Cummings, (2015) argues that, the Mexican-American war refers to the fight between the United States and Mexico. From history, this war can be traced between 184 to 1848. The primary cause of this war is the matter of boundary. The United States of America wanted to extend its limit on the North American continent. It was the American perception that they have the right from Almighty God to expand their country’s territory beginning from the sea to the shining sea. Initially, Texas was part of Mexico, however, after a severe fight to become independent, Texas left Mexico and joined the United States as one of its states. From that point, the two parts, Texas and Mexico started disagreeing on where the boundary was.
From history, there are two primary roots of the disagreement between the United States of America and Mexico. The first known cause is the United States desire to extend its territory to the Pacific Ocean from the North American Continent. The high level of United States greediness made all its neighbors disagree with her. For example, the British living in Canada, the Mexicans who were on the South West American and lastly Native Americans according to Gómez, (2018). At around 1803, president Jefferson’s acquired Louisiana territory. The acquisition of these enormous acres of land made many Americans migrate and settle in places that did not belong to them. However, in 1845, president Pol arose in power and introduced an idea of Manifest destiny. The meaning of the slogan manifest destiny meant that America had the blessings from God to extend their territories the way the liked. The idea got into many Americans minds, and most of them continued to settle in other people’s lands according to Luckingham, (2016). The continuous settlement of Americans ended in Mexico sparking a severe war. It is also evident that the Americans idea of manifest destiny was not done in an empty hand. At one point, the United States government gave out $25 million to get California from Mexico according to Smith, (2018). The idea did not go well with Mexico; they refused to agree on selling part of their country to America thus fueling the American- Mexican war.
On the other hand, the second evident cause of the American-Mexican war was Texas gaining independence and becoming part of the United States of America. When Mexico got independence from Spain in 1820s, some parts of the country was not occupied, mostly the upper portions of the state in reference to McWilliams, Meier & García, (2016). To fill these parts, Mexico invited everyone who would wish to part of it. The people who agreed were converted to Catholics after which they took an oath to be loyal to Mexico. The migrants comprised some Americans who had ran out of their country. As the days went on, Americans were getting angry with the authority in Mexico. They were not satisfied with the way the government was treating Texas. Several disagreements started coming out, and at some point, Texas and the Mexican government were in the war. However, when it reached 1935, Texas separated from Mexico with Texas forcing the president of Mexico Santa Anna to sign a treaty declaring Texas an independent state. The main issue with the agreement of Velasco which announced Texas independent was that many Mexicans did not welcome the idea. They fought day and night, and when it reached 1845, the United States Congress agreed with Texas idea to join it as one of its States. The agreement fueled the hostility between Mexico and the United States of America. Therefore, this is another cause of the war between America and Mexico. The fight began with Mexico claiming that Texas was still under its control. The main issue here was to define the boundary between Texas and Mexico. The two countries struggled to control the Rio Grand River in reference to Osorio, (2015).
The two countries, Mexico and America, made use of traditional armies to defend themselves during the war. The conventional armies comprised of cavalry, infantry, and artillery. Dell, (2015) says that, American soldiers embarked on guerrilla tactics as they penetrated to Mexico. They harassed many Mexican soldiers who tried to invade the United States of American. However, it was evident the European tactics the American soldiers could not render them victorious. When the war reached its climax, the American soldiers to change their tactics to three strategies. The United States armies divided themselves into three groups. The south of Texas was under two army groups, Santa Fe was under another group of soldiers. The three soldiers seemed to bear fruits to America, at one General Zachary’s army defeated many Mexico soldiers. However, it was painful as many people lost their lives and many displaced. Despite many casualties, Mexico continued to defend itself. American armies brought in control many Mexico cities like California in reference to Hook & Spanier, (2018). It was a massive boost to Mexico when president Santa Anna who left the country for exile returned and trained about twenty thousand members of the army to counter the American influence.
The training did not bring much impact to Mexico. They continued to lose big cities, many of its soldiers, however, it refused to surrender to the United States of America. They tried to defend their city of Mexico. The two armies staged many battles, and it improved challenging for the American soldiers to get their way to the town of Mexico. However later on September 14, 1846, the American army got its way to Mexico City. At this point, the United States of America got excellent control to Mexico. President Santa of Mexico did not get it well; he later resigned from the head of state of Mexico. However, despite abandoning, he continued to organize some attacks to the United States Soldiers while outside the city. He was dealt a hefty blow after the members of his soldiers were beaten and many of them died. The full war ended in 1848 February when the two countries signed a treaty called Guadeloupe Hidalgo. Both the Mexican Congress and the United States Congress passed the deal.
Gonzalez, (2017) argues that, there are several impacts of American- Mexican battle. The first consequence was that the United States of America gained several parts of Mexico. Almost half of the northern part of Mexico was under the United States after the war. The United States had a well-organized army as compared to Mexico; they used quality tactics in managing the battle, this left Mexico defenseless. Today the United States has gained many states such as Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. All these states were under Mexico at first. The second impact of the war is that President Santa Anna resigned after losing many battles. He went to exile bit even after coming back; he was not able to control the fight. He missed all the powers he had over Mexico.
Apart from the impacts, the other consequence was that suspicion was growing day and night between Mexico and America. The relationship between the two nation was not at peace. Every country was thinking that the other government is preparing for another attack. The issue is evident when the border between America and Mexico is full of soldiers according to DeBruyne, & Leland, (2015). However, the war gave United States of American a relaxed environment to train their soldiers whom they would make use of in the future. For example, the soldiers who were fighting in this war are the same people America made use of during the civil war. It is evident that during the civil war, the soldiers were well equipped with skills on how to deal with the enemy.
On the other hand, many people gained popularity through the war. For example, General Zachary of America made use of the fact that he led the troops to win the battle, he campaigned with the slogan and won the presidential election in 1848 in reference to Barraclough, (2018). On the wrong side, many nations saw Mexico as a weak country; they continued to settle in the country because it seemed nervous during the war. For instance, France came to Mexico to exploit the fact that America defeated the country during the war according to Nevitte, (2017). Many people lost their lives during the war, mostly soldiers. Mexico lost over twenty-five thousand army members while the United States lost more than thirteen thousand soldiers. Besides that, many nations started fearing United States soldiers because they won the battle between them and Mexico. It was also evident that the idea of the supremacy of the United States began to gaining momentum at this moment.
Conclusion
Many people got displaced and lost their lives during the war. However, it showed that the United States was a superior nation as compared to Mexico. America could extend the supremacy to other nations during the civil war.
References
Barraclough, L. (2018). Wrangling settler colonialism in the urban US West: Indigenous and Mexican American struggles for social justice. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 108(2), 513-523.
Cummings, J. W. (2015). Towards Modern Public Finance: The American War with Mexico, 1846-1848. Routledge.
DeBruyne, N. F., & Leland, A. (2015). American war and military operations casualties: Lists and statistics. Congressional Research Service Washington United States.
Dell, M. (2015). Trafficking networks and the Mexican drug war. American Economic Review, 105(6), 1738-79.
Gómez, L. E. (2018). Manifest destinies: The making of the Mexican American race. NYU Press.
Gonzalez, G. (2017). Guest Workers or Colonized Labor?: Mexican Labor Migration to the United States. Routledge.
Hook, S. W., & Spanier, J. (2018). American foreign policy since World War II. Cq Press.
Luckingham, B. (2016). Minorities in Phoenix: A Profile of Mexican American, Chinese American, and African American Communities, 1860-1992. University of Arizona Press.
McWilliams, C., Meier, M. S., & García, A. M. (2016). North from Mexico: The Spanish-Speaking People of the United States: The Spanish-Speaking People of the United States. ABC-CLIO.
Nevitte, N. (2017). The North American Trajectory: Cultural, Economic, and Political Ties among the United States, Canada and Mexico. Routledge.
Osorio, J. (2015). The contagion of drug violence: spatiotemporal dynamics of the Mexican war on drugs. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 59(8), 1403-1432.
Smith, J. H. (2018). The US-Mexican War (Vol. 1&2): The Relations Between the US And Mexico, Attitudes on the Eve of War, the Preliminaries of the Conflict, the California Question, the War in American Politics, the Foreign Relations of the War. e-artnow.
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