Polk wanted more and more land so he decided that he would fight for California and New Mexico. The Mexican-American War first started on April 25, 1846 when Mexican soldiers shot, injured, and killed 16 American soldiers on our land. This was all because we both didn't know where the border should be. General Stephen Kearny lead the troops into battle. The Mexicans didn't want to fight, so we won the battle without firing a shot. Then we arrested General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo(who was the Mexican commander of Northern California.) and put him in jail. Within a week California was controlled by the U.S. Another fight happened and the United States won the land again. Then both Mexico and America both signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico said that they would give us Texas and a large region of the Mexican Cession. The United States would then give them $15 million, we also promised to protect 80,000-100,000 Mexican the still lived in our new territory. But we did not keep most of the promises. Then the U.S. got more land from the Gadsden Purchase. We got a piece of land south of the Mexican Cession for only $10 million.
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