Mexican-American war
- also known as the mexican war, the us mexican war, the invasion of mexico, the us intervention, or the united states war against mexico
- armed conflict between the united states of america and the united mexican states from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 us annexation of texas
- why: mexico considered part of its territory despite the 1836 texas revolution
- hypocrite?
- having recently attained independence from spain in 1821, mexico was fraught with internal struggles that verged on civil war, however it was relativley united in refusing to recognize the independence of texas
- manifest destiny
- meanwhile, president polk's spirit of manifest destiny was focusion us interest on westward expansion
- it is speaking about westward expansion and how benificial it is
- remember the louisiana purchase was less than 50 years (1803) ago during this time
- polk wants war
- his message to congress on may 11, 1846, stated that "mexico has passed the boundary of the united states, has invaded our territory and shed american blook upon american soil"
- congress approved the declaration of war on may 13, with southern democrats in strong support
- santa anna: 2nd chance
- once the us declared war on mexico, antonio lopez de santa anna ( he was exiled at this point) wrote to mexico city saying he no longer had aspirations to the presidency, but would eagerly use his military experience to fight off the foreign invasion of mexico as he has done before
- santa anna had secretly been dealing with representatives of the us, pledging that if he were allowed back in mexico through the us naval blackades, he would work to sell all contested territory to the united states at a reasonable price
- once back in mexico at the head of an army, santa anna broke his promise on both agreements. santa anna declared himself presiden again and unsuccessfully tried to fight off the us invasion
- april 25, 1846-thornton affair: mariano arista fires on american troops across the rio grande
- september 21, 1846-battle of monterrey: taylor, with 6,220 men, defeats pedro ampudia, who had 10,000 men
- february 22, 1847-battle of buena vista: taylor, with 4,500 men crushes santa anna, who had 20,000 men
- september 12, 1847-battle of chapultepec: "halls of mentexuma" 13000 americans attack a fort outside mexico city
- september 14th, 1847-america captures mexico city
- february 2, 1848- treaty of guadalupe hidalgo, america purchases the mexican cession and ends the war
- mexico lost 55% of it's territory, america added 1.2 million square miles more territory to itss expanding nation
more beneficial for expansion: louisiana purchase or the results of treaty of guadalupe hidalgo
james k polk
zachary taylor
robert e lee
ulysses s grant
millard fillmore
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