Question

Many people, including Abraham Lincoln, believed that Polk started the war in order to

Answer 1

Many people, including Abraham Lincoln, believed that President James K. Polk initiated the Mexican-American War in order to expand U.S. territory and fulfill the ideology of Manifest Destiny, which was the belief that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent. Critics argued that Polk manipulated circumstances to provoke Mexico into a conflict, paving the way for the acquisition of vast lands that would later become California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and other areas. Lincoln, as a congressman at the time, famously challenged Polk's justification for the war, questioning whether the U.S. military had been provoked into action and highlighting the potential consequences of territorial expansion.