State Cessions - Texas

Texas

Later in the 19th century, there was one more case of a State's ceding some of its land to the Federal Government. Before the Republic of Texas joined the United States in 1845, it claimed a good deal of land that had not been under the de facto control of the Texan government. Thus, there was a border dispute between Texas, Mexico, and Native American tribes that the U.S. Government inherited upon the annexation of Texas. This was one of the causes of the Mexican-American War of 1846 – 47 (with others including the western land greed of the U.S., and another being the Mexican refusal to sell the land to the U.S.) After the American victory in this War, the Mexican government recognized American sovereignty over the disputed Texan lands and also ceded/sold the land extending to west to the Pacific Ocean in addition. The Mexican government was paid $25,000,000 in the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848.

In addition, the maximalist land claims of the Republic of Texas did not set the northern and western borders of the State of Texas. Most, but not all, of its northern boundary had been set by a treaty between the United States and the Spanish Empire – along the Red River. The joint resolution of the United States that admitted Texas to the Union gave the Texas the right to divide itself up into no more than five states.

In an act of Congress, the Compromise of 1850, Texas gave up much of its proclaimed northern and western lands in return for debt relief, removing its conflicting claims from the U.S. territorial gains of the Mexican-American War. This ceded land eventually became portions of the states of Kansas (1861), Colorado (1876), Wyoming (1890), Oklahoma (1907), and New Mexico (1911).