Mexican American War Essay Thesis

The Mexican-American War The Mexican-American War was a conflict between the United States and Mexico in which Mexico fought to defend itself from the U.S, while the Americans wanted to annex Texas and gain some more land from Mexico. This was a very important war because it determined whether the U.S. would become a powerful nation, and be on par with France, Great Britain, and Russia. Also, it determined how big the U.S. would be. At the start of the war, the president at that time was James K. Polk, and he strongly favored U.S. expansion. He, like many other Americans, believed in Manifest Destiny, which is the belief that it was the God-given right of the U.S. to spread across the continent. It was because of the Manifest Destiny that

It was devastating for Mexico because land was being taken away from them against their will. Also, those lands, like California, were rich in resources and gold mines, and could have potentially helped Mexico to improve their economy and their nation as a whole. Sadly, this future was denied by the Americans, who, with their belief in Manifest Destiny, snatched it away from them forcefully. Many people lost their fortunes, and Antonia I. Castañeda, from the article A War of Violence and Violations, says, “Families were literally split in half, and people who owned land and homes in Mexico lost all of it” (A War of Violence). In addition to this, the war also left tens of thousands of orphans, cripples, and widows out to suffer. The war changed lives in a negative way, and left Mexico scarred for generations to come. For the U.S., however, the war brought lots of wealth and land. The discovery of rich gold and silver deposits in California contributed to the national economy and westward movement of the population. The negative effects of the war on the U.S. were that many lives were lost, and although the new territory made them a continental power, it also upset the balance between free and slave states, which helped to bring the catastrophe of the American Civil