Gadsden purchase

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Territory of Mexico to the USA: Mexican-American War (red), Gadsden purchase (yellow)
Gadsden Purchase Cities ZP.svg

With the Gadsden Purchase ( English Gadsden Purchase , Spanish Venta de La Mesilla ) the United States acquired from Mexico in 1853 an area of ​​77,700 km² south of the Gila River , which is now in southern Arizona and New Mexico . There a better route was planned for a railroad to California , which was not built in this form. It was not until 1881–1883 ​​that the Southern Pacific Railroad built a railway line through the area. The contract also served as the basis for the Americans to build a canal on the isthmus of Tehuantepec .

First, the United States acquired in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo for 15 million US dollars an area of ​​approximately 1.36 million km², which they had conquered in the Mexican-American War . The agreement on the purchase was made on December 30, 1853 between James Gadsden , the namesake of the contract, and the Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna . Gadsden had been president of a railroad company and was commissioned by American President Franklin Pierce to negotiate a sales contract with Santa Anna. Santa Anna initially refused to sell such a large area of ​​land in Mexico. However, Mexico urgently needed money to rebuild its ailing military system and to finance the army's use against the rebels.

The purchase agreement was rejected not only by the Mexican people, but also by those US senators who advocated the abolition of slavery and feared an increase in power for the slave-holding southern states . In order to avoid an increasing dispute between the northern and southern states, a new treaty was ratified on April 25, 1854. This reduced the amount paid to Mexico to $ 10 million and the area to 77,700 km². So among other things Baja California and parts of Sonora were excluded from the purchase. Gadsden presented the contract signed by Pierce to López de Santa Anna, who signed it on June 8, 1854.

On November 17, 1856 , the United States Army built Fort Buchanan on the Sonoita River to secure the newly acquired area.

The first map of the Gadsden Kauf territory was made by the German immigrant Hermann Ehrenberg , after whom a place and a mountain peak in the USA are named.

Web links

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