The United States has always has been an oppressor of its neighboring countries, making any and all populations that stand in the way of what it wants an enemy. The U.S.-Mexican War was a violent and shattering event for Mexican citizens that lasted from 1846-1848. It drastically altered the course of Mexican and American history for years to come. Once the debilitating battle ended, the United States emerged a world power having acquired more than 500,000 square miles of valuable territory and Mexico spent years recovering from the loss of land and Mexican citizens. Ultimately, it was the “insatiable ambition of the United States, favored by [Mexican] weakness” that was the principle cause of the U.S.-Mexican War. This can be broken down into many potentially feasible explanations on the core causes; including, fault lying with American slaveholders in their support for the conquest of Mexico, the war as an American plot, and responsibility lying with President Polk of the United States. This paper discusses several of these concrete theories including Manifest Destiny, which is the belief that the U.S. has the right and responsibility to expand its borders outward, the unsettled disputes regarding the borders of newly annexed Texas, and the expansion of slavery.
While the U.S. maintained the belief that it was destined to expand itself from ocean to ocean, it caused a large amount of conflict and sorrow for citizens living within Mexico. Dispute first began after the U.S. surrounded the nation of Mexico after the Louisiana Purchase. With so much open territory available to settlers, it was a natural inclination for illegal inhabitation to occur. The U.S. “soon saw themselves masters of Louisiana, [ready to] spread their snare...
... middle of paper ...
...
Pletcher, David M. “Annexation Completed and The Push to the Pacific.” In The Diplomacy of Annexation: Texas, Oregon, and the Mexican War, 172-226. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1973.
Robinson, Cecil, ed. The View from Chapultepec: Mexican Writers on the Mexican American War. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1979.
Ruiz, Ramon Eduardo, ed. The Mexican War: Was It Manifest Destiny? New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963.
Smith, Justin H. “The Relations Between the United States and Mexico 1825-1846, The Mexican Attitude on the Eve of War and The American Attitude on the Eve of War.” In The War with Mexico, 58-137. Volume 1. Norwood, Mass.: Norwood Press, 1919.
Vazquez, Josefina. “War and Peace with the United States.” In The Oxford History of Mexico, 339-69. Edited by Michael C. Meyer and William H. Beezley. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Starting with the first chapter, Deverell examines the racial and ethnic violence that took place in the wake of American defeat. In no more than thirty years or so, ethnic relations had appeased and the Mexican people were outnumbered quickly (as well as economically marginalized and politically disenfranchised), as the second chapter discloses. The author examines a variety of topics to further his case but the most compelling and captivating sections of the book come into the third, fourth and fifth chapters. The third chapter focuses its attention
Teja, Jesus F. De La. A Revolution Remembered: The Memoirs and Selected Correspondence of Juan N. Seguin. Austin: State House Press, 1991.
This book by Otis A. Singletary deals with different aspects of the Mexican war. It is a compelling description and concise history of the first successful offensive war in United States military history. The work examines two countries that were unprepared for war. The political intrigues and quarrels in appointing the military commanders, as well as the military operations of the war, are presented and analyzed in detail. The author also analyzes the role that the Mexican War played in bringing on the U.S. Civil War.
8. Meyer, Michael C., et al. The Course of Mexican History, 7th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
After suffering from numerous wars, including the Mexican-American war and the Mexican civil war of 1858, the 19th century country of Mexico was nearly reduced to bankruptcy and impoverishment. This left the country unable to pay back the many foreign debts that had accumulated over the years, and as a result, gave way to the invasion of English, Spanish, and French troops into Mexico. Within a year, English and Spanish troops withdrew after civil negotiations, but Napoleon III of France decided to take this opportunity to establish a Latin empire that would further progress the nation’s tyrannical regime. By late 1861, a well-armed French fleet stormed the port city of Veracruz, landing a large French force that drove the Mexicans into retreat. Moving on to the capital of Mexico City, the French sought to obliterate any Mexican resistance, taking over Mexico City and thus the country. Upon getting to the small town of Puebla, however, the well-armed, well-trained French soldiery encountered heavy resistance. The 8,000 strong French army attacked the smaller, poorly trained Mexican army of 4,500. Although the odds appeared to be stacked against the inadequately prepared Mexican army, the Mexicans prevailed on May 5th, 1862. Known as “the premier army of the world” at the tim...
Rosales, F. Arturo. Lecture 2/14 Film The US-Mexican War Prelude. Weber, David J. - "The 'Path of the World'" Foreigners in Their Native Land: The Historical Roots of Mexican Americans.
The late 1800’s was a watershed moment for the United States, during which time the Industrial Revolution and the desire for expansion brought about through Manifest Destiny, began to run parallel. Following the end of the Spanish-American war, the United States found itself with a wealth of new territory ceded to it from the dying Spanish empire. The issue of what to do with these new lands became a source of debate all the way up to the U.S. Congress. Men like Albert J. Beveridge, a Senator from Indiana, advocated the annexation, but not necessarily the incorporation of these new l...
Bauer, K. Jack. “Mexican War,” Handbook of Texas Online, last modified June 15, 2010, accessed May 2, 2014, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qdm02
As more Americans moved west and into Texas it became evident. that there was going to be a continued clash between Mexico and the white frontiersmen who quickly flooded. certain areas of the world. The American government wanted to purchase this valuable land but eventually it was taken by Americans. frontiersmen where it was declared its own realm.
331–355. JSTOR, doi: 10.2307/25161671. This is a long narrative of the conflicts and tension between America and Mexico. It is not until several pages later that the event of the Bear Flag Revolt is approached, and it is made clear that the U.S. government had confidence in eventually annexing California, so expeditions was sent out to explore the area. There is a brief account of the taking of Sonoma and the actions that was taken upon General Vallejo, and once Sonoma was occupied by Americans, a flag with a bear and a lone star was made in order to proclaim California as an independent Bear Flag Republic. This article provided a far more wide perspective
Beginning in 1845 and ending in 1850 a series of events took place that would come to be known as the Mexican war and the Texas Revolution. This paper will give an overview on not only the events that occurred (battles, treaties, negotiations, ect.) But also the politics and reasoning behind it all. This was a war that involved America and Mexico fighting over Texas. That was the base for the entire ordeal. This series of events contained some of the most dramatic war strategy that has ever been implemented.
Perhaps there are few qualms that are associated with the taking of a rather large country; however, our army will easily be able to overpower that of the Mexican government’s. With advanced secret technology, brilliant strategic advisors, and a much larger force, we should not have many pr...
In February 2, 1848, the final armistice treaty Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, through which the United States government got the access to entire area of California, Nevada, Utah plus some territory in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming. As a compensation, the United States government paid 18.25 million dollars to Mexico.( Pecquet, Gary M., and C. F. Thies. 2010) However, apart from the death of people, Mexico lost half of its territory in this war, which initiate Mexican’s hostile towards American. In addition, after the Mexican-American war, there was an absence of national sense in Mexican, which had a negative effect on the unity and development of the country.
“The Conquest of New Spain” is the first hand account of Bernal Diaz (translated by J.M. Cohen) who writes about his personal accounts of the conquest of Mexico by himself and other conquistadors beginning in 1517. Unlike other authors who wrote about their first hand accounts, Diaz offers a more positive outlook of the conquest and the conquistadors motives as they moved through mainland Mexico. The beginning chapters go into detail about the expeditions of some Spanish conquistadors such as Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, Juan de Grijalva and Hernando Cotes. This book, though, focuses mainly on Diaz’s travels with Hernando Cortes. Bernal Diaz’s uses the idea of the “Just War Theory” as his argument for why the conquests were justifiable
..., "Major Problems In Mexican American History" The Mexican Immigrant Experience, 1917-1928, Zaragosa Vargas (233)