Consequences of the Mexican War for the United States Essay

Assess the Consequences of the Mexican War for the United States.

The Mexican War was fought between April 25th 1846 and February 2nd 1848.   The location of the war was Texas, New Mexico, California, and Northern Mexico.   Because of this geographical location, the outcome of the war would have massive economic and social consequences for both sides.   The result was a convincing United States victory, and there were many consequences for the emerging power.   The most significant was the signing of the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty, which represented, among other things, a massive expansion of United States territory.   The Treaty had many effects on the United States apart from the land, such as The Gadsden Purchase, the start of major tensions between North and South US that eventually led to the civil war, the opportunity for settlement and economic development in the new territories, and the issue of slavery that was raised which led to the Calhoun Doctrine and the Wilmot Proviso.
The Guadalupe-Hidalgo treaty was signed on February 2nd 1848, and ended the Mexican War.   The treaty ceded to the United States the states of California, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah, as well as parts of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Texas, which was used to establish the new eastern border between the US and Mexico, the Rio Grande.   In total the treaty gave the US approximately 868,000 square kilometres (not including the Gadsden Purchase), increasing the country’s land area by a third as a result.
In 1853, President Pierce sent James Gadsden to negotiate the purchase of 250,000 square miles of land in the south of New Mexico. If successful, a transcontinental railway could be built from the East coast to the West (Atlantic to Pacific). Gadsden eventually negotiated for 54,000 square miles, offering US$10 million for the acquisition that would be called The Gadsden Purchase. This resulted in a mass migration to the West, as 5 years before there was a discovery of gold...