Americans going west ran into Mexican territory, where settlement was cheap. These settlers moved in and outnumbered the Mexicans six to one, because of this, tensions arouse. Although the United States war against Mexico may be viewed as controversial, the war was just due to the Mexican government refusing to hear an offer, the boundary dispute, and the 16 American soldiers killed. The new president of Mexico, Jose Joaquin de Herrera, refused all negotiation with the United States which called for an excusable war. John Slidell, the United States ambassador attempted to obtain a peaceful relation but Mexico thought otherwise.
The most direct cause of war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Archduke of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by Serbian nationalists who did not want to be under the rule of Austria-Hungary. After this incident, Austria-Hungary proposed a ultimatum to which Serbians did not agree. This began war between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. Although Germany supported Austria-Hungary when they went to war, Germany didn’t directly start the war.
In this transaction with France, signed on April 30, 1803, the United States purchased 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. The United States doubled its size, expanding the nation westward, which it is why this was so important. As the United States had expanded, navigation of the Mississippi River and access to the port of New Orleans had become critical to American commerce. In a Thomas Jefferson letter to Pierre Samuel du Pont, he predicted, and I quote, ”This little event, of France possessing herself of Louisiana, … is the embryo of a tornado which will burst on the countries on both shores of the Atlantic and involve in it’s effects their highest destinies. Jefferson also to wrote U.S. Minister to France Robert Livingston: "every eye in the US.
The Louisiana territory stretched approximately from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Canadian border. The addition of the 828,000,000 square miles, nearly doubled the size of the United States, costing the nation fifteen million dollars. Jefferson believed that the vast territory would provide “room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and the ten thousandth generation” (Nardo, Don pg. 10) The extent of the nation would be beneficial for the growing generation of Americans by spreading religion, the access to natural resources, and the trading channel through the Mississippi River. Most Americans who lived during the 1830’s and 1840’s were convinced that such expansion was their natural right to explore and settle.
When Americans started to travel Westward, they had come across Texas, which was near Mexico. Mexico’s leader at the time was named Santa Anna, who had fought over the territory with the leaders of the US. At one point in time, Sam Houston had been elected president and led the US army into battles. As said in Document 7, “‘...The protection of our laws and the benefits of our democratic government should be extended over them in distant regions…’” This quote shows how the US government wants to protect the citizens starting to come together in Texas and wants to watch over and protect them. Also, it is saying how if the people of Texas wanted to be part of America, the US government would have to extend their laws enough that everyone in Texas could follow them and become part of the US.
The United States secured the rights to build the canal in Panama in 1903, but to acquire land to build on, negotiations with Gran Columbia were necessary since they owned the country of Panama. When the Columbian senate rejected the leasing of the land proposed by the US, it angered Theodore Roosevelt and led him to support a Panamanian revolt against Columbia and prevented a Columbian response by displaying the strength of the US navy off the coast of Panama, which quickly led to Panamas independence and their subsequent acceptance of the same deal that Columbians rejected. The canal open in 1914 and the whole affair became successful example of Big Stick Diplomacy’s use of peaceful negotiation at first, simultaneously coupled with a threat of military intervention to be used when it becomes
In his campaign against the Aztec Empire, Cortez relied upon the other local indigenous tribes for assistance. Why did they ally themselves to Cortez and how did they help him secure ultimate victory? In Cortez’s venture to seize Mexico from the Aztec powers he was given he allied with other indigenous tribes, such as the Tlaxcalan's. It can be seen that perhaps the ally was more of mutual want for the destruction of the Aztecs as a mutual enemy rather then the want to benefit one another but the result shows us that this ally between the indigenous and the Spanish Hernan Cortez resulted in both the siege of Mexico and downfall of the Aztecs which may not have happened without this alignment. After the Treaty of Torsedillas, Spain came to
involvement in Vietnam began gradually with small protests and demonstrations but eventually developed into an widespread anti-war movement. The scale and influence of the movement made the war unpopular in the U.S., swaying politicians to eventually support to end the war. In addition, America’s military leaders fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the war they were fighting. General Westmoreland, commander U.S. forces in Vietnam, had complete freedom of action in deciding how to fight the war. 5 He decided to conduct of a war of attrition, using search and destroy tactics, in which the measure of merit was body count.
Queen Lili’uokalani had yielded her throne in order to avoid bloodshed and trusted that the United States government would right the wrong that had been done to her and the Hawaiian people (Pitzer). The overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom was not justified because a man by the name of John Stevens acted without the consent of the United States government, the Committee of Public Safety had actually been plotting against the queen, and Hawaii’s independence as a nation and its land was taken away.
But he felt like that was the only solution. The involvement was so that the war was a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam. But this was not successful in the point of view of the Americans because the soldiers had to retrieve back from Asia. Because of America fel no point in fighting anymore. Also there being the Vietnamese government not being able to support themselves .