California, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of other U.S. states were once a part of Mexico.
At the end of the Mexican War in 1848, Mexico gave the United States the land that is now California, Nevada, and Utah.
It also turned over most of Arizona and parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming.
In the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, Mexico sold the land that now forms southern Arizona and New Mexico to the United States for $10 million.
The purchase was the last major territorial acquisition in the contiguous United States, adding an area the size of Scotland to the United States’ area.
Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world.
