The Mexican American War

Section I: Evaluation To what extent has foreign influence by the United States after the Mexican-American War affected Mexico socially and economically? The Mexican-American War took place from 1846 to 1848 and was the first war that the United States had fought mainly on foreign land. It was caused by the United States’ policy of Manifest Destiny, where the American citizens and President James Polk wanted to expand their nation by annexing Texas in 1845 and disputing that Texas ended at the Rio Grande while Mexico claimed that it stopped at the Nueces River. This war, in which the United States came out victorious, resulted in the United States gaining more than 500,000 square miles of Mexican land which extended from the Rio Grande to
the Pacific Ocean. As a result of the war, the United States had more positives than negatives while Mexico suffered more due to the war. Like every other war, the nations involved in conflicts come out with rewards and consequences and in this particular war Mexico was greatly affected and endured many hardships. As Others See Us: Whose Manifest Destiny? The Conquest of Northern Mexico is a chapter from a Mexican textbook that was written by Dr. Gayle Olson-Raymer. This article is valuable because the author Dr. Gayle Olson-Raymer was a full-time teacher who taught at Humboldt State University for over twenty years in both the History and Education Departments. However, there is a limitation to this source because it’s coming from a Mexican textbook so it may be biased towards the country of Mexico. Those who were involved in this source were obviously Mexico, the United States, and Texas but more specifically the important people involved were President James Polk who was a big reason as to why this war happened because he believed in Manifest Destiny. Another person who was involved was Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna who was the president of Mexico at this time, he went in and out of presidency in Mexico many times and was involved in the military and politics surrounding Mexico. Although after again losing to the United States, Santa Anna was exiled again but later returned to take the presidency in Mexico for the eleventh and final time. General Zachary Taylor was also a very important person involved because he led his troops into many battles and played a major role in the United States military. The source talks about the Mexican-American War which ended in 1848 and also touches on the topic of the annexation of Texas in 1845. The purpose of this source is to give information about a perspective most Americans don’t know about the Mexican American War.
It’s purpose is also to inform us on the causes and outcomes of The Mexican-American War, more specifically to inform Mexican students on this important event since it’s a chapter from a Mexican textbook. This source also helps us understand the political, social, and economic status of Mexico at the time of American immigration. It a well informs us on the causes that led up to the Mexican-American War and how it helped the United States grow at Mexico’s expense. Another thing that this source covers are the consequences that both nations had to deal with due to the war. However, Mexico had much more losses than gains due to this
war.
Section II: Investigation For Mexico, the war was a series of tragedies and was affected economically and socially. Mexico due to the war suffered the loss of life, huge damage property, and lots of economic ruin(Olson-Raymer). Economic Foreign influence by the United States after the Mexican-American War affected Mexico economically in various ways. After the war, Mexico’s “economy was severely disrupted by the naval encirclement and movement of thousands of troops across the land” (Olson-Raymer). Also Mexico’s “steep decline in agricultural and mineral production caused by the massive conscription of peasants” as well is a way how the nation’s economy was affected (Olson-Raymer). Not just that but the United States fixed the border between them and Mexico as the Rio Grande River, and the United States also took undisputed control of Texas (Minster). Due to the borderline changes the United States gained the present day states of Nevada, California, Utah, parts of Arizona, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Colorado which were a part of Mexico all became American territory (Minster). Although the United States won the war against Mexico they still paid fifteen million dollars in exchange for these territories (Minister). The United States resulted in gaining more than 500,000 square miles of Mexican land. They were able to gain all this land because of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which officially ended the war and was signed on February 2, 1848. Since the United States had won the war they got to set the conditions and in this treaty there were terms which stated that Mexico had to cede all these territories, this was known as the Mexican Cession. Another way that the nation was hurt economically was that since the war was fought almost entirely on Mexican soil, many buildings roads and ports were destroyed during the battle (Singley). Also due to the war many farmers were required to serve in the war and this weakened the nation’s national agricultural economy (Singley).

Social
The country of Mexico didn’t just face economic troubles but also ran into consequences that socially hurt the people of the nation.
For example, in the article written by Dr. Gayle Olson-Raymer, it states that “besides the thousands of military and civilian deaths during the battles, the war left tens of thousands of orphans, widows, and disabled” (Olson-Raymer). The Mexican-American War also made cities of Mexico suffer great losses and destruction due to small-arms gunfire and cannons. In addition to these tragedies, the war caused Mexico to lose half of it’s nation and to later find out that in early 1848, the year that the war had ended, one of the territories which is now the state of California had a total of two billion dollars worth of gold. According to Dr. Gayle Olson-Raymer another way Mexico was socially affected was by “the Mexican population suffering from severe psychological damage and by their national dignity and honor being shattered largely due to the humiliation of having their capital and much of the country occupied by enemy troops and the horror of a peace treaty that cost Mexico half of its national territory. Consequently, a deep and long-lasting feeling of resentment toward Americans arose within much of
Mexico.”