Analysis Of The Movie The Halls Of The Montezumas By...

The Mexican War was a test to the belief that the United States had about itself and its destiny of gaining land. The book To the Halls of the Montezumas by Robert W. Johannsen demonstrates the way in which race interweaves with the war, with Americans not just viewing Mexicans as inferior, but as superior to others themselves, functioning independent of any other race. The victories against Mexico simply support the argument; the demeaning of Mexicans was another way to justify the military actions. The overblown ego and sense of the entitlement that the United States has is what makes the territorial expansion, and the means through which it acquires land, seemingly in the American spirit. This attitude is fitting with its actions. It was the early victories that the United States experienced that at first was shocking, but then gave credence to the belief of the inferiority of Mexicans. As the contact and fighting between the United States and Mexico grew, so did the justifications in the racial superiority of the Americans . It is with this confidence that people began to feel that they could accurately point to the problem of Mexicans, mainly that they seemed a combination of all different races, the worse qualities of each being the ones that remained . This belief that the white population of the United States, as a whole, was comprised of a better people was confirmed by the Army as it encountered them militarily and culturally as it marched deeper into the country.