The Mexican American War And Its Causes

Introduction

The Mexican American war was a time in the 1840s when Mexico had just won independence from Spain, and America was a new and growing country having gotten independence from Britain about a century before. Both countries (especially the United States) were growing and needed more land. THE ALAMO Texas which then, was a part of mexico did not like Mexico's new laws especially the law that there was no slavery, Texans wanted slavery so texas started a small war for independence. Sam Houston was one of the men who led the Texans to war with Mexico and came back a hero for the Texans. Houston also got a city in Texas named after him, which is still around to this day. For ten years texas was a free country until the US who still wanted more land offered for texas to become part of the united states. Houston later became part of congress then a governor. He died on July 26, 1863.

What Started The War

The US Mexican war was difficult for many reasons. A first reason was the war was one side was fighting unfairly. The US had more weapons, military, and tricked the mexicans. A second reason is the the conditions were bad. It was very hot and there was not that much food to spare. The president at the time was James k Polk, who offered Mexico 30 million dollars to mexico for half of their land. The Americans thought mexico would agree to this offer, not wanting to go to war with the US because of their large army. But the Mexicans stood their ground. Mexico would not except the money for the land. It might not have been a fair fight and the war was started on a lie made by Zachary Taylor saying that “mexicans shed blood on our territory. ¨ Meaning they killed americans on american territory which was a false statement. What actually happened was Zachary instructed his general to make camp on mexican territory as though he was teasing the mexicans. Mexicans attacked them there, not on US territory. In other words, a war was started on a lie made by the president. Congress believed the president and soon after the US declared war on Mexico. The US thought they could get mexico's land by war easy. It was not as easy as they thought. Although the US won the first battle of Palo Alto there were many more battles to come. The heat was blistering and soldiers were were getting sick and at least a thousand soldiers died.

Perspectives

Although there were many heroes of the US Mexican war, here are most of the most important ones:Antonio de Santa Anna was a hero of Mexico and for short time periods the president of Mexico. He had fought for Mexico many times and had lost a leg in battle.