The Mexican-American War in 5 Minutes

Soon after Mexico's Independence from its colonizer, Spain, it went to war with the U.S. This war would lead to the loss of the modern day states of California, Arizona and New Mexico. While the Mexican-American War was hardly justifiable by the U.S., the fact remains, our country would be vastly different than it is today if the U.S. had never pursued its aggressive expansionist period in the 1800s.

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Script:

It wasn’t that long ago that the United States went to war with its neighboring country, Mexico. Most wars in American history have not been popular amongst the American public and the Mexican-American war was no exception.

Years before war broke out between the two countries, Mexico had fought its own war of independence against the Spaniards. It was in 1812 that Mexico freed itself from its colonizers. At the time the new country spanned from current day northern Oregon to the modern country of Guatemala. Its northern territory was sparsely populated and because of this the government supported plans to welcome settlers from the United States in the hopes of further developing the region. It was through this program that the majority of the population in Texas became American – by the time of the Texas Revolution nearly 10,000 of the 14,000 people living in Texas were American settlers. The only condition that the Mexican government placed on its foreign population in Texas were that they pledge loyalty to Mexico, convert to Catholicism, and live on the land they purchased for at least 10 years – Mexico also didn’t allow slavery in its country. This proved hard for the American settlers to follow because they were mostly protestant, loyal to the U.S. and proslavery. It wasn’t long before Texas erupted in rebellion and fought a revolution of its own against the Mexican government.

After Texas won its independence from Mexico it tried to become part of the United States two times. However, the U.S. Congress rejected its application because many Congressmen didn’t want to antagonize the Mexican government. Additionally some Congressmen from the free north eastern states did not want to add another slave state to the country.

In 1844 President James K. Polk was elected president who was an avid supporter of Manifest Destiny, or the belief that God has meant for the United States to conquer the land from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific. Polk’s eye was not just on Texas – but veered all the way to California.

When Polk became president, Congress voted to annex Texas into the United States. It was in 1845 when the president sent troops under the command of General Zachary Taylor into an area between the Nueces River – which was the traditional southern border of the Mexican state of Texas – and the Rio Grande – which marks the current border between Texas and Mexico. At the same time Polk sent John Slidell to Mexico City to try and purchase California. Both of these acts angered the Mexican Government and because of this Slidell was sent back to the U.S.

Polk, who felt that the Mexican government mistreated Slidell, seized the opportunity and when he was told that on May 9, 1846, Mexican soldiers had fired upon American soldiers between Rio Grande and the Nueces River Polk declared that “We have tried every effort at reconciliation. The cup of forbearance had been exhausted even before the recent information from the frontier of the Del Norte. But now, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil.” With this Polk declared war on Mexico.
However, Mexicans thought of this act as one of banditry because of course, the shots that were fired upon American soldiers, were in Mexico’s eyes still in Mexico – south of the traditional Texas state border – the Nueces River. In fact a Mexican article written just days after war was announced in the paper El Tiempo declared that “The American government acted like a bandit who came upon a traveler.” There were even U.S. Congressmen that declared the war an act unjustifiable. Senator Charles Sumner stated that “Certainly Mexico might justly charge our citizens with disgraceful robbery, while, in seeking extension of slavery, [our own citizens denied the great truths of American freedom…”