The Mexicanâ€"American War,[a] also known in the United States as the
Mexican War and in Mexico as the Intervención Estadounidense en
México (U.S. intervention in Mexico),[b] was an armed conflict
between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed
the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico still considered
Mexican territory since the government did not recognize the Velasco
treaty signed by Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna when he
was a prisoner of the Texian Army during the 1836 Texas Revolution.
The Republic of Texas was de facto an independent country, but most of
its citizens wished to be annexed by the United States. Domestic
sectional politics in the U.S. prevented that since Texas would have
been a slave state, upsetting the balance of power between northern
free states and southern slave states. In the 1844 United States
presidential election, Democrat James K. Polk was elected on a
platform of expanding U.S. territory in Oregon and Texas. Polk
advocated expansion by either peaceful means or by armed force, with
the 1845 annexation of Texas as furthering that goal. For Mexico, this
was a provocation, but Polk went further, sending U.S. Army troops to
the area; he also sent a diplomatic mission to Mexico to try to
negotiate the sale of territory. U.S. troops' presence was provocative
and designed to lure Mexico into starting the conflict, putting the
onus on Mexico and allowing Polk to argue to Congress that a
declaration of war should be issued. Mexican forces attacked U.S.
forces, and the United States Congress declared war.Beyond the
disputed area of Texas, U.S. forces quickly occupied the regional
capital of Santa Fe de Nuevo México along the upper Rio Grande, which
had trade relations with the U.S. via the Santa Fe Trail between
Missouri and New Mexico. U.S. forces also moved against the province
of Alta California, and then moved south. The Pacific Squadron of the
U.S. Navy blockaded the Pacific coast farther south in the lower Baja
California Territory. The Mexican government refused to be pressured
into signing a peace treaty at this point, making the U.S. invasion of
the Mexican heartland under Major General Winfield Scott and its
capture of the capital Mexico City a strategy to force peace
negotiations. Although Mexico was defeated on the battlefield,
politically its government's negotiating a treaty remained a fraught
issue, with some factions refusing to consider any recognition of its
loss of territory. Although Polk formally relieved his peace envoy,
Nicholas Trist, of his post as negotiator, Trist ignored the order and
successfully concluded the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. It ended
the war, and Mexico recognized the Mexican Cession, areas not part of
disputed Texas but conquered by the U.S. Army. These were northern
territories of Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México. The U.S.
agreed to pay $15 million for the physical damage of the war and
assumed $3.25 million of debt already owed by the Mexican government
to U.S. citizens. Mexico acknowledged the loss of what became the
State of Texas and accepted the Rio Grande as its northern border with
the United States.The victory and territorial expansion Polk
envisioned inspired patriotism among some sections of the United
States, but the war and treaty drew fierce criticism for the
casualties, monetary cost, and heavy-handedness, particularly early
on. The question of how to treat the new acquisitions also intensified
the debate over slavery in the United States. Although the Wilmot
Proviso that explicitly forbade the extension of slavery into
conquered Mexican territory was not adopted by Congress, debates about
it heightened sectional tensions. Most scholars see the
Mexicanâ€"American War as leading to the American Civil War, with many
officers trained at West Point playing prominent leadership roles on
each side. Mexican–American War Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter