Gadsden purchase how much

The persistent efforts of private American citizens to enter Mexico illegally and incite rebellions in an effort to gain territory exacerbated tensions between the governments. These continuing tensions between Mexico and the United States complicated U.

In , the United States attempted to buy the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, an isthmus on the southern edge of North America, as an alternative means of providing a southern connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Fearing the colonists would rebel as those in Texas had, Mexican President Juan Ceballos revoked the grant, angering U. In , Mexican officials evicted Americans from their property in the disputed Mesilla Valley. When the U. Mexican President Antonio de Santa Anna responded by sending troops into the valley. Attempting to defuse the situation, U. Senator Stephen Douglas, who represented other railroad interests, was strongly opposed. In early , the Senate was also debating the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Douglas had long championed Nebraska as a vital link in a transcontinental railroad connecting Chicago with the West Coast. The new proposed Nebraska Territory stretched far west and its supporters wanted residents of the new territories to decide if they wanted to allow slavery. The Act also killed any chances of a southern railroad through the newly acquired sections of southern Arizona and New Mexico.

But the political and section bitterness over the Act killed the likelihood of a federally funded railroad serving the southern states.

Secretary of War Davis recommended it as the best of the surveyed transcontinental railroad routes in , but the issue became moot. Florida was mopped up in In the American settlers in Texas threw off the yoke of Mexico and declared their independence, and despite the Alamo they made it stick.

In James K. Polk was elected president. Meanwhile, in he had annexed Texas and offered to buy California, and was not noticeably displeased to go to war when the Mexican government demurred.

The Americans defeated the Mexican army in a succession of battles, took Mexico City and forced the Mexicans to surrender. On the other hand, there were senators calling for the conquest and annexation of the whole of Mexico.