Why We Fought With Mexico To Acquire The Southwest Essay Sample

We fought with Mexico to acquire Southwest because we desired to expand American interests to the Mexican territory.

We fought with Mexico to acquire Southwest because the Mexican troops skirmished with our soldiers over the territory.
Why we opted for peaceful negotiations with England to obtain the northwest
We opted for peaceful negotiations with England to maintain the friendly relations we had with them.
Secondly, the Britons co-existed well with us from the early days of our country.
Essay with evidence in support of reasons
The desire to establish political, social, cultural, and military interests of America to Mexico was a top agenda of our time. The expansionist agenda was active in the Northerners and Southerners in the 1844 presidential elections. Notably, American’s desired to expand their area of jurisdiction. Precisely, the acquisition of California from Mexican control was a key agenda in President James Polk’s foreign policy goals (Establishing Borders).
We consider peaceful relations as a vital ingredient for economic prosperity and political stability. However, the relations between us and Mexico soured further when the Congress resorted to vote for the inclusion of Texas as its twenty-eight state. During the 1840s, Mexican, and American leaders had opposing viewpoints concerning the territorial status of Texas. Not surprisingly, the Mexican leaders did not recognize Texas as part of America. Moreover, they did not take it as an independent nation. Thus, the Mexicans considered it worthwhile to displace the Americans from the territory. Conversely, the Americans believed that Texas was an independent nation. In addition, they believed that it had consented to join the US. As such, Mexico had no claim on the area. Incidentally, both sides referred to the previous events to justify their views (Establishing Borders).
The American leaders continuously negotiated with Mexican government on their proposal to buy Texas. However, frequent transitions of political leadership rendered these negotiations void. Finally, President Polk sent a military contingent to occupy the disputed territory of North bank of Rio de Grande. Ideally, our initial plan was to acquire the Mexican lands by a legal settlement. We wanted to buy the land stretching northwards from Texas to the Oregon country in January 1846. Thus, the invasion forced us to retaliate. As a result, we acquired more land than we had anticipated (Establishing Borders)
Britain had enjoyed friendly relations with the US for a long time. For instance, England played a crucial role in the Paris treaty that sealed America’s expansion through the acquisition of vast land in the Pacific areas. Again, in 1818, Britain and America agreed to a joint occupation of the Oregon country. The treaty provided for the settlement of the citizens of both countries in the territory. Thus, the decision for negotiation was to uphold the peaceful relations between us and to foster mutual collaboration. USA desired to uphold its friendly relations with Britain. In view of this, President Polk wished to settle the Britain-American dispute over Oregon in the most peaceful manner possible (Establishing Borders).
Apparently, the American population in the area had far surpassed that of the Britons. Also, the American families continued to spread westward along the Oregon Trail. As a result, this disparity led to the decline of the fur trade between the Americans and British settlers in Oregon. The population disparity forced the British government to opt for a negotiated settlement of the Oregon tussle (Establishing Borders).
The Southerners did not welcome the thought of war between America and Britain. By the same vein, the British leaders were averse to any prospective of bloody conflict. Otherwise, that would adversely damage its economic relationship with the US (Establishing Borders). Thus, the negotiations took place in order to meet the desire of the Southerners too.

Works Cited

Establishing Borders: The Expansion of the United States, 1846-48. Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies. n.p, n.d. Web. 4 March 2015.