Book contents
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- General Introduction: What is America and the World?
- Introduction to Volume II
- Part I Building and Resisting US Empire
- 1 The United States between Nation and Empire, 1776–1820
- 2 Indigenous Nations and the United States
- 3 Settler Colonialism
- 4 Slavery and Statecraft
- 5 The Mexican-American War
- 6 Containing Empire: The United States and the World in the Civil War Era
- 7 The United States in an Age of Global Integration, 1865–1897
- 8 The Wars of 1898 and the US Overseas Empire
- Part II Imperial Structures
- Part III Americans and the World
- Part IV Americans in the World
- Index
5 - The Mexican-American War
from Part I - Building and Resisting US Empire
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2021
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- General Introduction: What is America and the World?
- Introduction to Volume II
- Part I Building and Resisting US Empire
- 1 The United States between Nation and Empire, 1776–1820
- 2 Indigenous Nations and the United States
- 3 Settler Colonialism
- 4 Slavery and Statecraft
- 5 The Mexican-American War
- 6 Containing Empire: The United States and the World in the Civil War Era
- 7 The United States in an Age of Global Integration, 1865–1897
- 8 The Wars of 1898 and the US Overseas Empire
- Part II Imperial Structures
- Part III Americans and the World
- Part IV Americans in the World
- Index
Summary
In the fall of 1845, Second Lieutenant John J. Peck boarded the Pacific with a carpetbag, several trunks, a crate of liquor and cigars, and a gray dapple horse named Pete. Although he regretted giving up his comfortable post as an artillery commander in New York, he was certain that his decision to join General Zachary Taylor’s army in Texas was “for the best.” The United States Congress had voted to annex the Republic of Texas earlier that year, and the war that was likely to result with Mexico would, in Peck’s view, prevent the United States “from falling to pieces by internal causes and convulsions” over “trivial difficulties about the tariff, slaves &c.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of America and the World , pp. 125 - 146Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022