Manifest Destiny And The Mexican-American War

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Manifest Destiny was a belief that it was Gods will for America to expand its territory from sea to sea (Lecture, 1/19). This then became the American justification of why they needed to move west into Mexico. Americans began to salivate at vision they had of expanding the United States. As their greed began to increase, no one and nothing was going to stop them from getting what they wanted the most—land. Thus, a combination of forces: like the Mexican Independence, the Battle of the Alamo / the Battle of Jacinto, and the Mexican-American war, contributed to the claiming of what is known today as Texas. Mexico had just gained its independence from Spain in 1821. Similarly, when the Spanish crown fled back to Spain, Mexico went bankrupt. …show more content…
However, Polk [the former president at the time was] encouraging the Texans to accept annexation, had assured them he would uphold their claims to the Rio Grande (Zinn, 1).
This continues to show that the Americans desire to keep expanding got to their heads. As a result of this, the Mexican-American war struck out in 1846. This comes to show that, the ordering of American troop to go invade the Rio Grande was futher provoking the Mexicans. Not only was it provoking the Mexicans because it was the recognized border, but this also demonstrates that the war was pre-meditated. Many Americans have used manifest destiny as a way to explain why they needed to keep increasing the amount of land they wanted. This way of thinking caused and created a lot of greed within the American culture. As a matter of fact, their greed was so great at one point, that it did not matter to them if they had to sacrifice some of their men to get the land that they wanted. Consequently, since Mexico was not giving Americans the land that they wanted so easily, Americans had to find an alternative path to get what they wanted—this also lead to many provocations. Hence, the Mexican Independence, the Battle of the Alamo / the Battle of Jacinto, and the Mexican-American war, all added to why Texas broke off from Mexico in
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