Thread: Did the USA buy the territory of mexico?

Originally Posted by joazinha

Years ago, I learned in school that by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ending the Mexican-American War, signed on February 2, 1848, Mexico CEDED to OUR country a HUGE swath of land to the NORTH of the CURRENT international border and that WE PAID Mexico about $15 MILLION DOLLARS for THIS territory! And $15 million MUST have been an IMMENSE amount of money BACK THEN!

Actually including the later Gadshen purchase the US paid Mexico $28 million in gold for the southwest. That is about $28 billion today. For land Mexico did not even control at the time, they simply put the "Mexico" on a map of the territories that Spain had controlled before the Mexican revolution.

Originally Posted by Bowman

Originally Posted by joazinha

Years ago, I learned in school that by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ending the Mexican-American War, signed on February 2, 1848, Mexico CEDED to OUR country a HUGE swath of land to the NORTH of the CURRENT international border and that WE PAID Mexico about $15 MILLION DOLLARS for THIS territory! And $15 million MUST have been an IMMENSE amount of money BACK THEN!

Actually including the later Gadshen purchase the US paid Mexico $28 million in gold for the southwest. That is about $28 billion today. For land Mexico did not even control at the time, they simply put the "Mexico" on a map of the territories that Spain had controlled before the Mexican revolution.

its actually about 582 million in todays dollar. But yes the entire area was purchased and Mexicans were given citizenship before asians, native americans or blacks were. Also Mexican forces continued to cross the border and interfere with American affairs, especially during the civial war and of course there was Poncho Villa and his raids.

Beyond that Americans and Mexicans meet three times in the 1800's to survey and mark the Mexico-Texas border.

The Gadsden purchase was honestly less of a land grab for us and more of a good cash generating move on Mexico's part. Their government was crushing under the weight of debt and that money helped Mexico survive.

There are actually quite a few that feel that Mexico should have just surrendered all of their land to the US after the war and should have joined as states much like Texas. Some historians think that Polk was sure that would be the case with their government in disarray and so much debt.

Its also assumed that the Civial War and the need to rebuild the south demolished the USA's hopes and desires of annexing the remaining Mexican territories and admitting them as states.