Question

Some historians argue that the Mexican American War of 1846-1848 led directly to the American Civil War of 1861-1865. In a well written and thorough essay, I would like you to lay out the reasons for this argument.

Answer 1

In 1836 Texas became independent of Mexico. The United States originally refused to integrate it into the Union, primarily because northern political forces resisted the creation of a new slave state. The Mexican government has also encouraged border raids and cautioned that any effort to invade would result in war.

In the meantime, U.S. forces led by Gen. Winfield Scott landed in Veracruz, taking over the area. They then started marching toward Mexico City, following exactly the same path that Hernán Cortés followed when he conquered the Aztec empire. At Cerro Gordo, and elsewhere, the Mexicans resisted but were bested every time. Scott successfully lodged siege at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City in September 1847. A group of military school cadets – the so-called children's heroes reportedly committed suicide rather than surrender during the battle.

The election of Lincoln sparked the fever of the southern secession into flames but it did not trigger the Civil War. The sectional tensions within the nation had been growing for decades before Lincoln took office. Both the northern and southern states were engaged in racial rhetoric and protest, and on both sides violent feelings ran high. Many factors played into the eventual North-South break.

One main irritant was the issue of the extension of slavery to the west. The argument over whether new states should be slave or free returned to the controversy over Missouri's statehood starting in 1819 and Texas in the 1830s and early 1840s. This problem emerged again after the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), when the government discussed whether slavery in the territories taken from Mexico should be permitted. At Congress, efforts to find a compromise in 1850 returned to the concept of popular sovereignty letting the people in the new territory south of the Missouri Compromise line of 1820 determine whether to legalize slavery.

The 1860 presidential election of Abraham Lincoln proved to be a landmark occurrence. While it did not trigger the Civil War, it was the result of increasing tensions between the South proslavery and the North antislavery. Seven Deep South states had seceded from the Union to form the CSA before Lincoln even took office, committed to the preservation of ethnic slavery and white supremacy. Last-minute attempts to find a consensus, such as Senator Crittenden's plan and the Corwin amendment, have gone nowhere. The time for compromise had come to an end. The Civil War ended with the Confederate Assault on Fort Sumter.