New Mexico Territory

The New Mexico Territory was an organized territory of the United States, which existed 1850-1912. It was created on September 9, 1850 President Millard Fillmore and existed until New Mexico joined the Union as the 47th state on January 6, 1912.

The western part of New Mexico was created in 1848 by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the eastern New Mexico was added ( from Rio Grande to present-day New Mexico - Texas border) as a result of the Compromise of 1850 as a remainder. Through the Gadsden Purchase ( engl. Gadsden Purchase ) of 1853, the United States acquired from Mexico a territory of 77,700 km ² south of the Gila River, which is now the southern part of Arizona and New Mexico is to be a better route for a railroad to California, which, however, was never built to secure. This area was added to the New Mexico Territory.

The original New Mexico Territory from 1850 contained the western part of the future state, and most of the future Arizona Territory (better known as Santa Ana County), a small part of Colorado and Nevada south of 36 ° 30 ' N.

The assignment of Texas and the Gadsden Purchase extended the territory extraordinary, but the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861, and the Arizona Territory on February 24, 1863 ( west of the 109th meridian ) left the New Mexico territory in its limits later left as the state of New Mexico.

When connecting to California New Mexico and Arizona were hotly contested during the American Civil War, because the Gadsden settlers voluntarily joined the Confederate States of America. After the Battle of Glorieta Pass, the territory of the Union fell. The Confederate Arizona Territory was the first American state of Arizona.