Mexican Cession

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The Mexican Cession (red) and the Gadsden Purchase (orange)

The Mexican Cession is a historical name for the region of the present day southwestern United States that was ceded to the U.S. by Mexico in 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo following the Mexican-American War. The cession of this territory from Mexico was a condition for the end of the war, as United States troops occupied Mexico City, and Mexico risked being completely annexed by the U.S. The United States also paid $15,000,000 ($297,310,309 in 2005) for the land, which was the same it had offered for the land prior to the war. Under great duress, Mexico accepted the offer. For the 38 years between 1810, when Mexico declared its independence from Spain, and 1848, the region had formed approximately one-third of the country of Mexico; prior to that, it had been a part – albeit a remote one, with sparse European settlement – of the Spanish colony of New Spain for some three centuries. A chain of Spanish missions and settlements extended into this region, mostly following the course of the Rio Grande from the El Paso area to Santa Fe, which was a colonial capital under the Spanish and the Mexicans, and which is now the capital city of the U.S. state of New Mexico. There was also some Spanish settlement and missionary work along the course of the Colorado River from its mouth up along the current border between California and Arizona.

The region includes all of the present-day states of California, Nevada, and Utah, as well as the portions of:

Arizona excluding the region later annexed in the Gadsden Purchase
Colorado west of the boundary of the former Republic of Texas
New Mexico west of the Rio Grande and excluding the Gadsden Purchase
Wyoming west of the former Republic of Texas boundary and south of the 42nd parallel.

The treaty also specified the Texas-Mexican border as being at the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte). Previously the portion of Texas between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande had remained disputed throughout the existence of the Republic of Texas. The United States had already claimed the area as part of the so-called Texas Annexation in 1845.

Mexican Cession

See also