The military conflict between the United States and Mexico that took place in the nineteenth century demonstrated to the world the ambitiousness of American politicians, determined to subjugate the neighboring nations. Despite the fact that the U.S. side of the war with Mexico was invasive and robbery, the participants in the conflict for many years became folk heroes and defenders of American freedom.
Perhaps the main reason for the outbreak of hostilities was the aggressive U.S. foreign policy, the main purpose of which was the maximum expansion of the state’s borders. In addition to the messianic ideas of the Protestant Anglo-Saxons, who saw themselves as an exceptional people, the struggle for territory also had economic significance. Cotton was the main production of the Southern states. Irrational use of the land was depleting the soil, so Southern planters were in constant need of acquiring new acreage.
In the 1820s the Mexican government issued a law that allowed the purchase at low prices of land in Texas and Coahuila. The favorable terms began to attract American migrants. By 1835, the number of Americans living in Texas was more than five times the number of Mexicans themselves. Very soon the Anglo-Saxon population of Texas began to insist on independence of these lands from Mexico.
One of the main foreign policy objectives of the United States was to establish itself on the Pacific coast. The most convenient point for controlling coastal waters was Mexican California. Therefore, one of America’s goals in the coming war was to annex that state.
In the late 1820s, slavery was banned in Mexico, which angered American planters living in Texas.
Relations between the two states also deteriorated because of the radical, nationalistic sentiments that prevailed in both the United States and Mexico. The descendants of the Spanish conquistadors who had settled in Mexico looked down on the Yanks as cowards, easy money seekers, and braggarts. And Americans considered Mexicans racially inferior and incapable of democracy and governing such a big state.
Texas for the first time declared the independence in 1836. This event was preceded by active work of the American Congress and presidential administration. The USA supported (including military) immigrants in Texas and the articles about necessity of annexation of the Mexican state more and more often appeared in the American press.
Certainly not all Americans supported an aggressive policy toward Mexico. Most northern industrialists and abolitionists opposed the expansion of the Southwest, calling interference in Mexican internal affairs a “plantation-slave crusade. Opponents of the annexation of Texas were found in Congress itself, mostly members of the Whig party, but in small numbers. The majority of the congressmen stood for military aid to Texas and for sending 10 thousand volunteers to the South to guard the border.
On September 1, 1836, Texas held a plebiscite in which the majority voted to join America. A radical party came to power in the state, using racist slogans in its rhetoric as well as advocating the preservation of slavery and immediate secession from Mexico. After the rebellion in Texas began, the Mexican government attempted to reincorporate the state by force of arms. But the American settlers, supported by Washington, D.C., were able to fight back against the large Mexican army.
In 1837, President Andrew Jackson signed a bill recognizing Texas’ independence. From that moment on, Texas formally became a small independent state, but in fact became part of the United States.
After Jackson’s term as president expired, the U.S. administration abandoned the Texas issue for a time. The Texas problem was raised again only in 1844, when James Polk, a representative of the pro-war Democrats, became president. Polk’s expansionist policy met with the support of broad segments of the population. The expansion of American territory at the expense of Mexican land became almost the most important direction of the foreign policy of the new president.
In December 1845, Texas was inaugurated as a part of the United States. At about the same time Polk attempted to begin negotiations with Mexico for the purchase of California and New Mexico, and also single-handedly declared the Rio Grande River the new U.S.-Mexican border, thereby cutting off some territory from Mexico. All this was met with indignation on the Mexican side and led to the severing of diplomatic relations. The U.S. leadership and the American public were belligerent and were preparing for an armed conflict. In spite of the fact that on the part of the U.S. the impending war was openly robbery, most considered the aggression against Mexico as quite just.