What country did the present-day southwest belong to immediately before the united states took possession of it?

The Southwest belonged first to Spain, but after Mexico's independence, the territory ended in Mexican hands. So, Mexico owned the Southwest before the United States took possession of it.

where are the statements?

while it was true that the cotton gin reduced the labor of removing seeds, it did not reduce the need for slaves to grow and pick the cotton.

explanation:

before eli whitney's invention of the cotton gin, picking and cleaning cotton was a slow, labor-intensive job. workers, usually slaves, had to pick the seeds from the cotton fibers by hand. this invention made it possible to grow large amounts of cotton on big farms and make money.