Military Pre-War Intellegiance

Military Pre-War Intelligence

Presidents give speeches to the American people about what they want to hear. In this age of popularity a President will sugar coat his speeches to tell the people what he believes is the right thing to say, even if sometimes it means lying to his country. This has been going on forever, especially during declarations of war. America's leading officials will start a war with someone else to get what they want, and then blame it on the opposing country to please the people. Since Americans vote on whom they want to run the country, a president is not going to go make the citizens angry by leading the country into a war if there has been no act of war. The solution for this problem lies in the trust we have for our government. We think (not as much as of recent years) that if the government says it then it must be true. This has, in some ways, been used against us to believe nations have started wars against us or have taken things from us. When in reality America is the one out picking fights and blaming it on opposing countries.

In 1803, Thomas Jefferson bought from France all the land that was drained by the Mississippi River; also know as the Louisiana Purchase. This deal more than doubled the size of the country. With America still a very young country and just coming off a revolution against England this is exactly what the people wanted, this meant we were becoming a real nation. Ten years later the War of 1812 begins, this war basically solidifies our claim of independence from England. Now our leaders can begin running there own country and the birth of our nation was well underway.

By 1846, James Polk was in office and with him being a democrat; one of his main concerns was the idea of Manifest Destiny. This was the belief that it was destined by God to expand America's borders from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast. Once Polk got into office he began to put the belief of Manifest Destiny into the heads of the American people. Settlers began moving west and completely ignoring the people who were already occupying the lands they were taking. But they were limited by the lands bought in the Louisiana Purchase, because everything else was Mexico's. After winning a revolution from Mexico the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845 now making it a state. Now that we had Texas all we had to do was get the rest of the land to the Pacific Ocean from Mexico, and our dreams of a nation from ocean to ocean would be complete.

On two different occasions America tried to buy California from Mexico. This occurred once in 1835 for 5 Million dollars and again in 1845 for 25 Million dollars. Both times Mexico refused to sell half of its country to its most dangerous neighbor. The idea behind this was; if we had the farthest land to the west we would just have to worry about the land in between, which wouldn't be hard. If buying this land wasn't working then we figured that we would just have to take it. The President couldn't start a war with Mexico just to take their land, so he had to figure out a way to make Mexico start the war instead. This came all too easy when a border dispute with Mexico and the newly independent Texas came about.

Texas gained its freedom from Mexico in a rather unorthodox way. During the war, Texans captured the Mexican leader Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and had him imprisoned. They told him if he signed a treaty proclaiming Texas independence than they would set him free, he agreed and the Treaty of Velasco was signed. Many Mexicans believed this treaty was not legal because of the circumstances in which it was signed. The treaty also did not clearly state the boundaries of where Texas ended. Since Texas was created the boundary has always been the Nueces River, but after Texas gained its independence they claimed the boundary several miles south at the Rio Grande River. Because of this, Mexico and Texas continued border wars because Texans were now settling on what was believed, by Mexico, to be Mexican soil. Americans began to sympathize with the new state of Texas and began to form a very negative stereotype towards the Mexican people.

Now that there was a standoff between the un-negotiated borders, President Polk realized his opportunity. The President ordered Gen. Zachary Taylor to go to the Nueces River and cross it, and then continue into disputed land to the Rio Grande. In May of 1846, the Mexican army attacked Gen. Taylor and his men for being on what they thought was Mexican soil. Taylor's troops immediately drove them back across the Rio Grande. Although this helped provoke the war, the actual events that caused the declaration of war came just a few days before in the Thornton Affair. Captain Seth. Thornton was supposed to be scouting lands around what we thought was the border of Mexico in the area that is now Brownsville TX., he then claimed they were ambushed by two thousand Mexican soldiers. The accounts of this attack have never truly been verified by dependable sources and most of what happened is very unclear. Nevertheless, President Polk had what he needed to declare war on Mexico. Polk told congress that Mexico had "Invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil." Congress unanimously voted in favor of the declaration and the war with Mexico had begun.

After two years of fighting and around 27,000 killed or wounded soldiers, America finally got what they wanted, land. The signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war and gave America full control over Texas; it also recognized the Rio Grande River as the border to the south. In addition to this, Mexico also gave us California, Nevada, Utah, parts of New Mexico and Arizona, and the areas of Wyoming and Colorado that we didn't own already. Along with all of this land, all we had to pay them was 15 million dollars, 10 million dollars less than what we were willing to pay for just California. The Gadsden Purchase was made just six years later to reimburse them for the lands we stole. This deal was originally set up in Mexico. But after it got to congress and changes were made, the final deal resulted in America only paying 10 million dollars, and Mexico had to give us the southern parts of New Mexico and Arizona so we could build a transcontinental railroad. With all of this finished our dreams of Manifest Destiny had finally been realized.

This war was fought strictly for our benefit. Even some of our own politicians believed that this war was unjust. Representative Abraham Lincoln had strong opposition to the war and challenged to know the exact spot Thornton was ambushed he was quoted in congress saying "show me the spot."