Manifest Destiny And The Mexican-American War

In 1846, the United States Congress declared war on Mexico after a request from President James K. Polk. President Polk had accused Mexican troops of attacking Americans on U.S soil, north of the Rio Grande. Polk’s plan was to claim California, New Mexico, and land near the disputed southern border the Texas (Rio Grande River). The Mexican-American war fulfilled America’s Manifest Destiny. Polk was a strong supporter of Manifest Destiny, he believed it was God’s plan for America to extend it’s territory all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Polk did not just want to annex Texas. Polk also had his eyes on California. The U.S Army invaded the Mexican heartland and captured Mexico City in September 1847. Although the U.S army had won the victory of the Mexican-American War of 1846, The War officially ended on February 2, 1848. Mexico had lost about a third of its territory, California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Manifest Destiny was the idea that Americans were divinely ordained to settle the continent of North America. It also inflamed sectional tensions over slavery, which led to the Civil War. America wanted to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean but Mexico and Great Britain stood in between. Manifest Destiny was brought into the Mexican-American War because, the southern wanted to find more land for cotton and that could expand slavery. Manifest Destiny gained more than 520,000 square miles of land, Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada, and New Mexico. The last piece of Manifest Destiny was the Gadsden Purchase that gained the land needed for the southern route railroad across the southwest to