The United States of America before the Mexican War was slowly being torn into two sections, North and South, over the issue of slavery. The nation would be changed politically, sectionally and militarily. At first, the United States was equally proportioned in the number of slave and free states, but after the Mexican War the representation of each region was forever lost and the end result being the American Civil War.
The 1800s was a time of change for America. Most Americans were supporters of expanding the Union to make a larger stronger country, but some also saw the Mexican War as a sheer scheme to expand slavery; however, the Mexican War was seen as something that was necessary to settle disputes between the two countries, and through the support of the "Manifest Destiny," the unresolved conflict that took place between the Texans and Mexicans in the early 1800's, and Polk's failed efforts for peace between Mexico and the United States, it can be established that the Mexican War was in the National interest.
This image depicts the Territorial acquisitions of...
US troops marching on Monterrey during the Mexican...
English: Battle of Veracruz during the Mexican-Ame...The Mexican war between the U.S. and Mexico was started because of a Mexican attack on American troops along the southern border of Texas on April 25, 1846. After Winfield Scott occupied Mexico City on September 14,1847, a few months later a peace treaty was signed between Mexico and the U.S. A dictatorial Centralist government in Mexico began the war because of the U.S. annexation (1845) of Texas, which Mexico continued to claim despite the establishment of the independent republic of Texas 10 years before. Another possible cause for the war may be that the U.S. brought on the war by annexing Texas and, just to make Mexico angry, by stationing an army at the mouth of the Rio Grande.
International borders have always...
The Mexican War
This essay does an adequate job of describing how the war with Mexico broke out, and pointing out that the American annexation of Texas was one of the key issues. However, there are numerous flaws. It begins with how the war upset the sectional balance in the United States between North and South. How this favored the North is not at all clear, because the territorial shift brought about by the war was entirely to the south rather than the north, and there was, at one time, discussion of sub-dividing the massive state of Texas into as many as five states.
Another serious flaw is that there is nothing in this essay about the actual conduct of the war. There is the alleged outbreak, which was disputed at the time, and the invasion of Mexico City, but there is no discussion of something as mundane as where the American army that took Mexico City came from: down from the north, or in from the coast? Finally, there is no discussion of the terms of the treaty by which the war ended, although the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo represents one of the most fascinating efforts ever undertaken by an American diplomat -- who had been fired by the time he sat down to negotiate the treaty.
In short, this essay needs work.
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