The Us-Mexican War

The U.S. –Mexican War.
Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the doubling of the U.S. territory, many Americans had looked at the region controlled first by Spain and, after 1821, by Mexicoas logical area of U.S. expansion. Texas was annexed in 1845. In the previous year James Polk had run as the democratic nominee for the presidency. He expressed the idea of the United States acquiringmore territory.
To acquire this territory, the United States needed to provoke a crisis that would necessitate military intervention. General Zachary Taylor established a camp on the eastern borderof the Rio Grande River. This action deliberately challenged the traditionally recognized border between Mexico and Texas- the Nueces River.
On April 25, 1846, the Mexican army clashed with the U.S.troops, killing sixteen. General Taylor notified President Polk that hostilities had commenced.
Meanwhile in Mexico, conservatives and liberals united as never before. In characteristic hyperbole,Santa Anna responded that the action would lead to war with the United States. However, he was in exile when he made this bold statement; he had angered the politicians and military officials, and aseries of military revolts had forced him to flee Mexico for Cuba. When war broke out in 1846, the government of José J. Herrera pursued negotiations with the United States. When others opposed thiscourse of action, Herrera was overthrown. In this atmosphere of political instability, and facing and attack from the United States, Mexicans looked again to Santa Anna. Thus on September 16, 1846, GómezFarías and Santa Anna arrived in Mexico City, and congress made them vice-president and president respectively in December.
In March 1847 U.S. forces under General Winfield Scott landed at Veracruz.From April to September the Mexican forces commanded by Santa Anna gradually retreated to the capital. Even when the capital was surrounded the Mexican soldiers fought on, causing increased losses...