hello everyone and welcome to the shortest lecture of this course uh the mexican-american war which is from 1846 to 1848. uh as much as this lecture kind of fits with other materials of the course i did just decide to pull it out and make it its own lecture because even though it deals with some of the issues of expansion it also deals with a conflict with another nation and some political conflicts so that's why it's its own little mini lecture of sorts uh so without further ado let's get into our lecture uh so the mexican-american war as previously stated was from 1846 to 1848. if you remember where we left off in our lecture on expansion and westward movement uh president polk had basically lured mexico into open war so that he could annex texas as a state texas was an independent uh nation pseudonation of sorts at the time and he wanted to take it in fact polk's political opponents called the mexican-american war pokes war because they recognized that he just basically started a war so that he could get what he wanted now as for the actual war itself the american strategy was pretty simple polk wanted a short cheap war with a quick victory he wanted it to be fast he wanted it to be inexpensive and he wanted american morale to be boosted because it would be a quick awesome win that was his goal now the american army numbered less than 10 000 people and there was no militia the united states government had relied on militia for the revolution and even for the war of 1812 but there's no militia for this war so they have a one-year volunteer plan uh to help boost numbers quickly to get people to support the war americans also had naval superiority we had actually actually been building our navy experiencing some conflicts on the seas so we were pretty good with a naval advantage uh they also the goal was to attack the mexican armies where they were weak specifically california and new mexico there were a lot of american settlers there that could they were hoping to help pull in and get some reinforcements from the local americans living there now the united states also had better weapons and better artillery and most importantly the goal was to hold on to texas they wanted to and expect texas as a state so the strategy was to keep texas in u.s hands at all costs they couldn't let it go to the mexican army now on the opposite side mexico's plan was also pretty simple they wanted to retake texas or at least a significant portion of it at least half perhaps was the goal uh they did not only did they want to take the territory but they really was hoping that this would damage the american morale and the morale of the texans because remember the texans wanted to be part of the united states so they figured if they could retake texas as a whole or as a small part that it would really damage the morale and it would make them question why are we even fighting this war if we just lost texas now mexico also has a military advantage they possessed an army of 20 000 troops that is two times the size of the u.s army so there's not as much of as a reliance on volunteers to build up the forces the mexican geography the the topography of the land itself is also pretty formidable you've got deserts you've got um you know the bush that is really hard to navigate it's it's pretty dangerous terrain and mexico definitely has the home field advantage where that is concerned uh and so there's there's a significant advantage for them now americans also cannot supply their armies as quickly as mexico can uh american goods have to come from the east or at least they don't have to but that's just where the goods are produced so that's where they're coming from so there are some railroads they're just not as extensive yet as they're going to be in the coming decades so because of that you're relying on much more long-distance trade than what mexico has to deal with um mexicans are also hoping that americans will deal with slave rebellions attacks from native americans as well as pacifists abolitionists and just people that oppose the war so they're hoping that there's going to be some political conflict as well as perhaps some social unrest that make it harder for the united states to sustain support for the war on the home front mexico is also really hoping that europeans will help them join the war especially since america was like hands off towards the south or towards south american countries towards european countries they were hoping that europe would be kind of like hey the united states is being a hypocrite they're interfering with south america so as the monroe doctrine as we had previously talked about so um mexico is hoping that europe will kind of get angry and maybe do something about it unfortunately for them this does not happen a monroe doctrine is scary enough for europeans to just stay out of american north and south american affairs entirely so when you look at the plans compared to each other it does seem like mexico has the better strategy however in their planning they missed several key points the first point is actually west point which is a military academy that was training military officers for the united states and it was training some of the best officers in western civilization i just really amazingly trained and prepared for warfare also americans as a whole had a much stronger morale supporting the war than mexico was of course you've got the ideas of manifest destiny this is our god-given right you've got a lot of texans that support the war because they want to be part of the united states you have people that want expansion into california into some of these other areas so there's a very very strong moral support for the united states for people wanting this war to happen because the benefits they see are really amazing now once we actually get into the details of the war uh the americans actually had pretty quick success under the general zachary taylor things aren't going to be perfectly easy however there's actually going to be some infighting that happens and some tensions within the united states forces themselves that causes problems uh one particular example comes from california polk wanted to ensure that california would be part of the united states just like texas after the war was over so in order to make this happen he sent two different generals both with the orders to take over california and then establish themselves as governor when you tell two people to do the exact same thing this is going to have some problems so after successfully taking over los angeles and santa fe the two generals are at a bit of a problem one is in los angeles one's in santa fe both have been told to make themselves governor so they're kind of battling and debating about who should be the person in charge during their quarrels john c fremont the pathfinder we talked about comes to california with 400 men to reinforce the united states forces there and he tells the people there that the general by the name of stockton is to be in charge uh stockton does a pretty wise tactic here you know basically he says oh i've been made general well i'm going to show that i'm a good leader by making john c fremont the governor uh so that way stockton gets what he wants by being in charge but he also looks like a good leader by passing it off to someone else and of course stockton will receive benefits from fremont so it's kind of a win-win situation for both of these two individuals of course the other general who thought he was supposed to be in charge was pretty angry uh so in 1847 he actually arrests john c fremont and sends him back to east in order to be court-martialed fremont was actually found guilty of mutiny and insubordination however polk reversed the sentence because of fremont's military services and also john c fremont was a pretty popular guy uh fremont was not happy about how he was treated so he resigned from the military and after the war he settled in california he would go on to have a political career and become california's first senator as well as the first republican presidential candidate now during this whole debate about what's going on in california we of course have an entire war going on so in general like i said things are going well for america they had taken california very quickly as well as areas of new mexico and before any major battles had even really been fought so things are looking up uh taylor did have a fight at the battle of monterrey and actually won after only a five day siege of the city that's a pretty quick siege when you're looking at surrounding an entire city and trying to win a city over now santa anna who is the same man from the texas war of independence had been forcibly exiled from mexico by the united states he was not allowed to return however he wrote a letter to president polk stating that if he was allowed to go back to mexico he would use his power and his authority to end the war this is exactly what pope wanted remember he wanted a quick fast end to the war so polk allowed santa ana to go back to mexico not so surprisingly however santa anna had lied when he got back to mexico he became president and the leader of the mexican army again his return to power also caused a lot of enthusiasm among the mexican citizens they saw this as you know a revival of perhaps this is a chance that we can win um and many mexicans joined santa ana's army as you know a rallying support santa ana in general was very good at rallying armies he was a very charismatic individual very good presentation however he was not a phenomenal tactician he was not very good with the strategies of battle itself you know looking at where to move armies when to move and things like that and he he was enough of a problem for uh zachary taylor however in fact at the battle of buena vista in february of 1847 neither side was able to claim a clear victory so polk is not getting the quick cheap war that he wanted so as the war continues on there's also some political concern again not only because this war isn't ending fast but he's also growing concerned about zachary taylor taylor's repeated victories had made him a very popular person but taylor is a wig which is the opposite of the democrat that polk is polk was worried that if taylor did too well in the war he might be elected as president instead of a democrat as polk if you remember polk only vowed to run for one term but after his presidential term was over he was hoping that a democrat would take over and carry over the same policies that he was imposing so his concern was that if taylor did too well then they would have a wig as president instead of a democrat so poke is in a bit of a conflict here how do you win a war that you started that you strongly support but also make sure that zachary taylor doesn't look good and doesn't come out on top well he devises a plan to just cut taylor out entirely he turns to a general by the name of winfield scott winfield scott had come up with a plan that polk supported which was to lay siege to mexico city now instead of attacking from the land scott suggests that they have the us army land on the beach at veracruz and fight their way to mexico city from there uh just looking at it on a map it is much easier to just take ships land at veracruz and make your way to mexico city than it is to go over the land as i mentioned before the desert and the just the general topography and geography of mexico is pretty rough uh so you can just cut that out entirely by just taking a sea route and then a much much shorter land route to mexico city so scott's assault on veracruz was actually the largest amphibious assault in united states history up to this point uh so by amphibious assault we mean an assault that starts on the ships and then goes on to land as you see uh in that picture there at the bottom the landing of the american forces by general scott so on march 29th they are able to successfully capture the city of veracruz without any american losses and winfield scott is hailed as a hero he also has a very strict policy for his american soldiers on treating the mexican citizens with respect there is no looting no stealing uh no assaults uh proper treatment of catholic churches even though there's a strong anti-catholic sentiment uh so he is very much we win with respect we win with dignity and he is very very serious about maintaining that mentality uh as he occupies veracruz scott continues to the march of his army to mexico city and just won victory after victory after two successful battles just outside of mexico city scott's army was able to storm the gates and in september of 1847 after the end of the fighting he was made the military governor of mexico city and he was hailed as a national american hero his strategies and his wins were just back to back and he just did amazingly and in the end he brought about what polk wanted quick succinct victories in late september santa ana does make one last attempt to try and win the war but it is unsuccessful uh scattered efforts of guerrilla warfare continue until a peace treaty is officially signed in february of 1848 now jumping to the peace treaty the peace treaty was called the treaty of guadalupe hidalgo in the treaty the territories which would eventually become the states of texas california new mexico arizona as well as portions of utah colorado wyoming and nevada would be given to the united states the land seceded was more than half of the size of the mexican nation at the time several years later another treaty was actually a purchase of additional mexican land and the total of these two treaties would again double the size of the united states so much like the louisiana purchase by the end of the treaty of guadalupe hidalgo plus the additional purchase there is a massive amount of land added to the united states the us is well on its way to becoming a vastly huge empire now other impacts of the war include number one another victory for the united states to add to its resume uh it is slowly becoming known as a nation that wins wars if they set out to fight one they're going to win them that's kind of the the mentality that's developing as the american nation grows and and continues to advance number two military generals and soldiers who fought in the mexican-american war would go on to fight in the civil war they learned and they gained experience in combat against uh against the mexican forces in fact certain generals such as lee grant sherman jefferson uh davis they all were military officers trained at west point who gained their practical experience fighting in the mexican-american war so that's going to have a huge impact on the civil war itself now the victory of this war also leads to continued ideas of manifest destiny for many americans winning the war was god's will just as the need for americans to expand west there's even a debate after the war or as the war is ending as to whether the nation should take all of mexico instead of just sections of it in the end it's of course decided that portions of mexico will remain its own nation uh but this idea of manifest destiny massively continues uh also california is added as a state this doesn't sound like a big deal at the moment but two years after the war ends we have the california gold rush which will massively increase westward expansion as well as the united states actual monetary gain through the amount of gold that's being added to the us economy then you also have a lot of immigrants that are coming that want to get part of the gold rush that's going on uh specifically a lot of chinese immigrants will come as part of the gold rush so gaining california two years before the discovery of gold is is a huge huge bonus that they didn't even really know was something that they were going to have the united states also becomes a coast to coast nation you have all state ownership from the atlantic all the way to the pacific so the the vastness of the american empire is not just in their influence and military victory but in the sheer size of the coast to coast continental empire that is being created and of course with ideas of expansion with ideas of manifest destiny come with the expansion of slavery as people move west as people want to expand the nation the debate about whether slavery should continue into other states and other territories will continue as well and this will eventually result in violence and definitely impacts lead up of events to the civil war so in a lot of ways even though it's a small little conflict and it's a very short lecture here today uh the mexican-american war lays a lot of foundational works that lead to the civil war so it's very important that we talk about it and of course very important in our chronology of events uh both as part of expansion part of a conflict with another nation and part of the united states of growth as an empire eventually leading to civil war