The Gadsden Purchase, or Treaty, was an agreement between the United
States and Mexico, finalized in 1854, in
which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square
mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona
and New Mexico. Gadsden’s Purchase provided the land
necessary for a southern transcontinental railroad and attempted to resolve
conflicts that lingered after the Mexican-American
War.