History Essay on Mexican War

The Mexican war was an awful war led by the selfish ambitions of the US. The US people believed that they had a God-given right to expand their territory up to the sea. The belief caused a lot of suffering to innocent Mexicans and Native Americans. The Mexican war was unjust because although the Mexicans were protecting their territory, the United States used the war to expand their territory. The war was unjust because despite that the government of Mexico had already warned the American government that any effort to grab Texas would be a declaration of war, the Americans went ahead and annexed Texas. Hence the attack was not preemptive. Moreover, the war was unjust because it did not bring peace or reestablish people from the annexed areas. In fact, the war made this group of people suffer because they had to assimilate and treated as inferior individuals in the United States. The Mexican war was unjust because it led to the death of many people from both Mexico and United States.

The Mexican war lasted for two years from the year 1846-1848 due to several reasons. Firstly, the border had never been established officially. The Mexicans believed that the border was river Nueces which was roughly 200miles north of Rio Grande whereas the Americans and Texans claimed the border was the Rio Grande. Due to these border disputes, there was an invasive military confrontation. It is during this period when the US president sought a war to grab larger amounts of land from the Mexicans. Another factor that provoked the war was when Texas joined the United States of America in 1845. The Mexicans were terrified and thought that they would be the next target for land grabbing. They did not love the idea of Texas becoming an American state. In 1846 both the United States and Mexico sent troops to fight for the land between two rivers Nueces and the Rio Grande and then the war started.

The Americans settled in western parts ignoring the fact that there were people who were living there already. The American people believed that they would run things better than the Mexicans that why they would go and displace them. The United States wanted to acquire the ports in the Pacific and other natural resources in Mexico. The United States also wanted to gain more slave states so that they could be able to expand their slave trade and get more income.

The Mexican war had a terrible impact on Mexico as a nation. The war led to the loss of the northern areas and a significant reduction in the size of the Mexican territory. There was also the death of very many Mexican militaries and peasant civilians during the war. Also since war took place in Mexican lands, there was a lot of destruction on buildings, ports, and roads. The Mexicans lost a lot of natural resources such as silver and gold. They also lost their ports which were a source of national income. People who lived in the disputed areas lost their homelands because they would not be accepted as citizens in any of the nations. Those Mexicans who were living in the disputed areas which were taken by the United States had to assimilate into American culture and were treated as inferior by the United States. The agrarian economy became weak because most of the farmers had to help in the war leaving them no time to do farming. After the war, there was a frequent overthrow of rulers and governments in Mexico. The war also left tension between the American and the Mexican government.