Transcript The Mexican View of the War (1850) Ramon Alvarez Et Al.

The Mexican View of the War
(1850)
Ramon Alvarez Et Al.
Leading up to the War
• Manifest Destiny
– Written by John O’Sullivan
– The belief that God intended for the United
States to spread its political power over the
entire continent.
• Mexico
– Just Emancipated from Spain
– Weak from several revolutions
Questions to Consider
• What, in the Mexican editor’s view, caused
the war with the United States?
• Did they see a pattern in U.S. history?
• Was Mexico entirely blameless?
Main Points
• Mexico blames the War on the United States.
– “To explain then in a few words the true origin of the war, it is sufficient to say
that the insatiable ambition of the United States, favored by our weakness,
caused it.”
• United States an “Alpha Male”
– “In throwing off the yoke of the mother country, the United States of the North
appeared at once as a powerful nation.”
• United States had an Expansion Plan.
– “From the days of their independence they adopted the project of extending
their dominions, and since then , that line of policy has not deviated in the
slightest degree… They desired from the beginning to extend their dominion in
such a manner as to become the absolute owners of most of all this continent.”
• Even after acquiring the land that the U.S. wanted all along, the U.S.
felt to add insult by placing fault on Mexico.
– “Violence and insult were united: thus at the very time they usurped part of our
territory, they offered to us the hand of treachery, to have soon the audacity to
say that our obstinacy and arrogance were the real causes of the war…”
Historical Significance
• The United States gained what they
believed was God’s will.
• The article gave light to how the Mexicans’
felt about the war.
– Allowed Americans to see the other side of
the war.
Questions
• Was it always the goal of the United States
to take over part of Mexico?
• If the United States had not taken over
part of Mexico, what would the country be
like today?