Mexican American War Dbq

The war with Mexico was just one chapter of United States history but do not mistake it was an important one. The Mexican American war was a war that had an impact on both ends. Most people have two sides to the war, the ones that view it as justified and the ones that oppose it. It all started in May of 1846, at this time our President was James Knox Polk. James Polk was the 11th president of the United States and became president in 1845. Polk was the first president that used his powers as commander in chief to his full advantage. With using one of those powers he had declared war on Mexico.
The war on Mexico was started with careful consideration and was anything but a rash decision. The tension between America and Mexico has already been around for months before the war started and it was started by Mexico. Mexico was another country located in North America along the southern boarder of the United States. Back then, Mexico had territories in the Untied States. Due to Mexico’s bad government the United States felt that certain territories, including present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, should be a part of the United States and not

Seeing how Mexico ran its government Polk believed that moving the troops into the Rio Grande “became, therefore, of urgent necessity to provide for the defense of that portion of our country.” Just as Polk believed thousands of years ago, many Americans still believe that America is the victim in the Mexican American war and was unfairly attacked in Rio Grande. Even once the initial attack had begun Polk still thought the war would only last a few short battles. It was not President Polk’s fault that he believed in something called Manifest Destiny. And to Polk he believed our Manifest Destiny was our god given right to