Mexican-American War

The physical beginning of the Mexican-American war between the United States and Mexico began with a Mexican attack on American troops who were stationed on the southern border of Texas on April 25, 1846. The swift conclusion to the war took place as General Winfield Scott occupied the Mexican capitol city, Mexico City on September 14, 1847. Within a few months, the Treaty of Guadalupe was signed with Mexico recognizing the US annexation of Texas as well as Mexico succeeding from California and New Mexico.1 The causes of the Mexican-American war varies from historian to historian. Some blame a dictatorial Centralist government of Mexico beginning the war by continuing to claim Texas even after its establishment of an independent republic. Others argue the United States provoked war with Mexico by annexing Texas as well as stationing troops at the Mexican border. A final thought is that the greed of United States President James Polk who “forced Mexico to war in order to seize California and the Southwest”.2 The most likely cause of the Mexican-American War is a combination of the three. The government of Mexico leading up to and during the Mexican-American was an unstable, dictatorial, Centralist government. Dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was a Centralist, who supported an autocratic government and ran Mexico as such. This led to various rebellions and insurgencies within Mexico itself. In 1836, after Mexico had won its independence from Spain, Texas rebelled against the government of Mexico. With assistance from the US, Texas was able to win its independence from Mexico. However, stubbornly the Mexican government refused to recognize the new Republic of Texas. 3 This stubbornness also continued into the distant northern provinces of California and New Mexico that remained sparsely settled and had a Spanish speaking population of only 75,000 in 1840. 4 Mexican officials vowed to preserve their historic boundaries, “so when the Texas constitution convention