Western expansion leads to civil war
Q1
Although the Texas revolution was caused by a multiplicity of factors, the Americans living in Texas were right in having a revolution. The misrule by the Mexican people and the cruel dictatorship of Santa Anna necessitated a revolution. There is no where a leader and the majority can mistreat the minority and expect loyalty from them. The racism in Mexico had gone beyond measures. Both the Americans living in Texas and the Mexicans believed that they were superior to one another. The extent of the Mexican government to force submission warranted for a revolution. The cultural differences between the American and the Mexican also necessitated a split. Texas was also physically isolated and rarely consulted on the running of the government. The government was committed to enforcing the Mexican culture even to settlers. However, the Americans had their own share of blame. While the Mexican laws outlawed slavery, the Americans insisted on exploiting their slaves. Government efforts to end slavery were part of the conflict.
The Mexican government was unrealistic in its demand for the Anglo-Americans to convert to Catholicism. Even though many settlers were baptized, the Catholic Church could not provide the necessary services such as marriages or burials, not even the weekly mass, confession, or communion. Out of these poor services, the Americans had no intention of converting. After all, their protestant religion offered better services compared to catholic. By allowing settlers to migrate to Texas, Mexicans had invited real trouble. They had underestimated the expansionist ideals of the American government.
Q2
Americans believed in what is commonly known as “manifest destiny”, a belief that America was ordained to expand across the continent. The belief that Americans had an inalienable right to annex other territory and were duly capable of doing so fuelled the expansionist policy. The American believed that they were the virtuous community and they were duly responsible in spreading the same to the rest of the world. By extension, God had ordained them to do so.
Compared to other empire builders, American was better. While the others such as Napoleon, Hitler and Julius Caesar used excessive force, American used mainly arbitration in its acquisition.Western expansion leads to civil war Those who think that U.S is not an imperialist nation miss the point. Whereas the U.S may not have used the excessive force like other nations, it had strong capitalist ideals that prevailed up on it to expand to other territories. Other than using force, the U.S employs high techniques in forcing its subjects to submission, but the intention of its action remain the same, imperialism.
The expansion policy of the U.S greatly benefited the U.S of today. If it were not for its expansion, the size of the U.S could be less than half of it current size. Although some of the acquisition like the Louisiana Purchase had no immediate economic value, the great territory has accommodated the great population of the American people. This has helped it become a superpower. The altitude of expansion continued in the 20 century. Even though, the acquisition was not outright on acquiring territory physically, desire by US to control most part of the world can be termed as continuation of the expansionist attitude. During the cold war era, for example, U.S consolidated alliances against the Soviet Union. Most of the nation looked up on U.S as the global leader. In addition, the U.S government continued to spread ideals such as democratization and transparent governance which it considered as elements of good governance. On the other hand, U. S retained strong military base in other territories such South Korea to consolidate its influence