Toggle navigation. It was the first large-scale success of a United States military force on foreign soil. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up. Following the ratification, U. Government, and General Pedro Conde and Sr. Jose Illarregui were appointed by the Mexican government, to survey and set the boundary.
A subsequent treaty, the Gadsen Purchase, of December 30, , altered the border from the initial one by adding 47 more boundary markers to the original six. Of the 53 markers, the majority were rude piles of stones; a few were of durable character with proper inscriptions. As time passed, it became difficult to determine the exact location of the markers, with both countries claiming the originals had been moved or destroyed.
To solve the problem, a convention between the two countries was concluded in the s; and a survey was done that verified the need for definite demarcation of the boundary. In November, Polk sent the diplomat John Slidell to Mexico to seek boundary adjustments in return for the U. After the mission failed, the U. Army under General Zachary Taylor advanced to the mouth of the Rio Grande, the river that the state of Texas claimed as its southern boundary.
Polk, in turn, declared the Mexican advance to be an invasion of U. Following the defeat of the Mexican army and the fall of Mexico City, in September , the Mexican government surrendered and peace negotiations began. The war officially ended with the February 2, , signing in Mexico of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
The treaty added an additional , square miles to United States territory, including the land that makes up all or parts of present-day Arizona , California, Colorado , Nevada , New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
Additionally, the controversial war reignited the slavery extension debate that would ultimately result in the American Civil War in the s.
Polk did not seek re-election after his first term, and died at age 53 in June , three months after leaving office. Zachary Taylor, who became a national hero during the Mexican-American War , ran for president in the election and won. However, 16 months after his inauguration, Taylor became ill and died. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! The Mexican-American War projected Taylor into a position of celebrity and enabled his election in Many southerners felt betrayed by Taylor, a slaveowner from Louisiana, as they equated his position with those of a free-soiler.
In this time of heightened sectional tensions, southerners believed that if one did not actively protect slavery and its expansion, one supported abolition. As a direct result of the Mexican Cession, the California Gold Rush began in which caused a massive frenzy to organize and admit California into the Union. California was never a US territory and approved a free constitution, elected a Governor and legislature and applied for statehood by November Since California did not wish to be divided into two separate states, a new compromise was formed, aptly named the Compromise of Under the Compromise of , California was admitted as a free state without deciding the fate of the remainder of the Mexican Cession.
Additionally, under this compromise, there was the federal assumption of Texas debt, the abolishment of the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and a stronger fugitive slave law.
While controversial, the Compromise of alleviated the growing tensions over slavery and delayed a full-blown crisis over the issue. However, in tensions over slavery once again skyrocketed over the organization of Kansas and Nebraska. While Kansas and Nebraska were not part of the Mexican Cession, their debates over their organization are linked to the Mexican-American War. As stated above, the Mexican-American War re-opened the discussions over how to organize territory, and one of the proposed solutions was popular sovereignty.
While the Compromise of elected not to include popular sovereignty, it reemerged in with the Kansas-Nebraska Act , where Kansas and Nebraska would be organized using popular sovereignty.
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