Mexican American War Dbq Analysis

Wars are what define the success of a country; if you win, then the country is considered strong; if you lose, the country is considered weak. This, however, does not determine how justified the country was in deciding to go to war. The Mexican American War marked the first time the U.S. fought on foreign soil. This war began over a border dispute between America and Mexico. It started with Texas gaining independence from Mexico in 1836. At first the U.S. did not want Texas to join the Union due to the issue of whether it would be admitted as a slave state or a free state, either would upset the balance between the two. While this was going on, Mexico threatened that any attempt at the annexation of Texas would lead to a war. Texas was annexed shortly after the 1844 election of James …show more content…
President Polk was a strong believer in that Manifest Destiny was the most important focus of America. This is why when Texas was annexed in 1846, Polk would do just about anything to gain even more land for America. Polk added Texas to the Union along with the land the U.S. received from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which completed his dream. Polk decided to enter a war which was avoidable due to that very dream. Before the war was officially declared, “Polk began to prepare a war message to Congress, justifying hostilities on the grounds of Mexican refusal to pay U.S claims and refusal to negotiate with Slidell. Polk claimed that Mexico had “invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil” (“Mexican). It had later turned out that the bloodshed took place on Mexican territory making it America who had invaded foreign territory which also made America responsible for starting the war. Polk’s actions were therefore completely unjustified since it is historically proven that the war messages Polk sent to Congress to convince them to declare war consisted of lies and exaggeration neither of which are