Nuevo Laredo was part of the territory of the original settlement of Laredo (now in Texas) which was founded in 1755 by the Spaniard Don Tomás Sánchez in the northern part of the Rio Grande. The settlement's territory was granted to José de Escandón by the King of Spain, and the settlement's territory and population remained unified for 100 years, until the war of 1847, the Mexican–American War. In 1847, the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty divided the territory attached to Laredo between Texas and Mexico. New Laredo was founded on May 15, 1848, by seventeen Laredo families who wished to remain Mexican and therefore moved to the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. They identified with Mexico, its history and cultural customs, and decided to keep their Mexican citizenship. The founders of New Laredo even took with them the bones of their ancestors so they continued to rest in Mexican ground
