...Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo On February 2, 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. With the stroke of a pen, the Mexican-American War officially came to an end. The signing of the treaty ended the territorial disputes that caused the conflict between both countries. In the treaty, the United States government was obligated to pay Mexico fifteen-million dollars. In return for the compensation, The United States expanded its territory. The territory that was obtained via the treaty eventually became New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, and some of Utah.[1] This treaty, especially in the long run, benefited both the United States and Mexico, but there are many arguments about why the war started. Some argue that the United States was power hungry and was continuing its “bulling” of the continent to fulfill their belief that it was God’s will for the United States to control the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This has now become to be known as Manifest Destiny.[2] Then there are the counter arguments that the dictatorship of Mexico sent troops to invade the United States and killed Americans. In a message to congress on May 11, 1846, President James Polk said, “Mexico invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil.”[3] There are many arguments that say the United States is a racist nation and that this war, like many others, was because of white racism. Whether the battles were all racially motivated will never be...
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...------------------------------------------------- Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo The Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoSo far from God, so close to the United States – Old Mexican SayingOn September 14, 1847 the Mexican flag was not flying over the Mexican capital. Instead, Mexico’s neighbor to the north had captured the country. How and why did the United States defeat Mexico in the Mexican-American War? To the victors went what spoils? This essay will answer these questions in a nutshell.Throughout the 19th Century, the United States was increasing in power and population while Mexico was stuck in chronic “political unrest, civil conflicts, depleted treasuries, [and] separatist movements” (Oscar J. Martinez, Troublesome Border [Tucson: the University of Arizona Press, 1988], 51). The U.S. was also heavily influenced by Manifest Destiny—the idea that the U.S. had the natural right to rule North America from coast to coast. Consequently, various presidential administrations in the 1820s and 30s sought to purchase land from Mexico, with no avail.In 1835, Texas battled and gained independence from Mexico; Texas was a sovereign country for the next decade (the Lone Star Republic). In the Treaty of Velasco, the Texas-Mexico border was established along the Rio Grande. Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (pronounced “Santana”) signed the treaty but the problem lied in the fact that the Mexican Congress did not ratify it, nor did Mexican presidents after Santa...
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...Mexican-American War The Mexican-American War was fought between the United States and Mexico between 1846 and 1848, and it was marked the first American military battle to be fought on foreign soil. The Mexican American War was mainly driven by the idea of “Manifest Destiny”; the belief that the Americans had a God-given right, based on racial superiority, to spread across the Pacific Ocean (Chavez 2). The motives that were really behind Manifest Destiny was the acquisition of new territory, and the Americans wanted territories which were relatively uninhabited by people they considered inferior. As Americans wandered in search of land towards the west, the reality that the majority of those lands had occupants living in them got overlooked. President Polk shared and guided the dream of manifest destiny, and offered to purchase some territory of Mexico. His aim was to convince Mexicans to get into a negotiation and surrender a portion of their land to America .However, the refusal of the offer by the Mexican government and the unbending of the Polk to populate the area resulted in tension in the two nations. President Polk told the congress that blood had been shed, and he provoked war with Mexicans. With the end of the Mexican War, the United States absorbed one third of that nation’s total area. Even though American’s gained a considerable amount of land, it created great political sectionalism in America. The Mexican American War was for the most part determined...
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...The war against Mexico began with the annexation and American claims of Oregon. Mexico wanted Texas to remain independent from the United States. Mexico's response to Polk annexing Texas was to suspend alliances and relations with the US. President Polk sent troops that would encroach on land that was occupied by both the United States and Mexico. President Polk first sent john Slidell to Mexico but the Mexicans refused to accept him due to the suspended relations and growing tensions. The Veracruz campaign is the military campaign that led General Winfield Scott to victory. The Veracruz campaign may have been time consuming but was well worth it. The Veracruz campaign allowed General Winfield Scott to overtake the Mexicans in 18 days. The Veracruz resulted in a truce with the Mexicans....
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...Mexican American War 1846-1848 Some wars fall between the cracks. That appears to be what happened with Polk’s War. James K. Polk was our eleventh president. He is often listed as the worst president we’ve ever had. Polk’s War was actually the Mexican War of 1846-48. Before and during that war, most Americans including congress were not in favor of a war with Mexico. The war was launched on questionable pretexts. Why invade a smaller, poorer neighbor just for land? Mexico’s border with the Republic of Texas was the Nueces River near Corpus Christi. New Mexico, Arizona, California along with other territory belonged to Mexico, having won them from Spain some 25 years earlier. There were debates in Congress that the invasion of Mexico was unconstitutional. America had never invaded others (except the American Indians). A young congressman, Abraham Lincoln, began his move into the national limelight as an avowed opponent to the war. Polk saw America as having a manifest destiny to control the entire continent. The great American attitude of “can do” was increasing in strength. Arrogance was never been in short supply in our brief history. President James K. Polk sent troops to Corpus Christi to move the border to the Rio Grande. This was not something the Mexicans wanted. They responded with some strength and were not the push-over Polk and the war hawks thought they would be. For such a...
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...Menchaca discussed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the racialization of the Mexican population living in the Southwest. In 1848 the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ending the Mexican America War. The United States government stated that Mexicans who lived within the newly controlled territory of the Southwest would become American citizens. However, a year later after the treaty had been signed, the United States government lied and broke its promise of allowing equality to the newly controlled Mexican population living within the southwest. California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas were some of the states newly controlled by the United States government. The United States government began the process of...
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...travel north, and acquire their rightful land, known as the Rio Grande Valley. In 1846, at the age of 22, Juan joined the Mexican Army to fight for his land that was currently on Texas soil due to the annexation. Juan Cortina did not really come to America, in a way America came to him by redrawing the borders of Mexico and America. In order to keep his land, he had to fight in the Mexican-American War. Juan fought under the orders of General Mariano Arista, and devised a plan together to arrive at Matamoros in an attempt to stop the advancing forces of General Zachary Taylor. “Arista asked Cortina to form a force from local Vaqueros and gather as much as possible for war. This irregular cavalry regiment was known as the "Tamaulipas" was placed under...
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...Mexican vs American War The Mexican war between the USA and Mexico began with an attack by the Mexicans against the Americans troops along the Texas border line on April 25, 1846. The fight ended when the USA General Winfield Scott occupied Mexico-City on September 14, 1847. A few months later a peace treaty was signed on February 2, 1848 of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In addition to recognizing the annexation of Texas in the United States with the defeat, California is also allocated by Mexico and New Mexico. Similar to all the events that are important in history, the interpretations referred to the Mexican war may vary. The Mexicans with a government rule by dictatorial centralism, attack the USA due to the annexation of (1845) Texas,...
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...book; Mexican Americans in Texas a Brief History was to inform the reader the roots of Mexican Americans how it all began. The regions that various people inhabited, such as Spain, Mexico, and the Texas Republic in the 1790s-1836. As well, the years its history began, the struggles they had to go through while here in Texas Republic and the victory they won in war and citizenship they earned in 1836-1880 because of the war; The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Later on, in the last decades of the nineteenth century, Mexican Americans faced powerful racial attitudes from Anglo Americans. The author states about Anglo Americans or Anglo-Tejanos went to the extent where they would torture and burn Mexican Americans alive. Arnoldo De Leon speaks about the Tejano life in the modern age...
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...According to Article VIII of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, a Mexican person that decides to move to Mexico can do whatever they please with their property (retaining or disposing of and removing proceeds) without fear of retribution. If said Mexican person decides to continue to live on their property in what is now the U.S., they have a year from the date of ratification of the treaty to choose if they want to remain a Mexican citizen or become a U.S. citizen. If they have not decided within that year, they will automatically become a U.S. citizen. Article IX states that Mexicans who don’t want to keep their Mexican citizenship shall in due time (to be determined by Congress) enjoy all the rights of U.S. citizens according to the Constitution, and until such a time they have free enjoyment of their liberty and property and are free to exercise their...
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...In this battle analysis, I will analyze the Mexican-American war, discuss when the battle occurred, where it took place, the principle adversaries, review the settings of the battle operationally, and discuss the different areas of operation, such as the weather and terrain. I will also describe and analyze the American and Mexican armies in leadership, size and composition, technology, logistical systems, command, control and communications, intelligence, tactical doctrine and morale, the battle chronologically, followed by the significance of the battle, addressing the effects of the war and how lessons learned from this war affect the way our military operates today. So first, lets start by discussing the Mexican-American war. During April 25, 1846 to February 2, 1848 the Mexican American War occurred. This conflict happened between the Centralist Republic or Mexico and the Unite States. The war consisted of four campaigns as follows, the Texas, California, Pacific Coast and Mexico campaigns. President James K. Polk, who was elected in 1844, believed the United States had a “manifest destiny” to spread across the continent to the Pacific Ocean (Frazier, 1998). At first, the United States declined to incorporate Texas into the union, because northern political interests were against the addition of a new slave state. The Mexican government encouraged border raids and warnings that if any attempt to annex Texas it would lead to a war. As time went by Polk had his eyes on the...
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...Texas knew they were either going to be attacked by either America or Mexico soon so they proposed an annexation into America. The U.S. agreed to the proposal and now the argument on where the border was of Texas and Mexico. This became know as the Mexican-American War. The war had America winning all major battles throughout the war and eventually a victory for the U.S. In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the borders of Mexico and Texas at the Rio Grande. The treaty also forced Mexico to give up the northern third of their country and add 1.2 million square miles of territory to the U.S. In 1853, the Gadsden Purchase helped the U.S. obtained from Mexico another 29,640 square miles in southern Arizona and New Mexico. The annexation of Texas, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the Gadsden Purchase increased the U.S. by a third of its size. This area includes present day California, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and half of Colorado. The Westward Expansion helped the U.S. achieve their goal of owning land from coast to...
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...Mexican War The Mexican American war all started because the war between Mexico and the United States had its beginnings with the struggle over who would control Texas.The United States fought Mexico to make land equal from Texas to the Pacific Ocean.By the 1830's American settlers in mexico's Texas territory outnumbered native Americans. Tensions had been high between Mexico and Americans since 1836. Mexico has tried to invade Texas and take it back , but it didn't work. The war lasted until 1846 through 1848. April 25,1846 the Mexicans attacked a group of United States soldiers , the Mexicans killed about 13,283 people. So the Americans had to fight back , they planned out how to protect themselves they had to mobilize,equip, and transport a large force. On March 9,1846 the president James K. Polk began to prepare a war message to congress. James K. Polk sent one army to capture New Mexico and then March on to California. Junior officers were a great importance , many had trained at the Military Acedemy at the West Point. In 1847 ,...
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...2009 Mexican American War “ As war exist, and, notwithstanding all our efforts to avoid it, exists by the act of Mexico herself, we are called upon by every consideration of duty and patriotism to vindicate with decision the honor, the rights, and the interest of our country.” - Special message of President James Polk asking Congress to declare war with Mexico on May 11, 1846.( Carey 26) Mexico was furious when Texas became part of the United States in 1845. A formal complaint was made by a Mexican ambassador to Washington, D.C. and returned to Mexico city. In turn, the American ambassador withdrew from Mexico. The two nations poised for war.( ---) Trying to avoid any conflict, the United States tried to obtain the territory that now makes up California and New Mexico peacefully. President James Polk sent an envoy to Mexico City of $30 million or more to buy the territory for California and New Mexico. Mexico refused to consider the offer. (-----) By May of 1846, many people in the United States wanted to declare war on Mexico and grab as much territory, but the U.S. Secretaries of state and of war argued that it would be illegal. (-----) They insisted that they would not allow the country to go to war unless Mexico attacked first. (-----) At just that time, President James Polk had already ordered General Zachary Taylor to lead a detachment of American troops into western Texas, between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, to patrol the boarder.(-----) The Mexican commander...
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...Kristine Sizemore American Intercontinental University Unit 4 Individual Project HIST105 – U.S. History May 26, 2013 Abstract The Mexican-American War, it was a war where the United States cemented itself as a world super power; however, that came at a cost. This paper explores the ups and downs of the Mexican-American War. Mexican Cession: 1848 (Mexican-American War) The Mexican Cession in 1848 or better known as the Mexican-American War was a war where Mexico gave most of their land to America. It was a quest for James L Polk, the president at the time to expand the United States westward toward the Pacific Ocean. Mexico was forced to give approximately one-third of their land away when the United States captured Mexico City. They were given two choices: the first one being lose all of Mexico to the United States because the United States had a much stronger military than Mexico. The second choice being to surrender the part of their land to the United States that the United States wanted. After much deliberation and very heated debates between Mexico and the United States, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848 to finally end the war. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, drafted by Nicholas Trist, stated that the United States was to pay Mexico a sum of $15 million in exchange for Mexican territory, that today are known as Texas, California, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, and New Mexico. Also, the United States had to...
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