What was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and what did Mexico lose?
Mexico loses half its territory: the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
La guerra con Estados Unidos y el Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo
2 February 1848. The United States annexed Texas in 1845 and, after a border clash on the Rio Grande, declared war on Mexico in 1846.
Draft: not yet checked against its sources.
Where: Mexico, The whole Spanish-speaking world, United States
What happened
The United States annexed Texas in 1845 and, after a border clash on the Rio Grande, declared war on Mexico in 1846. The treaty signed on 2 February 1848 at the town of Guadalupe Hidalgo, where the Mexican government had taken refuge, ceded about 55 per cent of Mexico's territory, more than 525,000 square miles: today's California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado and parts of three other states. The United States paid 15 million dollars and took on claims against Mexico. Mexicans in the ceded lands could stay and keep their property and had a year to choose their citizenship; the Senate struck out an article protecting their land grants before ratifying the treaty on 10 March 1848.
Say it
En 1848 México perdió más de la mitad de su territorio.
In 1848 Mexico lost more than half of its territory.
Why it matters
Tens of thousands of Spanish speakers became Americans overnight, the first Hispanic community of the United States. 'We did not cross the border, the border crossed us' is how their descendants put it, and the Spanish place names of the American West date from before 1848.
Read about it
Connected
- Spanish in the United States (1513–)
- The Caste War of Yucatán (July 1847–1901)
- Benito Juárez and La Reforma (1855–15 July 1867)
- Benito Juárez and La Reforma (1855–15 July 1867)
- Migration north and the Spanish of the United States (1942–)
- Before: The Caste War of Yucatán
- After: Benito Juárez and La Reforma
Sources
- Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) — US National Archives