The Mexican-American War - Mexican Cession: 1848

Abstract

The Mexican-American War, it was a war where the United States cemented itself as a world super power; however, that came at a cost. This paper explores the ups and downs of the Mexican-American War.

Mexican Cession: 1848 (Mexican-American War)

The Mexican Cession in 1848 or better known as the Mexican-American War was a war where Mexico gave most of their land to America. It was a quest for James L Polk, the president at the time to expand the United States westward toward the Pacific Ocean. Mexico was forced to give approximately one-third of their land away when the United States captured Mexico City. They were given two choices: the first one being lose all of Mexico to the United States because the United States had a much stronger military than Mexico. The second choice being to surrender the part of their land to the United States that the United States wanted. After much deliberation and very heated debates between Mexico and the United States, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848 to finally end the war. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, drafted by Nicholas Trist, stated that the United States was to pay Mexico a sum of $15 million in exchange for Mexican territory, that today are known as Texas, California, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, and New Mexico. Also, the United States had to assume the $3 million in claims that its citizens had made against Mexico. When it was it was all said and done the United States did not actually pay any money to Mexico because the Mexican government was so indebted to the United States that it came out as a wash in the end.

One of the major short-term consequences of this acquisition was the Civil War. I say it was a short-term consequence because although it was a war; the effects the war had on the country were great. This is because with the expansion of the United States more people were needed to help establish the territory. The only way to do that was with more people and some people did not want to move westward. So this expansion was supposed to be a free-slave