As American settlers poured into the region in subsequent decades, however, Hispanic citizens faced increased discrimination, and the border became increasingly monitored and closed off to migration. citizenship and permitted to keep their land, and Mexicans traversed the border more or less freely for many years in search of work and connection to family and friends in the North. Those who had lived in the region for years were granted U.S. The war also disrupted the lives of Mexican citizens who lived in northern Mexico (now the southwest United States), though not to the degree one might expect. TV Tropes would certainly look quite different. One could hardly imagine the United States' culture today without Texas cowboys, Hollywood movies, Las Vegas casinos, etc. The economy of California alone is currently twice the size of the entirety of Mexico's Texas also far outstrips it just by itself. The value of that territory is even more striking. That's one-fourth of the current American population and ~70% of Mexico's current population. Today, over ninety million people live in that territory, which covers close to 900,000 square miles. In total (counting Texas, which Mexico didn't recognize as independent until after the war's end), Mexico lost over half of its territorial claims to the United States in less than two decades.
The war was one of the most important events of both American and Mexican history and, by extension, the history of the world. again expanded its claims to include the southern parts of modern Arizona and New Mexico (which Mexico prudently decided to sell rather than risk another war). The modern border wouldn't be finalized until the Gadsden Purchase a decade later, when the U.S. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave the US a large area of former Mexican territory consisting of California and many of the modern-day southwest states and established the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and Mexico. With the loss of many of its major cities, and facing internal strife as well, Mexico had no choice but to negotiate after two years of mostly one-sided conflict. From there, they advanced into what is today northern Mexico, ultimately capturing Mexico City. and Ralph Waldo Emerson.Īmerican forces quickly secured the northern Mexican territories in what is now modern California and New Mexico, while at sea, the US Navy blockaded both coasts of Mexico. This would lead him to develop his belief in and practice of Civil Disobedience, which became the template for later movement leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and the Reverend Martin Luther King. A number of notable artists who opposed the war included Henry David Thoreau note He refused to pay taxes in protest of this war, which led to his imprisonment (he was bailed out by his aunt much to his frustration). Many Democrats (particularly in the South) supported the war, hoping that the new territorial additions would be slave-holding, while most Whigs and anti-slavery elements (including some guy named Abraham Lincoln) opposed it. Going to war was a major point of contention in the United States. force in 1846, giving the United States an excuse to declare war shortly afterward. Polk had sent troops to the Nueces Strip, a minor, almost insignificant land claim on the Texan border with Mexico. But the land in between is in the hands of a hostile Mexican government. The answer to all of these problems: build a railroad from New Orleans to the Pacific coast, where many American expatriates already live, and open up that land for American settlement and control. In addition, tensions with Britain are flaring up, and American expansionists move to thwart any British interest in California.
There's a big one in the Mexican province of Alta California, which everyone knows is much more valuable than the newly-annexed Texas, which Mexico is still claiming as its own. Meanwhile, European powers are developing spheres of influence in China, and the US government finds itself in need of a large Pacific port. This only increases when the Oregon Territory is annexed. Industry is driving more and more people north, and the balance between free and slave states is rapidly shifting. The Southern United States' plantation economy is becoming less and less practical as Europe gets more of its cotton from other sources, particularly India and to a lesser extent Egypt.
Though the war is seldom depicted in contemporary media, both the United States and Mexico as we know them exist, in part, as a result of this war. Lasting from 1846-1848, the Mexican American War was fought between the United States and Mexico over a small land dispute in Texas, eventually resulting in the invasion of Mexico and the seizing of half that nation's territory.