President James K. Polk's fourth goal was to acquire the territories of California and New Mexico from Mexico. In order to accomplish this, in 1846, Polk will send John Slidell on what's called the Slidell Mission. Slidell was a U.S. representative to Mexico.
He was sent there as a U.S. representative to Mexico with the authority to negotiate. Slidell was to offer $5 million for New Mexico. the New Mexico territory and $25 million for California. After making Slidell wait and after some issues in the Mexican government, the government listens to his offer and not only reject it, they basically laugh in his face and the demand that the U.S. give Texas back. And then they kick him out of Mexico City.
So that went about as bad as it could go, short of Slidell himself being killed. So that's really one of the first causes of this war, is Mexico's now on alert, because not only is there already a strained relationship because of the next cause I'm going to talk about, but now it's very clear that the U.S. is angling to acquire their land. The second and other big cause of this war, related to Polk's goal, Is the border dispute between Texas and Mexico.
President Polk will order General Zachary Taylor. I should have had it on here. Zachary Taylor. T-A-Y-L-O-R. Who was working, not working, headquartered near the Nueces River.
You see right here. Uh, if you know a little bit of Texas geography, the Nueces River, where it hits the Gulf, that's Corpus Christi. So he, his army is here, Corpus, and Polk will order Taylor to move up to the Rio Grande River, or not the Rio Grande River, just the Rio Grande.
If I say Rio Grande River, I'm saying large river, large. I'm sorry, river, large river. Rio Grande means large river. So Rio Grande River is river, large river.
So he orders Taylor to move down to the northern side of the Rio Grande, where Taylor will construct Fort Brown. You know it now today as Brownsville, Texas. This is a problem because Texas claimed its border with Mexico was the Rio Grande, but Mexico claimed that the border was the Nueces. So small clashes will break out, but with Taylor moving in, Mexico, understandably, thought the U.S. had invaded their territory.
From their perspective, the U.S. had just invaded. So a few small clashes break out, and then over the Rio Grande. But then the Mexican army crosses the Rio Grande and fights an actual battle with Taylor. This is the Battle of Palo Alto. And it happened between Brownsville and South Padre Island.
I've actually been there at the battle site. It's one of the few battle sites I've actually been to. It's not much. If you've seen a marshy strip of land with really tall grass, you've been to the battle site of Palo Alto.
Taylor wins this battle, and it is the opening battle of the war. When the Mexican army crosses the Rio Grande and this battle happens, now the U.S. thinks that Mexico has invaded. So these were quite literally the opening shots of the war.
Each country thinks that they have been invaded. Congress will declare war on Mexico five days later, the 13th of May, 1846. This war was incredibly lopsided. in favor of the U.S.
And there's a lot that I could say about it, but we don't really have time in this course, unfortunately. The U.S. didn't really ever lose a battle. There was probably a few small ones here or there, but as far as any of the major ones, no.
And this map here, the blue arrows being U.S. movement, and the weirdly pink instead of red, I guess to differentiate from the battle sites. are the movements of the Mexican army. It's not a lot. This is a really brutal war. If you look at the average...
uh survivability or lifespan of a u.s soldier from uh how long they survive on average on a battlefield this is actually the shortest or the lowest average survival time of any american war basically it was only a few minutes if you were fighting in a battle most soldiers would be if if they were killed or wounded would be killed and wounded quickly It's really interesting why this war, of all wars, was the most brutal for that. Not World War II, not Vietnam, but this one for American soldiers. After the U.S. secures some victories in northern Mexico, takes both New Mexico and California without firing too many shots, and then lands an amphibious invasion here. and captures the city of New Mexico in 47, Mexico has no choice but to negotiate. And the negotiations result in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Double check, I thought I had a second map here. The U.S. acquires in this war, in this treaty rather, the U.S. acquires Undisputed control over Texas. All of the New Mexico territory, which is basically New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, the Strip of Wyoming, and Nevada.
All of this. And they get California. The U.S. gets all of that territory. The second point of the treaty.
is that the U.S. will pay Mexico $18 million. But on top of that, also wipe out $3 million of debt that Mexico owed the U.S. So they give them $18 million and wipe out another $3 million in debt.
And the third point is that the Rio Grande is set as the border between Texas and Mexico. The results and significance of this war? Mexico will lose half of their territory.
I mean, that's even without Texas, because it's different. This is roughly equal to all of this. It doesn't necessarily look like it, but by acreage it is, right? Especially if you include Texas. Mexico essentially loses half of its territory.
The U.S. gains a huge chunk of territory and now controlled all of its modern border with the Pacific Ocean. Whoops, wrong way. The acquisition of California. So that's result slash significance one.
Mexico loses half its territory, but the U.S. gains its modern border with the Pacific. Second, California was now open to American exploration and settlement and exploitation. And one of the biggest strokes of luck ever. In 1848, the first gold will be discovered in California.
And a gold rush will occur to California, where thousands, quite literally a few hundred thousand Americans and people from around the world will flock to California, will move west. This will increase naval transports to the region to take goods and material to the West Coast, and it will open up the Pacific Ocean to U.S. exploration. Acquiring California led to a gold rush, new trade markets, and the exploration of the Pacific Ocean.
So that's a big deal for the U.S. The third and final result in significance. And this cartoon is about the war where the eagle that's in the middle of the Mexican flag has now been plucked. It's more related to the first point.
But the third point here, the slavery question was now blown wide open once again. Remember, the Missouri Compromise allowed slavery in new territories and states below the 3630 line. But a fight will develop in Congress over how to deal with this because now there's new territory. That was. acquired above the 3630 line.
Polk thought this war would strengthen the Union, but this is instead the beginning of a long fight over slavery and the slavery question that leads to the Civil War. If you want the first point for when we start to get onto the path... to the Civil War, it's the Mexican-American War. One way I like to describe it is if you've ever seen a video of somebody who's slipping on ice and struggling to regain their footing, the Mexican-American War is the U.S. stepping out on that ice and going, oh, this is kind of slippery. And I'll update that analogy as we go.
So right now, the U.S. has stepped onto some pretty slippery territory. By the end, it will be bad. So this is what opens the door.
But the results of this war are going to become a full-blown crisis. And that's what we'll talk about in the next several videos and lectures.