Okla-homey
5/13/2009, 06:47 AM
May 13, 1846: President Polk declares war on Mexico
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/3765/mmmmcur2211.jpg
166 years ago, on this day in 1846, Congress overwhelmingly votes in favor of President James K. Polk's request to declare war on Mexico in a dispute over Texas.
During the war, thousands of American troops were sent to fight on foreign soil for the first time. And when the battle pushed into the heart of Mexico City, it was the first time that American soldiers had occupied a foreign capital. From the battlefields of this war emerged a group of American military men who would later go down in history. Among them were Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Robert E. Lee, future President General Zachary Taylor and his rival, General Winfield Scott. Others, like the young Second Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant, who was just two years out of West Point, had their first combat experience during the Mexican war. It was to prepare them for their next major conflict, the Civil War.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/2254/mmwar3.jpg
Leading the Fight: President James K. Polk (top left) led the United States into the U.S.-Mexican War seeking to expand the country's territories in North America. Kit Carson (lower right), a frontier trapper, helped push the U.S. boundaries westward into California. Some Americans were opposed to the war, including author Ralph Waldo Emerson (top right). In Mexico, President Antonio López de Santa Anna (lower left) a career military officer who had risen to the presidency through shrewdness, ambition and guile, seemingly conjured up an army out of thin air.
Under the threat of war, the United States had refrained from annexing Texas after the latter won independence from Mexico in 1836. But in 1844, President John Tyler restarted negotiations with the Republic of Texas, culminating with a Treaty of Annexation.
The treaty was defeated by a wide margin in the Senate because it would upset the slave state/free state balance between North and South and risked war with Mexico, which had broken off relations with the United States.
But shortly before leaving office and with the support of President-elect Polk, Tyler managed to get the joint resolution passed on March 1, 1845. Texas was admitted to the union on December 29 as a slave state.
While Mexico didn't follow through with its threat to declare war, relations between the two nations remained tense over border disputes, and in July 1845, President Polk ordered troops into disputed lands that lay between the Neuces and Rio Grande rivers, in order to pick a fight.
In November, Polk sent the diplomat John Slidell to Mexico to seek boundary adjustments in return for the U.S. government’s settlement of the claims of U.S. citizens against Mexico and also to make an offer to purchase California and New Mexico.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4637/mmzac2.jpg
MG (later President) Zack Taylor
After the mission failed, the U.S. army under Gen. Zachary Taylor advanced to the mouth of the Rio Grande, the river that the state of Texas claimed as its southern boundary.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4431/mmmm67sm.jpg
Mexico, claiming that the boundary was the Nueces River to the northeast of the Rio Grande, considered the advance of Taylor's army an act of aggression and in April 1846 sent troops across the Rio Grande. Polk, in turn, declared the Mexican advance to be an invasion of U.S. soil, and on May 11, 1846, asked Congress to declare war on Mexico, which it of course did on this day only two days later.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/2435/mmmimg72.jpg
After nearly two years of fighting, peace was established by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848. The Rio Grande was made the southern boundary of Texas, and California and New Mexico were ceded to the United States.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/3707/mmmmexicanwarresults.gif
In return, the United States paid Mexico the sum of $15 million and agreed to pay all claims of U.S. citizens against Mexico.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/2623/insane7zo.jpg
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/3765/mmmmcur2211.jpg
166 years ago, on this day in 1846, Congress overwhelmingly votes in favor of President James K. Polk's request to declare war on Mexico in a dispute over Texas.
During the war, thousands of American troops were sent to fight on foreign soil for the first time. And when the battle pushed into the heart of Mexico City, it was the first time that American soldiers had occupied a foreign capital. From the battlefields of this war emerged a group of American military men who would later go down in history. Among them were Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Robert E. Lee, future President General Zachary Taylor and his rival, General Winfield Scott. Others, like the young Second Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant, who was just two years out of West Point, had their first combat experience during the Mexican war. It was to prepare them for their next major conflict, the Civil War.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/2254/mmwar3.jpg
Leading the Fight: President James K. Polk (top left) led the United States into the U.S.-Mexican War seeking to expand the country's territories in North America. Kit Carson (lower right), a frontier trapper, helped push the U.S. boundaries westward into California. Some Americans were opposed to the war, including author Ralph Waldo Emerson (top right). In Mexico, President Antonio López de Santa Anna (lower left) a career military officer who had risen to the presidency through shrewdness, ambition and guile, seemingly conjured up an army out of thin air.
Under the threat of war, the United States had refrained from annexing Texas after the latter won independence from Mexico in 1836. But in 1844, President John Tyler restarted negotiations with the Republic of Texas, culminating with a Treaty of Annexation.
The treaty was defeated by a wide margin in the Senate because it would upset the slave state/free state balance between North and South and risked war with Mexico, which had broken off relations with the United States.
But shortly before leaving office and with the support of President-elect Polk, Tyler managed to get the joint resolution passed on March 1, 1845. Texas was admitted to the union on December 29 as a slave state.
While Mexico didn't follow through with its threat to declare war, relations between the two nations remained tense over border disputes, and in July 1845, President Polk ordered troops into disputed lands that lay between the Neuces and Rio Grande rivers, in order to pick a fight.
In November, Polk sent the diplomat John Slidell to Mexico to seek boundary adjustments in return for the U.S. government’s settlement of the claims of U.S. citizens against Mexico and also to make an offer to purchase California and New Mexico.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4637/mmzac2.jpg
MG (later President) Zack Taylor
After the mission failed, the U.S. army under Gen. Zachary Taylor advanced to the mouth of the Rio Grande, the river that the state of Texas claimed as its southern boundary.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4431/mmmm67sm.jpg
Mexico, claiming that the boundary was the Nueces River to the northeast of the Rio Grande, considered the advance of Taylor's army an act of aggression and in April 1846 sent troops across the Rio Grande. Polk, in turn, declared the Mexican advance to be an invasion of U.S. soil, and on May 11, 1846, asked Congress to declare war on Mexico, which it of course did on this day only two days later.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/2435/mmmimg72.jpg
After nearly two years of fighting, peace was established by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848. The Rio Grande was made the southern boundary of Texas, and California and New Mexico were ceded to the United States.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/3707/mmmmexicanwarresults.gif
In return, the United States paid Mexico the sum of $15 million and agreed to pay all claims of U.S. citizens against Mexico.
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/2623/insane7zo.jpg