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Politics of the Mexican American War
Politics of the Mexican American War
Politics of the Mexican American War
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The Mexican War is one of the most overlooked wars in American History but held a major role in shaping the southwestern area of our nation. As the name would suggest, the Mexican War was a war fought between the United States and Mexico between and was fought between 1846 and 1848. The main cause of the war was the United States' annexation of Texas in 1845, nine years after the Texas Revolution, an armed resistance by Texas to break free of the Mexican government. The Mexican government however, believed that Texas was still part of their land and after the annexation of Texas by the U.S. in 1845 it wouldn’t be long before war would break out between the two countries. The Texas Revolution was an armed conflict between the Mexican state of Texas and the Mexican Government between October 1835 and April 1836 and the result of this revolution would later contribute heavily to the start of the Mexican War. After Mexico won its independence from Spain the Mexican government wished to establish proper control of its scarcely-populated northern border. The Mexican government tried to accomplish this by encouraging anyone they could to move to Texas. The Texas government would also exempt settlers in Texas from …show more content…
Santa Anna would then begin a march all the way to San Antonio and, more importantly, to the Alamo. Texan commander Sam Houston caught wind that Santa Anna was bringing an estimated 7,000 troops and demanded that San Antonio be abandoned however, somewhere around 175 men stayed to defend the city from inside an abandoned Spanish mission known as the Alamo. Though hopelessly out numbered, the defenders of San Antonio would defend the fort for an astounding 13 days. The Alamo would become the most important event in the Texas Revolution as it would unite the Texans together and turn many Texans against Santa
Many people do not know that the Mexican War had increased the United States by 50%. The Mexican War started in 1846 and ended in 1848 and took place mostly south of the Rio Grande. What forced Mexico to declare war was the annexation of Texas, the citizens in Texas disobeying the Mexican laws, and Americans crossing the border. Do you think the United States had enough justification for going to war with Mexico? The United States was justified in going to war with Mexico because the United States’ Manifest Destiny beliefs, the Mexicans passed the border of Rio Grande, and the American citizens supported going to war.
Once Santa Anna rode across the Rio Grande river, he immediately went into battle. Santa Anna defeated the Texicans at the Battle of Alamo. Every Texican soldier who survived the battle were sent to execution, a tactic Santa Anna likely picked up from h is training with General Joaquin Arrendondo as a boy (Mckeehan). After the massacre, Santa Anna felt as though his job in Texas was done but wanted to take one final swipe at the Texicans – a detrimental mistake.
The war between Mexico and the United States started in 1846, should the United States go to war with Mexico? The United States was indeed justified in going to war with Mexico, because 16 Americans lost their lives in a battle with Mexico. Second, Mexicans were mad about the revolution, and Mexico treated U.S. diplomats poorly. Many mini-huge and impactful battles took place to unite the country and to fulfill God’s will to take all the land. While trying to execute Manifest Destiny, 16 Americans killed for the right but made a sacrifice to take dominance over Mexico.
San Antonio, Texas-- The Battle of the Alamo, a battle in San Antonio, against the Mexicans broke out, marks the most important of the battles so far during the Texas fight for independence. The battle began on February 23, 1836 and ended two days ago on March 6, 1836, lasting for 13 days. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, leader of the Mexican force, planned to seize the fort with an army of thousands. Unprepared, the Texans had an army of around 200 men, including well- known congressman David Crockett and James Bowie and not so well-known William Barret Travis.
The Mexican–American War, also known as the Mexican War, the U.S.–Mexican War, the Invasion of Mexico, the U.S. Intervention, or the United States War Against Mexico, was an armed conflict between the United States and the Centralist Republic of Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory despite the 1836 Texas Riot. Through this time, supply ships from San Blas continued to be unpredictable and the missions—with their native workers—were worried to provide for the population. When the native groups began to resist the bigger demands, they were placed under firmer military control. Also, additional tribes were gathered, mixed, and combined into dense groups in order to serve the payment. Under these conditions, new diseases quickly spread and native cultures were further disrupted.
This can be connected to the Mexican American War because they both have create the divide between the two countries. In the Mexican American War, because of America’s belief in Manifest Destiny, the Americans believed that they had the right to conquer their land from sea to sea. This would divide the two countries because Mexico did not want to give up the land, but because of American’s drive to push onward, a war broke out. This is similar to the Civil War because the people were driven apart because the North believed that the slavery should be abolished, but the south thought
With the battle of Gonzales, the Texas Revolution was started officially. More and more volunteers kept coming to Gonzales. Besides, they also set up a temporary state government and a Texan army, who under Sam Houston won several minor battles in the fall of 1835. In mid-February 1836, to avenge for the reputation of Mexico, Santa Anna decided to retake Texas. Mexican General Urrea led his troops and defeated all the Texans on the Goliad campaign up the Texas coast. On April 21st, the battle of San Jacinto started, which was also the sign of the end of the Texas Revolution. Houston’s army defeated Santa Anna’s troops with a shocked engagement that lasted just eighteen minutes. Santa Anna was also captured and was a loser and prisoner of the war. Therefore, he had to sign the peace treaty that led his army to go back to Mexico, indicated the Republic of Texas had become an independent country. On December 9th, 1845, Texas was admitted into the Union as the 28
The Mexican-American War was in 1846, many Americans and Mexicans died. Mexico was trying to win back the land they once had, while America wanted more of their land for their belief manifest destiny. The Mexican-American war was started by a simple mistake, the Americans went to Mexico to ask for more land. While some Americans were camping in Texas a group of Mexican soldiers killed all of the Americans. This was because American and Mexico haven’t decided on whose territory Texas was since The Alamo. The United States was not justified in going to war with Mexico because America came in and broke the laws, there were no borders for Texas, and America stole Mexico's land. Tejanos(Mexicans) invited Americans in to settle in Texas. Americans also known as Anglos Broke most of the few laws Mexico made. There was a war for the independence of Texas. A couple years later, President Polk went to go ask Mexico for some of their land because of their belief called Manifest destiny. Which was the belief that God wanted to expand America's land from Texas all the way to the Pacific.
Now, the Mexican Revolution was just a small beginning for the eventual state of Texas. Back in 1809, Texas was just a provenance in the Spanish Empire and its inhabitants were mostly converted Native Americans and people of Spanish descent, but not native born of Spain. The Spanish born people had more rights and were, according to the law, superior to all others. This and more oppression by the Spanish against the Mexicans (i.e. the Native Americans and non-Spanish born), caused an uprising by the common people that was started by a Catholic priest in 1809. It would take 16 more years before Mexico had won its independence from Spain like the US had from Great Britain.
The Texas Revolution was a rebellion against the centralist Mexican government. The rebellion took place between October 2, 1835 and April 21, 1836. The primary participants were the occupants of the Mexican province of Texas. Political and cultural differences prior to the beginning of the Texas Revolution lead to the occurrence. By the end of the rebellion Texas became the 28th state of the United States.
With Santa Anna moving to control Mexico, and taxes increasing, Texans grew restless and rowdy. A Texan, William B. Travis, and a small group of Texans attacked a squad of Mexican troops in Anahuac with the motive that “taxes should not thus be collected from them to support a standing army in their own country” (SOS 1) and soon drove them back. Travis retreated to San Felipe and was assisted by Bexar. Skirmishes and the threat of war with Mexico soon followed. Come 1835, the idea of independence was extremely popular within the territory of Texas.
In 1845 the U.S attempted to Annex Texas. Basically America wanted Texas to become one of the states rather then and independent nation by itself. At this time Texas was an independent nation that was not a part of America or Mexico. Mexico wanted to keep Texas neutral if not a part of its own country. When the U.S attempted to annex Texas Mexico became outraged, " In November 1843 Mexico had warned that if the United States should commit the 'unheard-of aggression' of seizing an integral part of 'Mexican territory' Mexico would declare war " (Bound for the Rio Grande, 62). Despite the warning the U.S attempted to annex Texas. In doing so Mexico retaliated by breaking off all diplomatic relations with the U.S. Mexico felt that the U.S was insulting them by not taking them seriously when they threatened with war. So at this point America showed a very large interest in possessing Texas. America was very close to actually acquiring Texas when they made their first mistake in the war.
It was the starting point of hatred between the Mexicans and the Americans, which would develop into the Mexican American War. The Compromise of 1850 resolved the war it was a five bill package that lessened the confrontation between slave and free states. The compromise established California as a free state, New Mexico and Utah as territories with the question of slavery to be set by popular sovereignty, settled a boundary between Texas and Mexico, terminated slave trade in Washington, D.C., and made it easier for southerners to get back their slaves. The Texas problem however, would grow into a revolution led, without any help from the American army. The Mexicans end up being defeated and Texas is declared independent in 1836 but due to slavery Texas was taken over until 1844. Some positive annexation on Texas was that since it was a large state it provided land for raising large cattle farms and had access to the gulf. The negative effects were that it was another slave
for revolution. The American Settlers were tired of Mexican dictatorship and wanted the same freedoms they enjoyed back in America. So with a little bit more influence from America a revolt was formed. Eventually Texas would capture Santa Anna the Mexican
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 claimed by both the United States and Mexico. Hostilities started on April 24th, 1846, 2000 Mexican cavalry crossed the Rio Grande and attacked an American troop of 63 men.