Question 1: Mexican-American War
The battle was the first conflict that America had on foreign grounds. It introduced a political divide and portrayed the unpreparedness of Mexico in combat. The Mexican-American battle was inspired by the Manifest Destiny whereby the United States held the expansion-minded perspective that they had the power to spread out into the continent. Later on, the two nations signed the treaty of Guadalupe to end the Mexican-American War. Mexico agreed to let go of Texas, California, and the territory of Rio Grande (Daniel, 2014).
Question 2: Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase involved the acquisition of additional land by the United States that is known as the present-day New Mexico and Arizona from Mexico. The sale was negotiated by the U.S. Minister to Mexico, James Gadsden in 1853. The purchase allowed America to expand its borders and acquire fertile land in the West. The Gadsden Purchase allowed the federal and confederate governments to develop a viable path for the southern railroad that would connect different regions in the country. The confederate governments took the opportunity to expand their slave trade in the U.S. (Harvey, 2016).
Question 3: River Wars
The Port of Cairo was fundamental because it signified the first victory for Grant and the Union during the Civil War. Grant’s campaigns entailed gaining control of the rivers to secure the stronghold that would assist them it defeating the confederate army. The combination of the arms strategy, resource superiority, heavy rains, and unpredictable rivers helped Grant’s campaigns to win the battle. Some of the rivers that were utilized were the Mississippi, Cumberland, and Tennessee. The Union military aimed for the heartland of the Confederate region to weaken their army by following and using the primary rivers (Atkinson, 2016).
Question 4: Conflict of Culture
The Whites did not comprehend the way of life practiced by the Native Americans. Hence, they feared and mistrusted the Natives because they could not understand them. Consequentially, the indigenous Americans believed that the Whites were demons with the intent of ruining the globe. The clashes in culture resulted in hatred and eventually the war of the plains. The conflict was also instigated by racism because the White Americans considered the culture of the natives as inferior. The aspect led the Whites to formulate the Manifest Destiny of controlling people and their lands (Geisler, 2014).
References
Atkinson, M. S. (2016). Grant's 1862 Overland Campaign and the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou (Doctoral dissertation, UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA AT MONROE).
Daniel, V. (2014). Mexican-American War. Docs. school Publications.
Geisler, C. (2014). Disowned by the Ownership Society: How Native Americans Lost Their Land. Rural Sociology, 79(1), 56-78.
Harvey, S. P. (2016). Tucson: A History of the Old Pueblo from the 1854 Gadsden Purchase. By David Devine. Western Historical Quarterly, whw073.
