Annexation Of Mexico Dbq Essay

“Texas won their independence in 1836”(Roden 317). Texas needed to prove that they were independent from Mexico without dragging the U.S. into it. In the battle of the Alamo, many Americans helped, however, the war was not ours, so why should this war be any different (Roden 269)? In Polk 's message to Congress asking them to declare war on Mexico he states: “I had ordered an efficient military force to take a position between the Nueces river and the Rio del Norte. This had become necessary to meet a threatened invasion of Texas.” Mexico was invading Texas not the U.S.

On the contrary, some individuals claim the US was not justified in going to war with Mexico. This point of view makes sense because Texas was Mexico’s to begin with. Despite that, Texas was independent when the US annexed it. Therefore, the united states was justified in going to war with Mexico. 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.

Polk wanted to annex Texas and California meaning he wanted to include those two states. The people doubted Polk because they didn’t believe in manifest destiny. They trespassed without asking. U.S. came and Mexico never gave them permission to stay

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.

However, this is an invalid argument. The land that Polk tried saying was invaded was actually land that was being disputed between Mexico and America. As, at the time they were having disagreements on where their borders were. Joshua Giddings wrote, “the army was within the United States they could not commit violence upon Mexico… It seems that the President expected General Taylor to find Mexican citizens located within the United States.” Thus, if the land being “invaded” was U.S. territory why would Mexican citizens be found there? They wouldn’t be, and they weren’t.

Polk at this time looking at mexico with no opposition turn to congress to declare war. congress did not want to because of the reasons Polk wanted war were invalid, but congress did say if they shot at us we would have no choice than to go to war with mexico. So frustrated Polk now forced a showdown, and on Jan. 1846, he ordered men under Zachary Taylor to march from the Nueces River to the Rio Grande, provocatively near Mexican troops. As events would have it, on April 1846, news of Mexican troops crossing the Rio Grande and killing of wounding 16 Americans came to Washington, and Polk pushed for a declaration of war. so with the Push by Polk, Congress declared war, and so began the Mexican-American War which mexico was trapped in fighting.

In the Mexican-American war of 1846 the United States of America was justified in going to war with Mexico because of many reasons. First Texas decided that did not want to part of Mexico they wanted to be part the Union (United States). It was America’s Manifest Destiny to go out and conquer the land, and the Mexican government wasn’t stable enough to handle their lands. “Texas had determined…to annex herself to our Union” because of the increasing numbers of American settlers that filled the northern part of the Rio Grande. This led Texans to successfully go for an annexation causing a war between the United States and Mexico.

This was because the American migrants began to take an interest in the southwest especially what would become the state of California. President Polk shared the same interest in the territories of California and New Mexico and began to send troops to Texas under the command of General Zachary Taylor. President Polk new war was imminent between the United States and Mexico and appeared prepared for such a war. However Polk wanted to try and solve the conflict diplomatically by sending a special minister to try and buy off the Mexicans but was rejected by Mexican leaders. On January 13, 1846 in response to the rejection Polk ordered Taylor to send troops across the Nueces River, and on May 13, 1846 war was officially declared on Mexico by congress.

ome of the reasons why it was unjust is because according to the website Just-War Theory Applied to US-Mexico War, the Americans declared war after being attacked by the Mexican military when they settled in Texas. They said that the Mexicans ìInvaded our territory.î The Americans like to call it the Mexican War or the Mexican American War but actually Mexicans like to call it ìThe US invasion.î This shows us how Mexico saw the war as more of an invasion than just both of them fighting for land. One big event that happened during this time is when the Americans started to move into Texas. The Mexicans decided to stop slavery and the Americans started getting mad since most of the people were American slave owners. This caused the

Mexican War The Mexican-American War took place in the time period of 1846 to 1848. This was the first U.S. armed war that was mostly fought on foreign land. It was fought between two neighboring countries. One was a politically divided and militarily unprepared Mexico and the other was the expansionist-minded United States. The United States was, at the time, led by the administration of U.S. President James K. Polk, who believed the United States had the God given right to spread across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, this term was called “Manifest Destiny.” Many say that the United States basically invaded Mexico and illegally took their land.

When President James K. Polk arrived in office in 1845, his ideal was determined to acquire the additional territory from Mexico. Polk believed that obtaining the lightly inhabited Mexican land that stretched from Texas to California was vital to the future of the United States. After the trouble that occurred while trying to buy the land from Mexico, Polk ordered American troops under Zachary Taylor to march to the Rio Grande River. When fighting erupted, Polk, claiming that Mexico fired first, went to congress to declare war on Mexico. Numerous Americans, as well as at the time Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln, opposed the war and questioned whether the fight began on American soil and was provoked by Polk’s men.

Nugent’s thesis is that Polk is to blame for the war; Graebner’s thesis is that it isn’t Polk’s fault. I believe that Graebner’s fence sitting means that he believes in his own argument and shouldn’t be consider a genuine argument. Graebner believes that diplomatic and cultural factors –like the manifest destiny- forced the war and that it was out of Polk’s hands. Graebner believed that the US military in Texas pushing towards Mexico was part of

Although, this was a bad idea. Mexico was mostly Catholic, anti-slavery, while the American settlers were not. Texas applied to the U.S. for annexation. However, both times Texas’s request for annexation was rejected by the United States Congress. When James K. Polk became president, he convinced Congress to let texas be annexed.

The United States war with Mexico continues to be a divisive topic due to the unjust and just reasons being argued. The Mexican & American War was the war between Mexico and the United States began because of disputed territory and Mexico shedding “American blood upon the American soil” although “American blood” wasn’t actually shed on “American soil.” The disputed territory was the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande that Mexico and the United States both claimed. It was also the area where 16 American soldiers were killed sparking the idea of the Declaration of War. The war against Mexico was unjustifiable because it went against the constitution, Texas was in the wrong, and the war was based on false pretense. To start off,

Because of the violent actions the Mexicans troops took against the American troop, James K. Polk demanded congress to declare a war against Mexico. Polk claimed that American blood was shed in American territory but in reality it still wasn’t anyone’s property because both countries claimed the land. At the time Mexico didn’t recognize the annexation of Texas. Mexico took the actions of opening fire after the “annex”, something James K. Polk advocated after his beliefs of manifest destiny which was his belief of expanding America into foreign soil. As soon as Mexico opened fire, the Mexican American war started.