...Mexican Cession By Hannah Wilson What is Cession What does Cession Mean? It means to give up or surrender something Mexican Cession means that Mexico gave up large amounts of land such as California and New Mexico to the United States. History behind Mexican Cession In December 1845 the United States voted to make Texas the 28th State. Mexico thought that we had the boundaries wrong and that part of Texas still belong to Mexico. The United States thought the line was the Rio Grand River, but Mexico thought it was another river far inside of the Texas border. The United States President James K. Polk wanted to meet with Mexico and settle the argument about where the Texas line was and talk about buying more land from Mexico. Mexico refused to meet. Mexico had a new president Santa Anna who did not want to talk. What Happened Next… When Mexico refused to meet with the United States President Palk order our military to the border. On April 25, 1846 the Mexican Calvary crossed the Rio Grande river into Texas and began fighting with our military and that was the beginning of the Mexican American war. That event was very important in history because it would determine how much land Mexico would eventually have to give up. (Reference -Social Studies for Kids, website cited below) 1. Mexico gave up over 500,000 square miles of territory to the United States http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/wwww/us/mexicancessiondef.htm How did the War...
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...Kristine Sizemore American Intercontinental University Unit 4 Individual Project HIST105 – U.S. History May 26, 2013 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...
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...January 15, 1848 Distinguished Don Luis Gonzaga Cuevas, Don Bernardo Couto, and Don Miguel Atistain, I am an extremely proud Mexican citizen living in a New Mexican territory. I have been given land by the King of Spain and have recently received the details of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty portrays insincerity and presents us with an unjustifiable position. The result of the treaty would put us in an even worse situation than we are in now. My points should be recognized because I am very knowledgeable about the treaty, my family has been living in the territory of New Mexico for many generations, I am a strong follower of God, and I know what is best for Mexico. We, as the country of Mexico, can’t sign the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo as we will lose much of our land for a small cost, we will not be given U.S. citizenship immediately, and our land grants will not be honored which will lead to an abominable future for the country of Mexico. Mexico would be giving up an immense amount of land by signing the treaty. The treaty states, “The boundary line between the two republics shall…” The United States is telling us what land to give up, instead of giving us a choice. Although the U.S. is willing to pay us $15 million for some of our land and pay for war-related damages, this amount of money is not large enough. The treaty proposes we give up our land between the west coast of California to the Rio Grande. There could possibly be gold in this land worth more...
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...“What are the links between the Mexican War of 1846-1848 and Lincoln’s election in 1860?” In the decades prior to the Civil War, America’s Society was divided both socially and economically between the North and the South. The industrial North saw great economic prosperity with an increase in urbanization and the need for manufactured goods. On the other hand, the South, with its agricultural economy, maintained its dependency on slave labor. This issue of slavery continually resurfaced and deepened the separation in the United States, especially as new states were being admitted. The admittance of Texas as a state led the U.S. into a war with Mexico which affected the country drastically in its following years. The Mexican War led to an increase...
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...This caused Polk to leading the United States into the Mexican-American War of 1846. In January of 1846, Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor along with 3,500 troops to Rio Grande to secure the TX border. In April of the same year, a U.S soldier was found dead which lead Polk back down even less. In 1847, another American army under the command of General Winfield Scott secured Vera Cruz and Mexico City. In 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe was negotiated by the chief clerk of the State Department, Nicholas P. Trist, after a few failed attempts at a truce. The treaty was signed on February 2nd, 1848. The summary of the treaty was that Mexico gave up the territories of Atla California and Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico which are todays California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. The United States agreed...
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...to oppose it. It brought California in as a free state; gave New Mexico the land it disputed with Texas; it abolished the slave trade in Washington D.C.and, it split the remaining Mexican Cession into New Mexico and Utah, with slavery to be determined by popular sovereignty; it gave Texas $10 million in compensation; and it included a much more strict fugitive slave law. It passed following many speeches by Clay, Webster, and Calhoun. 3. The North benefited the most from the compromise. They got an advantage in the Senate that they would never lose because of California, and the territories of New Mexico and Utah would not be practical for slavery. The fugitive slave law was widely disregarded by Northerners. Even the $10 million that Texas got was a moderate sum compared to what they lost. 4. Many treaties were formed and signed for various reasons and compromises between Latin America and the United States and Asia and the United States. 5. It sliced Nebraska into Kansas and Nebraska and allowed slavery to be decided by popular sovereignty. It required the Missouri Compromise to be repealed. It was assumed that Nebraska would become free and Kansas slave. It let to extensive violence in Kansas and led to the inflammation of the slavery issue and political balance. 6. The Mexican cession I think best supports the view that a belief in manifest destiny played a deceive role because it showed a big part of thinking of coming together and actually taking land to...
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...Assignment 10 The Fugitive Slave Act of 1773 aroused both strong opposition in both the North and South. The Republican Party dedicated itself to stop the extension of slavery but they lacked constitutional authority to interfere with slavery in the south. After the victory of the Mexican war there were fifteen slave states. The large amount of land acquired left a question of whether or not slavery would be extended to the new land. Congress could not bar slavery’s expansion. The decision would be taken out of national hands and let each new territory make the decision. This did not please free-soil nor pro-slavery extremists. The states sought admission as a free or slave states. This was opening an expansion of slavery in the new territory. President Zachary Taylor left the decision to the states whether to be a free state or slave. The balance of free states verses slave states was also affecting the nation. The southern states did not like that slavery could never take root in California. Henry clay proposed a compromise. The Bill would resolve several issues, the admission of California as a free state. The division of the remainder of the Mexican cession into two territories, New Mexico and Utah without federal restriction slavery, the settlement of Texas.-New Mexico boundary dispute on terms favorable to new Mexico: as incentive for Texas, an agreement that the Federal government would assume the states large public debt: continuation of slavery in the District...
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...CHAPTER 18: RENEWING THE SECTIONAL STRUGGLE TERMS: Mexican Cession: A major tract of land that Mexico ceded to the United States following the Mexican-America war: included California as well as parts of other Western territories. Fire-Eaters: A general unofficial term used to describe a group of Southern politicians who were extremely in favor of slavery and thus advocated for secession. Underground Railroad: A route that slaves took to secretly escape from their masters to freedom. Harriet Tubman: A particularly famous conductor of the railroad, helping to sneak hundreds of slaves out of servitude. William H. Seward: A somewhat radical politician who advocated for the abolition of slavery on moral grounds. Higher Law: The stance that...
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...erk's reinterpretation of the Mexican War justified the actions that were committed in pursuit of Manifest Destiny. He recognized Polk’s aggression as a retaliation to Mexico’s uncooperative nature. By continuously commenting on the unreasonable reactions of Mexicans, he implies that the War could have been avoided; but, due to the stubbornness of Mexicans, the war was inevitable. Recent historians, like Amy S. Greenberg, have challenged this argument. Greenberg, like Merk, does not fully examine the Mexican perspective in her analysis; however, her research reveals the unjust nature of the war instead of justifying the war. In A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 US invasion of Mexico, Amy S. Greenberg emphasizes Polk’s territorial goals, to expand shore to shore, as a major cause of the war. Before Polk was elected as president, the Whig party predicted Polk’s election would lead to war. Polk pursued the...
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...With the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which defined the 36th parallel as the border for slave and free states, the growing controversy of slavery and its place in America was acknowledged, igniting the debate over slavery and the fight to keep the union intact, for the next 40 years. However, this line was not a fix-all, for as more territory was added to the US with the notable Texas annexation and the addition of Oregon Country in 1845 and the Mexican Cession of 1848, the struggle to keep the balance of the slave and free states led to an entirely new compromise, the Compromise of 1850, relying on a new idea of popular sovereignty introduced by Lewis Cass, which exercised the political doctrine that the people of federal territories should...
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...mostly out of Pennsylvania to Ohio Valley. Within a decade the population of Ohio Valley went from 10,000 to 110,000. ("A Bio. of America: Westward Expansion ") President Thomas Jefferson vision was carried on by Adams-Onis treaty in the 1819. The Onis treaty settled the border dispute between Mexico and America. In addition, the treaty labeled Florida as United State’s territory. SImilar to Louisiana Purchase, no war was declared in obtaining Florida. Spaniards believed that Florida was becoming a burden and therefore gave it up. (Blodgett "ADAMS-ONIS TREATY") “The Manifest Destiny” was well on it way with the Annexation of Texas in 1845, making Texas the 28th state of America. Furthermore, the acquiring of Oregon Country,and the Mexican Cession through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo all connected United States to the Pacific Ocean.(" How and why did America expand westward?") Americas ideology of Manifest Destiny and its dream of country that stretched from coast to coast was fulfilled through America's determination, ambition and hunger for a bigger and better America. ...
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...The Coming of the Civil War The American Nation A History of the United States Angelica Johnson The Civil war was a very long and tedious battle that separated a country that had worked so hard to achieve its liberation from Europe and religious persecution. The new America had fought against many different enemies to achieve its own freedom. When the Mayflower set sail to rid itself of religious persecution, they found an uncharted territory to live free. Years later almost everyone forgot that they fought so hard to not persecute people for their beliefs. This would be a grave mistake for the Civil war between the Northern and South would only set our times back to the days when the Europeans persecuted people because of their beliefs. The political settlement between the North and South that Henry Clay designed in 1850 would only last four years. Americans continued to migrate westward by the thousands, and as long as slaveholders could empower the black slaves they could harvest crops at almost no cost to pay farmhands. Many slaves seeked redemption in the north because the north didn’t have the crop harvest the south had but mainly factories and industries. The federal Slave act of 1850, which imposed fines for hiding or rescuing slaves from southern slave owners could not guarantee their capture and return. Between 1819 and 1860, the critical issue that divided the North and South...
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...This was an effort to balance and meet the needs of both the North and the South, especially after having the house of northerners request that slvary be abolished in Washington D.C, and free soil. Approval was short lived, which reeked havoc, threats to disunion, and fistfights. Senator Henry Clay was the master mind behind this. He suggested that a series of solutions be impose so that the North and South were satisfied. This also included California being released as a free state, but rejecting the other states affiliated with the Mexican cession with no chances of being freed. Furthermore, Calhoun was, having died from tuberculosis, against any deals releasing California as a free state, but senator William Seward rallied that the North was amped to compromise for something that was theirs to began with, California being free. President Taylor was not fond of Henry Clays vision, as it relates to California, and planed to pursue what ever got in his way. After having President Taylor suddenly pass way and Calhoun, Millard Fillmore, who supported the compromise was amped to be placed in the White House. Clay eventually gave up and left Washington leaving Democratic senator Stephen Douglas to handle five bills to be voted upon. These last set of bills were a set of bills...
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...Internal turmoil was common in the 19th century, in both Europe and the United States. Governments and rulers struggled to keep their countries united as many called to make countries of their own. Some rulers made agreements with the rebels, while others fought wars against them to keep them from seceding. These decisions and compromises resulted in different ways, but a common factor in all the winners was a strong, decisive government, a powerful military, cultural unity, and The United States had the most tumultuous experience with unification by far out of all the countries. Problems arising as early as the Mexican American War did not dissipate, partly because the problems were large ones, but also because the government chose not to...
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...Americans believed that buying more land would entangle the U.S. in foreign affairs, a warning given by George Washington in his farewell address, and cause strain on the original 13 eastern states. However, government officials saw land as a power source and a way to expand the empire and economy. Both supporting and opposing sides influenced the ideas of territorial expansion and caused a changed in federal policy resulting in a new nation stretching from [present day] Maine to California. This great debated shaped the nation because of the actions it resulted in, such as: Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the War of 1812, the Trail of Tears, Mexican Cession, and the Compromise of 1850, etc. The growing idea of territorial expansion scared many people, and empowered others, but it came at the price of the Indians and their homes, and the land of the Mexicans (even some British land in Oregon was taken); something Americans had dealt with during the Revolutionary War. The opposing federalists feared the endangerment of their economy and the repercussions that may occur from surrounding nations, however the War hawks of the south and west saw a promising future ahead of them and were ready for the acquisition of new territory; such ideas sent American is to a swirling debate for more than a decade. The great debate and expansion happened simultaneously. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sent James Monroe to purchase the territory of Louisiana from the French government for $15 million...
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