Mexican–American War facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mexican–American War |
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 Clockwise from top left: Winfield Scott entering Plaza de la Constitución after the Fall of Mexico City, U.S. soldiers engaging the retreating Mexican force during the Battle of Resaca de la Palma, American victory at Churubusco outside Mexico City, U.S. Marines storming Chapultepec castle under a large American flag, Battle of Cerro Gordo |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 73,532 regulars and volunteers | 70,000 regulars 12,000 irregulars |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 1,733 killed in battle (1,721 soldiers, 11 Marines, and 1 sailor) 4,152 wounded |
10,000 regulars dead (5,000 killed in battle) | ||||||||
| Including civilians killed by the war's violence and military disease and accidental deaths, the Mexican death toll may have reached 25,000. | |||||||||
The Mexican–American War took place between 1846 and 1848 between the United States of America and Mexico.
Causes and background
When Mexico got independence from Spain in 1821, Texas was part of Mexico. Americans and other settlers came into Texas when Mexico allowed non-Spanish settlers to settle there. After many settlers came to Texas, disputes led to the Texas Revolution in which in 1836 Texas became independent. Mexico refused to recognize the Republic of Texas as an independent country. Texas soon asked to become a state of the United States. Years later, in 1845, the US annexed Texas. But Mexico still did not recognize its independence or recognize the annexation by the U.S. The United States offered to buy from Mexico the land extending from Texas to the Pacific Ocean, but Mexico wanted to keep that vast area. In 1846, a dispute over the border between Texas and Mexico resulted in armed conflict, and the Mexican–American War began.
But the United States moved quickly to annex Texas after the 1844 election of James K. Polk. In his campaign, Polk had called for the "re-annexation" of Texas and the "re-occupation" of the Oregon Territory. Polk also wanted California and the rest of what is now the Southwestern United States. After offering to buy the territory, he moved U.S. troops into a place that Mexico said was not in Texas, but rather part of the Mexican state of Coahuila. The Mexican army attacked them.
The main causes of the war then was the westward expansion of the United States]]. All through the 19th century Americans believed it was their right to expand westward. At the time they believed they could conquer the people already living on the land and take it for the United States. Southerners wanted to see more slave states.
Antonio López de Santa Anna became President again, and many Mexicans hated him and did not want to follow him into war. Many Americans, including young Abraham Lincoln, also disliked the war.
Fighting
In addition to small units sent to California and New Mexico, the United States sent two major armies into Mexico under the commands of General Winfield Scott and future President of the United States General Zachary Taylor.
After the U.S. had entered Mexico, the Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna took command of the Mexican soldiers in early 1847. The U.S. forces fought Santa Anna near Monterrey and Buena Vista. After Buena Vista, the Mexican army had many problems, including starvation, disease, and desertion. The Mexican government was unstable. In March 1847, Scott landed at Veracruz. His force included future Civil War generals Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Stonewall Jackson and George G. Meade, as well as Commodore Perry. Scott took Puebla in May, and took Mexico City in September after the battle of Battle of Chapultepec.
When American soldiers came to California, the Bear Flag Revolt was happening. Some Californians were attempting to leave Mexico and form their own country, as Texas had done. In July and August 1846, American soldiers captured Monterey, Yerba Buena and Los Angeles. After a counterattack by the Californios, the Americans had taken much of California by 1847. The Mexican governor of California, Pio Pico, left the state.
Peace and aftermath
The United States won the war and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The treaty gave the U.S. lands that would become the states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, southwestern Colorado, and southwestern Wyoming. Mexico received 15 million dollars and gave up its claims to Texas.
The slavery debate in the United States became more intense with the addition of the new territory and the question of whether slavery would be legal in these new territories. Also, many of the officers who would lead troops in the American Civil War fought in the war and would use their experiences in the coming Civil War.
Images for kids
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The 1832 boundaries of Comancheria, the Comanche homeland
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Comanches of West Texas in war regalia, c. 1830.
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Mexico in 1824 with the boundary line with the U.S. from the 1818 Adams-Onis Treaty that Spain negotiated with the U.S.
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U.S. Army full dress and campaign uniforms, 1835–1851.
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Abraham Lincoln in his late 30s as a Whig member of the U.S. House of Representatives, when he opposed the Mexican–American War. Photo taken by one of Lincoln's law students around 1846.
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Ex-slave and prominent anti-slavery advocate Frederick Douglass opposed the Mexican–American War.
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Henry David Thoreau spent a night in jail for not paying poll taxes to support the war and later wrote Civil Disobedience.
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War News from Mexico (1848)
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Gen. Kearny's annexation of New Mexico Territory, August 15, 1846
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A replica of the first "Bear Flag" now at El Presidio de Sonoma, or Sonoma Barracks
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Reenactors in U.S. (left) and Mexican (right) uniforms of the period
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The Battle of Monterrey September 20–24, 1846, after a painting by Carl Nebel
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Battle of Buena Vista
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Bombardment of Veracruz
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Battle of Cerro Gordo, lithograph courtesy of the Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
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U.S. Army occupation of Mexico City in 1847. The U.S. flag flying over the National Palace, the seat of the Mexican government. Carl Nebel.
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Battle of Churubusco by J. Cameron, published by Nathaniel Currier. Hand tinted lithograph, 1847. Digitally restored.
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The mass hanging of Irish Catholic soldiers who joined the Mexican side, forming the Saint Patrick's Battalion
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Mexican territorial claims relinquished in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in white
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The Mexican Cession, shown in red, and the later Gadsden Purchase, shown in yellow
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Second lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant
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"An Available Candidate: The One Qualification for a Whig President." Political cartoon about the 1848 presidential election, referring to Zachary Taylor or Winfield Scott, the two leading contenders for the Whig Party nomination in the aftermath of the Mexican–American War. Published by Nathaniel Currier in 1848, digitally restored.
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Obelisk to the Niños Héroes, Mexico City, 1881
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Commemorative plaque to the San Patricios, Mexico City, 1959
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Palmetto Regiment Monument, State House grounds, Columbia, S.C. Wrought iron 1858. Sculptor: Christopher Werner
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"American Army Entering the City of Mexico" by Filippo Constaggini, 1885. Architect of the Capitol
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Mormon Battalion monument, Fort Moore Pioneer Monument (1950), showing raising the U.S. flag in Los Angeles, 1847
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See also
In Spanish: Intervención estadounidense en México para niños
