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Mexico Is Not Manifest Destiny In The 1800's

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During the early to mid 1800’s, one of Mexico’s priorities was to encourage American farmers to settle in Texas, a Mexican province at the time, allowing the economic growth and benefit of both Countries. Little did the Mexicans know, having opposite beliefs, this would lead to one of the most important conflicts in history. Having engaged in war with Mexico, were the Americans justified? I believe the Americans were justified, especially with having Manifest Destiny playing an important role in the overtake of Mexico’s northern land. In the process of negotiation, American troops were shot and killed by the Mexicans because they believed it was a declaration of war. This expresses to the Americans, even from past events that Mexico is not …show more content…

A great number of Americans agreed with this idea, acting as an excellent source of motivation in the saving of California, Texas, and many other states. “Annexation,” by John L. O’Sullivan states, “[O]ther nations have undertaken… hostile interference against us,... hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence [God].” From this, I can infer that Manifest Destiny was more of a power than an idea that was given to the citizens of America. President James Polk saw it as his duty to fulfill this while saving the land to the west in the process. Being protestant, being given a scripture of the U.S. from the east the west coast, it was important to follow what was …show more content…

John L. O’Sullivan’s “Annexation” mentions, “California will, probably, fall away from Mexico…. Imbecile and distracted, Mexico never can get any real government authority over such a country.” Although there is some bias, it is safe to say that, being a primary source, Mexico was unfit to govern such a large portion of land due to their inability to maintain a stable government. This is also brought up in Jesus Velasco-Marquez “A Mexican Viewpoint on the War with the United States”, “The Mexican government reaffirmed the instruction to protect the border, meaning the territory located between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River - an order which lead to the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.” Poor leadership lead to these unnecessary conflicts. Even Mexico’s allowance for Americans to legally cross the border to Texas was a mistake that lead to a revolution within the

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was justified in going to war with Mexico was because Texas was no longer a part of Mexico. Mexico should have understood what gaining independence from a country meant since they had just broken away from the Spanish Crown. In 1836 Texas gained its independence from Mexico and became an independent republic. The problem was Mexico kept trying to rule over them even though it was not their land to rule over. America came in to try and help Texas stay separated from their former country.

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O’Sullivan, has introduced both the idea and coined the term Manifest Destiny. At the time when the article was written, many people supported the idea of territorial expansion, for they believed that they were destined to manifest under the will of God. According to John L. O’Sullivan, or at least it is understood that he has written the article, believed that the nation should arise above all other nations and create an excellence on divine principles and to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to worship the “Most High.”8 Six years later, John O’Sullivan has written “Annexation” where he officially coined the term, “Manifest Destiny.” In “Annexation,” the writer urged that all parties should unite, especially since other nations have intruded themselves between the U.S and the appropriate parties, have interfered and hampered over America’s power, and limited the greatness and checking the fulfillment of Manifest Destiny to overspread the continent by Providence for the free development of the

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This statement is truly wrong because Mexico went into disputed territory, not into the United States. Both countries claimed the land, and the only reason Americans were killed is because there was confusion. THere could’ve been treaties to prevent this. Both sides thought the disputed territory was their land, causing confusion and a very unreasonable reason to go to

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Was the United States justified in going to war with Mexico? The United States was not justified in going to war with Mexico because they did not respect their laws, culture, and their beliefs. Second of all, this evidence shows that the US was not justified in going to war because it was useless to fight if the Mexicans were going to lose Texas if it was not now, it would be later on. Truly, it was very clear that the Americans won the war because Texas wanted to become part of the US, and the United States wanted to adopt Texas into their union.

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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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Clearly, the Americans were justified because they were settling into their own land, but the Mexicans attacked them while also crossing the border. Therefore, America was justified with going to war against Mexico. However, some people may disagree that America was justified, and might believe that it was not justified to declare war against Mexico. People may believe that they were not justified because the US had already stolen Texas from Mexico. “From Mexico’s point of view, the annexation of Texas to the United States was inadmissible for both legal and security reasons.”

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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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Exemplified in John O’Sullivan’s concept of Manifest Destiny, President Polk believed that it was America’s duty to spread American Exceptionalism throughout the entire North American continent. Resultantly, Polk sought to acquire California through peaceful methods at first, and later through more deceptive means. Ultimately, Polk moved troops to a disputed region between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers in order to provoke a war with Mexico, consequently expediting America’s Manifest Destiny. A justifiable war is one which is undertaken for defensive purposes only, and although misguided by the nationalistic, expansionist precepts of Manifest Destiny, and although he first attempted to acquire southwestern territory peacefully, President Polk failed to satisfy this burden, instead choosing to sacrifice “American blood” for the offensive expansion of his

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Did you know California, and Texas was owned by the Mexicans before it became a state? This was the result of a war that took place in Mexico fought by the Mexican and US soldiers during 1846-1848. The war started because President Polk convinced Congress that Mexico had invaded the US. However, no one knew the most important detail, the unspoken truth. The United States was not justified in going to war with Mexico because the war started because racially motivated (Manifest Destiny) ideas, the disputed area does not belong to the United States, and not the whole truth was offered to the Congress.

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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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America has always made them seem like a victim. During 1846-1848, the Mexican-American War started because of the Texas annexation, border dispute, and America going against their treaty with Texas. Justify means that an action or idea has been proven to be reasonable or acceptable. The United States was not justified in declaring war with Mexico because of Mexico being weak, their border dispute, and most importantly Manifest Destiny. The main reason the Mexican-American War was not justified was because of the U.S. idea of Manifest Destiny.

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