February 2, 1848
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican-American War in favor of the United States and adding an additional 525,000 square miles to United States territory, including the area that would become the states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, as well as parts of Colorado and Wyoming. President Polk ignited the Mexican-American War when he sent his Commanding General of the Army Zachary Taylor and his troops to claim territory along the Rio Grande River between the U.S. and Mexico. Polk insisted Mexico had invaded the U.S. when an earlier skirmish between American and Mexican troops erupted over the ill-defined territorial boundaries of Texas. Polk was a firm believer in America’s “Manifest Destiny” of increased U.S. territorial expansion in order to bring democracy and Protestant Christianity to a “backward” region.
