The Mexican-American War Summary

[0:00]Today on the Daily Bellringer, we're taking a look at the Mexican American War. Hello, welcome to the Daily Bellringer. Please don't forget to subscribe and take a look at the questions down the description. Also, I'd love to see your answer to question number five in the comments below. So, the Mexican American War, in order to understand what was going on here, we have to first take a look at what was going on in Texas. Of course, Texas had gained independence in 1836, but was not added as a state to the United States until 1845. Now, the whole issue was where the border was with Mexico. Um, Mexico, or, I'm sorry, the United States insisted that the border was at the Rio Grande River. While Mexico insisted that the border was much further north at the Nueces River. So, this was the big issue. Now, in 1845, right as Texas was being admitted as the 28th state, James K. Polk was coming in as the 11th President of the United States. And Polk had run a campaign basically arguing for Manifest Destiny, arguing for adding new territory, arguing for trying to get the border of the United States all the way to the Pacific Ocean. So, at the time, this whole area from New Mexico to California was controlled by Mexico. And James K. Polk had tried unsuccessfully to buy this whole region from Mexico, but Mexico had refused. And so, now James Polk was basically wanting to go to war with Mexico, and he needed to find a way to provoke a war with Mexico. So, President Polk orders General Zachary Taylor to march troops into that disputed border land between Texas and Mexico. And he basically sends them out there and says, you know, your mission is really to go out there and see if you can get shot at. And so, actually, he gets what he wants. On April 24th of 1846, uh, Zachary Taylor's troops come come under the attack of Mexican soldiers. And so, now Taylor sends word back to Polk and says, hey, we've been attacked. Now you can go to Congress and ask for war, which is of course what James P. James Polk does. He goes to Congress and they declare war on Mexico. Now, the Mexican American War was really a brief war, if you really think about it. It only lasted from truthfully April of 1846 until really mid-September of 1847, when, uh, Mexico City falls. Um, and really it's a war that's dominated by the Americans, and one of the big reasons why it's dominated by Americans is because we had really well trained commanders and soldiers. Uh, a lot of them coming from West Point, the big military academy up in, uh, northern New York. Some of these, uh, guys who had been trained at West Point, who were involved here in the Mexican American War, are guys like Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Jackson, of course, who later be known as Stonewall Jackson. These guys that are going to be big names during the American Civil War are going to get their first taste of battle here during the Mexican American War. So, in the Mexican American War, the United States had really three main goals or stra or three main points to their strategy to win the war. First was to take control of that disputed border land in Texas, and actually General Zachary Taylor accomplishes this in early 1847 by capturing the cities of Monterey and Buena Vista in Northern Mexico. The second part of the plan was to take control of the New Mexico to California region. And so, um, General Stephen Watts Kearney led troops towards Santa Fe, New Mexico, and actually, um, in August of 1846, that that they captured Santa Fe. In the meantime, in June of 1846, American citizens living in Sonoma, California, they rise up against the Mexican authorities there, and they basically proclaim themselves to be independent. And they call themselves the Bear Flag Republic. Well, then American troops under John C. Freemont arrived. Uh, him along with naval, uh, support, they capture San Diego and then Los Angeles. And so, by early 1847, California was completely under American control. The third part of the plan or the strategy was to capture Mexico City and force the Mexican government to surrender. This was taken on by General Winfield Scott. And in March of 1847, he lands troops near Vera Cruz, uh, Mexico, and then marches west towards Mexico City, fighting his way fighting all the way towards Mexico City. And in mid-September of 1847, Mexico City falls, the Mexican government surrenders, and now basically they go into negotiations. And so, in February of 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, um, is signed. And what it did was it recognized the Rio Grande River as being the border between the United States and Mexico. Then also within there, there was the Mexican Cession in which Mexico handed over control of the New Mexico to California region for 15 million dollars. And of course, later on, we have the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, where we add a little bit more of, uh, Arizona, or that southern border. But now the United States stretched all the way to the Pacific Ocean, and now Manifest Destiny is really, really going to kick into high gear as Americans begin to flood west, especially began beginning with, of course, gold is going to be found, uh, there in California. Shortly after the war is over, really, as the war is ending, gold is found in there in California, so Americans begin to flood to the west. And of course, this is going to set the stage for a lot of conflict in the 1850s, as we argue about, you know, are these new areas going to be free or slave states? And of course, this is going to lead us towards the American Civil War. Okay, so thank you for watching.