Transcript War with Mexico

War with Mexico
Section 3
Chapter 12
The New Mexico Territory
• The vast area between Texas and
California (Present day: NM., AZ., NV.,
and UT.)
• Mexico had little control over distant
territories.
• Mexico welcomed Americans into their
territory in hopes of helping the economy
Mexican government welcomed
Americans into New Mexico to
help with mining gold
A. True
B. False
The Santa Fe Trail
• William Becknell becomes the first
American trader to reach Santa Fe in 1821
• His route becomes know as Santa Fe Trail
• Trail is mainly flat and makes wagon travel
easier
• Santa Fe becomes major trade center
• Manifest Destiny—many saw New Mexico
as a territory worth acquiring
The belief that Americans had a
right to New Mexico was called
A. Mexican War
B. Destiny
C. Manifest Destiny
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California’s Spanish Culture
• Missionaries were the
first Spanish to
settle in California
• American:
Jedediah Smith
visits modern-day
Los Angeles in 1820
What were missionaries trying
to spread
RELIGION
California after 1821
• California becomes a state in the new
country of Mexico in 1821
• Mexican settlers built huge properties
called ranchos
• Rancheros treated their Native Americans
like Southern Plantation owners treated
slaves
Manifest Destiny and California
• At first Mexicans welcomed Americans
• By 1845 the American population was only 700
• Army officer John C. Fremont wrote about the
beauty of California
• Americans begin talking about adding California
to the nation
• Shipping ports would help with trade with Japan
and China
• President Polk offered to buy New Mexico and
California but Mexico refused to sell it
The USA saw California for its
valuable gold in 1845
A. True
B. False
War with Mexico
• Polk wanted California—clear passage to the
Pacific Ocean
• Polk believed in Manifest Destiny
• Polk wanted to provoke Mexico into a war
• This was he could justify the war to the
American people.
• Dispute grows with Texan border and Mexico
– USA insisted that the Rio Grande was the
border
– Mexico insisted it was the Nueces River (150
miles north)
What was the river that the USA
claimed as the southern border
of the USA?
RIO GRANDE
Conflict Begins
• Mexican government announced its intention to
reclaim Texas
• Polk ordered Gen. Zachary Taylor to march his
soldiers south towards the Rio Grande River
• On April 24, Mexican soldiers attacked a small
force of Taylor’s soldiers
• On May 11, 1846 Congress declared War on
Mexico
Who really started the Mexican
War?
A. Mexico
B. USA
C. None of the Above
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Gen. Zachary Taylor
American Attitudes Toward the War
• Americans divided over the war
• Polk’s party the Democrats supported the war
• Whigs opposed the war—”aggressive and
unjust war”—”would spread slavery”
• Abraham Lincoln demanded to see the exact
spot where the first attack occurred
• Fredrick Douglas feared it would spread slavery
• Newspapers generally favored the war
• Volunteers sign up in large numbers to fight.
Polk’s War Plan
• 3-Part Plan to divide up Mexican forces
– Drive Mexicans out of disputed Texas border
area
– Seize New Mexico and California
– American forces would take Mexico City—
capital of Mexico
• Americans defeat Mexicans at Buena Vista,
Texas border secured
• General Stephen Kearny led his troops into
New Mexico and California
• Kearny captures the capital
of New Mexico Territory
Santa Fe
California and the Bear Flag Republic
• June 1846 small group of Americans seize
Sonoma, California and proclaimed the
independent Republic of California
• Bear Flag Republic
• Californios (Mexican Californians) were
outraged that Americans were trying to seize
their land.
Naval Intervention
• U.S. Navy under the command of
Commodore John Sloat captured San
Francisco
• Sloat declared California part of America
• Sloat, Fremont, and Kit Carson help
capture San Diego and moved north to
L.A.
• By 1847 California was fully controlled by
the United States
The Capture of Mexico City
• General Winfield Scott’s army landed on
the Gulf on New Mexico near the port city
of Veracruz.
• Americans fight their way to Mexico City
• August 1847 Mexican government
surrendered
• U.S.A lost 1,172 men to battles 11,000 to
disease
• Mexico lost half its territory
The Peace Treaty
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
– Mexico gave up all claims to Texas
– Rio Grande becomes the southern border
– Mexican Cession—Mexico ceded California
and New Mexico to the USA
– U.S. gave Mexico 15 Million
– In 1853 USA gave an additional 10 million for
the Gadsden Purchase
DiBo’s Useless Fact
• Owen Thomas Edgar (June 17, 1831 – September 3, 1929)
was, according to data from the United States Department of
Veterans Affairs, the last surviving U.S. veteran of the MexicanAmerican War.
• He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the
United States Navy as a 2nd-class apprentice on February 10,
1846, and was discharged August 8, 1849. Edgar saw service
on the frigates Potomac, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and
Experience.
• After the war, he worked at the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing for 21 years, then worked at a bank for another 31
years. He spent his last ten years living at the John Dickson
Home in Washington, D.C. Edgar died on September 3, 1929 at
the age of 98 after suffering a fall from a chair that fractured his
leg, and was buried in Washington's Congressional Cemetery.