Question

U.S. History question:

Why did the Mexican War of 1846 take place? Was the war necessary? Was it a good thing? What does this war tell us about this period of American history? Was it God’s plan that the U.S. extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or were imperialists looking for a way to defend what they planned to do anyway? Elaborate. and reference  

Answer 1

The Mexican war or the Mexican-American war was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States between 1846 and 1848.The war was primarily due to the United States’s government’s expansionist policy. economics, and slavery. Throughout the nineteenth century, Americans believed in manifest destiny that is, there was a general belief in the masses that the United States had the right to expand westward and conquer territory of the indigenous nations who were already residing on the major areas of North America including Texas. As a result, many American merchant class began to settle in Mexico with the hope of establishing their economic stronghold in Texas if it gets succeeded to the United States. However, Texas was a frontier territory of the Independent state of Mexico at the time. The United Mexican States at the time was undergoing political disintegration due to the political rebellions in the neglected regions that were located north of the country including states like Texas. The emerging US interest in Texas exacerbated hostile conditions between the two countries leading to the Mexican War of 1846. Both nations believed they engaged in the war for a just cause. While the United States justified its actions as a self-defense in response to the assault on the US convoy which was stationed in Texas, Mexico saw the war as a way to protect its territorial integrity from a direct attack by the US military.

Many saw this war as an inevitable event given the American imperialist desire for greater markets and slave lands. More than the series of the actual event, the war is significant for two reasons. Firstly, it led to the expansion of the US borders to including major territories of the indigenous nationsand the areas of New Mexico and California thereby resulting in extension of the United States from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. Secondly, the war further divided the United States between slave owners and abolitionists as many condemned the act on grounds of increasing the inflow of slaves from the New conquered lands while a large fragment of southern states supported the war on grounds of securing their own economic interests by bringing the gold reserves of California to the US state. This war in a way created the ground for the American Civil War in the 1860s.

In the light of these events, it becomes clear that the War of 1846 cannot be seen as a just war which was ‘destined by God’. Rather, the War showed that the US stance of moral righteousness in its international policy is fragmented as the war only meant securing its own territorial ambitions. Moreover, the war cannot seen to be a ‘good’ act as it led to further marginalisation of the indigenous communities of the conquered states and they were forced to assimilate into the mainstream American culture and give up their own rights. Thus, in the process, it only made second-class citizens out of them.

References:

Pedro Santoni, "U.S.-Mexican War" in Encyclopedia of Mexico, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, p. 1511.

Rives, The United States and Mexico vol. 2, pp 45–46. Books.google.com. September 28, 2007. Retrieved May 28, 2011