Gadsden Purchase

The Gadsden Purchase was a 30,000,000-square-mile strip of land that is today's southern Arizona and New Mexico. The Gadsden Purchase was, in a way, a result of the Transcontinental Railroad. The Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad that essentially attached the coasts and the Gadsden Purchase was needed because the railroad went into those regions. So Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, sent James Gadsden, who was a strong supporter of the South's interests and a South Carolina politician, he was also a railroad promoter, to go to Mexico and buy the land needed from the Mexican leader, Santa Anna. In 1853, Santa Anna agreed to sell the 30,000 square-mile strip for $10 million. This purchase assisted in the Civil War because it provided more land for the south for the benefit of the South, which, of course, angered the North.