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Mexican-American War In East Of Eden

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Amputation. Starvation. Incineration. Wars cause an extensive amount of damage to everyone and everything that enters the long, pernicious battles. Examples of this can be shown within the novel East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck tells the story of the Trask and the Hamilton family. As the reader progresses through this narrative, it is understood that both of these families contribute to the war effort in distinctive ways exhibited through personal endeavor. Furthermore, Steinbeck focuses on good vs. evil, represented through the good, Abel-like and the evil, Cain-like characters; determinism, shown through Cathy and the wickedness that possesses her; and timshel, introduced by Lee, the Chinese servant of Adam Trask, and symbolized by the free will of the characters. In addition to these various ideas, the narrative also comments on the wars that America participated in during the time frame in which East of …show more content…

Steinbeck claims that the Mexican War only did two good things, one, “We got a lot of western land, damn near doubled our size...” and two, the land becomes a training ground for generals (Steinbeck 130). At the end of the Mexican-American War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo calls for Mexico to “...transfer 500,000 square miles of Mexican territory to the U.S. in exchange for $15 million” (Wood). The U.S. gained western territory from the treaty, but the land did not double the size of America. Instead, the land that Mexico surrendered to the United States was approximately half of Mexico’s territory (Wood). When Steinbeck states that only two good things come from the war, it is evidently false. The Mexican-American War also provided the United States and Mexico with a new border, and with the new border came a new ethnic group (Wood). In closing, the reference to the Mexican-American War was both factually accurate and fallacious due to

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The claim that it was the Americans who were wronged in the border battle was deeply seeded within the propaganda published by the American newspapers. Statements such as the one stated in Document B, “Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory, and shed American blood,” exhibit the dramatic retellings of the fight to reflect upon Mexican savageness while neatly avoiding American flaws. It was also rooted into American morale that it was correct to annex Texas from the “imbecile and distracted, Mexico [who] can never exert any real government authority,” according to Document A. Ultimately, the question of which country was justified in the Mexican-American War is debatable. However, to side with the Americans would mean disregarding the blatant disrespect displayed by the settlers, the betrayal of the American government for the annexation of what was still viewed as Mexican land, and the ambiguity of the border dispute for both.

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For this week I decided to write a summary of chapter 11: Anglo-Saxons and Mexicans. The new political ideologies were created between 1830 to the 1840s. These new ideas were influenced by pride and obvious racism. These beliefs inspired the idea that American Anglo-Saxons were the dominant force and that they should be the ones to shape the destiny of others. The idea of the American Anglo-Saxon race was influenced by the American Mexican war.

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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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The Mexican-American War was a fascinating part of our history that is filled with negotiations, conquests, deceit, failed battles, and unsurpassed victory. President James K. Polk

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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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War is going on all the time and whether the causes are appropriate or not is debatable. Many times war is the last result, but for the US, in this case, armed conflict was the only option. On April 25th, 1846 a massive Mexican Army attacked Captain Seth Thornton and his US Army north of the Rio Grande. Many were overtaken by fear, of what was to come. War.

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The Mexican-American war altered the United States environmentally, culturally and politically. First, on February 2, 1848, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo two years post the beginning of the war. The treaty not only achieved President Polk’s goal to achieve California from Mexico but also granted the U.S. over 500,000 square miles of new territory. The new land caused approximately 90,000 spanish speaking, mostly Catholic Mexicans under American jurisdiction. Second, Nativism, a rising anti-catholic and anti-immigrant deemed the Mexicans inferior.

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Cain ended up murdering Abel out of envy of his favorable position, and that conflict is reflected through Charles and Adam Trask, and later Adam’s children Caleb and Aaron. The characters struggle with the notions of good and evil. Timshel is a repeating theme. The concept is the biblical depiction of the internal strife between good and evil that lies in each character. Adam Trask is a central character in the novel, who the reader sees mature and struggle as both a son and a father.

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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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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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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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