There are Historians that believe that the war was a result of circumstance, that no one person or government can be held responsible. There are others like the author of The Great American Landgrab, Orlando Martinez, that feel; “It is a tale of an unjust act brought about by immoral men in order to satisfy purely material ends.” Either way, whether Hawk or Dove, it is clear that this war was void of structure and legitimate cause. Instead of being fough

It is often looked over, as a cause of war, but there was much happening in the sparsely populated region of Mexico at the time. There was really no doubt by the 1840’s that California would separate from Mexico, the only question was to whom it would go to. There were several hundred Americans already there that were taking advantage of the vary generous land grants that were being issued by Mexico to get people to settle there. These Americans were for the most part settled in the Sacramento valley. California was split between Centralist and Federalist supporters, and Polk had arranged for any movement towards independence to be secretly supported. The West Coast, including California and Oregon raised another issue for the expansionists in the US. This was the British presence in these two regions. It was Connor and Faulk’s view that “The British consul at Monterey, California, wrote that Britain could easily acquire control of the area.” This became an issue of major debate in the US senate, and some believe that it may have been another incentive for Polk to go to war. Whether its effects were great enough to push Polk to war are debatable, but it may account for some of the haste at which this war was declared.

After looking at all the facts, it is still quite hard to determine who is at fault for the war. It is very clear that it was not one event and one event alone that set off this short but devastating war. But it was a decade and a half of struggle within Mexico that put them in a position that was vulnerable to be defeated. It was the internal struggles within Mexico that made a stable government impossible. It was the expansionist forces that occupied the White House, and the confrontation with other world powers. It was a lack of support from other countries. Mexico was set with the unique opportunity of sharing a continent with the United States, and much like Canada would find itself being the wagging tail of the massive dog that runs the world. Mexico as it seems was just in the way of the US “Manifest Destiny” and was not given a chance to become a stable country.

There are so many sides to the war that it is nearly impossible to decipher what actually took place. All we really know is that the USA invaded and conquered Mexico, and gained all the land North of the Rio Grande as a result. The problem that arises when studying the war is the cloud of uncertainty that surrounds it. It would be very easy to believe that the US, like it has done in so many other countries, just wanted the land and it took it, no questions asked. So why is there controversy about this particular event. The following essay is an attempt to come to an understanding about what happened during the Mexican American war of 1846, and to look into the various events that were taking shape that would ultimately lead to the war.

Mexico was deeply and bitterly divided by the Centralist and Federalist powers within the country and this made it impossible for either side to make any positive progress. Another factor that led to instability, was the effect that President Santa Anna had on the country. Santa Anna was a military general that became a dictator in Mexico in 1835. His contributions to the war were numerous but it is hard to determine whether Santa Anna helped or hindered the Mexican army. In North America Divided, Santa Anna is described as “The Wily villain of so many Mexican disasters” . In most accounts by Mexican authors, Santa Anna is seen as a smart and very capable general. Whether or not Santa Anna was a poor general, it is very clear that his neglect of the country, and his continual focus on fighting battles, only perpetuated the economic and political instability within Mexico. But it was not Santa Anna alone who started the war; in fact the roots of the drift to war began on ‘independent’ land.

One part of Mexico’s inability to rule its territory was the effect that the movement for

Some topics in this essay:
Vazquez Meyer, Santa Anna, Mexican American, Destiny” Besides, Conner Faulk, Miguel Hidalgo, West Coast, Democracy Capitalism, Conner Fualk, Americans American, santa anna, “manifest destiny”, vazquez meyer, mexican army, annexation texas, movement independence, north america divided, drift war, struggle independence, mexican government, border texas, physical border texas, ultimately lead war, james polk polk, political dependence spain,