I chose the events in my timeline by the American Perspective. Many Americans had the idea of a “manifest destiny” engraned into their ideals during this time. They insisted that their nation had a manifest destiny to dominate the continent and felt that it was their mission to extend the “boundaries of freedom” to others by passing on their idealism and belief in democratic institutions to those who were capable of self-government. Firstly, during that period of time, the United States was experiencing high population growth rate from increasing in birth rate and immigration. Therefore there was a need to expand into new territories to accommodate with this huge population growth. Secondly, the United States suffered from two economic depressions (1818 and 1839), therefore driving people to seek living in frontier areas since frontier land was inexpensive or free. Thirdly, expansion into frontier areas provided new opportunities for commerce and individual self advancement thus promoting economical growth.
I mainly chose and added more battles because I found it interesting that for many, the American army was outnumbered but still managed to find offensive ways to win. Also seeing all of the killed and wounded statistics for both sides was eye opening to how this war functioned as the Americans were underdogs who made a comeback and won. I also was interested to see how some were close, literally one day and then the next, and how this impacted which side would win or how the battle went.
The timeline medium was very interesting to work with because I am a STEM major so I work with Excel/Sheets a lot. Seeing this to go from a cramped and annoying spreadsheet to an understandable and informative timeline was very gratifying. I think that the spacial aspect and the pictures really made the timeline an interesting way to vizualize and learn about the battles of the Mexican American War. It was also nice that the formatting was super easy because you just put a link in a website and it does the rest!
“Battles of the Mexican-American War.” Accessed May 9, 2020. https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/b/Battles_of_the_Mexican-American_War.htm.
Christensen, Brandon. “5 Battles That Defined Mexican-American War | RealClearHistory,” May 15, 2019. https://www.realclearhistory.com/historiat/2019/05/15/5_key_battles_of_mexican-american_war_437.html.
Foos, Paul. Short, Offhand, Killing Affair : Soldiers and Social Conflict During the Mexican-American War. The University of North Carolina Press, 2002. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.mutex.gmu.edu/lib/gmu/reader.action?docID=413281.
Frahm, Sally. “The Cross and the Compass: Manifest Destiny, Religious Aspects of the Mexican-American War.” The Journal of Popular Culture 35, no. 2 (2001): 83–99. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.2001.00083.x.
Quint, Ryan. “Mexican-American War 170th: Battle of Huamantla | Emerging Civil War,” October 9, 2017. https://emergingcivilwar.com/2017/10/09/mexican-american-war-170th-battle-of-huamantla/.
“Siege Of Pueblo De Taos | World History Project,” February 3, 2020. https://worldhistoryproject.org/1847/2/3/siege-of-pueblo-de-taos.
Simmons, Marc. “Trail Dust: Battle at Brazito Coincided with Christmas 1846.” Santa Fe New Mexican, December 15, 2018. https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/trail-dust-battle-at-brazito-coincided-with-christmas-1846/article_a8892faf-f038-5e9b-a523-ffc6af5c6597.html.
“The Mexican American War (1846-1848),” 2012. https://www.mymexicanwar.com/.