Gadsden Purchase

The Gadsden Purchase (Spanish: Venta de La Mesilla, lit. 'La Mesilla sale'), also known as the Treaty of Mesilla, is the acquisition of a 29,640-square-mile (76,800 km2) region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico by the United States from Mexico. The first draft was signed on December 31, 1853, by James Gadsden, US Minister to Mexico, and by Antonio López de Santa Anna, president of Mexico.