This is a controversial issue that will be discussed in this essay. The war started in 1846, just like every war, it had its strong supporters and critics. Compared to other wars, the Mexican War seems very small, but in fact, it was not. Thousands of Mexicans and Americans died and half of Mexico was taken by the US as a war prize. So the question is: Was the US justified in going to war with Mexico?
We have common ground with Mexico, we both declared independence, Mexico freed itself from spain. Mexican leaders were aware of the emptiness of their northern lands, one of the ways to make money was to allow settlers from the US, they were encouraging people from the US to settle on their lands in Texas; however, this was not going as smoothly as they thought it would, Mexico was Catholic, anti-slavery, and wanted to keep texans under their laws. However, the Americans were not all against slavery.
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The Manifest Destiny was a belief that God gave all the power to the Americans and all the land and resources in the north. Polk saw Mexico’s treatment of Slidell as an opportunity, when the word that Mexican soldiers fired upon Americans on the Texas Side of the Rio Grande, Polk had a reason for war. I do believe that America was justified in going to war with Mexico, we have been treated like dirt in previous years from Britain, we are not going to let Mexico beat us.
In Document A, it states: “It is time for opposition to the Annexation of Texas to cease… Texas is now ours… (Other Nations) Hampering our power, limiting our greatness an checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” In this, O’Sullivan is saying that Texas is our all ready, we will not let Mexico take over what is
As a Democrat, I believe that President Polk was justified in starting the Mexican-American War. Also, as a strong supporter of Manifest Destiny, also known as Western expansion, I furthermore find reason to believe Polk was justified in initiating war with the Mexican people; being that the Mexican government refused peaceful negotiation. The Americans were the just owners of this western land, and we intended to get it. The Mexican government refused a meeting with our representative to establish the border between Texas and Mexico, along with an offer of 30 million dollars for Western territory. These western territories would provide substantial economic growth for the United States, as well as the obvious: making our nation larger as
Polk spread the rumor that it was their “manifest destiny” to extend America’s territory to the Pacific Ocean. Historians today ask the question: Was the United States justified in going to war with Mexico? The United States was not justified, because the United States were greedy for land, “manifest destiny” is weak excuse, and because of the human cost. The United States had its eye on expand its territory and started with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
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.
It also made expansion and dispossession of indigenous people. But another reason the war was justified is that Manifest Destiny allowed the mexican american war to happen and it also was a key event from where the Manifest Destiny was a exploration from the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific ocean. The impact the American Mexican war left on texas and the United states was that the war halved the size of mexico and then it doubled the territory of the United states The American Mexican war was just a really big part in history cause it proves how americans fought for their land and that they never gave up and that they will always do their best and they won't give up and that's how Americans will always be even if americans got killed during that fight the us army never gave up and they won the battle after a long and hard fought battle they won. President James Polk was important to the battle because he saw a big territorial expansion of the U.S so he advocated for the annexation of Texas and he prosecuted the resulting American Mexican war which later then added more of the southwest and california's land to the country's territory and polk was a strong supporter of manifest destiny the president convinced that it was God's plan for us to move west and that God wanted us to expand. Mexicans point of view would be that they saw that America came as a threat and they decided to fight back because texas was Mexico's to begin with and also Texas was independent when it was
In 1845, United States Magazine and Democratic View Vol. XVII had a statement on the start of the war “The 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].” The idea that God gave Americans the permission to take over the land is completely invalid as it does not give a definitive tangible reason for the U.S to take the land, it sounds more like an excuse to steal the land than an actual reason. All though the Americans used Manifest Destiny as a reason to justify their decision. The article stated “Other to start the war, for the reason stated previously it doesn’t justify why the U.S would go to war with Mexico over such a
The Mexican war began in 1846-1848 shortly after Mexico's independence in 1821, freeing itself from its mother country, Spain. Mexico was huge back in the 1830’s. It stretched out from Guatemala all the way to Oregon and it was equal to the size of The United States. Now I’m gonna give my reasons on why I think The United states was not justified in going to war with Mexico.
US Justified or Not Justified War, bloodshed, trespassing, death, all this was caused by the US going to war for no reason. During this time, many interesting things happened. In 1848 the first baseball diamond was laid out in New York. Another interesting fact was that Mexico was a Catholic country, while America was a mostly Protestant country. This caused a lot of anger among the two countries.
Was the Mexican War Justified? When does America have the right to go to war? America had every right to go to war with Mexico because they were farming the land and wanted to do it the way they wanted. Mexico wanted to control their religion, the use of slaves and wanted them to follow their rules.
In Document B, President Polk said, “I had ordered and efficient military force to take a position...to meet a threatened invasion of Texas by the Mexican forces….invasion was threatened solely because Texas had determined….to annex herself to our Union,... it was plainly our duty to extend our protection over her citizens and soil.” President Polk then mentioned the attack at the Rio del Norte, where the invasion in Texas happened. This evidence shows the US was justified in going to war with Mexico because Texas was invaded by Mexico, meaning that the U.S. should protect Texas by fighting
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.
Was the United States Justified in Going to War With Mexico? No, The United States wasn't justified in going to war with Mexico, because Texas wanted to be annexed by America even though Texas itself was from Mexico.[The Mexican War started in 1846 for many reasons like arguing where the Texas border was and if we could annex Texas to our union,but the very main reason we declared war on Mexico was because on April 24 a party of sixty-three men(Americans) and officers were crossing the Rio Grande when they became encountered with a large group of Mexicans and were attacked. It ended up being about 16 Americans that were killed & wounded. Mexico personally invaded our land and “killed our people on American land”.
The Manifest Destiny was fulfilled. Polk was a strong supporter of the Manifest Destiny. (Roden 317) The president convinced us. This evidence shows the US was justified in going in war because it was the Manifest Destiny.
The idea of Manifest Destiny was centered around the idea that God wanted the US to expand as much as possible because the US had a superior way of life. The US justified their cruel actions towards Mexico because they were “destined” to act accordingly. If Americans truly believed that all people were created equal, then Manifest Destiny was not a plausible idea. Manifest Destiny created a hierarchy system in which the US was on top; a hierarchy was the opposite of a society or world where all people were created equal. Therefore, the US did not have such superiority to Mexico that God thought it was acceptable for Americans to act like they were allowed to trample on Mexico’s government
Was The U.S. Justified? Did you know that after the annexation of Texas, The United States was going to continue its path of Manifest Destiny and take over California? Leading up to the Mexican-American War, the war was between the United States and Mexico in 1844. The war started when the United States tried to invade Texas from Mexico. The United States was not justified in going to war with Mexico because Mexico claims that the annexation of Texas was illegal and violated security reasons, the United States straight up attacked Mexico, and the United States broke Mexico’s law by bringing slaves into Mexican land.
The United States war with Mexico continues to be a divisive topic among many people because of its background. The Mexican-American war was a fight between Mexico and America for land. America’s belief at the time was Manifest Destiny, which meant that they believed that America should extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific ocean. In the end, America benefited from the war and got the land. The United States expanded its size, achieving their dream of Manifest Destiny.