9.4 War with Mexico

HW: Read 9.4

President Polk tries to buy California from Mexico. His envoy, John Slidell, is refused.•Polk orders Gen. Zachary Taylor and 4,000 men to the Rio Grande (Freemont to California)•Conflict over the border (Rio Grande v. Nueces)•April 25, 1846 Mexican troops kill 11 Americans•US declares war that has now become about slavery (Wilmot proviso/Spot Resolution)

Map: Major Battles of the Mexican-American War

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• Gen. Zachary Taylor defeats overwhelming Mexican forces at Buena Vista (Santa Anna)

• Col. Stephen Kearny and John Fremont “liberate” New Mexico and then California and declare the “Bear Flag Republic” in 1846.

Gen. Winfield Scott leads successful amphibious landing at Veracruz. Leads US troops to Mexico City 1847, wins victory against great odds.

Rivals?General Stephen Kearney

The “Long Marcher”Captain John C. Freemont

The “Pathfinder”

Santa Anna’s leg

MAKE A TIMELINE OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO

Map: The Mexican War

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Daguerreotype of Soldiers in Mexican American WarThis photograph shows General John F. Wool (in the center, wearing a heavy coat) and his staff at Saltillo, the capital of the Mexican state of Coahuila, in 1846 or 1847. Wool respected individual Mexicans as soldiers, but noted Mexico's lack of unity. "Had the nation [Mexico] been united," he wrote, "we could not have gained a single victory." (Library of Congress)

Daguerreotype of Soldiers in Mexican American War

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Peace Now or More War?Debate of 1847

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed in 1848, US to pay $15 million for land gained and assume claims of US citizens against Mexico

• Whigs call for end of war.• Expansionists want to continue the invasion• Gadsen Purchase extends US border south to

current boundary for $10 million in 1853.

Peace Now or More War?Debate of 1847

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed in 1847, US to pay $15 million for land gained and assume claims of US citizens against Mexico

• Whigs call for end of war.• Expansionists want to continue the invasion

Will the Senate Ratify?Yes. But no one is happy.

Mexican War: After Effects• Increases the US by 1/3• More land than acquired in LA Purchase• Trains the men who would be Generals in the Civil War• US establishes the power of its military to foreign

powers• Slavery issue is increasingly divisive• Beginning of American Imperialism• Bitter relations w/ Mexico –Ay Mexico! Tan lejos de Dios, tan cerca a los Estados Unidos

MAKE A MAP SHOWING HOW THE US’s BORDERS CHANGED AS A RESULT OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO

California Gold Rush!!!• January 1848 gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill in

California.• Americans everywhere drop everything, literally,

and rush to California, called the gold rush.• Migration to CA jumps from 400 in 1848 to

44,000 in 1850.• New migrants call themselves “forty-niners.”• California applies for statehood as a free state.

– Pop of 100,000 by 1849• Sig: Speeds up the controversy over admission