What was the final step of President Polks plan to defeat Mexico?

President Polk and the Taking of the West

President James K. Polk went to state of war with United mexican states and got California and other lands in the W. The war's aftermath brought forward issues of the citizenship status and property rights of Mexicans who remained in the new American territories.

Since the 1820s, Mexico had encouraged Americans to settle in its state of Texas. By the 1830s, Americans outnumbered native Mexicans in Texas by four to one. When a new Mexican constitution did away with state rights, the American settlers rebelled and established an contained state in 1836. Mexico, withal, did not formally recognize the Commonwealth of Texas.

Texas claimed the boundary with Mexico was at Rio Grande River. Mexico argued that information technology was at the Nueces River. The land in between these rivers included thousands of square miles and a few hundred settlers, few of whom were Texans.

In 1845, Congress voted to annex Texas and admit it as a country. Before long afterward, James Chiliad. Polk took office as the new U.S. president. Polk was a Democrat and a strong advocate of national expansion.

President Polk had a short list of "great measures" he intended to reach. Among them was the acquisition of Mexican California. Gold had not been discovered there notwithstanding, merely Polk wanted California and its magnificent San Francisco Bay as the American gateway to trade with People's republic of china and other Asian nations. Polk was worried that other nations, such as England or French republic, might accept California if the Us did non act.

Using Texas to Get California

While Texas was ratifying its annexation to the United States, an American naval officer apparently tried to provoke a war with United mexican states. Commodore Robert Stockton attempted to persuade Texas officials to move their militia into the disputed land between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers. This move would take resulted in a military machine clash with Mexican troops, which would have led to war with the United States when Texas was officially annexed. The objective was to quickly defeat the weaker nation and demand that information technology hand over its California and New United mexican states territories. But the scheme failed when the president of the Republic of Texas objected and negotiated a peace treaty with United mexican states. Historians disagree on whether President Polk was involved in this adventure.

In Nov 1845, President Polk sent John Slidell to Mexico City in an attempt to buy California and New United mexican states. United mexican states, in political and economic disarray, had failed to make payments on $4.v million it owed the U.s.. Polk authorized Slidell to forgive the debt and pay another $25 million in exchange for these Mexican lands. Mexican officials, however, refused to encounter Slidell. Still, military opponents of the Mexican president considered Slidell's mere presence in Mexico City an insult. They overthrew the president and installed a new government that favored war with the United States.

When Slidell reported on his failed mission to President Polk early in 1846, Texas had become the 28th U.Southward. land. Polk declared that the border between the Usa and United mexican states extended to the Rio Grande. He ordered American troops to cross into the contested country as a "defensive" act.

In March 1846, General Zachary Taylor led American troops across the Nueces River all the mode to the Rio Grande. When Mexicans objected, Taylor positioned his troops beyond the river from the Mexican boondocks of Matamoras. A few days subsequently, some Mexican soldiers crossed the Rio Grande and attacked Taylor'south men, killing xvi.

When news came of the clash with Mexican soldiers, President Polk announced that the United States had been attacked. "American blood on the American soil," he said in his message to Congress, asking for a declaration of war confronting Mexico.

With Polk'due south party in the bulk, Congress voted for state of war after two days of fence. Some members of Congress believed it was the "manifest destiny" of the U.s.a. to occupy all the land from the Atlantic states to the Pacific Ocean. Southerners saw an opportunity to create more slave states.

American forces defeated the Mexicans in California and New Mexico within a few months. In March 1847, Full general Winfield Scott invaded Mexico at the port of Vera Cruz and began to march inland toward United mexican states City. The Mexicans did not win one battle in this state of war, but they fought fiercely and stubbornly refused to give up.

The war was popular in the South and with Americans who believed in manifest destiny. But the war aroused bully opposition. Congressman Abraham Lincoln introduced a "Spot Resolution," enervating that Polk show the spot where Mexicans "shed American blood on American soil." Lincoln proclaimed, "That soil was not ours; and Congress did not annex or attempt to annex it." Writer Henry David Thoreau went to jail for refusing to pay a poll revenue enhancement in protest against the war. (He later wrote his essay "Ceremonious Disobedience" explaining his activity.)

In Apr 1847, amongst increasing criticism of "Polk's War," the president sent a State Department official to Mexico to try to negotiate a peace treaty. Nicholas Trist was an unusual negotiator. He not simply strived to end the war, merely even sympathized with Mexico's grievances against Polk. Still, he was a professional diplomat who was determined to accomplish his president'due south minimum goals of settling the border dispute and acquiring California and New United mexican states.

After a end fire had been arranged, Trist met with Mexican diplomats appointed by Mexican President Santa Anna. The negotiators could not reach understanding, and the war resumed. Soon, Full general Scott'south regular army occupied United mexican states City, forcing the Mexican government to relocate.

President Polk decided to call up Trist to Washington. But Trist disobeyed his orders and remained to try one more round of negotiations. These succeeded, and a peace treaty was signed at the city of Guadalupe Hidalgo on Feb two, 1848.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo recognized the border between the land of Texas and Mexico at the Rio Grande River. The United States besides got California and New United mexican states. (The Territory of New Mexico, later enlarged by the Gadsden Purchase, was eventually divided upwardly into united states of america of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.) The United States agreed to pay the Mexicans $15 one thousand thousand for giving up about half of their country.

Citizenship and Country Grants

The peace treaty was vague about the citizenship of Mexicans remaining in California and New Mexico. The treaty stated that Mexicans had the right to became American citizens who would exist "admitted at the proper time" by Congress. In the meantime, their rights to liberty, property, and religion were to exist "maintained and protected . . . without restriction."

The near troublesome problem resulting from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo concerned the ownership of Mexican land grants in California. Before the war, the Mexican government had canonical more than than 500 grants of land to California Mexicans (called "Californios") and even a few Americans. In most cases, the grant holders used their land to graze cattle for hides and beef.

The original treaty negotiated by Nicholas Trist flatly declared all Mexican land grants "shall be respected as valid." But President Polk and the U.S. Senate removed this provision earlier the treaty was ratified. Only a few general references to Mexican belongings rights remained in the treaty.

Almost every bit soon every bit the The states and Mexico ratified the peace treaty, gold was discovered in California. After a while, discouraged gilded seekers began looking for land to settle. They presently learned that the all-time farm and grazing areas were already taken by the Mexican land grants, mostly held by a few hundred Californio families. The land-hungry immigrants began to claiming the property rights of the Californios, who had not notwithstanding been recognized equally American citizens.

To settle the conflict over the California land grants, Congress passed the Country Act of 1851, which established a Lath of Land Commissioners. This board was to verify or reject each California land grant claim.

The Land Deed required all grant holders to appear before the Lath of Land Commissioners and prove with documents and testimony the validity of their claims. In other words, the burden of proof was on the grant holders and not those who might challenge them. Moreover, once the commissioners made their decision, it unremarkably was appealed to the federal courts, sometimes all the way to the U.South. Supreme Courtroom.

The Board of Land Commissioners generally acted fairly and often understood that some documents, maps, or other bear witness could not be presented considering they had been lost over the years. The commissioners ended upward confirming 75 per centum of the grant claims, which included about 10 million acres of land. Merely the long, drawn-out verification process and court appeals price a lot of money. Many of the land-rich and cash-poor Californios had to mortgage their land at high interest to pay their legal fees.

Other problems plagued the Californios while they tried to evidence their claims. Lawyers swindled some of them. State taxes, unknown in Mexican California, put the Californios farther in debt. Squatters, hoping the Californios' claims would exist rejected, moved onto their lands. The squatters fenced off homesteads, stole cattle, and sometimes violently forced the Californios out of their own homes.

By the 1860s, most of the Californios who had finally confirmed their grants still lost their country to the Americans due to overwhelming debts aggravated by plunging cattle prices and drought.

In 1870, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Californios became full citizens when California was admitted every bit a country in 1850. Mexicans in the vast Territory of New Mexico were too eventually admitted as American citizens.

For Discussion and Writing

1. Texas was annexed considering Americans settled there and eventually revolted from Mexico. Had at that place not been a Mexican War, do yous think this besides would have happened in California? Explain.
2. Who practise you think was responsible for starting the war with Mexico in 1846? Why?
3. Practice you lot think the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was fair? Why or why not?
4. Many American squatters argued that it was not fair for a small number of Californio families to monopolize the best agricultural lands in the state. Practice yous agree or disagree? Why?

For Further Information

Texas

An Outline of American History: Texas and the War With Mexico By From Revolution to Reconstruction.

Think the Alamo From PBS'due south American Feel.

The Alamo From the American West.

Texas Revolution of 1836

Mexican War

Reader'south Companion to American History: The Mexican State of war

Texas Revolution and Annexation

Manifest Destiny

Digital History: Hypertext History

Manifest Destiny

Texas Revolution

Texas Question in American Politics

Mexican War

The Face of Battle

War Fever and Antiwar Protests

Peace

War's Significance

U.S.-Mexican State of war From PBS.

Central Events in the Mexican-American War A time line.

The Mexican-American War From the History Guy.

Plenty Arraign to Get Effectually: Causes of the Mexican-American State of war An AP history paper by John Heys.

The Mexican War and Hispanic Land Dispossessions By Ingolf Vogeler.

Spartacus Educational

Texas Revolution

Manifest Destiny

Mexican War

California Gold Blitz

The Mexican War From Alone Star Internet.

Invasión Yanqui: The Mexican State of war By the Texas Council for the Humanities Resource Center.

The Mexican War—a 1911 Explanation From a U.South. textbook of the era.

The Mexican War and Subsequently Extracted from American Military History.

U.S.-Mexican War By the Descendants of Mexican State of war Veterans.

Liberty: A History of US: Manifest Destiny

Primary Source Documents

Texas Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836

The Annexation of Texas Joint Resolution of Congress March 1, 1845

Message of President Polk, May 11, 1846

Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago, February 2, 1848

Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago

Mexican-American Diplomacy: 1848-1861 Documents from the Avalon Project.

Maps

Map of the Mexican War

Interactive Maps (crave Shockwave)

Territorial Expansion of the The states: 1783-1853

War With Mexico

Mexican Cession

Expansion of the United States Map showing expansion yr by year from 1650 to 1907.

Biographies of Polk

Internet Public Library: James Knox Polk

The White House: James K. Polk

North Carolina Historic Sites: James K. Polk Memorial

Polk Ancestral Home: A Biography

New Book of Knowledge: Polk, James Knox

Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia: Polk, James K.

Encyclopedia Americana: Polk, James Knox

America the Beautiful: James Knox Polk

Spartacus Educational: James Polk

AmericanPresident.org: James Knox Polk

American Experience: James Knox Polk

New Perspectives on the West: James Knox Polk

The Californios

The Californios 1821 to 1848 A fourth dimension line.

The Reject of the Californios: The Case of San Diego, 1846-1856 Article past Charles Hughes, San Diego Historical Guild.

San Diego'south Mexican and Chicano History By Richard Griswold del Castillo and Isidro Ortiz, San Diego Country University, and Rosalinda Gonzalez, Southwestern College.

Mexican Rule An essay from the Marin History Museum.

California's Untold Stories: Gold Rush! From the Oakland Museum of California.

How did Californio'southward get land grants after Mexico won its independence?

Where and when was the commencement rancho established in the Santa Barbara surface area? The short history of the Ortega rancho. From the Santa Barbara Independent.

From Digital History: Mexican American Voices:

Consequences of Mexican Independence

Manifest Destiny

The Mexican War

Public State Commission

Land Loss in California

Lecture Notes of Joel Michaelsen, UCSB

Spanish Arrival in California

Spanish Settlement Patterns

Mexican Rancho Period

Gilt Rush

Life in California in the 1850s

Showroom of Los Rancheros Story of the ranchos in Tehama Canton, California. From the Tehama County Museum.

Disputed Range: Ranching a Mexican Country Grant Under U.Southward. Rule, 1844-1880 Chapter from the volume From Rancho to Reservoir: History and Archaeology of the Los Vaqueros Watershed, California. PDF file.

California Gilt Rush

The Gilt Blitz From PBS.

The California Gilt Rush From California Environmental Resources Evaluation System.

Yahoo Directory: California Gold Rush

Books

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: A Legacy of Conflict Past Richard Griswold Del Castillo.

The Refuse of the Californios, A Social History of the Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846-1890 By Leonard Pitt.

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A C T I V I T Y

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The Conflict Over California Land Grants

What was the fairest way to settle the conflict over California land grants?

A. Grade five groups. Four groups should each argue i of the post-obit positions on the question above.

1. Automatically recognize all Mexican land grants as valid.
2. Establish a Lath of Land Commissioners to require all land-grant holders to prove their claims.
3. Require anyone challenging the validity of a state grant to prove their case in court.
4. Declare all state grants conquered territory and open them to homesteading.

B. The fifth group should act as members of Congress who will listen to the arguments of each grouping and question the presenters.

C. After all four groups accept presented their positions, the members of Congress volition meet to discuss and decide the fairest way to settle the conflict over California country grants equally the other four groups detect.

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Source: https://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-20-1-a-president-polk-and-the-taking-of-the-west.html

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