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Mexican‑American War

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 10, 2022 | Original: November 9, 2009

Mexican-American War 1846-1848: Battle of Buena Vista. (Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

The Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1848 marked the first U.S. armed conflict chiefly fought on foreign soil. It pitted a politically divided and militarily unprepared Mexico against the expansionist-minded administration of U.S. President James K. Polk, who believed the United States had a “Manifest Destiny” to spread across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. A border skirmish along the Rio Grande that started off the fighting was followed by a series of U.S. victories. When the dust cleared, Mexico had lost about one-third of its territory, including nearly all of present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.

Causes of the Mexican-American War

Texas gained its independence from Mexico in 1836. Initially, the United States declined to incorporate it into the union, largely because northern political interests were against the addition of a new state that supported slavery . The Mexican government was also encouraging border raids and warning that any attempt at annexation would lead to war.

Did you know? Gold was discovered in California just days before Mexico ceded the land to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Nonetheless, annexation procedures were quickly initiated after the 1844 election of Polk, a firm believer in the doctrine of Manifest Destiny , who campaigned that Texas should be “re-annexed” and that the Oregon Territory should be “re-occupied.” Polk also had his eyes on California , New Mexico and the rest of what is today the American Southwest.

When his offer to purchase those lands was rejected, he instigated a fight by moving troops into a disputed zone between the Rio Grande and Nueces River that both countries had previously recognized as part of the Mexican state of Coahuila .

The Mexican-American War Begins

On April 25, 1846, Mexican cavalry attacked a group of U.S. soldiers in the disputed zone under the command of General Zachary Taylor , killing about a dozen. They then laid siege to Fort Texas along the Rio Grande. Taylor called in reinforcements, and—with the help of superior rifles and artillery—was able to defeat the Mexicans at the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Resaca de la Palma .

Following those battles, Polk told the U.S. Congress that the “cup of forbearance has been exhausted, even before Mexico passed the boundary of the United States, invaded our territory, and shed American blood upon American soil.” Two days later, on May 13, Congress declared war, despite opposition from some northern lawmakers. No official declaration of war ever came from Mexico.

U.S. Army Advances Into Mexico

At that time, only about 75,000 Mexican citizens lived north of the Rio Grande. As a result, U.S. forces led by Col. Stephen Watts Kearny and Commodore Robert Field Stockton were able to conquer those lands with minimal resistance. Taylor likewise had little trouble advancing, and he captured the city of Monterrey in September.

With the losses adding up, Mexico turned to old standby General Antonio López de Santa Anna , the charismatic strongman who had been living in exile in Cuba. Santa Anna convinced Polk that, if allowed to return to Mexico, he would end the war on terms favorable to the United States.

But when Santa Anna arrived, he immediately double-crossed Polk by taking control of the Mexican army and leading it into battle. At the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847, Santa Anna suffered heavy casualties and was forced to withdraw. Despite the loss, he assumed the Mexican presidency the following month.

Meanwhile, U.S. troops led by Gen. Winfield Scott landed in Veracruz and took over the city. They then began marching toward Mexico City, essentially following the same route that Hernán Cortés followed when he invaded the Aztec empire .

The Mexicans resisted at the Battle of Cerro Gordo and elsewhere, but were bested each time. In September 1847, Scott successfully laid siege to Mexico City’s Chapultepec Castle . During that clash, a group of military school cadets–the so-called ni ños héroes –purportedly committed suicide rather than surrender.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Guerrilla attacks against U.S. supply lines continued, but for all intents and purposes the war had ended. Santa Anna resigned, and the United States waited for a new government capable of negotiations to form.

Finally, on Feb. 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, establishing the Rio Grande (and not the Nueces River) as the U.S.-Mexican border. Under the treaty, Mexico also recognized the U.S. annexation of Texas, and agreed to sell California and the rest of its territory north of the Rio Grande for $15 million plus the assumption of certain damage claims.

The net gain in U.S. territory after the Mexican-American War was roughly 525,000 square miles, an enormous tract of land—nearly as much as the Louisiana Purchase’s 827,000 square miles—that would forever change the geography, culture and economy of the United States.

Though the war with Mexico was over, the battle over the newly acquired territories—and whether or not slavery would be allowed in those territories—was just beginning. Many of the U.S. officers and soldiers in the Mexican-American War would in just a few years find themselves once again taking up arms, but this time against their own countrymen in the Civil War .

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“American blood on American soil”: Polk and the prelude to war

Spot resolutions and civil disobedience : american opposition to the war.

Invasion and war
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the war’s legacy

Discover how the Mexican-American War ultimately helped push the U.S. closer to civil war

What was the Mexican-American War?

What did the mexican-american war have to do with manifest destiny, was there opposition to the mexican-american war within the united states, what did the u.s. gain by winning the mexican-american war, how did the mexican-american war increase sectionalism in the united states.

Mexican-American War

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Case Western Reserve University - Encyclopedia of Cleveland History - Mexican-American War
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Humanities LibreTexts - The Mexican-American War
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American Battlefield Trust - A Brief Overview of the Mexican-American War 1846-1848
CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas - Mexican War
PBS - American Experience - The Mexican American War
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National Park Service - Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
Northern Illinois University - Digital Library - The Mexican-American War
Mexican-American War - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
Mexican-American War - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
Table Of Contents

Mexican-American War: U.S. declaration of war

The Mexican-American War was a conflict between the United States and Mexico , fought from April 1846 to February 1848. Won by the Americans and damned by its contemporary critics as expansionist, it resulted in the U.S. gaining more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square km) of Mexican territory extending westward from the Rio Grande to the Pacific Ocean . It stemmed from the annexation of the Republic of Texas by the U.S. in 1845 and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River (the Mexican claim) or the Rio Grande (the U.S. claim).

The concept of Manifest Destiny held that the United States had the providential right to expand to the Pacific Ocean . In 1845 the U.S. annexed the Republic of Texas , which had won de facto independence from Mexico in the Texas Revolution (1835–36). When U.S. diplomatic efforts to establish agreement on the Texas-Mexico border and to purchase Mexico’s California and New Mexico territories failed, expansionist U.S. Pres. James K. Polk found a rationale to justify an attempt to take that land by force when U.S. and Mexican troops skirmished north of the Rio Grande on April 25, 1846.

Democrats , especially those in the Southwest , strongly favoured the Mexican-American War. Most Whigs , however, viewed the war as conscienceless land grabbing, and the Whig-controlled House voted 85 to 81 to censure Democratic Pres. James K. Polk for having “unnecessarily and unconstitutionally” initiated the war. Polk claimed that invading Mexicans had “shed American blood on American soil,” and the congressman and future president Abraham Lincoln introduced the “Spot Resolutions” in an attempt to determine precisely where the initial conflict between U.S. and Mexican troops had occurred and whether it “was, or was not, our own soil at that time.”

Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo , which settled the Mexican-American War, the United States gained more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square km) of land, expanding U.S. territory by about one-third. Mexico ceded nearly all the territory now included in the U.S. states of New Mexico , Utah , Nevada , Arizona , California , Texas , and western Colorado for $15 million and U.S. assumption of its citizens’ claims against Mexico.

The Mexican-American War reopened the slavery-extension issue, which divided the North and South and which had been largely dormant since the Missouri Compromise . Abolitionists saw the war as an attempt by the slave states to extend slavery and enhance their power with the creation of additional slave states out of the soon-to-be-acquired Mexican lands. On August 8, 1846, Rep. David Wilmot of Pennsylvania attempted to add an amendment to a treaty appropriations bill. The Wilmot Proviso —banning slavery from any territory acquired from Mexico—was never passed, but it led to acrimonious debate and contributed greatly to the rising sectional antagonism.

Mexican-American War , war between the United States and Mexico (April 1846–February 1848) stemming from the United States’ annexation of Texas in 1845 and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River (Mexican claim) or the Rio Grande (U.S. claim). The war—in which U.S. forces were consistently victorious—resulted in the United States’ acquisition of more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square km) of Mexican territory extending westward from the Rio Grande to the Pacific Ocean .

Mexico severed relations with the United States in March 1845, shortly after the U.S. annexation of Texas. In September U.S. Pres. James K. Polk sent John Slidell on a secret mission to Mexico City to negotiate the disputed Texas border, settle U.S. claims against Mexico, and purchase New Mexico and California for up to $30 million. Mexican Pres. José Joaquín Herrera, aware in advance of Slidell’s intention of dismembering the country, refused to receive him. When Polk learned of the snub, he ordered troops under Gen. Zachary Taylor to occupy the disputed area between the Nueces and the Rio Grande (January 1846).

On May 9, 1846, Polk began to prepare a war message to Congress, justifying hostilities on the grounds of Mexican refusal to pay U.S. claims and refusal to negotiate with Slidell. That evening he received word that Mexican troops had crossed the Rio Grande on April 25 and attacked Taylor ’s troops, killing or injuring 16 of them. In his quickly revised war message—delivered to Congress on May 11—Polk claimed that Mexico had “invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil.”

Congress overwhelmingly approved a declaration of war on May 13, but the United States entered the war divided. Democrats, especially those in the Southwest , strongly favoured the conflict. Most Whigs viewed Polk’s motives as conscienceless land grabbing. Indeed, from the outset, Whigs in both the Senate and the House challenged the veracity of Polk’s assertion that the initial conflict between U.S. and Mexican forces had taken place in U.S. territory. Further, legislators were at odds over whether Polk had the right to unilaterally declare that a state of war existed. Principally at issue was where the encounter had actually taken place and the willingness of Americans to acknowledge the Mexican contention that the Nueces River formed the border between the two countries. Active Whig opposition not only to the legitimacy of Polk’s claim but also to the war itself continued well into the conflict. In December 1846 Polk accused his Whig doubters of treason. In January 1847 the by-then Whig-controlled House voted 85 to 81 to censure Polk for having “unnecessarily and unconstitutionally” initiated war with Mexico.

D-Day. American soldiers fire rifles, throw grenades and wade ashore on Omaha Beach next to a German bunker during D Day landing. 1 of 5 Allied beachheads est. in Normandy, France. The Normandy Invasion of World War II launched June 6, 1944.

Among the most-aggressive challenges to the legitimacy of Polk’s casus belli was that offered by future president Abraham Lincoln , then a first-term member of the House of Representatives from Illinois . In December 1847 Lincoln introduced eight “ Spot Resolutions ,” which placed the analysis of Polk’s claim in a carefully delineated historical context that sought to

obtain a full knowledge of all the facts which go to establish whether the particular spot of soil on which the blood of our citizens was so shed was, or was not, our own soil at that time.

Ultimately, the House did not act on Lincoln’s resolutions, and Polk remained steadfast in his claim that the conflict was a just war .

Abolitionists saw the war as an attempt by the slave states to extend slavery and enhance their power with the creation of additional slave states out of the soon-to-be-acquired Mexican lands. One abolitionist who agreed with that interpretation was author Henry David Thoreau , who was incarcerated in July 1846 when he refused to pay six years’ worth of back poll taxes because he felt the U.S. government’s prosecution of the war with Mexico was immoral. Although he spent only a single night in jail (his aunt, against his wishes, paid the taxes, thus securing his release), Thoreau documented his opposition to the government’s actions in his famous book-length essay Civil Disobedience (1849), insisting that if an injustice of government is

of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.

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Mexican American War - Free Essay Examples and Topic Ideas

The Mexican-American War was an armed conflict that occurred between the United States of America and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It was fought over territorial disputes, primarily regarding the annexation of Texas by the United States. The war resulted in a significant victory for the United States, who gained control of Mexico City and Mexico’s northern territories through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The war is a controversial part of American history, often debated for its motivations and impact on both countries.

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The History of the Mexican–American War Essay

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Introduction

After the Mexican-American War, which ended in 1848, the southwest region of the United States, including California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma was ceded to the United States from Mexico. The Mexicans who lived in this region, known as Mexican Americans, faced a number of social, racial, political, economic, and labor conditions that greatly affected their lives.

One of the main issues facing Mexican Americans was discrimination and racism. Many Anglo-Americans, or non-Hispanic white Americans, looked down upon Mexicans as inferior and viewed them as a threat to their way of life (Guardino 305). This led to a number of discriminatory laws and practices, such as the forced removal of Mexican Americans from their land and the segregation of schools and public spaces. Politically, Mexican Americans were not given the same rights and privileges as Anglo-Americans. They were often denied the right to vote, hold office, or serve on juries.

Economically, Mexican Americans were often forced to work in low-paying jobs and were paid less than Anglo-Americans for the same work. They were denied access to credit and other financial resources, making it difficult for them to start businesses or improve their economic situation (Guardino 374). In terms of labor, Mexican Americans were often forced to work in dangerous and exploitative conditions. They were denied the right to unionize, which would have allowed them to negotiate for better wages and working conditions.

In conclusion, I believe the social, racial, political, economic, and labor conditions facing Mexican Americans after the Mexican-American War were shaped by discrimination and racism. It is important to note that this contributed to their marginalization and made it difficult for them to improve their lives and achieve equality with Anglo-Americans. In addition, I think the lack of political representation further marginalized the Mexican-American community.

Guardino, Peter. The Dead March: A History of the Mexican-American War. Harvard University Press, 2020.

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Thornton Affair

In late March, 1846, the U.S. army began to take up positions on the northern side of the Rio Grande. In response, the Paredes government, having taken power at the beginning of the year, ordered General Mariano Arista , commander of the Army of the North, to attack the U.S. force. On April 25, 1846, Mexican troops attacked a squadron of U.S. dragoons commanded by Captain Seth Thornton near Fort Texas (later renamed Fort Brown, the site of modern-day Brownsville). The engagement left sixteen U.S. troops killed or wounded. Thornton, who was knocked unconscious when he fell off his horse, was at first listed among those killed in the incident. The remaining fifty-two soldiers were held at Matamoros and later exchanged for Mexican prisoners.

News of the incident reached Washington D.C. two weeks later. On May 11 President Polk asked Congress for a declaration of war, maintaining that a state of war between the two nations already existed. "Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil." Two days later, by overwhelming margins and with little debate, both houses voted to declare war.

Captain Thornton

Apuntes Para La Historia de la Guerra entre Mexico Y Los Estados-Unidos: General Arista

Apuntes para la historia de la guerra entre mexico y los estados-unidos: plano de la ciudad de matamoros 1846, apuntes para la historia de la guerra entre mexico y los estados-unidos: general taylor, seat of war & battles : incidents in the military life of general taylor, seat of war & battles : outline history of the mexican war, seat of war & battles, trueman cross, dr. grayson m. prevost journal, letter, john c. robinson to elisha m. pease, camp on the rio grande opposite matamoras, april 26, 1846, general arista.

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Mexican War Essay Examples

The mexican-american war: causes, consequences, and controversies.

The Mexican-American War, fought between 1846 and 1848, stands as a pivotal moment in the history of both Mexico and the United States. This essay delves into the intricate causes that ignited the conflict, the unfolding of the war itself, and the profound consequences it...

The Mexican-american War: Assessing the Justification of U.s. Involvement

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Overview of the Mexican-american War (1846-1848)

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Connection of USA to the American Mexican War

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The History of the Mexican War

The Mexican War was a major power struggle attempting to see who would have the rights to Texas. Texas had gained its independence as a result of war during the years of 1835 and 1836. The United States, as well as other countries were willing...

Women in the Mexican Revolution

Before the Mexican Revolution began the role of women was to stay hidden behind their husbands and family. Women worked in the fields, did household chores, went to church, and took care of the children. Women had very minimal rights in the early 1900s. The...

Corruption During the Mexican Revolution

Josefina Niggli works in the book “Mexican Village” and Jose Antonio Villarreal works in the book “Pocho” respectively tellingly demonstrates a picture of rural Mexico during the Great Mexican revolution. In Mexican Village, Niggli presents an image of the town of Hidalgo during and after...

The Mexican Drug War

In 2007, the Mexican Drug Cartel controlled 90% of the Cocaine brought to the United States (Cook 2007). Cocaine, however, doesn’t come without its close relatives, violence and death. The Mexican War on Drugs is as much a concern to the United States as it...

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