A Mexican Viewpoint on The War with the United States - Assignment Example

A MEXICAN VIEWPOINT ON THE WAR WITH THE UNITED S A Mexican War with the United s in 1846 had multifaceted viewpoints.Some historians purely saw it as US caused war while others saw it as Mexico’s triggered war. The perspectives of these historians according to this article was overridden by patriotic ego since the US historians purely blamed the Mexicans for having caused the war contrary to the Mexico historians who threw the blame on the US government. The dimension taken by this article is that “the Mexican-United States war was to a major extent caused by the United States”.

In Jesus Valasco-Marquez’s article, we see many supporting opinions that can in one way or the other tend to prove the authenticity of this point of view. First, the Mexican internal state of affairs in the 1840s could have not made it easy for her to show aggression against the US. During this period, Mexico had diverse internal challenges majorly caused by dictatorial rulers. To begin with was Santa Anna dictatorship between 1841 t0 1843. This was followed by the shaky and oppressive rule of the Centralist Republic in 1945 and later culminated by the dictatorial rule of Mariano Paredes which lasted for eight months.

The stormy political state of affairs from 1841 to 1847 which was marked by the rule of six presidents who came to power either through military uprising or populists approach tended to drain the strength of Mexico. This could have not left some strength for Mexico to invade US. It is in 1847 that Mexico saw the light of the day as far as political stability is concerned. As can be seen from this evidence, the US was therefore a serious bother to Mexico who already had its internal challenges to deal with.

The invasion of Mexico by the US therefore caused a backlog of challenges to Mexico.Secondly, the separation of Texas from Mexico’s territory to the United States territory became a propaganda that was used by the enemies to pin down Mexico. As Valasco explains, the idea of Texas separation and the intention to reclaim it back to Mexico became a tool to tear or justify, revive or enhance the important figures or political parties or revolutionary movement. This even worsened even skyrocketed the instability that was already being experienced in Mexico.

In order to avoid the looming war, Mexico suggested an idea of peaceful negotiation with the US to ensure that Texas remained within their territory and that no war took place. This idea was easily thwarted leaving Mexico with nothing to cling onto but to face the US head on in the war.Third, the constitutional amendment by the US congress which prohibited the transfer of control over territory showed that the US wanted nothing else but the war. The congress also proceeded to amend the 1824 Federal Constitution which snatched the executive its powers of signing peace agreements as a means of concluding the negotiations with other nations.

The result of these made the US army to advance against Mexico therefore beginning the war.In conclusion, the evidence above brings it clear that it is the US that triggered the war between her and Mexico. Mexico had resorted to peaceful means an idea that the US refused to factor in.Article Link: http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/prelude/md_a_mexican_viewpoint.html