“Mexico’s independence was just over a dozen years ago and Mexico City was thousands of miles away” (Acuna, 43). The distance from Mexico City and Tejas allowed for tensions to escalate and get out of hand too quick. Once obtaining word of the invasion of the Alamo, Santa Anna, the general and ruler of Mexico, came to arms and forcefully recruited people into his army in efforts to overthrow the invaders. The recruits were not trained soldiers, and the lack of resources made the Mexican army weak. “The Mexican army was great in size, but they lacked weaponry and proper training” (Covarrubias Lecture), which led to a great loss of people in the battle of the Alamo. Once the Mexican army was able to settle the uprising of the Alamo, it continued its Journey through the province of Texas with plans to overthrow the remaining American settlers. Because of the great size of their military force, the Mexican army was able to continue to defend its sovereignty for a few battles, however, after an ambush attack from Sam Houston which left 630 Mexicans dead and only 2 “Texans” dead. Mexico did not have the resources to continue the attack, and also fearing of t a full on attack from The U.S. army, they left Texas alone. Texas was declared the lone star republic, which would later lead to the annexation of the land by the …show more content…
The goal was to stretch their land from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea. Mexico had been previously offered money for the province of Texas as well as other territory which would allow the United States to reach their goal. “Our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development our yearly multiplying millions” (Zinn, Ch. 8, paragraph 8). Admittance of James Polk into the presidency would assure the expansion of the US from coast to coast. James Polk was an expansionist and a true believer of manifest destiny. “Polk, encouraging the Texans to accept annexation, had assured them he would uphold their claims to the Rio Grande” (Zinn, Chapter 8). “In 1845, the U.S. Congress brought it into the Union as a state” (Zinn, Chapter 8). The lone star republic of Texas was no longer an independent republic, but instead it was now a state of the United States. Orders from Polk to move into the Rio Grande, land that was inhabited by Mexicans, provoked another