Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was the treaty that ended the Mexican-American War. Under the treaty, Mexico surrendered a vast tract of land (known as the Mexican Cession) to the United States for a sum of USD $15 million.

The cession included parts of the modern-day states of Texas, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming, and the whole of California, Nevada, and Utah. The remainder of what are today the states of Arizona and New Mexico was later ceded under the 1853 Gadsden Purchase.

The treaty was signed at Villa Guadalupe, a few kilometers to the north of Mexico City, on February 2, 1848, and ratified by the United States Senate on March 10 and by Mexico on May 19, 1848.