Mexican-American War

The Mexican-American War was fought from 1846 to 1848 between the United States and Mexico, triggered by the United States' 1845 annexation of Texas and a disputed border along the Rio Grande, and resulted in a decisive American victory that permanently redrew the map of North America. Following a clash between American and Mexican troops in the disputed zone in April 1846, American forces under Zachary Taylor advanced into northern Mexico while a second force under Stephen Kearny occupied New Mexico and California; the decisive campaign came under Winfield Scott, who landed at Veracruz in 1847 and captured Mexico City itself by September. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war with Mexico ceding roughly half its territory, including present-day California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming, to the United States in exchange for a payment of fifteen million dollars. The war intensified American sectional conflict over whether the vast new territories would permit slavery, a tension that fed directly into the coming Civil War.