US Mexican War: Power Notes

1. Mexico was upset when U.S annexed Texas

2. Nueces Strip, located between Nueces River and Rio Grande,
was disputed between U.S and Mexico
3. Mexico believed its boreders extended north of Nueces
River
4. U.S believed its borders extended south to Rio
Grande

1. President James K. Polk sent John Slidell to Mexico to negotiate purchasing

Nueces Strip, along
with California, Arizona, New Mexico
2. U.S would pay $30 million for this but Mexican President refused to meet
Slidell

WAR WITH MEXICO

1. Polk sends troops to Texas and stationed them just north of Rio Grande river
2. Mexican troops attacked US soliders and 16 Americans were killed
3. Polk used this skirmish to declare war with war
4. War with Mexico was declared on May 13, 1846 with Congress approval

1. US forces, led by General Zachary Taylor, fought an early battle at Palo Alto;
Mexicans were forced to retreat
2. He led his troops to Mexico along with 5000 Texan voluteers who were hoping
to avenge those
who were killed in Texas Revolution
3. American troops took Santa Fe and many cities in California

1. Even though US had many victories in the war, there were many American
casualities, or deaths
2. Diseases like smallpox, measles, dysentry,
malaria killed many American soliders

CAPTURE OF MEXICO CITY

1. Zachary Taylor crossed Rio Grande with troops
upon Polk's order
2. Winfield Scott delievered knockout ounch
3. General Winfield Scott invaded Mexico at Vera Cruz and by marching
inland
from Gulf of Mexico
4. He advanced on Mexico City and captured it in August 1847;
Negotiation of peace terms was left

TREATY OF GUADALUPE HIDALGO 1848

1. After the US capturing Mexico City and the country divuded, Mexicans signed the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
1. In the treaty, Mexico agreed to the border of Texas at the Rio Grande and agreed
to sell California, Nevada, Utah, parts of Arizona, Wyoming, New Mexico and
Colorado to the United States for $15 million

THE AFTERMATH AT HOME

1. The Whigs of the North complained bitterly about the war
1. Polk's methods where questioned as misleading and unconstitutional
2. Abolitionists feared that Southerners would try to use the newly acquired
lands to expand
slavery
 3. Writer Henry David Thoreau was prisoned for refusing to pay the taxes
used for war
funds
4. His essay named Civil Disobedience became a standard of peaceful
resistance for
future
activists

1. Congressman David Wilmot proposed a law in Congress which would ban slavery in
all acquired lands
1. The bill easily passed the House of Representatives but was killed in the Senate
by pro-slavery supporters, who used this failed bill as proof that many in federal
government wanted to end slavery