The Mexican War: The Causes Of The Mexican American War

Mexican-American War, also known as the Mexican war or the invasion of Mexican, which occurred from April 1846 to February 1848. This war is very meaningful to the United States, which determined whether it could become the most powerful nation or not, also established the size of the United States. The war involved American and Mexican fighting over Texas, after the United States had annexed Texas as the fifteenth slave state. There were several causes for the war happening, some of which major and the others of which minor. However, the most important reasons were the idea of manifest destiny, Texas War of Independence, westward movement of the American, the refuse of negotiating of Mexico and the border dispute. The first origination was driven by the idea of “Manifest Destiny”, this phrase was first employed by John L. O’Sullivan in an article on the annexation of

After the United States annexed Texas, both countries continued to argue the ending border of Texas. The Mexico claimed the Nueces River as its northeastern border, meanwhile the American claimed it ended at Rio Grande River. President Polk thought that military force would be needed to fulfill the United States’ manifest destiny, he commanded General Zachary Taylor to advance his four thousand-men army toward the banks of the Rio Grande. Taking the American advance as aggression, on April 25, 1846, a party of Mexican cavalry attacked a small group of American soldiers in a disputed territory, which killed or wounded sixteen members and captured the rest of them. This act of Mexico accidentally triggered the detonator of the war. When the news of the slaughter came to president Polk, he approached the Congress and claimed, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded the American territory, and shed American blood upon American soil. Therefore, on May 13, 1846, the war is officially