Paul W. answered • 04/26/19
Dedicated to Achieving Student Success in History, Government, Culture
The correct answer is 'America provoked Mexico into attacking.'
In 1845 the independent Republic of Texas chose to enter the United States as a the new State of Texas. The problem was that Mexico had never completely accepted the loss Texas in 1836. Texas had been a sparsely populated region of the Spanish colony of 'New Spain', so that , after New Spain won its independence from the European kingdom of Spain in 1821 - rechristening itself 'Mexico', the government of the newly independent Republic of Mexico sought to improve the country's economy. Part of these efforts included establishing flourishing communities in the region known as Texas.
Settlers were encouraged to migrate from the United States, an effort that met with considerable success. But the communities of former citizens of the United States that were formed in Texas contained the seeds of future conflict. Mexico was an overwhelmingly Catholic nation, but the settlers in Texas were overwhelmingly Protestant. By far, the majority of the population of Mexico was composed of either Mestizos (a mixture of European and Native American descendants) or Native Americans, but the settlers in Texas were overwhelmingly British descent, that is, 'White.' The Republic of Mexico had outlawed slavery, but the majority of settlers in Texas came from Southern Slave States and fiercely believed in their right to own 'property' (human beings). Small wonder, then, that the 'Texians' (as they called themselves) fought for and won their independence from Mexico.
Understandably, the government of Mexico was unwilling to accept the loss of a large, agriculturally rich portion of its country to, in their eyes, a rag-tag band of rebels. This directly contributed to an inability to governments of Mexico and the Republic of Texas on the boundaries of their respective countries. Mexico favored the Nueces River, Texas favored the Rio Grande. This left a very large area in between these two rivers that both countries claimed belonged to them.
The existence of this large portion of disputed territory became an issue for the United States when Texas became a new State in the Union in 1845. Like the Republic of Texas, the government of the United States insisted that the border separating the State of Texas and the nation of Mexico was the Rio Grande and, to make its claim to the disputed territory clear to Mexico, U.S. President James K. Polk ordered troops to be stationed within the disputed territory - a very provocative act.
Naturally, the Mexican government believed that the disputed territory in which the U.S. had now stationed its soldiers belonged to Mexico and that U.S, troops had no business being there. On 8 May, 1845, Mexican and U.S. forces clashed at Palo Alto in the first Battle of the U.S.-Mexican War. Senator Abraham Lincoln argued in Congress that the United States had no grounds for declaring war on Mexico because no drop of blood from a U.S. citizen had been shed on U.S. territory, referencing to the fact that the Battle of Palo Alto had been fought in disputed territory that was claimed by both the U.S. and Mexican governments.
