Essay On The Unjust War

The Mexican American War was a very controversial event. The Americans believed in their “Manifest Destiny” which prompted them to annex the territory of Texas which, in turn, initiated the war on April 25, 1846. Texas was annexed to the Union as a slave state on December 29, 1845. This upset all of the Free states along with the Mexicans but the Southerners were in favor of the war because it gave them more strength when fighting for slavery. While there were many different beliefs about the Mexican-American War throughout the United States, these beliefs generally were the same within a region.

As stated in President James Polk’s war message of 1846, “...I had ordered an efficient military force to take a position ‘between the Nueces and the Del Norte [Rio Grande].’ This had become necessary, to meet a threatened invasion of Texas by the Mexican forces” (Document B). From the perspective of the United States, the people of Mexico were not authorized to cross the Rio Grande into American territory. However, since the Treaties of Velasco that Santa Ana signed were invalid, Texas still belonged to Mexico. Mexican troops were not “invading” Texas; they were trying to retain the land that had been stolen from them. Therefore, President Polk had no right to send American troops to Mexican territory. Some may argue that the war was justified because Mexican troops attacked American soldiers on American territory. For example, they contend that, “Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon American soil” (Document B). The United States declared war against Mexico because they believed American soldiers had been attacked by Mexican troops in American territory. However, since the annexation of Texas was illegitimate, that territory still belonged to Mexico. The American soldiers were not killed on American land; they were killed on Mexican land. Thus, America’s reasoning for declaring war was inaccurate, and the Mexican-American war was

Texas and the United States believed that the proper borderline between Texas and Mexico was the Rio Grande, but for Mexico it believed that the border between them and Texas is the Nueces River.”(Hook) As you can see the United States and Mexico had different beliefs. This evidence shows the US was justified in going to war with Mexico because the US believed that Mexico had a smaller amount of land they what they think they have. But Mexico believes that it has more land. Mexico and the United States were fighting over the disputed territory which was between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, which made the tension between Mexico and the US more negative. “ on April 24th of April a party…..of sixty three men and officers, were… dispatched from the American camp up the Rio del Norte.(Doc B)” This evidence shows that Mexico had went against its boundary and fought with American men in the striped area where Mexico and the United states were already fighting for. This Made thing more difficult to handle because the Us and Mexico were already fighting for land and the probably made things worse between the two

The Mexican War was viewed as one of the most controversial wars in United States history. Originating from the annexation of Texas, or the lack thereof in Mexico’s eyes, the final spark to cause the war was an incident between soldiers of both countries in disputed land. Both Mexico and the US claimed to have been provoked by the other, and that they were only protecting their country. Many US citizens argued the war, as it appeared President Polk was using it for reasons other than self defense. By going to war with Mexico, the US faced the possibility of gaining much more of Mexico’s land and extending slavery in the country. The United States' decision to go to war with Mexico was based on a desire to extend slavery, to gain land they had

Polk had said that Mexico were planning on an invasion and declared war on Mexico. This didn’t show that we show not be afraid or fear military ambition. It showed how selfish man can be just to gain more territory because they believed that it was their right to expand the country. Mexico only wanted what was theirs after claiming independence from Spain, and not have it taken away. Texas was under Mexico law, and Mexico banned slavery. Many Americans settlers did live in Texas at the time and knew it was against Mexico’s law but still had slaves anyways. The war lasted for three years, but soon Mexico decided to sign a peace treaty that gave territories to America. America paid Mexico 15 billion for lands that are known today as California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and

“The United States had emerged as a modern capitalist nation, and the spirit of nationalism in the country was strong and growing” (Henderson 71). As tensions grew between the Unites States and Mexico, there was a thirst for war. The Unites States declared war with Mexico, because they owned land that Americans desired, resulting in America’s fulfillment of achieving their philosophy of “Manifest Destiny”. The blood boil of both countries caused a lot of bloodshed. The dispute lasted for a long two year battle which was for huge amounts of land. The Americans were victorious and claimed new territories from the conflict.

The Mexican-American War was driven by the idea of "Manifest Destiny" (Which is the belief that America had a God-given right to expand the country's borders from sea to sea) This belief would eventually cause a great deal of suffering for many Mexicans, Native Americans and United States citizens. Following the earlier Texas War of Independence from Mexico, tensions between the two largest independent nations on the North American continent grew as Texas eventually became a U.S. state. Disputes over the border lines sparked military confrontation, helped by the fact that President Polk eagerly sought a war in order to seize large tracts of land from Mexico.

In Mexico’s early years, the northern lands were relatively deserted. One of the less inhabited lands was Texas, and Mexicans invited Americans into Texas to help populate it. However, America accepted Mexico’s innocent offer with a sly, cunning idea. The US allowed its residents to live in Texas, but eventually, Texas fell under the influence of Americans. This is mainly why Texas wanted to leave Mexico and become annexed to the US. Also, while

Prior to the Mexican-American War, there were many events that lead to the cause of the war. For many years, Americans and Mexicans had very little direct contact, because they were separated by huge tracts of undeveloped territory. However, in the 19th century, the U.S began to rapidly expand westward. By 1819, U.S had gained the Louisiana Territory and also the Arkansas and Missouri Territories, which bordered Mexican lands. American settlers began to pour into these territories. Then they began to illegally enter the sparsely inhabited Mexican territories of California, New Mexico and Texas. Mexico saw U.S expansion as a threat. A man by the name of Stephen Austin made a deal with Mexico

The Mexican and American war was a very controversial war. Some think it was just and others think it was unjust. The war started after the Texas wanted to annex on to the united states. Mexico and Texas both thought they owned a strip of land in between But the Texans thought it was there. The undisputed territory both sides wanted and the U.S even was willing to pay for it, but Mexico turned it down! One event that sparked that was the president of the United States J. K. Polk wanting the war to happen. As so he sent troops to build a fort on the disputed territory in hopes of the Mexicans attacking. This plan worked and they attacked. So Polk got congress to declare war.

As Texans began demanding freedom, they deciding to away from Mexico, causing tensions between the United States and Mexico. In 1845, tensions began to lead to threats between the two countries when the United States decided to annex Texas into their country and ultimately led to the Mexican-American war. The U.S. was not justified in going to war with Mexico. A reason is that James K. Polk, president at the time, decided to send American soldiers onto disputed territory which Mexico thought was theirs. Doc C is an article written by Jesus Velasco-Marquez discussing the Mexicans viewpoint on the war with the United States in 1846. According to Doc C,¨In the eyes of the Mexican government, the mobilization of the US army was an outright attack

The Mexican-American War was a result of Manifest Destiny.  Manifest Destiny was a belief that Americans had a god given right to expand their border all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Not only did Americans believe that they also had a right to the land, but they also believed that they had a moral duty to civilize its occupants, which included Native Americans, Mexicans, and Spanish speaking Catholics. According to Britannica, the Mexican-American War originated from the United States annexation of Texas in 1845. Texas had been in a border dispute with Mexico at the time of the annexation  therefore, the conflict transferred to the U.S. Mexico claimed that the border ended at the Nueces River, and the United States claimed it ended at the Rio Grande River.

During the time of 1830, the Americans believed in “manifest destiny”. There was a spike in the population, as cheap and fertile land caught the attention of Americans to take on the hardships of the Overland Trails to Oregon and California. A lot of the Americans from the south ended up migrating to the Mexican part of Texas with their slaves, so that they would be able to grow cotton. But the Mexican government wouldn’t authorize slavery and once 1830 approached, they ended up prohibiting any further immigration. During the conflict between the Texas colonist and the Mexican government, this ended up resulting in the Texas Resolution, in which there became the creation of the separate Republic of Texas in 1836. As the US made it adamant that they were going to try everything in its power to not have a war with Mexico, this was one of the reasons as to why Texas didn’t become a state until another decade.

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

The Mexican-American war, also known as the Mexican war happened between 1846 and 1848 with the participants being United States of America and Mexico. Texas, previously a Mexican state, was the primary cause of the war. A series of disagreements had occurred between Texans and the Mexican government leading to Texas declaration of its independence in 1836. Later, Texas decided to join the United States as the 28th state and this infuriated Mexico. Additionally, border disagreements came up with Mexico claiming the border was at Nueces River while Texas claimed it was at Rio Grande River. James K. Polk, the president, sent his army to protect the border which ended up in shooting between Mexican and American troops. It is after this that