Causes of the Mexican War

The fundamental causes of the Mexican War reach back to roots in the original colonization of North America by the major European powers, Britain, France, and Spain. Once France had been driven off the continent by the loss to Britain, and had sold the Louisiana Purchase territory to the United States in the early 19th century, the two primary cultures contending for North America were the Anglo-dominated United States and the Latino Mexico.

Most major historians thus trace the ultimate source of the Mexican War to this culture conflict and the U.S. expansion westward across the North American continent With the development of the Republic of Texas, Mexico recognized that war was probably ultimately inevitable, and when the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States confirmed that estimation.

A secondary factor contributing to the war was the disparity between the United States and Mexico in terms of national dynamism and political stability. Vazquez pointed out that while at the beginning of the 19th century both nations had approximately equal populations and dynamic cultures, by the 1840s, U.S. population was triple that of Mexico and the Mexican nation had devolved into political unrest and cultural stagnation after its separation from Spanish control. Thus, the bumptious self-confidence of U. S. culture encouraged pushing westward across the continent under the guise of U.S. Manifest Destiny policy almost guaranteed conflict with Mexico that could only result in war between the two nations.