The Mexican American War And Foreign Soil - 1081 Words

Today, we are going to talk about the first U.S. armed conflict chiefly fought on foreign soil; The Mexican-American War (1846-1848). Motivated by the U.S. President James K. Polk, who believed the United States had a â€Å"manifest destiny† to spread across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, he pitted a politically divided and militarily unprepared Mexico. A border skirmish along the Rio Grande started off the fighting and was followed by a series of U.S. victories. At the end of the war, Mexico had lost about one-third of its territory. Let’s go back to those events in details. First of all: What caused the Mexican-American War to begin? The Mexican American War was mainly driven by the idea of â€Å"Manifest Destiny†; the belief that the U.S had a God-given right to occupy and civilize the whole continent. As increasingly large number of Americans migrated towards the west in search of land, the fact that most of those areas already had people living in them was ignored. Instead, an attitude and belief that democratic English-speaking America would do a better job of running the lands than the Native Americans or Spanish-speaking Catholic Mexicans prevailed. President Polk shared and led the vision of Manifest Destiny, and did offer to buy much of the southwest land from Mexico. However the Mexican government refused the offer, and an unyeilding desire to populate those southwestern lands caused tensions to continue to rise. The second major cause of the Mexican American WarShow MoreRelatedThe Expansion Of The Westward Expansion904 Words   |  4 Pagesfor westward expansion was land, war, power and the most important was freedom. During the 1840’s west of the Unites States had an abundance of scarcely inhabited land. The thought of cheap land, room for families to grow, and business opportunity lead to, hundreds of happy millions, calling, owning no master, but governed by God s natural and moral law of equity, heading west. Americans found out about this land opportunity through the invitation of the Mexicans which is very important on how expansionRead MoreAn Exercise Of American Imperialism1381 Words   |  6 Pages1846-1848: Southward Aggression II,† argues that the Mexican War was indeed an exercise of American imperialism. Throughout his presidency, James K. Polk made a promise to the American people to honor Manifest Destiny, expanding the territory of the United States to the Paci fic Ocean. Polk was blinded by his tunnel vision, and was more than willing to pay the cost of thousands of Mexican lives (over twice as many as Americans) in pursuit of his goal. The Mexican government was weak, so, Polk took advantageRead MoreThe Annexation of Texas Essay580 Words   |  3 PagesThe Mexican War of 1846-1848 was one of major importance to U.S. history, but has since fallen into annals of obscurity. 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This war had triggers with disagreements on the ideal of Manifest Destiny and major actions by President Polk that led the United States into attempting to annex Texas. Texas at that time was independent and was not part of Mexico nor America. Mexico wanted Texas to stay neutral that they threatened a war to the United States if they tried anything to attempt anythingRead MoreThe American Of The Mexican American War Essay730 Words   |  3 Pages 1 Thomas Gordon The Mexican-American War 28 January 2015 US History University of Phoenix In 1846-1848 was the first time the U.S would fight a war on foreign soil, it was called the Mexican-American war. At this time Mexico was just starting to develop into a government and was extremely confused and leadership was split between decisions. 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