Gadsden Purchase was a strip of land the United States bought from Mexico in the 1850’s to form part of the boundary between the two countries. The purchase included much of the region south of the Gila River in what is now Arizona and New Mexico.
As a result of the Mexican War (1846-1848), the United States had acquired a great deal of land from Mexico. But the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war, had been vague about the new boundary between the two countries. The purpose of the Gadsden Purchase was to provide a clear boundary and also give the United States a good southern railroad route to the Pacific Ocean.
James Gadsden, the U.S. minister to Mexico, conducted the negotiations with Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Mexican president. Santa Anna at first rejected Gadsden’s proposal. However, the Mexican government desperately needed funds, and Santa Anna feared U.S. military action if he refused to sell the land. See Gadsden (James Gadsden) .
The United States paid $10 million for the 29,640 square miles (76,770 square kilometers) in the purchase. The treaty of sale, the Gadsden Treaty, was signed on Dec. 30, 1853. The two countries exchanged ratifications of the treaty on June 30, 1854. Opposition in Mexico to the sale was one of the reasons Santa Anna was banished from Mexico in 1855.
In addition to the purchase, the Gadsden Treaty granted the United States the right to cross Mexico’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which provided a route between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. The treaty also abolished a requirement that the United States protect Mexico from Indian attacks. The United States had agreed to the requirement in 1848 in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
