In 1846 the United States declared war against Mexico. The U.S wanted to spread west and follow Manifest Destiny but in doing that they took Texas away from Mexico. After annexing Texas, slavery was brought into the U.S. The United States under the leadership of President Polk clearly provoked Mexico into attacking US troops on the disputed border. These are all reasons that the U.S had no business starting a war with Mexico for territory that was legally theirs.
Although President Polk’s message was ratified by the Senate and House, the United States reason for war wasn’t good enough for them go to war with Mexico. The U.S. was not justified for three reasons: There was a territorial dispute, the U.S. provoked the war, and it was used to expand slavery. My first reason why the U.S. was not justified is that there was a territorial dispute between America and Mexico on where the border was. According to Document Hook, General Zachary Taylor and his troops purposely moved across the known border into the disputed border, as if they were trying to get a reason to start a war with Mexico. According to Documents C and Background, Polk ordered the troops to enter the disputed area, and after they were attacked by the Mexicans, he used them to get America fired up and give them a reason to go to war.
Lastly, Henry David Thoreau implemented civil disobedience by boycotting taxes in rebellion to the Mexican-American War. Bellwethers for their self-sacrificing causes, their campaigns took
Meanwhile, President Polk had not been successful in his negotiations with Mexico to acquire California, so he began looking for a way to start a war without being seen as the aggressor. In 1846 he sent a unit of American soldiers into the disputed territory, which Mexico interpreted an invasion, and the bloodshed that followed resulted in a declaration of war by congress. Mr. Polk had gotten his war. The
” After repeated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil…” This is a quote from chapter one, also it’s a war message that wrote by President Polk. This has already explained that the invading from Mexico is one of the reasons for staring the war. Also, manifest destiny is another important reason for the war. President Polk wanted to expand the boundary of Untied States. He vowed to bring California under the United States control.
Also the book gives us another perspective about what really happen during the whole Mexican Independence and also how the United States considered itself superior in many ways to Mexico and other Latin American countries. Henderson examines several factors that explain why Mexicans permitted that the United States took its land, apparently he make us think that it was because the United States ambitions to become a powerful nation. I think that this book explains very well the reason why Mexico went to war with the United States and we can conclude that it was because Mexico was suffering very political troubles, also because Mexicans didn’t have the economical resources to success, in other words they were very weak. Finally we can see that even thought there has passed a lot of time since the Mexican and American war happened some struggles still going on in Mexico while the United States ambition still
He compared Vanderbilt to medieval robber barons because he preyed upon monopolists. Pacific Mail had total market control of the sea lanes to California, and it bought off Vanderbilt in order to preserve its monopoly. Raymond attacked the Commodore for pursuing “competition for competition’s sake; competition which crowds out legitimate enterprises.” To the editor of the New York Times in 1859, Vanderbilt was a robber baron because he was a challenger, a spoiler—almost the opposite of the current meaning of the term. So how did the definition of
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
The Underdogs Throughout history when the people of an established society are upset with the government there is always pattern of reform. This was the case for the Demetrio and his band of rebels during the Mexican Revolution which began as united movement against the three decades of authoritarian leaders such as Porfirio Diaz, Francisco Madero, and finally Victoriano Huerta. However, Demetrio and his band did not set out for reform because of the same reasons. Each member of the group had a different reason that they wanted change within the Mexican government. Nevertheless, the purpose of Demetrio and his band of rebels was to get rid of authoritarian rule and make Mexico more like democratic America, but instead they lose track of what
Then the Zimmermann telegram caused America to join the war.The Germans suggested a German-Mexican alliance meaning Mexico will march to the U.S and recover their lost territories such as Arizona,New Mexico and Texas.This telegram was intercepted by the British and,as a result,the Americans.The U.S. was furious and joined the war for world peace and establishment of democracy to end the war.The telegram was probably Germany's worst mistake throughout WW1. The Allies’ leaders like Lloyd George and Wilson were clever people who were courageous and brilliant leaders. The German leaders came up with plans like the Zimmermann Telegram and Schlieffen Plan,which were no match for the first and made horrible mistakes which led Germany to a loss.Also as the attritional warfare continued,the leaders did not come up with anything new which could end the war.Although they made use of great defensive weapons like machine guns and poisonous gases,theycould not build an offensive weapon until the development of tanks. Looking at all these mistakes which Germany made,it is not really that surprising that Germany eventually lost the War.With the nation being constantly wore down on one hand and the Allies maintaining a strong and offensive behavior throughout the war -especially after the U.S.A. joined the war at their side-,this outcome of the war was the most expected