The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the
peace treaty
A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring ...
that was signed on 2 February 1848, in the
Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo (now a neighborhood of
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
) between the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
that ended the
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...
(1846–1848). The treaty was ratified by the United States on 10 March and by Mexico on 19 May. The ratifications were exchanged on 30 May, and the treaty was proclaimed on 4 July 1848.
With the defeat of its army and the fall of its capital in September 1847, Mexico entered into negotiations with the U.S. peace envoy,
Nicholas Trist
Nicholas Philip Trist (June 2, 1800 – February 11, 1874) was an American lawyer, diplomat, planter, and businessman. Even though he was dismissed by President James K. Polk as the negotiator with the Mexican government, he negotiated the Treat ...
, to end the war. On the Mexican side, there were factions that did not concede defeat or seek to engage in negotiations. The treaty called for the United States to pay US$15 million to Mexico and to pay off the claims of American citizens against Mexico up to US$5 million. It gave the United States the
Rio Grande as a boundary for
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, and gave the U.S. ownership of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
, and
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
, as well as an area comprising most of
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
, and approximately two-thirds of
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
. Mexicans in those annexed areas had the choice of relocating within Mexico's new boundaries or receiving
American citizenship with full civil rights.
The
U.S. Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
advised and consented to ratification of the treaty by a vote of 38–14. The opponents of this treaty were led by the
Whigs, who had opposed the war and rejected
manifest destiny in general, and rejected this expansion in particular. The amount of land gained by the United States from Mexico was further increased as a result of the
Gadsden Purchase of 1853, which ceded parts of present-day southern Arizona and New Mexico to the United States.
Negotiators
The peace talks were negotiated by Nicholas Trist, chief clerk of the
US State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...
, who had accompanied
General Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786May 29, 1866) was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the early s ...
as a diplomat and
President James K. Polk's representative. Trist and General Scott, after two previous unsuccessful attempts to negotiate a treaty with General
José Joaquín de Herrera
José Joaquín Antonio de Herrera (February 23, 1792 – February 10, 1854) was a Mexican moderate politician who served as president of Mexico three times (1844, 1844–1845 and 1848–1851), and as a general in the Mexican Army during the Me ...
, determined that the only way to deal with Mexico was as a conquered enemy. Trist negotiated with a special commission representing the collapsed government led by Don José Bernardo Couto, Don Miguel de Atristain, and Don
Luis Gonzaga Cuevas
Luis Gonzaga Cuevas Inclán (Lerma de Villada, 10 July 1799 – City of Mexico, 12 January 1867) was a Mexican politician and diplomat. He studied law at the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City and worked as a lawyer. He began to h ...
of Mexico.
Terms
![Map of Mexico 1847](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Map_of_Mexico_1847.jpg)
Although Mexico ceded
Alta California and
Santa Fe de Nuevo México, the text of the treaty did not list territories to be ceded, and avoided the disputed issues that were causes of war: the validity of the 1836 revolution that established the
Republic of Texas, Texas's boundary claims as far as the Rio Grande, and the right of the Republic of Texas to arrange the 1845
annexation of Texas
The Texas annexation was the 1845 annexation of the Republic of Texas into the United States. Texas was admitted to the Union as the 28th state on December 29, 1845.
The Republic of Texas declared independence from the Republic of Mexico ...
by the United States.
Instead, Article V of the treaty simply described the new
U.S.–Mexico border. From east to west, the border consisted of the
Rio Grande northwest from its mouth to the point where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico (roughly 32 degrees north), as shown in th
Disturnell map then due west from this point to the
110th meridian west
The meridian 110° west of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, North America, the Pacific Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole.
The 110th meridian west forms a great ...
, then north along the 110th Meridian to the
Gila River and down the river to its mouth. Unlike the New Mexico segment of the boundary, which depended partly on unknown geography, "in order to preclude all difficulty in tracing upon the ground the limit separating Upper from
Lower California", a straight line was drawn from the mouth of the Gila to one
marine league south of the southernmost point of the
port of San Diego
The Port of San Diego is a seaport in San Diego, California. It is located on San Diego Bay in southwestern San Diego County, California, and is a self-supporting district established in 1962 by an act of the California State Legislature. In addi ...
, slightly north of the
previous Mexican provincial boundary at
Playas de Rosarito
Rosarito is a coastal city in Playas de Rosarito Municipality, Baja California, situated on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. As of 2010, the city had a population of 65,278. Located south of the US-Mexico border, Rosarito is a part of the greater S ...
.
Comparing the boundary in the
Adams–Onís Treaty to the Guadalupe Hidalgo boundary, Mexico conceded about 55% of its pre-war, pre-Texas territorial claims
and now has an area of 1,972,550 km² (761,606 sq mi).
In the United States, the 1.36 million km² (525,000 square miles) of the area between the Adams-Onis and Guadalupe Hidalgo boundaries outside the claimed by the Republic of Texas is known as the
Mexican Cession. That is to say, the Mexican Cession is construed not to include any territory east of the Rio Grande, while the territorial claims of the Republic of Texas included no territory west of the Rio Grande. The Mexican Cession included essentially the entirety of the former Mexican territory of
Alta California, but only the western portion of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico, and includes all of present-day
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
and
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
, most of Arizona, and western portions of New Mexico and Colorado.
Articles VIII and IX ensured safety of existing
property rights
The right to property, or the right to own property (cf. ownership) is often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions. A general recognition of a right to private property is found more rarely and is typically h ...
of Mexican citizens living in the transferred territories. Despite assurances to the contrary, the property rights of Mexican citizens were often not honored by the U.S. in accordance with modifications to and interpretations of the Treaty. The U.S. also agreed to assume $3.25 million (equivalent to $ million today) in debts that Mexico owed to United States citizens.
The residents had one year to choose whether they wanted American or Mexican citizenship; Over 90% chose American citizenship. The others moved to what remained of Mexico (where they received land), or in some cases in New Mexico were allowed to remain in place as Mexican citizens.
Article XII engaged the United States to pay, "In consideration of the extension acquired", 15 million dollars (equivalent to $ million today),
in annual installments of 3 million dollars.
Article XI of the treaty was important to Mexico. It provided that the United States would prevent and punish raids by
Indians into Mexico, prohibited Americans from acquiring property, including livestock, taken by the Indians in those raids, and stated that the U.S. would return captives of the Indians to Mexico. Mexicans believed that the United States had encouraged and assisted the
Comanche and
Apache raids that had devastated northern Mexico in the years before the war. This article promised relief to them.
Article XI, however, proved unenforceable. Destructive Indian raids continued despite a heavy U.S. presence near the Mexican border. Mexico filed 366 claims with the U.S. government for damages done by Comanche and Apache raids between 1848 and 1853. In 1853, in the Treaty of Mesilla concluding the
Gadsden Purchase, Article XI was annulled.
Results
The land that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo brought into the United States became, between 1850 and 1912, all or part of ten states:
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
(1850),
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
(1864),
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
(1896), and
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
(1912), as well as, depending upon interpretation, the entire state of Texas (1845), which then included part of
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...
(1861);
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
(1876);
Oklahoma (1907); and
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
(1912). The area of domain acquired was given by the Federal Interagency Committee as 338,680,960 acres.
The cost was $16,295,149 or approximately 5 cents an acre.
The remainder (the southern parts) of New Mexico and Arizona were peacefully purchased under the
Gadsden Purchase, which was carried out in 1853. In this purchase the United States paid an additional $10 million (equivalent to $ million in ), for land intended to accommodate a
transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...
. However, the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
delayed construction of such a route, and it was not until 1881 that the
Southern Pacific Railroad finally was completed as a second transcontinental railroad, fulfilling the purpose of the acquisition.
Background to the war
Mexico had claimed the area in question since winning its independence from the
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
in 1821 following the
Mexican War of Independence
The Mexican War of Independence ( es, Guerra de Independencia de México, links=no, 16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821) was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from Spain. It was not a single, co ...
. The Spanish had conquered part of the area from the American Indian tribes over the preceding three centuries, but there remained powerful and independent indigenous nations within that northern region of Mexico. Most of that land was too dry (low rainfall) and too mountainous to support many people, until the advent of new technology after about 1880: means for damming and distributing water from the few rivers to
irrigated farmland; the
telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
; the railroad; the telephone; and
electrical power
Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions o ...
.
About 80,000 Mexicans inhabited California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas during the period 1845 to 1850, with far fewer in
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
, southern and western Colorado, and Utah. On 1 March 1845, U.S. President
John Tyler
John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president in 1841. He was elected vice president on the 1840 Whig tick ...
signed legislation to authorize the United States to
annex the Republic of Texas, effective on 29 December 1845. The Mexican government, which had never recognized the
Republic of Texas as an independent country, had warned that annexation would be viewed as an
act of war. The United Kingdom and France, both of which recognized the independence of the Republic of Texas, repeatedly tried to dissuade Mexico from declaring war against its northern neighbor. British efforts to mediate the quandary proved fruitless, in part because additional political disputes (particularly the
Oregon boundary dispute
The Oregon boundary dispute or the Oregon Question was a 19th-century territorial dispute over the political division of the Pacific Northwest of North America between several nations that had competing territorial and commercial aspirations in ...
) arose between Great Britain (as the claimant of modern
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
) and the United States.
On 10 November 1845, before the outbreak of hostilities, President
James K. Polk
James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (183 ...
sent his envoy,
John Slidell
John Slidell (1793July 9, 1871) was an American politician, lawyer, and businessman. A native of New York, Slidell moved to Louisiana as a young man and became a Representative and Senator. He was one of two Confederate diplomats captured by the ...
, to Mexico. Slidell had instructions to offer Mexico around $5 million for the territory of
Nuevo México and up to $40 million for
Alta California. The Mexican government dismissed Slidell, refusing to even meet with him.
Earlier in that year, Mexico had broken off
diplomatic relations
Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...
with the United States, based partly on its interpretation of the
Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, under which newly independent Mexico claimed it had inherited rights. In that agreement, the United States had "renounced forever" all claims to Spanish territory.
Neither side took any further action to avoid a war. Meanwhile, Polk settled a major territorial dispute with Britain via the
Oregon Treaty, which was signed on 15 June 1846. By avoiding any chance of conflict with Great Britain, the U.S was given a free hand in regard to Mexico. After the
Thornton Affair
The Thornton Affair, also known as the Thornton Skirmish, Thornton's Defeat, or Rancho Carricitos was a battle in 1846 between the military forces of the United States and Mexico west upriver from Zachary Taylor's camp along the Rio Grande ...
of 25–26 April, when Mexican forces attacked an American unit in the disputed area, with the result that 11 Americans were killed, five wounded and 49 captured, Congress passed a declaration of war, which Polk signed on 13 May 1846. The Mexican Congress responded with its own war declaration on 23 April 1846.
Conduct of war
![Map of Mexico including Yucatan and Upper California 1847](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Map_of_Mexico_including_Yucatan_and_Upper_California_1847.jpg)
U.S. forces moved quickly far beyond Texas to conquer Alta California and New Mexico. Fighting there ended on 13 January 1847 with the signing of the "Capitulation Agreement" at "
Campo de Cahuenga" and end of the
Taos Revolt
The Taos Revolt was a populist insurrection in January 1847 by Hispano and Pueblo allies against the United States' occupation of present-day northern New Mexico during the Mexican–American War. Provisional governor Charles Bent and severa ...
. By the middle of September 1847, U.S. forces had successfully invaded central Mexico and occupied Mexico City.
Peace negotiations
Some Eastern Democrats called for
complete annexation of Mexico and recalled that a group of Mexico’s leading citizens had invited General Winfield Scott to become dictator of Mexico after his capture of Mexico City (he declined). However, the movement did not draw widespread support. President Polk's
State of the Union address
The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current conditi ...
in December 1847 upheld Mexican independence and argued at length that occupation and any further military operations in Mexico were aimed at securing a treaty ceding California and New Mexico up to approximately the
32nd parallel north and possibly
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
and transit rights across the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec () is an isthmus in Mexico. It represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Before the opening of the Panama Canal, it was a major overland transport route known simply as the T ...
.
Despite its lengthy string of military defeats, the Mexican government was reluctant to agree to the loss of California and New Mexico. Even with its capital under enemy occupation, the Mexican government was inclined to consider factors such as the unwillingness of the U.S. administration to annex Mexico outright and what appeared to be deep divisions in domestic U.S. opinion regarding the war and its aims, which caused it to imagine that it was actually in a far better negotiating position than the military situation might have suggested. A further consideration was the growing opposition to slavery that had caused Mexico to end formal slavery in 1829, and its awareness of the well-known and growing sectional divide in the U.S. over the issue of slavery. It therefore made sense for Mexico to negotiate with a goal of playing Northern U.S. interests against Southern U.S. interests.
The Mexicans proposed peace terms that offered only sale of
Alta California north of the
37th parallel north
The 37th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 37 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Africa, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
At this latitude the ...
— north of
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz ( Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a po ...
and
Madera, California
Madera (Spanish language, Spanish for "Wood") is a city and county seat of Madera County, California, Madera County, California. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 66,224.
Located in the San Joaquin Valley, Madera i ...
and the southern boundaries of today's Utah and Colorado. This territory was already dominated by Anglo-American settlers, but perhaps more importantly from the Mexican point of view, it represented the bulk of pre-war Mexican territory north of the
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was a federal legislation of the United States that balanced desires of northern states to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and ...
line of
parallel 36°30′ north
The parallel 36°30′ north is a circle of latitude that is 36 and one-half degrees north of the equator of the Earth. This parallel of latitude is particularly significant in the history of the United States as the line of the Missouri C ...
— lands that, if annexed by the U.S., would have been presumed by Northerners to be forever free of slavery. The Mexicans also offered to recognize the freedom of Texas from Mexican rule and its right to join the Union, but held to its demand of the
Nueces River
The Nueces River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas, about long. It drains a region in central and southern Texas southeastward into the Gulf of Mexico. It is the southernmost major river in Texas northeast of the Rio Grande. ''Nueces'' ...
as a boundary.
While the Mexican government could not reasonably have expected the Polk Administration to accept such terms, it would have had reason to hope that a rejection of peace terms so favorable to Northern interests might have the potential to provoke sectional conflict in the United States, or perhaps even a civil war that would fatally undermine the U.S. military position in Mexico. Instead, these terms combined with other Mexican demands (in particular, for various indemnities) only provoked widespread indignation throughout the U.S. without causing the sectional conflict the Mexicans were hoping for.
Jefferson Davis advised Polk that if Mexico appointed commissioners to come to the U.S., the government that appointed them would probably be overthrown before they completed their mission, and they would likely be shot as traitors on their return; so that the only hope of peace was to have a U.S. representative in Mexico. Nicholas Trist, chief clerk of the State Department under President Polk, finally negotiated a treaty with the Mexican delegation after ignoring his recall by President Polk in frustration with failure to secure a treaty.
[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.](_blank)
''National Archives''. Retrieved 6 November 2007. Notwithstanding that the treaty had been negotiated against his instructions, given its achievement of the major American aim, President Polk passed it on to the Senate.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed by Nicholas Trist (on behalf of the U.S.) and Luis G. Cuevas, Bernardo Couto and Miguel Atristain as
plenipotentiary
A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the wor ...
representatives of Mexico on 2 February 1848, at the main altar of the old
Basilica of Guadalupe at Villa Hidalgo (within the present city limits) as U.S. troops under the command of Gen.
Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786May 29, 1866) was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the early s ...
were occupying
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
.
Changes to the treaty and ratification
![Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Treaty_of_Guadalupe_Hidalgo.jpg)
The version of the treaty ratified by the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
eliminated Article X,
["The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo."](_blank)
''Library of Congress, Hispanic Reading Room''. Retrieved 6 November 2007. which stated that the U.S. government would honor and guarantee all land grants awarded in lands ceded to the U.S. to citizens of Spain and Mexico by those respective governments. Article VIII guaranteed that Mexicans who remained more than one year in the ceded lands would automatically become full-fledged United States citizens (or they could declare their intention of remaining Mexican citizens); however, the Senate modified Article IX, changing the first paragraph and excluding the last two. Among the changes was that Mexican citizens would "be admitted at the proper time (to be judged of by the Congress of the United States)" instead of "admitted as soon as possible", as negotiated between Trist and the Mexican delegation.
An amendment by
Jefferson Davis giving the U.S. most of
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...
and
Nuevo León, all of
Coahuila and a large part of
Chihuahua was supported by both senators from Texas (
Sam Houston and
Thomas Jefferson Rusk
Thomas Jefferson Rusk (December 5, 1803July 29, 1857) was an early political and military leader of the Republic of Texas, serving as its first Secretary of War as well as a general at the Battle of San Jacinto. He was later a US politician and ...
),
Daniel S. Dickinson of New York,
Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois,
Edward A. Hannegan
Edward Allen "Ned" Hannegan (June 25, 1807February 25, 1859) was an American lawyer and politician from Indiana, serving two terms as a United States representative from 1833 to 1837, and one term as a U.S. Senator from 1843 to 1849.
Early life ...
of Indiana, and one each from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri and Tennessee. Most of the leaders of the Democratic party,
Thomas Hart Benton,
John C. Calhoun,
Herschel V. Johnson,
Lewis Cass,
James Murray Mason
James Murray Mason (November 3, 1798April 28, 1871) was an American lawyer and politician. He served as senator from Virginia, having previously represented Frederick County, Virginia, in the Virginia House of Delegates.
A grandson of George Ma ...
of Virginia and
Ambrose Hundley Sevier were opposed and the amendment was defeated 44–11.
An amendment by Whig Sen.
George Edmund Badger of North Carolina to exclude New Mexico and California lost 35–15, with three Southern Whigs voting with the Democrats.
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison ...
was bitter that four New England senators made deciding votes for acquiring the new territories.
A motion to insert into the treaty the
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was an unsuccessful 1846 proposal in the United States Congress to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican–American War. The conflict over the Wilmot Proviso was one of the major events leading to the ...
(banning slavery from the acquired territories) failed 15–38 on sectional lines.
The treaty was leaked to
John Nugent before the U.S. Senate could approve it. Nugent published his article in the ''
New York Herald'' and, afterward, was questioned by senators. He was detained in a Senate committee room for one month, though he continued to file articles for his newspaper and ate and slept at the home of the sergeant of arms. Nugent did not reveal his source, and senators eventually gave up their efforts.
The treaty was subsequently
ratified
Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties inten ...
by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 38 to 14 on 10 March 1848 and by Mexico through a
legislative
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government.
Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...
vote of 51 to 34 and a Senate vote of 33 to 4, on 19 May 1848. News that New Mexico's legislative assembly had just passed an act for organization of a U.S. territorial government helped ease Mexican concern about abandoning the people of New Mexico. The treaty was formally proclaimed on 4 July 1848.
Protocol of Querétaro
On 30 May 1848, when the two countries exchanged ratifications of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, they further negotiated a three-article protocol to explain the amendments. The first article stated that the original Article IX of the treaty, although replaced by Article III of the
Treaty of Louisiana, would still confer the rights delineated in Article IX. The second article confirmed the legitimacy of land grants pursuant to Mexican law.
[Treaty of Hidalgo, Protocol of Querétaro.](_blank)
From: academic.udayton.edu. Retrieved 6 November 2007.
The protocol further noted that said explanations had been accepted by the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Mexican Government,
and was signed in
Querétaro by A. H. Sevier,
Nathan Clifford
Nathan Clifford (August 18, 1803 – July 25, 1881) was an American statesman, diplomat and jurist.
Clifford is one of the few people who have served in all three branches of the U.S. federal government. He represented Maine in the U.S. H ...
and
Luis de la Rosa
Luis de la Rosa is a Mexican actor, best known for his role as Mexican singer Luis Miguel as a teenager in the biographical drama series '' Luis Miguel: The Series'', and as Bruno Riquelme de la Mora in '' The House of Flowers'', both producti ...
.
The U.S. would later go on to ignore the protocol on the grounds that the U.S. representatives had over-reached their authority in agreeing to it.
Treaty of Mesilla
The
Treaty of Mesilla, which concluded the Gadsden purchase of 1854, had significant implications for the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Article II of the treaty annulled article XI of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and article IV further annulled articles VI and VII of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Article V however reaffirmed the property guarantees of Guadalupe Hidalgo, specifically those contained within articles VIII and IX.
Effects
![Mexican Cession in Mexican View](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Mexican_Cession_in_Mexican_View.PNG)
In addition to the sale of land, the treaty also provided for the recognition of the Rio Grande as the boundary between the state of Texas and Mexico. The land boundaries were established by a survey team of appointed Mexican and American representatives,
and published in three volumes as The
United States and Mexican Boundary Survey
The United States and Mexican Boundary Survey (1848–1855) determined the border between the United States and Mexico as defined in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which had ended the Mexican–American War. The results of the survey were publis ...
. On 30 December 1853, the countries by agreement altered the border from the initial one by increasing the number of border markers from 6 to 53.
Most of these markers were simply piles of stones.
Two later conventions, in 1882 and 1889, further clarified the boundaries, as some of the markers had been moved or destroyed.
Photographers were brought in to document the location of the markers. These photographs are in Record Group 77, Records of the Office of the Chief Engineers, in the National Archives.
The southern border of California was designated as a line from the junction of the Colorado and Gila rivers westward to the Pacific Ocean, so that it passes one Spanish league south of the southernmost portion of San Diego Bay. This was done to ensure that the United States received San Diego and its excellent natural harbor, without relying on potentially inaccurate designations by latitude.
The treaty extended the choice of U.S. citizenship to Mexicans in the newly purchased territories, before many African Americans, Asians and Native Americans were eligible. If they chose to, they had to declare to the U.S. government within a year the Treaty was signed; otherwise, they could remain Mexican citizens, but they would have to relocate.
Between 1850 and 1920, the U.S. Census counted most Mexicans as racially "white". Nonetheless, racially tinged tensions persisted in the era following annexation, reflected in such things as the
Greaser Act The Anti-Vagrancy Act, also known as the Greaser Act, was enacted in 1855 in California, by legalizing the arrest of those perceived as violating its anti-vagrancy statute.
The law is sometimes referred to as the Greaser Act because the law uses th ...
in California, as tens of thousands of Mexican nationals suddenly found themselves living within the borders of the United States. Mexican communities remained segregated ''de facto'' from and also within other U.S. communities, continuing through the
Mexican migration right up to the end of the 20th century throughout the Southwest.
Community property rights in California are based on Roman Catholic doctrine regarding marriage, and are a legacy of the Mexican era. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the property rights of Mexican subjects would be kept inviolate. The early Californians felt compelled to continue the community property system regarding the earnings and accumulation of property during a marriage, and it became incorporated into the
California Constitution.
Land gained by the United States
The US received the territories of
Alta California and
Santa Fe de Nuevo México. Today they comprise some or all of the U.S. states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming from the treaty.
Additional issues
Disputes about whether to make all this new territory into
free states or slave states contributed heavily to the rise in North–South tensions that led to the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
just over a decade later.
Border disputes continued. Mexico's economic problems persisted, leading to the controversial
Gadsden Purchase in 1854, intended to rectify an error in the original treaty, but led to Mexico demanding a large sum of money for the revision, which was paid. There was also
William Walker's short-lived
Republic of Lower California filibustering
A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent decision. It is sometimes referred to as "talking a bill to death" or "talking out ...
incident in that same year. The
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands () are an eight-island archipelago located within the Southern California Bight in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. The four Northern Channel Islands are part of the Transverse Ranges geologic province, ...
and
Farallon Islands are not mentioned in the Treaty.
The border was routinely crossed by the armed forces of both countries. Mexican and
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
troops often clashed during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
, and the U.S. crossed the border during the war of
Second French intervention in Mexico
The Second French Intervention in Mexico ( es, Segunda intervención francesa en México), also known as the Second Franco-Mexican War (1861–1867), was an invasion of Mexico, launched in late 1862 by the Second French Empire, which hoped to ...
. In March 1916
Pancho Villa
Francisco "Pancho" Villa (, Orozco rebelled in March 1912, both for Madero's continuing failure to enact land reform and because he felt insufficiently rewarded for his role in bringing the new president to power. At the request of Madero's c ...
led a raid on the U.S. border town of
Columbus, New Mexico
Columbus is a village in Luna County, New Mexico, United States, about north of the Mexican border. It is considered a place of historical interest, as the scene of a 1916 attack by Mexican revolutionary leader Francisco "Pancho" Villa that cau ...
, which was followed by
the Pershing expedition. The shifting of the Rio Grande since the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe caused a dispute over the boundary between the states of New Mexico and Texas, a case referred to as the
Country Club Dispute that was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927. Controversy over community land grant claims in
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
persists to this day.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo led to the establishment in 1889 of the
International Boundary and Water Commission
The International Boundary and Water Commission ( es, links=no, Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas) is an international body created by the United States and Mexico in 1889 to apply the rules for determining the location of their intern ...
to maintain the border, and pursuant to newer treaties to allocate river waters between the two nations, and to provide for flood control and water sanitation. Once viewed as a model of international cooperation, in recent decades the IBWC has been heavily criticized as an institutional anachronism, by-passed by modern social, environmental, and political issues.
Writing many years later, Nicholas Trist would describe the treaty as "a thing for every right-minded American to be ashamed of".
See also
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and related resources at the U.S. Library of Congress*
ttp://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=26&page=transcript Text of the Treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoCopy of Treaty, including sections stricken out by SenateU.S. General Accounting Office report on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, June 2004Library of Congress Guide to the Mexican WarOccupation and Aftermatha
A Continent Divided: The U.S.-Mexico War Center for Greater Southwestern Studies, the University of Texas at Arlington
Map of North America and the Caribbean at the time of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at omniatlas.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guadalupe Hidalgo
Treaties of the Mexican–American War
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History of the American West
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History of United States expansionism
1848 in Mexico
1848 in Alta California
1848 in California
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