What is Gadsden Purchase?
[[File:Gadsden Purchase Cities.svg|thumb|The Gadsden Purchase in Arizona and New Mexico]] The '''Gadsden Purchase''' was a area of land sold by [[Mexico]] to the [[United States]] in 1854. It is now part of [[Arizona]] and [[New Mexico]], south of the [[Gila River]] and west of the [[Rio Grande]]. Its size was {{convert|76,800|km2|sqmi}}. The United States paid Mexico 10,000,000 dollars, which is worth 230,000,000 dollars in 2019 money. This trade was officially called the '''Treaty of Mesilla'''. ==Background== The [[Mexican-American War]] had ended in 1848. The United States won the war. Both countries agreed to the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]], which gave the United States a very big part of Mexico: the [[Mexican Cession]], an area of more than {{convert|1,300,000|km2|sqmi|sigfig=1}}. In return, the United States paid Mexico 15,000,000 dollars.<ref name=guadalupe>{{cite web|last=Del Castillo|first=Richard Griswold|title=War's End: Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo|website=PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/war/wars_end_guadalupe.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011115809/https://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/war/wars_end_guadalupe.html|archive-date=2014-10-11|date=2006-03-14}}</ref> After 1848, Mexico and the United States did not agree where the [[border]] was. Both countries claimed the Mesilla Valley as part of their own country. Businessmen from the [[Southern United States|southern states]] wanted to build a new [[transcontinental railroad]] that would cross the southern part of the country. They wanted the railroad to go through the Mesilla Valley. [[Jefferson Davis]], who at that time was the US [[Secretary of War]], supported that idea. James Gadsden was sent to buy the land from Mexico.<ref name=constitution>{{cite web|website=National Constitution Center|title=The Gadsden Purchase and a failed attempt at a southern railroad|url=https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-gadsden-purchase-and-a-failed-attempt-at-a-southern-railroad|date=2020-12-30|author=NCC Staff