 1846, The U.S. forces attacked Mexican territory on two major fronts. A United States war cavalry was sent by the United States war department under the headship of Stephen to attack the Mexico. However, this was done principally to because of fear that Britain might attempt to grab the area. Later, two more forces one under Taylor and another one under Wool got ordered to attack the Mexico in the far south.

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As the war advanced, race essentially conflicted with the Manifest destiny. However, this was because a numerous number of race-conscious Americans who supposed in racial pre-eminence got anxious in their country obtaining land of Mexican which was densely populated.  As a result, the excessive racism of numerous Americans confirmed to be a chief aspect that prohibited taking of Central America and Mexico. The concept of Mexicans’ mixed-race inheritance and the danger of ethnic mixing amid Anglo-Saxons and Hispanics was almost certainly the main hurtful view of the Mexican-American War (John, 112). It is due to this that most Americans were not supporting the America Mexico war.

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During the war the Texas recognized the institution of slavery that was captured in Mexico at the time of war. Due to the issue of slavery the war got supported widely by the southern states and at the same time got opposition from the northern states as indicated in the Frederick Douglass article on the war with Mexico of January 21, 1848.  Consequently, separation developed largely from anticipation how the United States expansion would influence the issue of slavery.  As a result, numerous northern abolitionists pointed the war as a trial by the slave-owners to extend slavery and guarantee their sustained manipulate in the central government. It is due to this that David Wilmot came with a provision Wilmot Proviso, August 8, 1846 that declared that no slavery that should ever exist in the land captured.

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The aftermath of the war favored the United States since they are the ones who won, and acquired a massive piece of land.  The war resulted in the lost of power of President Santa Anna in Mexico. The U.S. general Taylor utilized his celebrity as a war hero to succeed the presidency in 1848. A factual satire is that the push of Polk to the war resulted in the victory of Taylor in the White House. Additionally, the war left the relation of amid the American and Mexican been tense for many years with a number of military guiding the borders. In the upcoming civil war, for the American the war provided them with a training ground for the armies who would lead the Southern and Northern armies.

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The main goal of the United States president Polk was an extension of the American territory to the Pacific Coast (Sam & James, 114). The American Mexican war led to his destiny of expansion, though to him it did not meet his goal. Although the war was extremely contentious in the United States element like anti-slavery and anti-imperialists highly opposed as indicated on the Walt Whitman article of War with Mexico on May 11, 1846. High financial cost and heavy casualties of the U.S. forces got pointed out by the critics of the war to oppose the war. Moreover, the war elevated the slavery issue in the United Stated, resulting in powerful discussions that resulted in the bloody civil war. On the other hand, in Mexico the war in the middle of political confusion this elevated into anarchy in the time of war. The military overcome and loss of land was catastrophic blow, making Mexico to go into “a period of assessment as its leaders hunted to recognize and address the motives that had resulted to such a catastrophe”. The change of the United States-Mexico border left a number of Mexican inhabitants alienated from their state government. The transfer of border for the Indians who had by no means acknowledged Mexican or American rule meant disagreement with a new external power.

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The defeat of Mexican soldiers and fall of the city of Mexico made the Mexican government to surrender and to initiate peace concessions with the United States (Ohrt, P 57-71). Due to high lost of life in the war, the United States took a treaty in the house of the senate. However, the treaty passed on due to the increased division among the southern and northern Americans. In addition, the Summon of the Mexican war on June 1846 prohibiting the division of slave and acquisition of land through blood by Theodore Parker also elevated the influence of the senate.  However, the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo made the war to officially come to an end in February 2, 1848. The treaty added the American territory with another 525,000 square miles of land from Mexico (Singletary, p127). In addition, Mexico gave up the entire alleges to Texas and recognized the Rio Grande as the boundary of American southern. The United State in return paid $15 million to the Mexico and decided to resolve all alleges of U.S. citizens against Mexicans.

However, the fight back of possession of the land in stolen territories did not conclude at the end of the war. Even though the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo recognized the legality of the Mexican and Spanish, the land-hungry and brutal whites ended up in the extensive domination that sparked mass expels and repatriation. After the war in 1848, the send away of the Mexican citizen from the Texas intensified. However, this even brought even more need for more land to settle. It is clear that the war brought more racism in the two nations that it was before.

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