• YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Mexico fired first, they invaded the United States territory after slaughtering hundreds at the Alamo. They didn’t expect the United States to respond and certainly didn’t expect the border dispute to lead to the complete defeat of the Mexican military. What they didn’t know is the vast innovations developed at West Point that crushed all opposition, mostly through military engineering innovation.

      While Mexico was completely defeated and President Pierce took advantage of the situation, it was the actions of Mexico that led to their defeat. They invited war and lost. The United States had every right to take territory but it decided to make it a legal transaction of land instead and led to peaceful diplomacy going forth.

      The acquisition of the west thus doesn’t fall under conquest but a legal land transaction between governments. Same as the Louisiana Purchase, the Oregon Treaty, and the Alaska Purchase.

      • chaogomu@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        You mean the slavers who moved to Mexico and then fomented a rebellion?

        Because that’s what the Alamo was. It was slave owners moving to Mexico and then rising up in rebellion against the Mexican government when Mexico said, hey, slavery is illegal. Mexico outlawed slavery almost immediately after winning their independence from Spain.

        Most importantly, Texas was not a part of the US until a decade after the slavers were defeated at the Alamo.

        You have such a twisted view of history that I can only assume you were taught in either Florida or Texas.

        The US then annexed Texas, and then Polk sent a diplomatic mission offering to buy more land. Mexico said no, so Polk Started a war and took the land anyway.

        After the Mexican-American war, the US paid out a pittance in damages, but one of the terms of the peace treaty forced on Mexico was the revocation of all territorial rights of Texas, California, and everything in between.

        A later administration then bought a small sliver of the border along New Mexico and parts of Arizona for an elevated price. Partially to smooth tensions with Mexico over the blatant war of conquest that was the Mexican-American war.