THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR

Texas territory used to be Mexico in the 1820s and 1830s. It was a relatively unpopulated area which Mexico wanted help settling. In came American settlers who were more than willing to take Mexico up on their offer. All they would have to do is pledge their allegiance to Mexico and convert to Catholicism. This was not too high a price to pay so many Americans moved to Texas. Difficulties began when the settlers became increasingly dissatisfied with Mexican rule. Because people in America had begun to believe that it was their manifest destiny to settle the land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, the Texans had the support of the American government against the Mexican government.

This became important in 1835 when the unhappy Texans took up arms against the Mexican government which signed a treaty to end the hostilities in 1836. This did not work because some Mexicans were unhappy with the treaty and kept the fighting going with battles along the border against the newly independent Texans. The Texans decided that becoming a state in the American union would be a good idea and since the United States were eager to support this idea, Congress officially approved the annexation of Texas into the union on July 4, 1845. This did not please Mexico which believed that its territory contained land farther north than the Texans believed was the border so border fighting continued. After the annexation the Mexican-American war began in 1846.

It was a tough war with the Mexican army fighting their hardest to stave off the American soldiers, but the Americans were too hard a foe to defeat. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848 was signed ending the two-year conflict. The United States received exactly what it wanted in this deal, land from Ocean to Ocean. In exchange for $15 million the United States took possession of the territory that is now California, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona. This land was won in the Mexican-American War and Mexico was compensated for the loss of this land, so if you hear that California and other states really still belong to Mexico, you might want to point the person who says this to a history book.