Picture Analysis

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Picture Analysis
Mexicans have a point in claiming that the United States of America is partly their homeland. Drawing from the Ramon Alcaraz excerpt about the reasons for the Mexican-American war, it is clear that the US used its superior military and foreign policy to annex a large part of the Mexican territory. The US’s excellent system of government that they adopted from their British colonial masters gave them a lucrative foundation to take over large parcels of land in Texas, Louisiana, and other feeble Spanish territories. According to Ramon, upon gaining independence, the US adopted a policy of extending their territories, a line of policy that they executed without much consideration of their victims. There the first line of action was to take control over the Gulf of Mexico by appropriating Florida. Overall, the US’s main aim after gaining independence was to be the absolute owners of the North America continent.
The growing force of the US enabled it to absorb territories that were previously held by the French, Spanish, Mexicans, and the British. They employed every bit of tactic to accomplish this. Some of the common tactics included usurpation, skill, and force. Through these tactics, they managed to acquire lands that were previously owned by Mexicans such as Florida, Oregon, and Texas (Brands 85). Alvarez points out that while the US gave animated impressions about their desire to broker peace with the Mexicans but its hostilities gave a different vibe.

The US was not reluctant to send its ships to the Mexican coasts and when confronted, they treacherously navigated their way through the potential diplomatic crisis. In summary, indeed many parts of the US originally belonged to the Mexicans but through treachery, strong military force, and strong governance systems, they were annexed into the US, hence the claim that the US territory was illegally acquired from the Mexicans.
Work Cited
Brands, H. W., et al. “American Stories. A History of the United States (Vol. 2).” (2012).