Houston’s goal was to conduct a campaign of his choosing and not that of the Mexican army. His retreat from the open plains to the wooded areas of East Texas made this possible. The two armies later met in a decisive battle, the battle of San Jacinto. Yet some historians believe it was Santa Anna’s impetuous disregard for life and the Texas colonists that led him to make tactical errors, which led to the loss of the battle of San Jacinto. This paper will attempt to present this counterpoint argument throughout the composition.
President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the president of Mexico at the time, started to move the governmental system of Mexico towards a dictatorship. This in conjunction with the annulment of the constitution of 1824 early in the year of 1835 cause compelled large numbers of federalists to revolt. Though Texas was a part of Mexico at the time, many of its residents were used to a federalist government paired with vast amounts of freedoms. One of these freedoms that these residents missed the most was freedom, and the right, to own slaves. The Texians became quite displeased with Mexico’s shift towards centralism and their abolition of slavery in 1831.
President Polk want to go to war with Mexico, while the Wig protested against going to war with Mexico. Document G. Sumner argued against the war because it all started because of the States annexing Texas, and it was unconstitutional to annex Texas at the first place. While in document H, the editor of New York Sun stated it was fine to go to war with Mexico because it brings the Mexicans liberty, safety, and prosperity. Another problem was the compromise for Oregon between the States and British. Due to the compromise, the northern border of the Oregon territory was set at the 49th parallel.
This transition caused American settler's living in Texas to seize several of Santa Anna's garrisons, including the Alamo. The author states though that the questionable historical inaccuracies occur when historians and directors try and find out why the Americans decided to stay and fight for the Alamo when there was no clear chance of winning the battle. The 1960's movie suggests it was a fight for freedom for Americans, and therefore could be why the director left out the fact that the fight for defending the Alamo was led by four groups of people, including one group of Mexicans seeking to restore the Mexican Republic. In addition, the author
To quote from the Emancipation Proclamation, “ slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” This is saying that slaves should be free, if not, then they are to be free by military forces.” This is how Lincoln found a new motive for the Union army to fight. The election of 1664 was a important one for Abraham Lincoln. He thought that he himself will lose the election if he didn’t beat the South by the end of the year. Lincoln’s other opponent was Congress because when he suspended the habeas of corpus, the Judicial Branch thought the act was wrong.Atlanta in Georgia was captured by Union forces, this gave popularity to Abraham Lincoln from the Northers.McClellan, the other opponent thought this might turn against him in the election(1864). Lincoln barely won the presidency because again the electoral votes were separated by a few digits.
(10) The Texas Revolution was launched in October of 1835 by settlers in Mexican Texas. There were many Texans who did not understand the ultimate goal of the Revolution. Some Texans wanted reimplementation of the Mexican Constitution of 1824, which had greater freedoms than the centralist government in Mexico run by General Santa Anna. Texas attempted to petition for the establishment of a separate state government, but got rejected. Other Texans wanted complete and total freedom from Mexico; they wanted Texas to be its own independent country.
2.) There are a few points to compare and contrast the acquisition of Texas and the Southwest with the annexation of Oregon. For one, the acquisition of Texas was forced basically through war while Oregon was done with a treaty. In Texas, annexation came when many settlers started to migrate to Texas with the promise from the Mexican government of land for the exchange of converting to Roman Catholic and to be a Mexican citizen. On page 428, it says that many didn’t like the Mexican culture or government and refused to convert.
In 1846 there was a war between Mexico and America that lasted two years. Before the war Mexico and America's relationship wasn't so great. Texas had won their independence from Mexico and the U.S. annexed texas in 1844 but Mexico never accepted the independence of texas. Then there was disagreement with the borers of texas with Mexico. In 1845 a new president was elected.
U.S. is fighting against Iraq and Afghanistan to bring back democracy and freedom to those countries. In Iraq they were only in search for resources, they wanted oil. The previous President, George W. Bush had claimed he was on a mission from God when he launched the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.” (George Bush: 'God Told Me to End the Tyranny in Iraq', Oct. 2005) This sounds familiar to what President Polk was saying back in 1846, on how God has given them the mission to proceed with the invasion of these countries. U.S. is trapped in a cycle of maintaining that it is going to war for another country’s benefit. However, this is just an excuse to justify their own selfish reasons for going to war.
Some Mexicans were already living in the Southern and Western regions of the North American continent centuries before the United States existed. Many more Mexicans came to the country during the 20th century, and Mexican immigrants continue to arrive today. The multicultural inheritance of Mexican Americans is rich and complex. It reflects the influences of Spain, Mexico, and indigenous cultures, and has been shaped by hundreds of years of survival and adaptation in the crucible of North American history. Their history was also shaped by wars and depressions, by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase, and by shifting attitudes toward immigration.