Mexican-American War
Causes of the conflict
1. December 29, 1845, Texas formally
allowed into the Union.
2. US unsuccessfully tries to buy
Mexican territory. (30 million)
3. Southern boundary of the US (Nueces
v. Rio Grande.
4. Manifest Destiny.
5. Slavery?
It begins
• January 13, 1846, Polk sends General
Taylor into Texas to set up defensive
position on Rio Grande
• U.S. Navy blocked mouth of Rio Grande
• US troops attacked and “shed
American blood on American soil.”
General Zachary Taylor
The fight
• War is fought in Texas and moved
south.
• California is secured by Fremont. Bear
Flag Republic.
• Mexico refuses to surrender until
Mexico City is captured.
Interestingly interesting
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U.S.’s first foreign war.
1st war to be photographed.
Considerable Naval action.
Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. "Stonewall"
Jackson, Braxton Bragg, Ulysses S. Grant,
George Meade, George McClellan, Jefferson
Davis & William T. Sherman.
• Disease killed more men than the bullets.
Storming of Chapultepec
The Hall of Montezuma
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• Made Rio Grande as boundary of Mexico
• California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada,
Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming
was given to U.S. for $15 million.
• Dispossessed thousands of Mexicans of their
rightful land. Leads to decades of resentment
lasting even today.
Consequences
• US gains New Mexico territory and
California. (Wilmot Proviso)
• Issue of slavery is reborn with vigor.
• Training ground for the Civil War.
• Political opposition. Whigs, Civil
Disobedience, religious reasons.
The San Patricios
• A question of
loyalities.
• Religion, high pay &
land grants.
• Over 200 served.
Fifty will be hanged at
the conclusion of the
war.