Chapter 8. WE TAKE NOTHING BY CONQUEST, THANK GOD - Assignment Example

Chapter 8 The chapter speaks about annexation of California and Texas by America. In the history of each powerful and mighty country there comes the time when the expansion of the lands becomes inevitable. For the USA which entered into the period of prosperity in the second half of the IXXth century with its rapid growth of productivity the decision to occupy the lands historically inhabited by Mexicans, California and Texas, was rather logical it seems. The government understood all the benefits from joining the vast, potentially profitable territories that gave them free access to the Pacific Ocean.

Though now when everything is forgotten, and it seems absolutely habitual and reasonable that these states belong to the US as they have become its pride and attraction. While several centuries ago these events caused numerous human victims and provoked serious disputes in the society. The question if this expansion can be considered justified or it is only a byproduct of the growing America`s pride and ambitions was raised in the society. Is there any way to persuade society and church that annexing the territories belonging to other nation is a necessary step for the country?

Of course, there is! Such mechanisms as provoking revenge, manipulating socialoseopinion, and telling lies worked in the circumstances and will work as long as the human race exists. I was impressed by the thoughts of Colonel Hitchcock who managed to show the essence of this conflict and express the ambiguity of this choice for the nation:“I have said from the first that the United States are the aggressors. . . . We have not one particle of right to be here. . It looks as if the government sent a small force on purpose to bring on a war, so as to have a pretext for taking California and as much of this country as it chooses, for, whatever becomes of this army, there is no doubt of a war between the United States and Mexico. . .. My heart is not in this business .

but, as a military man, I am bound to execute orders”.So after the horrible and cunning provocation which lead to the murder of the American General the country started acting more violently and forcefully. That was the time when the concept of the “manifest destiny” appeared and Americans felt the right to decide whom to live and whom to die. It is strange how the feeling of superiority can infect even religious people. The following quote evoked strong paradoxical feelings in me:“The Reverend Theodore Parker, Unitarian minister in Boston, combined eloquent criticism of the war with contempt for the Mexican people, whom he called "a wretched people; wretched in their origin, history, and character," who must eventually give way as the Indians did.

Yes, the United States should expand, he said, but not by war, rather by the power of her ideas, the pressure of her commerce, by "the steady advance of a superior race, with superior ideas and a better civilization .”Therefore, when people create strong ideological basis they can literally justify any actions even the genocide of the whole nation. This fact is not new to the history and starting from The Crusades people continue fighting, killing, and capturing lands in the name of God and higher truth, and it seems that the knowledge about this higher truth belongs to those who have more power.

Thus, the overall effect of the chapter was shocking when I revealed that even the soldiers recruited to the American army were deceived as well. They were promised high salaries, and they were told that a big sum of money would be paid in advance so men would be able to give this money to their struggling families. But financial benefit was nothing compared to the moral benefit. A lot of people refused while many Americans joined to see the atrocities of the war:“Dead horses and men lay about pretty thick, while drunken soldiers, yelling and screeching, were breaking open houses or chasing some poor Mexicans who had abandoned their houses and fled for life.

Such a scene I never hope to see again. It gave me a lamentable view of human nature. and made me for the first time ashamed of my country”.Having finished this chapter I realized that the history of mighty countries is paved with human deaths and the US is not the exception. Though it is necessary to revise, recall these horrible lessons not to repeat them again and not to pay such a high price for financial profit. The only truth that must be taught to future generations is that human life is the most precious capital on the planet.