Essay On Mexican American War

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In the Mexican American war, almost 14,000 Americans, and 25,000 were killed. About 525,000 square miles were seized by the United States. After seeing these astounding numbers, a person would think of a war that they learned in school right? Surprisingly, most Americans don’t know much, or even anything about the Mexican American war. In fact, some even call it the “Forgotten War.” This war started when Americans were headed down the border between Mexico and the undisputed territory north of this border, more formally known as the Rio Grande River. Was the United states justified in going to war with Mexico? The word justified is described by a question: Was it the right thing to do? The United States was not justified in going to war with Mexico for two reasons. The first is that President Polk provoked the war by sending troops with slaves down the border, even though Mexico was very firm about …show more content…
James K. Polk, the President of the United States at this time said, “I had ordered an efficient military force to take position between the Nueces and the Del Norte..” (Doc B). He says the opposite of Charles Sumner, in that we were just in going to war with Mexico. In this speech, he states that he put troops on the border, but why? The thing is, there was no true reason to go to war. Sure, it’s good to have the land we wouldn’t have had otherwise, but that shouldn’t be the reason why we go to war. Also, Polk mobilized the U.S troops, which was basically an attack on Mexico. Jesus Velasco Marquez stated, “In the eyes of the (Mexican) government, the mobilization of the U.S army was an outright attack on Mexico.” (Doc C). This war was not meant to happen, but President Polk forced it. We thought that we could do anything we want, due to the land we won previously, and we thought we were invincible. We simply overestimated our power in foreign
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