Now here is my awesome project on the mexican american war
First the one page paper on the topic:
First the one page paper on the topic:
The Mexican-American War
was the first major conflict driven by the idea of "Manifest
Destiny"; the belief that America had a God-given right, or destiny, to
expand the country's borders from 'sea to shining 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, but that s a different story and a different blog, tensions
between the two largest independent nations on the North American continent grew,
as Texas eventually became a U.S. state. Disputes over the borderlines sparked
military confrontation, helped by the fact that President Polk eagerly sought a
war in order to seize large tracts of land from Mexico. Now that was the main
cause, but to go in more depths about it, we need to start at the
beginning. At first, yes manifest
destiny was a widely thought out prospect, but there were a few problems with
it. One was that if America did expand, would slavery be accepted in the new
lands? Some pro-slavery people wanted to increase the power of the southern
slave states by annexing Texas. At this point Texas was still a disputed
land. The Americans wanted Texas as one
of them and finally after many arguments with Mexico Texas finally became an American
state. There was still some unclaimed land that the Mexicans wanted it was
right atop of Mexico. So an army general called General Zackary Taylor led and
army of American solders into the disputed region and came with an offer of 30 million
dollars to buy the disputed land which is now California and new Mexico, but
the Mexican officials refused to speak to him. So in March 1846, General Taylor
led his troops into Rio Grande and he camped across the border. The Mexicans
told the Americans to withdraw, they refused so the two sides clashed, the
Mexicans killed a few Americans in America and the war began. At the beginning,
the Americans had the better weapons but they were seriously out numbered. The
government had a call for 50,000 volunteers, and 200,000 replied. Back in
America, many had supported the war, but a lot had opposed the war and had said
that it was unjustified and avoidable. The natives also opposed the war, they
had feared of slavery if the U.S expanded, but the battle raged on. On august 1846, America took Santa Fe, he
claimed the entire province of New Mexico for the U.S and marched west for
California, where another conflict with Mexico would take place. In
1846, only about 500 Americans live in California, in contrast to the
12, 000 Californians, but in the spirit of manifest destiny, they continued to
try and populate the state. This became know as the Bear Flag revolt, where the
Americans tried to make California an independent nation. In Mexico General Taylor
finally got reinforcements and the Mexican army retreated, so America moved in
on their final goal, Mexico City. The
war ended after they took Mexico City. In Feb. 1848 the U.S and mexico signed
the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which officially ended the war and forced
mexico to turn over much of their land to the U.S. and under the terms of the
Gadsden Purchase, the United states paid mexico $10 million, and in return they
recived the souththern part s of what is now new mexico and Arizonia. And the border
was finally established. This was what the westward expansion was all about.
