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Soon, a border dispute arose between Mexico and the United States, mainly with the United States wanting the Rio Grande to be the border between the two countries. The United States sent a delegation to Mexico to negotiate the purchase of territory to California, but they were refused. President Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga then seized power in Mexico, where he did not recognize Texas' independence from Mexico. Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor (himself a future president) to move into the disputed territory with Mexico along the Rio Grande, sparking the Mexican-American War. After some defeats by the Mexicans, Santa Anna returned to power but this did little to change the fortunes of the war for Mexico.
By 1848, Mexico had lost many of its key cities to the United States, although it fought some successful actions against the United States, forcing it to sign the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This effectively created many of the western states of the United States and the border with Mexico to be defined near its present boundaries. ====The Gadsden Purchase====
The 1854 Gadsden Purchase, which was the purchase of land in southern Arizona and New Mexico, created what is effectively the current boundaries between Mexico and the United States. The creation of the new states and the war itself were extremely controversial in the United States, only surpassed by the larger slavery issue, where many had felt the United States acted belligerently by starting the war and forcing Mexico to cede land.<ref>For more on the Mexican-American War, see: Nardo, D. (1999). <i>The Mexican-American War</i>. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books. </ref>
