What Caused The Mexican War

The Mexican War was the first U.S. armed conflict fought on foreign soil. It began in 1846 when the President of the United States, James K. Polk, declared war with Mexico and ended with a peace treaty that ceded one third of Mexico’s territory to the United States for fifteen million dollars in 1848. Thirteen years later, the Civil War overshadowed the Mexican war causing it to become a forgotten event in American history. The long term debate on who initiated the war continues to be unsolved, which makes it the most controversial wars in American History. This essay examines each aspect of the war, including events that lead to war and events after war, and opinions on the unjust acts that occurred during the Mexican War.
The American
When war broke out, former Mexican dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna, who was exiled from Mexico during the Texas Revolution, contacted Polk to allow him to go back to Mexico and end the war peacefully. Polk agreed to Santa Anna’s plan, but he was later betrayed. Santa Anna created the scheme in order for him to take charge of the Mexican forces and lead them to victory. The United States still followed its original plan and “sent its army from the Rio Grande, under Zachary Taylor, to invade the heart of Mexico while a second force, under Col. Stephen Kearny, was to occupy New Mexico and California” (Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). Kearny’s campaign into New Mexico and California encountered little resistance while Taylor’s army fought several battles, captured the important city of Monterrey on September 1846, and won the Battle of Buena Vista on February 1847. Taylor did not show enthusiasm to the major invasion of Mexico, which disgusted President Polk making him revise his war strategy. He then ordered General Winfield Scott to “take an army by sea to Veracruz, capture that key seaport, and march inland to Mexico City. Scott took Veracruz in March after a siege of three weeks and began the march to Mexico City” while following the same route that Hernan Cortes followed when he invaded the
First, Mexico aloud Americans to settle in Texas, who then uprised and fought for their independence due to them refusing to obey Mexican laws even though they were in Mexico. Secondly, President Polk annexed Texas, which ended the relationship between Mexico and the United States, and then tried to purchase some of Mexico’s territory even after he just betrayed Mexico by adding Texas to their union. Lastly, Polk moved his troops into unsettled territory declaring it the United States property, which caused Mexico to attack. Overall, the Mexican War was an unfair battle, but without it, America would not be the way it is today. The long term debate on who initiated the war continues to be unsolved, which is why the Mexican War is the most controversial war in American