The Gadsden Purchase: Its Timing and Impact on American Expansion

The Gadsden Purchase: Its Timing and Impact on American Expansion details the decisive 1853 land purchase that finalized the lower 48 United States and gave a southern sliver of the current day Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico for $10 million.

Called the James Gadsden purchase, after the name of the U.S minister that had negotiated the purchase, the impetus for this acquisition was America’s carving of a railroad route across as manifestation of America’s Manifest Destiny designs.

Through The Gadsden Purchase: Its Timing and Impact on American Expansion, the readers will learn how this event that is not widely known influenced the structure of the country and its economy.

The keyword, The Gadsden Purchase: Its Timing and Impact on American Expansion, pinpoints the focus of the study on the time-strategic implications and long-term effects of this territorial deal.

In The Gadsden Purchase: Its Timing and Effect on American Expansion, the acquisition that was concluded on the 30th of December 1853 under the presidency of Franklin Pierce expanded the United States with an additional 29,670 square miles ending border squabbles from the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

It was facilitated by the need for a southern route for a railroad that should link the Gulf Coast and California without having to go through rugged northern lands as suggested by the Secretary of War Jefferson Davis.

The deal was however criticised by the home front for its cost and betrayal of Mexico but it helped to enhance infrastructure development such as completion of Southern Pacific Railroad in 1880’s which boosted trade and migration. It also heightened arguments as to the expansion of slavery since the new territory was south of Missouri Compromise line.

Engaging with The Gadsden Purchase: Its Timing and Impact on American Expansion shows how this tactical purchase not only changed the face of the U.S borders but also shaped the economic and political climate to the Civil War.