The least the USA would have taken during the Mexican-American War

Assuming "nothing" isn't a possibility - adjust the Texas-Mexico border to the Rio Grande and a few other small tweaks.

I doubt it would happen even if the US was ahistorically willing to do less than "as much as we can", but you asked what could be done, not what would be.
 
Assuming "nothing" isn't a possibility - adjust the Texas-Mexico border to the Rio Grande and a few other small tweaks.

I doubt it would happen even if the US was ahistorically willing to do less than "as much as we can", but you asked what could be done, not what would be.

edited OP filler
 
The Texan claim to the border, as well as California down to San Fransisco Bay. They wanted that harbor on the Pacific coast. After the settling of the Oregon dispute, they would have had one anyway, but that was not clear at the time.
 
The Texan claim to the border, as well as California down to San Fransisco Bay. They wanted that harbor on the Pacific coast. After the settling of the Oregon dispute, they would have had one anyway, but that was not clear at the time.

I agree. This was the minimum amount the US would have accepted. The US tried to get Mexico to agree to this before the war, and if Mexico accepted there would have been no war.

Once Mexico was utterly defeated though, it was all about how much the US could maximally extract with including the least amount of Spanish speaking population.
 
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