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Manifest Destiny Or Excuses

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Manifest Destiny or Excuses? The westward expansion was a period of ambition for many Americans who wanted to extend US territory for resources, personal reasons, business and etc. The problem they faced was that it was all Mexican territory. In order to settle in the West, people must become citizens of the Mexican government and follow its rules. This fact upset many Americans as it does not benefit their own country and so the idea of Manifest Destiny was born. Texas and America plotted to overthrow the Mexican government through several underhanded ways that pinned the blame on Mexico.

One of the several lies told was made by President Polk, leader of Texas. He lied to Congress by saying, “Mexico has passed the boundary of the United …show more content…

According to John O’ Sullivan, “Other 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) for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions”. The Americans are using God’s will as an excuse to go to war with Mexico. The fact that other countries are also trying to taking territory from Mexico shows that the United States is willing to enter the competition for Mexico’s territory in order to gain more resources to support themselves and strengthen themselves by doing this. Manifest Destiny is nothing more than a concocted lie meant to persuade the masses the advantages of gaining more territory.
To conclude, the US was truly not justified in going to war with Mexico because of the number of lies and excuses told to persuade the population that Mexico was the actual villain. It was also nothing more than competition between countries to gain more territory and Mexico happened to be the target of those countries. Land could also be gained by buying land or negotiating but the US just charged through and grabbed what they wanted. Due to the ungainly manner by which they gained territory it is safe to that there really was no point to this

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