Why+did+Polk+provoke+the+war+with+Mexico,+was+it+because+he+wanted+California+or+Texas+for+slavery?

Polk was a southern born president thought to be much like Jackson. He was supported by the southern community and he supported southern benefiting tariffs. Polk provoked the Mexican war in order to gain more southern support and slave land. Texas was the land fought over in the Mexican war and the entirety of Texas is below the 36 30 line compromise. He wanted the land for more slavery to balance out California, which he also persuaded. Although this never worked because Texas land was inhospitable to cotton so slaves were never needed. All land of Texas up to a river that ran parallel to the Rio Grande, the fight took place over the land in between. Polk was a democrat and therefore was proslavery. The land of Texas would be a pro slave state and therefore gaining more southern support for Polk. He was born in Tennessee and supported pro south tariffs he was very interested in making Texas a slave state, to balance out California. The treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo was the finalization of making the land from the Rio Grande on up Texas only to later be annexed into the United States.