The Mexican and American War “The United States had become a modern capitalist nation and the spirit of nationalism in the country was strong and growing” (Henderson 71). As tensions grew between the United States and Mexico, a thirst for war emerged. The United States declared war on Mexico because it had land that the Americans wanted, which allowed America to realize its philosophy of "Manifest Destiny." The two countries' boiling blood caused a lot of bloodshed. The conflict lasted two years and covered enormous amounts of land. The Americans were victorious and claimed new territory from the conflict. Manifest means obvious movement or expected movement. In the 1840s, this philosophy of Manifest Destiny arose from people's belief that they should expand westward to the Pacific Ocean. These people believed that this movement was predestined by God, that they were to go from one sea to another. Americans did not move just for this reason, but other reasons contributed to their migration. “Manifest Destiny said that the Anglo-Saxon peoples of America had the right and even the duty to spread the blessings of liberty and civilization to those who lived in darkness” (Henderson 31). Americans moved west for more practical reasons. One of them was to gain land. The southern lands that Americans worked on were overexploited by crops such as cotton. Cotton was so profitable that farmers continued to plant as quickly as they could. As a result, cotton crops destroyed fertile land and made planting very difficult. As a solution, these farmers would gather their supplies and belongings and move west because the west had better pastures...... middle of paper ...... tiny. Works Cited Bauer, K. Jack. The Mexican War, 1846-1848. New York: Macmillan, 1974. Print. Downey, Fairfax. Texas and the War with Mexico. New York: American Heritage Pub., 1961. Print. Faber, Harold. From Coast to Coast: The Growth of the United States. New York: Scribner, 1992. Print. Henderson, Timothy J. A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007. Print. Meed, Douglas V. The Mexican War, 1846-1848. New York: Routledge, 2003. “Mexican-American War” in print. Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. January 26, 2014. Minister, Christopher. “The Mexican-American War.” Latinamericahistory.about.com. Np, and Web. Nevin, David. The Mexican War. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life, 1978. Print.