The Rio Grande, also known as the Rio Bravo del Norte or Rio Bravo, is one of the principal rivers of the American Southwest and northern Mexico. It begins in south-central Colorado and flows to the Gulf of Mexico, forming part of the US-Mexico border. At 1,896 miles in length in the late 1980s, the river was the fourth-longest river system in North America. In 1519, a Spanish naval expedition charted the mouth of the river, which it called the Rio Bravo, and the Rio Bravo appeared on a Spanish map for the first time in 1536. During the late 1830s and early 1840s, the Rio Grande marked the disputed border between Mexico and the Republic of Texas, and, following the Mexican-American War and the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the Rio Grande became the fixed boundary between the United States and Mexico from El Paso, Texas to the Gulf of Mexico.
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