Gadsden Purchase

The Gadsden Purchase, made in 1853, was an agreement between the United States and Mexico in which the U.S. acquired a strip of land in present-day southern Arizona and New Mexico. This transaction, costing about $10 million, aimed to facilitate a southern route for a transcontinental railroad. The purchase was significant for expanding the U.S. territory and fulfilling its goal of Manifest Destiny, the 19th-century belief that the U.S. was destined to expand across the continent. It also contributed to tensions over slavery, as new territories spurred debates on whether they would allow the practice.