USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Following Texas ’ successful war of independence against Mexico in 1836, President Martin van Buren refrained from annexing Texas after the Mexicans threatened war.

Detailed explanation-2: -Border disputes There was an ongoing border dispute between the Republic of Texas and Mexico prior to annexation. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as its border based on the Treaties of Velasco, while Mexico maintained that it was the Nueces River and did not recognize Texan independence.

Detailed explanation-3: -The citizens of the independent Republic of Texas elected Sam Houston president but also endorsed the entrance of Texas into the Union. The likelihood of Texas joining the Union as a slave state delayed any formal action by the U.S. Congress for more than a decade. In 1844, Congress finally agreed to annex Texas.

Detailed explanation-4: -Northerners did not want Texas to be admitted to the Union as a slave state because it would tip the balance of power in Congress toward the south. However most southerners wanted Texas to join the Union. Some Americans even feared that annexing Texas would spark a war with Mexico.

Detailed explanation-5: -First, Mexico did not recognize Texas’s independence, so annexation might provoke a war. Second, they opposed the expansion of slavery, which Texas allowed. Third, the vast area of Texas might be divided into smaller slaveholding states, upsetting congressional balance and thereby dissolving the Union.