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Impacts of America’s Acquisition of Texas in its World Standing
When America entered into war with Mexico in 1846 its army, merely consisted of 8000 soldiers, but later the number increased after 60,000 more volunteers joined the battle. The leading cause of this was America’s annexation of Texas in 1845 from a dispute over whether Texas borders were in the Nueces River as Mexico claimed or at the Rio Grande as the united states claimed. In the war, American forces won and acquired over 500,000 square miles of Mexican land from the Rio Grande to the Pacific Ocean. The American troops were able to emerge victorious in the war because they provided stable and capable leadership. The economy of the united states by far surpassed that of Mexico. In February 1846, a treaty was signed to end the war. However, as the guns went silent and soldiers returned home, a new war was beginning and is seen to continue to change course even today.
Ulysses S. Grant argued that the civil war that developed after the war was God’s punishment for the American-Mexican action that he termed a cruel war based on expansionism of human slavery. The most significant number of Americans supported the war as they termed it as self-actualization of the manifest of destiny. The manifest is still a core of U.S national identity; after the war, it brought some debates if the newly acquired territory should be enslaved or be slave-free. These debates were split among the parties present that day, that is, Democrats vs. Whigs that sent the country into legislative crisis, and the entire world was also concerned about America’s leadership ideologies.
During the war, both American and Mexican troops were introduced to urban warfare, and they had to adjust their tactics to win the war (Bauer & Jack, 1992). In 1847, the Mexican army almost won the battle under general Pedro, but the U.S army managed to grip their rooted position, and Polk sent another set of military under general Winfield Scott to invade Mexicans heartland. To win the invasion on Mexican land, they had to improve their machinery and weapons and improve their tactics, making the Mexicans surrender. This had a significant impact on America’s history and how the world viewed its army as solid and innovative. Otherworld countries considered America’s economy as efficient as it could sustain the war and its soldiers by providing improved weapons, which they made, and food.
The treaty signed between Mexico and America in 1848 was among the most critical moments in the history of the united states. However, the treaty did not bring peace entirely in the country, but the newly acquired territories intensified the slavery conversation about the future of slavery in western territories increasing the division between the North and the South that lead to the creation of single-issue parties. The South declared themselves as under attack by northern abolitionists, and the northerners began protesting, claiming that the southerners were dominating in politics as they tried to fight against slavery. There was a suggestion that slavery is barred from the Mexican Cession, which increased the country’s tension. Many world countries began to raise questions about America’s standings about slavery since most of the world’s nations were trying to end human slavery.
After the end of the war, gold was discovered in California, making people migrate in large numbers, searching for riches. The large migration of people heading to the west because of the discovery was termed as Gold Rush, and the first people to hear about it were people from Oregon, the Sandwich Island (Santa Ana, 2002). Latin Americans, Europeans, Australians, and Chinese were the first to flock to California for gold. Mining of gold leads to improved technology to facilitate mining; therefore, technology improved vastly in America after the war-making it among the first countries to develop the technology. This changed its view in the world as a developed country and as a superpower.
It is, therefore, clear that the war between America and Mexico had a significant influence economically, socially, and politically on Americans. The emergence of America as winners in the war changed the views of Americans from world countries. It changed its standing in the world, where it was considered a superpower country from its economic and technological abilities displayed during the war.
Works cited
Bauer, Karl Jack. The Mexican War, 1846-1848. U of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Santa Ana, Otto. Brown tide rising: Metaphors of Latinos in contemporary American public discourse. University of Texas Press, 2002.