Texas Westward Expansion

After Texas became their own Republic and later became part of the United States, Mexico still had not officially recognized Texas as not being part of Mexico; this is what started the Mexican-American war and helped the United States reach their goal of stretching across the whole continent. War is never pretty, but in this case, the outcome was a successful Westward Expansion. Manifest Destiny was very important, and nothing was going to stop the U.S. from accomplishing it. Manifest Destiny was used by the Americans to give reasoning to their expansion to the West. Manifest Destiny refers to the God-given right for the Americans to take as much territory as possible to the west, across the whole continent to be exact. President Tyler Polk was such a strong believer and supported of the Manifest Destiny that he asked too much from Mexico. He asked for the border between the two countries to be at the Rio Grande River. When this was proposed Mexico threatened for war, so the President sent an ambassador. The

When Mexicans saw this they took it as an act of war. Bear in mind, tensions before the United States and Mexico were high because of border disputes. United States wanted the border to be at Rio Grande River while Mexico wanted the border to be the Nueces River. General Zachary Taylor was the one to go to Texas and claim the Rio Grande River as the border. Mexico taking this as an act of aggression caused shots to be fired sending Mexican troops across the Rio Grande. ("President Polk Declares War on Mexico.") In turn, now that the Mexicans crossed into American soil, the way Polk saw it, although they crossed an unofficial border, it was considered an invasion. Taking advantage of this “invasion,” President Polk brought this to the attention of congress on May 11, 1846, saying the Mexicans spilled American blood on American soil. This was the perfect reason to start a