“American blood on American soil”, said President Polk when he appeared before congress and this was the start of the Mexican-American war according to the US history books. There are many different stories on why the war started but in the United States the story states that the Mexicans are the people to blame and hence the name: the Mexican-American War. Before this war had begun Americans forget that there was natives who first lived the lands they took over. This means that those people become part of the history of the United States. This comes to be a problem however when children learn about the history of this country and specifically this War with Mexico, they are not taught the different perspective of the opposing side. When reading
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Many historians say it was one of the first times the government used media to gain support for a war. In effect, according to Latino USA, the American publishers portrayed Mexicans as “lazy and drunk”(Stavans 30). This helped shape the ideas and public opinions on the war with Mexico.Till this day and unfortunately even in the views of our current president we see that this view on mexicans continues to live on. Almost 172 years after this Mexican-American war happen, these views have not changed in the minds of some Americans. Although this is a stereotype we find people who are Mexicans that have made an impactful change in our society and yet it still does not change people’s mind. This is how people in the United states view this whole war to be, a land taken for better people than …show more content…
They won over only the Rio grande making that the US border, and the US purchased California for $15 million dollars, this was over 2 million square kilometers. This is what mostly all US history books will teach but looking into the Mexican perspective it was a big loss of territory and the $15 million dollars were not for purchase of California but a pension for all the damages (Universidad Nacional de México). This was not a big sum of money for all their land and as well all the suffering that was going to affect Mexico very deeply with all the
Many historians say it was one of the first times the government used media to gain support for a war. In effect, according to Latino USA, the American publishers portrayed Mexicans as “lazy and drunk”(Stavans 30). This helped shape the ideas and public opinions on the war with Mexico.Till this day and unfortunately even in the views of our current president we see that this view on mexicans continues to live on. Almost 172 years after this Mexican-American war happen, these views have not changed in the minds of some Americans. Although this is a stereotype we find people who are Mexicans that have made an impactful change in our society and yet it still does not change people’s mind. This is how people in the United states view this whole war to be, a land taken for better people than …show more content…
They won over only the Rio grande making that the US border, and the US purchased California for $15 million dollars, this was over 2 million square kilometers. This is what mostly all US history books will teach but looking into the Mexican perspective it was a big loss of territory and the $15 million dollars were not for purchase of California but a pension for all the damages (Universidad Nacional de México). This was not a big sum of money for all their land and as well all the suffering that was going to affect Mexico very deeply with all the