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Discuss The Short And Long Term Effects Of The Mexican American War

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The Mexican-American war was an armed conflict between the neighboring countries of the United States of America and Mexico. The war had a deep impact on citizens of both countries north and south of the border and left thousands dead on both sides as well as a large debt to be assumed and repaid to the Mexican government by the United States in exchange for territory. Greatly influenced by the annexation of Texas, the war also heavily influenced the beginning of the Civil War as it brought to attention the disagreement over the extension of slavery. The main objective of this paper is to bring to attention the causes that led up to the war and the short and long term effects that the war wrought.
From a historical perspective, the Mexican-American …show more content…

This was also coupled with the “determination of some expansionists to bring Texas into the union as another slave state and increase the economic gains that would result from the expansion of slavery into the area” . Furthermore, as more and more people continuously began populating into Texas, they began to disregard the authority of government officials from both Mexico and Texas. As a newspaper from the time period states “It is uncertain to many living in the newly occupied Texas territory, as to the attitudes held by Mexicans of the new American presence in the area, and whether or not it is positive or negative, cannot yet be judged” . The uncertain feelings that were oblivious to settlers of this time quickly became negative as newcomers continued to break Mexican rules and laws including those against slavery. The actions committed by Americans in the new area grew in number as did the complaints by Mexican citizens of their new neighbors. These complaints highly contributed to the overall disproval of American citizens by Mexican officials and were yet another factor that led to the bloodshed of the …show more content…

In 1846, a congressman from Pennsylvania by the name of David Wilmot brought to floor a bill that would forbid any lands acquired in the war from abolishing slavery. Although his Wilmot Proviso was not passed, it led to ideas in the south that northern states were conspiring against the south. As a result the bill greatly signified an impassable divide in the nation on the subject of slavery, and through this divide the civil war would commence years later as the ultimate result of the Mexican-American

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16 Americans were killed. Both sides had different view on the attack; Mexico believed the United States invaded, but the United States believed Mexico invaded. But alas, the United States did not have valid reasons to go to war with Mexico; even after this. The United States was not justified in going to war with

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The Mexican American War started in 1846 because of Mexican resentment caused by the 1836 loss of Texas and the American’s desire for Mexico’s more northern territory. “On September 9, 1847 after two years of fighting, the Mexican American war essentially ended when the American Army captured Mexico City after the Battle of Chapultepec”( 6). The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war. United States leaders then acted morally superior in their negotiations of the treaty 1. During negotiations, United States officials viewed the “forcible incorporations” (1) of almost one half of Mexico’s land as an “event foreordained by providence and Manifest Destiny” (1).

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Thirdly, a second reason the Mexican War was not justified because US soldiers were in a disputed area. According to Jesus Velasco Marquez from “A Mexican Viewpoint on the War With the United States,” he states that “From Mexico’s point of view, the annexation of Texas to the United States was inadmissible for both legal and security reasons.” As well as, “The American government acted like a bandit who came upon a

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Manifest destiny also affected the relationship with Mexico. Several factors led to the Mexican- American War in 1846. The factors were that the U.S citizens were moving into California and Mexico. Since there were many revolutions happening in Mexico throughout this time period the Mexican government was not able to protect the U.S citizens in this region. Another factor was that Mexico was upset that Texas declared independence from them and then the U. S annexed Texas in 1845.

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The United States war with Mexico was over 160 years ago and still continues to be a divisive and widely debated topic, was it justifiable or not? The first war to be fought mostly on foreign land, was the Mexican-American War that started in 1846. America, lead by President Polk, who believed the U.S had a “manifest destiny”, fought against Mexico who had a weak military and was politically divided. After the war ended in 1848, Mexico lost one-third of its territory which included present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. Although the United States war against Mexico resulted in the gaining of America’s most valuable land, the war itself was unjust because their goal was to expand slavery, Texas was wrong from the beginning, and the war was based on false pretenses.

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This is because Texas was determined to annex itself to the United States (Doc B). They were determined because land is a big priority especially when the United States thinks that “Mexico never can exert any real governmental authority over such a country” so they feel entitled to take the land (Doc A). The people wanted to take over Texas because they wanted more land for slavery and the newspaper over-hyped the idea of taking it so there was more land for slavery (Doc D).

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Essay Outline Topic: Mexican-American War Attention Grabber: Why would this ever start? Would there be a truce between the war? Did it almost start again?

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When Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, a string of ruthless dictators and weak presidents made Mexico an easy target for its powerful neighbor, the United States. The US swooped in to expand its territory and its popular institution of slavery. By doing so, the US started a war with Mexico that was justified for illegitimate reasons. The Mexican-American War was not justified because the US took Mexico’s land for the expansion of slavery, and justified their taking advantage of Mexico when it was politically weak by hiding behind Manifest Destiny.

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The big debate across the growing United States was the debate of slavery and which states would come in as free or slavery states. The Mexican-American War was a major turning point in this debate because it settled the debate over which states would become free or slavery states. This war lasted a little over a year and 9 months long on the border of the United States and Mexico (Texas and Mexico City). This war would helped settle many disputes, but the main debate it would settle would be the huge slavery debate. The Mexican-American War helped the United States gain new territory is the south-western part of the United States.

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This war created a bad relationship between the U.S.A and Mexico. During the war, the daily paper, "El Republicano"

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American history is full of events that have changed the curse of its history, some more recent than others, an often overviewed war or conflict is the Mexican war, probably because it was only 13 years before of one of the most bloodshed periods and important periods of this country 's history, the Civil War; the Mexican War might have nit had as big as an impact as that of the Civil War, but nonetheless it was a period that is certainly important, we can also think that no war is ever unimportant (Shaara,10). Since the Louisiana purchase, there was a fervor for expansion among the American people, in 1845 the then independent nation of Texas was annexed by the United states (Shaara, 12). But there were several doubts about what was the real

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Americans going west ran into Mexican territory, where settlement was cheap. These settlers moved in and outnumbered the Mexicans six to one, because of this, tensions arouse. Although the United States war against Mexico may be viewed as controversial, the war was just due to the Mexican government refusing to hear an offer, the boundary dispute, and the 16 American soldiers killed. The new president of Mexico, Jose Joaquin de Herrera, refused all negotiation with the United States which called for an excusable war.

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INTRODUCTION Throughout the 1840s and 1850s a major war happened called the Mexican American War which drastically changed the U.S. and Mexico and lead to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to be signed and which established the Rio Grande and not the Nueces River as the U.S Border. This also lead to the U.S. annexation of Texas and lead to the Mexico agreeing to sell California and the rest of the territory for 15 million. So you 're probably wondering why the war was fought but you 'll find that out later.

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Although the United States war against Mexico resulted in the gaining of America’s most valuable land, the war itself wasn’t legitimate because of the revolution in Texas, motivation for superiority, and the U.S. government’s actions. To begin, the Texans began an unreasonable war because they didn’t follow Mexico’s laws and conditions. When Mexico started selling cheap land, they set conditions for the people moving in. The people had to convert to Catholicism, learn Spanish, become a Mexican citizen, and have no slaves. Many Americans didn’t like being told what to do, and disobeyed the rules and laws.

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As stated before, the US was justified in going to war with Mexico because of three reasons, Americans were killed, Texas was already annexed, and Manifest Destiny allows it. The United states had many superb reasons for going to war with Mexico. This essay is significant because it helps explain the United States’ choice to go to war with

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