ANNEXATION, politically, the formal in corporation by a state with itself of previously under another government; usual' territory contiguous to itself or its colonial pee sessions, or an insular neighbor, but only be cause other annexations are rarely desired, net from any principle of international law.
annexation may be by purchase, peaceful err sion or conquest. Existing laws and local au thorities do not lose their binding force and time to obedience till the formal act of annexation I, passed by the new power, or treaty or proclaie tion validates it,.even after cession by the old, though that cession cancels all legal relation the former sovereign power.
Annexations to the United States.—(1) The Louisiana Purchase (q.v.) from Napoleon. 1803; 1,171,931 square miles, including Alabacn and Mississippi south of lat. 31° S.; the whole of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, braska, North and South Dakota, Idaho, Mon tana, Oregon, Washington and Indian Tern tory ; Colorado and Wyoming east of the Rocky Mountains; Kansas, except the southwest por tion south of the Arkansas River, and Minne sota west of the Mississippi. This was bought by Jefferson's administration for $15,000,000, 750,000 of it in assumption of claims of Amer ican citizens against France. The preliminary convention was signed by Livingston and Moe roe 30 April 1803, and was confirmed by the Senate in special session 19 Oct. 1803, and by the House the 25th,— the extreme Federalists op posing it as unconstitutional, and the President acknowledging it to be so, but necessary.
(2) Florida (q.v.),. 1819-21, from Spain 59,268 square miles; price $5,000,000, entirely is assumption by the United States of claims of its citizens against Spain, and the relinquish ment by it of claim to Texas and the boundary of the Rio Grande. The treaty was signed by the Spanish Minister at Washington, 22 Feb 1819; Spain refused to ratify it till after twc years of vain insistence that the United should refuse to recognize the independence of the South American States.
(3) Texas (q.v.), 1845: 376,133square miles. Texas, originally part of the Mexican province of Coahuila, obtained its de facto independence in the War of 1836 against Mexico, was acknowl edged by the other powers in 1837, and at once began the attempts for admission into the United States which had been the ultimate ob ject of its first colonization by Southern settlers In the previous April a treaty of annexation with Texas had been concluded, but was re jected by the Senate. President Tyler on the
last day of his term sent a special messenger to secure the consent of the Texas Congress to annexation; it acceded unanimously, a popular convention of 4 July ratified the action, and the annexation was completed by a joint resolution of the United States House 16 Dec- 1845, and of the Senate on the 22d. It claimed west to the Rio Grande, taking in all the immemorially Spanish province of Coahuila, a circumstance which led to the Mexican War.
(4) New Mexico and Upper California, seized from Mexico in the War of 1847, and annexed by the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, 2 Feb. 1848: 545,783 square miles. Besides the present State of California it included Utah and Nevada, the most of Arizona and New Mexico and Colorado west of the Rocky Moun tains. Price, $15,000,000, and the assumption by the United States of $3,250,000 in claims 9f its citizens against Mexico. The portion of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande was claimed by Texas, which afterward received $10,000,000 from the United States in release.
(5) The Gadsden Purchase (q.v.), 1853, from Mexico: southern Arizona and New Mex ico from the Gila Valley to Chihuahua (the Mesilla Valley), 45,535 square miles; price $10,000,000.
(6) Alaska (q.v.), 1867; 590,884 square miles ; price, $7,200,000. Bought by the United States from Russia by treaty of 30 March, rati fied by the Senate in special session 20 June.
(7) Hawaii, 6 July 1898; 6,740 square miles; price, a compensation to the Queen, Liliuokalani, recently adjusted at $200,000. Annexed by a joint resolution of Congress.
(8) Porto Rico, the Philippine Islands and Guam of the Ladrone Islands, 1898; taken from Spain as the result of war; ceded by Treaty of Paris, 10 Dec. 1898; about 150,000 square miles; price, $20,000,000, plus $100,000 subsequently paid for two small Wands omitted from the treaty.
(9) Tutuila, with the smaller islets of Tau, Onesinga and Ofu, of the Samoan group, 1899; 54 square miles, including the harbor of Pago Pago; obtained by tripartite treaty with Great Britain and Germany.
(10) A number of small scattered islands in the Pacific, taken at different recent times, including Wake, January 1899. See UNITED