Download The United States Gains Land from Mexico, 1845–1853

Name
Date
Chapter
13
In-Depth Resources: Unit 4
Section 3 The War with Mexico
Geography Application
The United States Gains Land from Mexico, 1845–1853
I
the Mexican Cession. Through this, the United States
gained one-third more territory. Mexico lost nearly
one half of its territory.
Then the Gadsden Purchase became the final
border expansion of the continental United States.
James Gadsden was a railroad executive acting for
the U.S. government. In 1853, he offered Mexico $50
million for 250,000 square miles of its land. Mexico
took only part of the deal. For $10 million, it gave the
United States a strip of nearly 30,000 square miles.
This land was later used for the southern route of a
railroad to the Pacific.
All three U.S. land gains are shown on the map
below.
n the period of 1845 to 1853, the United States
gained more than a million square miles of land
from Mexico. The land became all or part of 10
present-day states. They are shown below with the
dates they achieved statehood.
First came the Texas Annexation. Texas had
declared itself a republic—an independent nation—in
1836. However, Mexico never recognized Texas’s
independence. Then, in December, 1845, the United
States annexed Texas by making it the 28th state. A
few months later, the Mexican War was on. It ended
in 1848 with a U.S. victory. But Mexico lost more
than Texas. It had to surrender much of New Mexico.
It also gave up the vast region to the west known as
MEXICAN
CESSION
N
Present-day
state boundaries
WYOMING
(1890)
40˚N
NEVADA
(1864)
UTAH
COLORADO
(1876)
(1896)
KANSAS
(1861)
CALIFORNIA
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(1850)
ARIZONA
(1912)
PACIFIC
OCEAN
(1912)
TEXAS
30˚N
GADSDEN
PURCHASE
0
0
120˚W
OKLAHOMA
(1907)
NEW
MEXICO
(1845)
Gulf of
250 mi
500 km
MEXICO
TEXAS
ANNEXATION
Mexico
90˚W
MANIFEST DESTINY
29
The United States Gains Land from Mexico continued
Interpreting Maps and Text
1. Which territory—the Texas Annexation, the Mexican Cession, or the Gadsden Purchase—
completed the present-day borders of the “lower 48” United States?
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2. Which territory was not acquired as the direct outcome of warfare?
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3. From which territories did Wyoming receive land?
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4. Which states acquired all of their present-day land from the Mexican Cession?
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5. Besides Texas, which states had at least part of their land inside the Texas Annexation?
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6. Which is the only state created from land found in all three areas added from 1845 to 1853?
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7. Most of the land of the Gadsden Purchase is found in which state?
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8. Which was the first state after Texas to be created from land acquired from Mexico
during this time period?
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9. If the United States had not added these three territories, how much larger would
Mexico be today?
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30 UNIT 4 CHAPTER 13