1. Gadsden Purchase 1853

2. Gadsden Purchase 1853
Region in what is today southern Arizona and New Mexico.
Treaty was signed in 1853, but not ratified and signed by President Franklin Pierce until June 24, 1854.

3. Gadsden Purchase 1853
Bought from Mexico for $10 million; worked out by James Gadsden (U.S. Minister to Mexico) and Mexican president, Santa Anna.
Purpose: To provide land for transcontinental railroad (which was never built on this land).

4. Controversy
As originally envisioned, the purchase would have encompassed a much larger region, extending far enough south to include most of the current Mexican states of Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas as well as all of the Baja California peninsula.
Even the small strip of land that was ultimately acquired was enough to anger the Mexican people, who saw Santa Anna's actions as yet another betrayal of their country and watched in dismay as he squandered the funds generated by the Purchase. The Gadsden Purchase helped to end Santa Anna's political career.

5. US Map as of 1853
Even though the purchase was not used for its intended purpose, it marked the last of US continental territorial growth and set the present borders for the continental United States.

6. Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was completed on May 10, 1869, with the golden spike ceremonially driven at Promontory, Utah, after track was laid over a 1,756 mile (2,826 km) gap between Sacramento and Omaha in six years by the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad.

7. Transcontinental Railroad

8. Dates to Add to Timeline
1848 – Gold Discovered
1853 – Gadsden Purchase
– Millard Fillmore is president
– Franklin Pierce is president