Gadsden Purchase refused

[tom]

Suppose Mexico, for whatever reason, refused to sell the USA what is now southern Arizona. Would we have gone to war over it?

 

[Grey Wolf]

Suppose Mexico, for whatever reason, refused to sell the USA what is now southern Arizona. Would we have gone to war over it?

Nope. The Gadsden Purchase was entirely Mexican-originated, a scheme of Santa Anna's to get some money into the Mexican governmental coffers (and into his own). He even tried it again a couple of years down the line, but that time Congress refused to buy the land on offer (I forget where that was that time)

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

 

[David S Poepoe]

Gadsden proposed several different 'purchases' during the negotiations (the total acreage). There had been an early offer to purchase the entire Baja California peninsula as well, but Santa Ana was unwilling to sell that. Once that was decided upon the Santa Ana would sell land but Baja had to remain accessible through Mexican territory.

 

[DominusNovus]

Gadsden proposed several different 'purchases' during the negotiations (the total acreage). There had been an early offer to purchase the entire Baja California peninsula as well, but Santa Ana was unwilling to sell that. Once that was decided upon the Santa Ana would sell land but Baja had to remain accessible through Mexican territory.

Why were they so anal about Baja? I never got that. Whats in Baja thats so special? From what I've seen, its pretty empty. Is it simply the position?

 

[David S Poepoe]

Good Heavens! If I was a Mexican I would certainly lay into you. Does the phrase "So far from God, so close to the US" mean anything to you? National Pride is definately one thing. Perhaps getting whipped by the United States is another.

And it doesn't really matter, American ownership is only temporary - until the founding of Aztlan!

 

[Admiral Matt]

The way I read it, the first offer was Baja California and Sonora for 15 million*. The US was caught up in some budget debate or other and sent a negotiator down to see what he could get for 2/3 of that cost.

That wasn't enough for Baja and the Mexicans, as mentioned before, weren't willing to lose the land connection. So, since the Americans only really needed a little bit of land to run a railroad through, they settled for OTL's size.