The war changed America, because
It would be different, because there is the possibility that the US would have become a small and relatively unimportant nation. The US would likely not have gotten the Oregon Territory from Britain. It would have had no Pacific coast. It would never have ventured out to take Hawaii and the Philippines.
- "The addition of new lands touched off new and bitter debates on the slavery issue, as many had predicted
- The Americans suffered heavy losses; the nearly 13,000 dead included only about 1,700 in combat—the rest succumbed to rampant disease.
- The war was a proving ground for young military officers (Jackson, Lee, Meade, Sherman, for example) who would soon put their skills to work in the American Civil War.
- The loss of about 50 percent of their territory was a matter of great humiliation and provoked ill feeling against the United States that has never fully dissipated."
It would be different, because there is the possibility that the US would have become a small and relatively unimportant nation. The US would likely not have gotten the Oregon Territory from Britain. It would have had no Pacific coast. It would never have ventured out to take Hawaii and the Philippines.