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The
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
In November 1835, the northern part of the Mexican state of Coahuila-Tejas
declared itself in revolt against Mexico's new centralist government headed
by President Antonio López de Santa Anna. By February 1836, Texans
declared their territory to be independent and that its border extended
to the Rio Grande rather than the Rio Nueces that Mexicans recognized
as the dividing line. Although the Texans proclaimed themselves citizens
of the Independent Republic of Texas on April 21, 1836 following their
victory over the Mexicans at the Battle of San Jacinto, Mexicans continued
to consider Tejas a rebellious province that they would reconquer someday.
In December 1845, the U.S. Congress voted to annex the Texas Republic
and soon sent troops led by General Zachary Taylor to the Rio Grande (regarded
by Mexicans as their territory) to protect its border with Mexico. The
inevitable clashes between Mexican troops and U.S. forces provided the
rationale for a Congressional declaration of war on May 13, 1846.
Hostilities continued for the next two years as General Taylor led his
troops through to Monterrey, and General Stephen Kearny and his men went
to New Mexico, Chihuahua, and California. But it was General Winfield
Scott and his army that delivered the decisive blows as they marched from
Veracruz to Puebla and finally captured Mexico City itself in August 1847.
Mexican officials and Nicholas Trist, President Polk's representative,
began discussions for a peace treaty that August. On February 2, 1848
the Treaty was signed in Guadalupe Hidalgo, a city north of the capital
where the Mexican government had fled as U.S. troops advanced. Its provisions
called for Mexico to cede 55% of its territory (present-day Arizona, California,
New Mexico, Texas, and parts of Colorado, Nevada and Utah) in exchange
for fifteen million dollars in compensation for war-related damage to
Mexican property.
Other provisions stipulated the Texas border at the Rio Grande (Article
V), protection for the property and civil rights of Mexican nationals
living within the new border (Articles VIII and IX), U.S. promise to police
its side of the border (Article XI), and compulsory arbitration of future
disputes between the two countries (Article XXI). When the U.S. Senate
ratified the treaty in March, it deleted Article X guaranteeing the protection
of Mexican land grants. Following the Senate's ratification of the treaty,
U.S. troops left Mexico City.
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