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Following the victory of the United States in the Mexican-American War (1846-48), the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo resulted in Mexico ceding its northern holdings to the U.S., which includes the territories of California, Texas, and New Mexico. In addition to the Rio Grande, which is tied for the fourth-longest river in the U.S., New Mexico has four other main river programs: the Pecos, Canadian, San Juan, and Gila. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the southernmost element of the Rocky Mountains, run about north-south alongside the east side of the Rio Grande, in the rugged, pastoral north. The Pecos, which flows roughly parallel to the Rio Grande at its east, was a common route for explorers, as was the Canadian River, which rises in the mountainous north and flows east across the arid plains. Nearly bisecting New Mexico from north to south, the Rio Grande has performed an influential part in the region's record its fertile floodplain has supported human habitation considering the fact that prehistoric times, and European settlers at first lived exclusively in its valleys and along its tributaries. The Chihuahuan Desert, which is the major in North America, extends as a result of the south.