View source for Alta California

{{Short description|Former province of New Spain and Mexico}}
{{About|a historical political entity}}
{{Distinguish|text=the U.S. state of [[California]] or its region [[Northern California]]}}

{{Infobox former subdivision
| conventional_long_name = Alta California
| common_name            = California
| image_map              = Alta California in Mexico (1824).svg
| subdivision            = Territory
| nation                 = Mexico
| era                    = [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish colonial era]]
| p1                     = Province of the Californias
| s1                     = Department of the Californias
| today                  = {{Tree list}}
*United States
** [[Arizona]]
** [[California]]
** [[Colorado]]
** [[Nevada]]
** [[Utah]]
** [[Wyoming]]
{{Tree list/end}}
| year_start             = 1804
| year_end               = 1836
| event_pre              = [[Province of the Californias|Las Californias]]
| date_pre               = 1769
| event_start            =
| date_start             =
| event1                 = [[Treaty of Córdoba]]
| date_event1            = August 24, 1821
| title_leader           = [[List of Governors of California before 1850|Governor]]
| leader1                = [[José Joaquín de Arrillaga]]<br />(first Spanish governor)
| year_leader1           = 1804–1814
| leader2                = [[Pablo Vicente de Solá]]<br />(last Spanish governor)
| year_leader2           = 1815–1822
| leader3                = [[Luis Antonio Argüello]]<br />(first Mexican governor)
| year_leader3           = 1822–1825
| leader4                = [[Nicolás Gutiérrez]]<br />(last Alta Californian governor)
| year_leader4           = 1836
| capital                = [[Monterey, California|Monterey]] {{small|(1804–1836)}}
| legislature            = [[Diputación de Alta California]]
| demonym                = [[Californio]]
| status_text            = [[Province]] of the [[Viceroyalty of New Spain]]<br />(1804–1821)<br />[[Province]] of the [[First Mexican Empire|Mexican Empire]] (1821–1824)<br />[[Territories of Mexico|Federal territory]] of [[First Mexican Republic|Mexico]] (1824–1836)
| image_flag             =
| flag                   =
| native_name_lang       = Spanish
| s2                     =
}}

'''Alta California''' ({{Langx|en|Upper California}}), also known as '''Nueva California''' ({{Langx|en|New California}}) among other names,{{efn|{{lang|es|California Septentrional}} ('Northern California'), {{lang|es|California del Norte}} ('North California') or {{lang|es|California Superior}} ('Upper California') were unofficial names.<ref name=Bancroft>{{cite book|last=Bancroft|first=Hubert Howe|title=History of California|url=https://archive.org/stream/historycaliforn08bancgoog#page/n166/mode/1up|year=1884|page=68|quote=without any uniformity of usage, the upper country began to be known as {{lang|es|California Septentrional}}, {{lang|es|California del Norte}}, {{lang|es|Nueva California}}, or {{lang|es|California Superior}}. But gradually {{lang|es|Alta California}} became more common than the others, both in private and official communications, though from the date of the separation of the provinces in 1804, {{lang|es|Nueva California}} became the legal name, as did {{lang|es|Alta California}} after 1824.|publisher=The History company}}</ref>}} was a province of [[New Spain]] formally established in 1804. Along with the [[Baja California peninsula]], it had previously comprised the province of {{lang|es|[[Province of Las Californias|Las Californias]]|italic=no}}, but was made a separate province in 1804 (named {{lang|es|Nueva California}}).<ref name=Bancroft/> Following the [[Mexican War of Independence]], it became a territory of [[First Mexican Empire|Mexico]] in April 1822<ref name="mfwilliams">{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Mary Floyd |title=Mission, presidio and pueblo: Notes on California local institutions under Spain and Mexico |journal=California Historical Society Quarterly |date=July 1922 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=23–35 |doi=10.2307/25613566 |jstor=25613566 |url=https://archive.org/stream/californiahisto1219cali_0#page/n34/mode/1up |access-date=4 June 2018}}</ref> and was renamed {{lang|es|Alta California}} in 1824.

The territory included all of the present-day U.S. states of [[California]], [[Nevada]], and [[Utah]], and parts of [[Arizona]], [[Wyoming]], and [[Colorado]]. The territory was {{Nowrap|re-combined}} with [[Baja California Territory|Baja California]] (as a single {{lang|es|[[departamento]]}}) in Mexico's 1836 ''[[Siete Leyes]]'' (Seven Laws) constitutional reform, granting it more autonomy.<ref name="Robinson79" /><ref>{{cite book |author=Yenne, Bill |title=The Missions of California |publisher=Thunder Bay Press |year=2004 |isbn=1592233198 |location=San Diego |page=18f}}</ref> That change was undone in 1846, but rendered moot by the outcome of the [[Mexican–American War]] in 1848, when most of the areas formerly comprising Alta California [[Mexican Cession|were ceded]] to the U.S. in [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo|the treaty which ended the war]]. In 1850, California joined the union as the [[order of U.S. statehood|31st state]].

The [[El Camino Real (California)|El Camino Real]] trail established by the Spanish extended from [[Mexico City]] west to [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]], and California, as well as east to [[Florida]]. To the southeast, beyond the deserts and the [[Colorado River]], lay the [[Arizona#History|Spanish settlements in Arizona]].{{efn|name="bandini"|José Bandini, in a note to [[José María de Echeandía|Governor Echeandía]] or to his son, [[Juan Bandini]], a member of the [[Diputación de Alta California]] (legislature), noted that Alta California was bounded "on the east, where the Government has not yet established the [exact] borderline, by either the Colorado River or the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|great Sierra]] (''Sierra Nevada'')."<ref>''A Description of California in 1828 by José Bandini'' (Berkeley, Friends of the Bancroft Library, 1951), 3. Reprinted in ''Mexican California'' (New York, Arno Press, 1976). {{ISBN|0-405-09538-4}}</ref>}}{{efn|Chapman points out that the term "Arizona" was not used in this period. Arizona south of the [[Gila River]] was referred to as the [[Pimería Alta]]. North of the Gila River were the "[[Hopi|Moqui]]", whose territory was considered separate from New Mexico. The term "the Californias", therefore, refers specifically to the Spanish-held coastal region from [[Baja California Province|Baja California]] to an undefined north.<ref>{{cite book | last = Chapman| first = Charles Edward| title = The Founding of Spanish California: The Northwestward Expansion of New Spain, 1687–1783| publisher = Octagon Books| year = 1973| orig-year= 1916| location = New York| page = xiii}}</ref>}} Spanish soldiers, settlers, and missionaries invaded the homelands of the [[indigenous peoples of California]], [[Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin|people of the Great Basin]], and the [[Pueblo peoples]] in the establishment of Alta California.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Forging communities in colonial Alta California |date=2018 |others=Kathleen L. Hull, John G. Douglass |isbn=978-0-8165-3892-8 |location=Tucson, AZ |pages=12–18 |oclc=1048786636}}</ref>

Evidence of Alta California remains in the numerous Spanish place names of American cities such as [[Monterey]], [[Las Vegas]], [[Los Angeles]], [[Sacramento]], [[San Bernardino, California|San Bernardino]], [[San Diego]], [[San Francisco]], [[San Jose, California|San Jose]], [[Santa Ana, California|Santa Ana]], and [[Santa Rosa, California|Santa Rosa]].

==History==
===Plans for colonization (1697–1769)===
{{see also|Portolá expedition|}}
[[File:Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto. Siglo XVIII.jpg|left|thumb|[[Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó]] was the first mission established in the Californias (present-day [[Loreto, Mexico]]) in 1697.]]
Father [[Eusebio Kino]] missionized the [[Pimería Alta]] from 1687 until his death in 1711. In 1697, a [[Jesuits|Jesuit]] expansion into California was funded and the [[Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó]] was established that same year.<ref>See Bonialian, op. cit, p. 277; or in English book review by Duggan, op. cit.</ref><ref>Kino, E. F., & In Bolton, H. E. (1919). ''Kino's historical memoir of Pimería Alta: A contemporary account of the beginnings of California, Sonora, and Arizona''. Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, pp. 215–216.</ref> Plans in 1715 by Juan Manuel de Oliván Rebolledo resulted in a 1716 decree for extension of the conquest (of Baja California) which came to nothing. [[Juan Bautista de Anza I|Juan Bautista de Anssa]] proposed an expedition from [[Sonora]] in 1737 and the [[Council of the Indies]] planned settlements in 1744, although these plans did not take action.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Starr |first=Kevin |url=https://archive.org/details/californiahistor00star |title=California: A History |date=2005 |publisher=Modern Library |isbn=978-08129-7753-0 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/californiahistor00star/page/28 28] |author-link=Kevin Starr |url-access=registration}}{{cite book |last=Rawls |first=James J. |title=California: An Interpretive History |author2=Walton Bean |date=2008 |publisher=McGraw Hill |isbn=978-0-07-353464-0 |edition=9th |page=29}}</ref>

Don Fernando Sánchez Salvador researched the earlier proposals and suggested the area of the [[Gila River|Gila]] and [[Colorado River]]s as the locale for forts or presidios preventing the French or the English from "occupying [[Monterey, California|Monterey]] and invading the neighboring coasts of California which are at the mouth of the [[Carmel River (California)|Carmel River]]."<ref>[http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/78winter/plans.htm Plans for the Occupation of Upper California: A New Look at the "Dark Age" from 1602 to 1769] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160406165803/https://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/78winter/plans.htm |date=2016-04-06 }}, ''The Journal of San Diego History'', San Diego Historical Society Quarterly, Winter 1978, Volume 24, Number 1</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=sbrx4Um1_hcC&pg=PA345 ''The elusive West and the contest for empire, 1713–1763''], Paul W. Mapp, Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture</ref> Alta California was not easily accessible from New Spain: land routes were cut off by deserts and Indigenous peoples who were hostile to invasion. Sea routes ran counter to the southerly currents of the distant northwestern Pacific. Ultimately, New Spain did not have the economic resources nor population to settle such a far northern outpost.<ref name=":0" />

Spanish interest in colonizing Alta California was revived under the ''visita'' of [[José de Gálvez]] as part of his plans to completely reorganize the governance of the [[Provincias Internas|Interior Provinces]] and push Spanish settlement further north.<ref>Starr, ''California: A History'', 31–32. Rawls and Bean, ''California: An Interpretive History'', 33.</ref> In subsequent decades, news of [[Russian colonization of the Americas|Russian colonization]] and [[Maritime fur trade|maritime fur trading]] in Alaska, and the 1768 naval expedition of [[Pyotr Krenitsyn]] and [[Mikhail Levashov (sailor)|Mikhail Levashov]] alarmed the Spanish government and served to justify Gálvez's vision.<ref name="haycox">{{cite book |last=Haycox |first=Stephen W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8yu3pYpzLdUC&pg=PA59 |title=Alaska: An American Colony |publisher=University of Washington Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-295-98249-6 |pages=59–60}}</ref>

===Spanish colonization (1769–1821)===
{{Further information|Spanish missions in California|Ranchos of California}}
[[File:SpanishMissionsinCA.png|left|thumb|The 21 [[Spanish missions in Alta California]] (outline of the present state of California).]]

The [[Portolá expedition]] was the first European land-entry expedition into the area that is now California. The missionaries and soldiers encountered numerous [[Indigenous peoples of California|Indigenous peoples of the area]], who became the primary subjects of the expanding [[Jesuit]] and [[Franciscan]] missions that were already established in [[Baja California]] and [[Baja California Sur]].<ref name="Robinson79">{{cite book | author = Robinson, William Wilcox | year = 1979 | title = Land in California: The Story of Mission Lands, Ranchos, Squatters, Mining Claims, Railroad Grants, Land Scrip, Homesteads | location = Berkeley| publisher = University of California Press | series = Chronicles of California, Volume 419: Management of public lands in the United States | page = [https://archive.org/details/landincalifornia00robi/page/29 29] | isbn = 0520038754 | url = https://archive.org/details/landincalifornia00robi | url-access = registration | access-date = 30 May 2016 }}</ref><ref name="RyanBreschini10">{{cite web |author=Ryan, Mary Ellen |author2=Breschini, Gary S. |name-list-style=amp |year=2010 |title=Secularization and the Ranchos, 1826–1846 |url=http://mchsmuseum.com/secularization.html |access-date=30 May 2016 |publisher=Monterey County Historical Society |location=Salinas, CA}}</ref> The expedition first established the [[Presidio of San Diego]] at the site of the [[Kumeyaay]] village of [[Kosa'aay]], which became the first European settlement in the present state of California. At first contact, the villagers provided food and water for the expedition, who were suffering from [[scurvy]] and [[water deprivation]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kosa'aay (Cosoy) History |url=http://www.cosoy.org/History.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100607221122/http://www.cosoy.org/History.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 7, 2010 |access-date=2020-08-28 |website=www.cosoy.org}}</ref>

The first Alta California mission was founded that same year adjacent to the village [[Mission San Diego de Alcalá]], founded by the [[Franciscans|Franciscan]] friar [[Junípero Serra]] and [[Gaspar de Portolá]] in [[San Diego]] in 1769.<ref>Starr, ''California: A History'', 35–36. Rawls and Bean, ''California: An Interpretive History'', 37–39.</ref> Similar to the site of this mission, subsequent missions and presidios were often founded at the site of Indigenous villages. [[Mission San Gabriel Arcángel]] was founded at the [[Tongva]] village [[Toviscanga]]<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Peet |first=Stephen Denison |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ar0RAAAAYAAJ |title=The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal |publisher=Jameson & Morse |year=1881–82 |editor-last=Gatschet |editor-first=Alb. S. |page=73}}</ref> and the [[Pueblo de Los Ángeles]] at the village of [[Yaanga]].<ref name=":72">{{Cite web |last=Masters |first=Nathan |date=June 27, 2012 |title=El Aliso: Ancient Sycamore Was Silent Witness to Four Centuries of L.A. History |url=https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/el-aliso-ancient-sycamore-was-silent-witness-to-four-centuries-of-la-history |website=KCET}}</ref> The first settlers of Los Angeles were African and [[mulatto]] Catholics, including at least ten of the recently re-discovered [[Los Angeles Pobladores|Los Pobladores]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-12-02 |title=History |url=https://lacounty.gov/government/about-la-county/history/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201011204846/https://lacounty.gov/government/about-la-county/history/ |archive-date=2020-10-11 |access-date=2020-10-12 |website=County of Los Angeles  |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Mission San Juan Capistrano]] was founded at the [[Acjachemen]] village of [[Acjacheme]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woodward |first=Lisa Louise |title=The Acjachemen of San Juan Capistrano: The History, Language and Politics of an Indigenous California Community |publisher=University of California, Davis |year=2007 |pages=3, 8}}</ref> [[Mission San Fernando Rey de España|Mission San Fernando]] was founded at [[Achooykomenga]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Johnson |first=John R. |date=1997 |title=The Indians of Mission San Fernando |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41172612 |journal=Southern California Quarterly |volume=79 |issue=3 |pages=249–290 |doi=10.2307/41172612 |jstor=41172612 |issn=0038-3929|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

As the Spanish and civilian settlers further intruded into Indigenous lands and imposed their practices, ideas of property, and religion onto them backed by the force of soldiers and settlers, Indigenous peoples formed rebellions on Spanish missions and settlements.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Kling |first=David W. |title=A history of Christian conversion |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-006262-0 |location=New York |pages=344–345 |oclc=1143823194 |quote=Apart from a tiny minority who gave the clearest evidence of meaningful conversion... Overall, outright rejection and chronic resistance characterized the Indian response. [...] The Franciscans admitted as much, recording repeatedly the difficulty of convincing adult Indians to accept any aspect of Catholicism.}}</ref> A major rebellion at Mission San Gabriel in 1785 was led by the [[Medicine Woman|medicine woman]] [[Toypurina]].<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal |last=Hackel |first=S. W. |date=2003-10-01 |title=Sources of Rebellion: Indian Testimony and the Mission San Gabriel Uprising of 1785 |journal=Ethnohistory |language=en |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=643–669 |doi=10.1215/00141801-50-4-643 |issn=0014-1801 |s2cid=161256567}}</ref> Runaways from the missions were common, where abuse, malnourishment, and overworking were common features of daily life.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Pritzker |first=Barry |title=A Native American encyclopedia : history, culture, and peoples |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Barry Pritzker |isbn=0-19-513877-5 |location=Oxford |page=114 |oclc=42683042}}</ref> Runaways would sometimes find shelter at more distant villages, such as a group of runaways who found refuge at the [[Vanyume]] village of [[Wá'peat]], the chief of which refused to give them up.<ref name=":04">{{Cite book |last1=Sutton |first1=Mark Q. |url=https://www.pcas.org/documents/5323DesertSerrano.pdf |title=The Desert Serrano of the Mojave River |last2=Earle |first2=David D. |publisher=Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly |year=2017 |page=8}}</ref><ref name=":13">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JRErAQAAIAAJ |title=Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, Volumes 25–26 |publisher=Malki Museum |year=2005 |page=19}}</ref> Many children died young at the missions. One missionary reported that 3 of every 4 children born at Mission San Gabriel died before reaching the age of two.<ref name=":17">{{Cite journal |last=Singleton |first=Heather Valdez |date=2004 |title=Surviving Urbanization: The Gabrieleno, 1850–1928 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1409498 |journal=Wíčazo Ša Review |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=49–59 |doi=10.1353/wic.2004.0026 |jstor=1409498|s2cid=161847670|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The precolonial Indigenous population of California is estimated to have numbered around 340,000 people, who were diverse culturally and linguistically.<ref name=":1">{{Citation |last1=Jones |first1=Terry L. |title=The Native California Commons: Ethnographic and Archaeological Perspectives on Land Control, Resource Use, and Management |date=June 22, 2019 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15800-2_12 |work=Global Perspectives on Long Term Community Resource Management |volume=11 |pages=255–280 |editor-last=Lozny |editor-first=Ludomir R. |series=Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation |place= |publisher=Springer, Cham |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-15800-2_12 |isbn=978-3-030-15800-2 |access-date=2021-12-04 |last2=Codding |first2=Brian F. |editor2-last=McGovern |editor2-first=Thomas H. |s2cid=197573059|url-access=subscription }}</ref> From 1769 to 1832, at least 87,787 baptisms and 63,789 deaths of [[Indigenous peoples of California|Indigenous peoples]] occurred, demonstrating [[Spanish missions in California#Death rate at the missions|the immense death rate]] at the missions in Alta California.<ref name=":18">{{Cite book |title=Encomium musicae : essays in memory of Robert J. Snow |date=2002 |publisher=Pendragon Press |others=Robert J. Snow, David Crawford, George Grayson Wagstaff |isbn=0-945193-83-1 |location=Hillsdale, NY |page=129 |oclc=37418391}}</ref> [[Conversion to Christianity]] at the colonial missions was often resisted by Indigenous peoples in Alta California.<ref name=":73">{{Cite book |last=Kling |first=David W. |title=A history of Christian conversion |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-006262-0 |location=New York |pages=344–345 |oclc=1143823194 |quote=Apart from a tiny minority who gave the clearest evidence of meaningful conversion... Overall, outright rejection and chronic resistance characterized the Indian response. [...] The Franciscans admitted as much, recording repeatedly the difficulty of convincing adult Indians to accept any aspect of Catholicism.}}</ref> Many missionaries in the province wrote of their frustrations with teaching Indigenous people to internalize Catholic scripture and practice. Many Indigenous people learned to navigate religious expectations at the missions with complex social behaviors in order to maintain their cultural and religious practices.<ref name=":73" />

====Establishment of ranchos====
In 1784, the Spanish established the first rancho, [[Rancho San Pedro]], as a 48,000-acre site for [[cattle grazing]]. Nine ranchos were subsequently established before 1800.<ref name="Robinson">{{cite book |last=Robinson |first=William Wilcox |title=Land in California |publisher=Ayer Co. |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-405-11352-9}}</ref> Spanish, and later Mexican, governments rewarded retired ''[[soldado de cuera|soldados de cuera]]'' with large land grants, known as ''ranchos'', for the raising of [[cattle]] and [[sheep]]. Hides and [[tallow]] from the livestock were the primary exports of California until the mid-19th century. Similar to the missions, the construction, ranching and domestic work on these vast estates was primarily done by [[Indigenous peoples of California|Indigenous peoples]], who learned to speak Spanish and ride horses. Under Spanish and Mexican rule, the ranchos prospered and grew. ''Rancheros'' (cattle ranchers) and ''pobladores'' (townspeople) evolved into the unique [[Californio]] culture.[[File:Mission_San_Carlos_Borromeo_de_Carmelo_(Oriana_Day,_c.1877–84).jpg|thumb|left|[[Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo]], established in 1770, was the headquarters of the [[Spanish missions in California|Californian mission system]] from 1797 until 1833.]]
By law, mission land and property were to pass to the Indigenous population after a period of about ten years, when the Indigenous people would become Spanish subjects. In the interim period, the Franciscans were to act as mission administrators who held the land in trust for the Indigenous residents. The Franciscans, however, prolonged their control over the missions even after control of Alta California passed from Spain to independent Mexico, and continued to run the missions until they were secularized, beginning in 1833. The transfer of property never occurred under the Franciscans.<ref>Beebe, 2001, p. 71</ref><ref>Fink, 1972, pp. 63–64.</ref>

As the number of Spanish settlers grew in Alta California, the boundaries and natural resources of the mission properties became disputed. Conflicts between the Crown and the Church arose over land. State and ecclesiastical bureaucrats debated over authority of the missions.<ref>Milliken, 1995, p. 2 footnote.</ref> The Franciscan priests of [[Mission Santa Clara de Asís]] sent a petition to the governor in 1782 which stated that the [[Mission Indians]] owned both the land and cattle and represented the [[Ohlone people|Ohlone]] against the Spanish settlers in nearby San José.<ref>Milliken, 1995, pp. 72–73</ref> The priests reported that Indians' crops were being damaged by the pueblo settlers' livestock and that the settlers' livestock was also "getting mixed up with the livestock belonging to the Indians from the mission" causing losses. They advocated that the Indigenous people be allowed to own property and have the right to defend it.<ref>Milliken, 1995, p. 73, quoting Murguia and Pena [1782] 1955:400.</ref>

====Province of Alta California====
In 1804, due to the growth of the Spanish population in new northern settlements, the province of Las Californias was divided just south of San Diego, following mission president Francisco Palóu's division between the Dominican and Franciscan jurisdictions. Governor [[Diego de Borica]] is credited with defining the border between Alta (upper) and [[Baja California#History|Baja (lower) California]]'s as [[Palóu Line|Palóu's division]], while the division became the political reality under [[José Joaquín de Arrillaga]], who would become the first governor of Alta California.<ref name="booksDdb">{{cite book |last=Field |first=Maria Antonia |title=Chimes of Mission Bells |publisher=Philopolis Press |year=1914 |location=San Francisco |chapter=California under Spanish Rule |chapter-url=http://www.books-about-california.com/Pages/Chimes_of_Mission_Bells/Chimes_of_Mission_Chap_04.html }}</ref><ref>Bancroft, H. H. (1970). History of California: Vol. II, 1801–1824, pp. 20–21. Santa Barbara Calif.: Wallace Hebberd. (Note: Bancroft translated the names of the two new provinces as "Antigua" and "Nueva", but Richman uses Baja and Alta – as on the 1847 map of Mexico.)</ref>

The ''cortes'' (legislature) of [[New Spain]] issued a decree in 1813 for at least partial secularization that affected all missions in America and was to apply to all outposts that had operated for ten years or more; however, the decree was never enforced in California.

The [[Adams–Onís Treaty]] of 1819, between the United States and Spain, established the northern limit of Alta California at latitude 42°N, which remains the boundary between the states of California, Nevada and Utah (to the south) and Oregon and Idaho (to the north) to this day. Mexico won independence in 1821, and Alta California became a territory of Mexico the next year.

===Independent Mexico (1821–1846)===
[[File:Mexico1838.jpeg|thumb|left|Mexico in 1838. From ''Britannica'' 7th edition.]]

[[Mexico]] gained independence from Spain on August&nbsp;24,&nbsp;1821, upon conclusion of the decade-long [[Mexican War of Independence]]. As the [[Succession of states|successor state]] to the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Mexico automatically included the provinces of Alta California and Baja California as territories. Alta California declared allegiance to the new Mexican nation and elected a representative to be sent to Mexico City. On November 9, 1822, the first legislature of California was created, the [[Diputación de Alta California]].<ref name="mfwilliams"/> With the establishment of a [[First Mexican Republic|republican government]] in 1824, Alta California, like many northern territories, was not recognized as one of the constituent [[Political divisions of Mexico|States of Mexico]] because of its small population. The [[1824 Constitution of Mexico]] refers to Alta California as a "territory".

====Secularization of the missions (1833)====
[[File:Political divisions of Mexico 1836-1845 (location map scheme).svg|thumb|upright=1.75|Mexican departments created in 1836 (shown after 1845 Texas independence). [[Las Californias]] at far left in gray.]]

Resentment was increasing toward appointed territorial governors sent from Mexico City, who came with little knowledge of local conditions and concerns.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}} Laws were imposed by the central government without much consideration of local conditions, such as the [[Mexican secularization act of 1833]],<ref name = RyanBreschini10/> causing friction between governors and the people.

In 1836, Mexico repealed the 1824 federalist constitution and adopted a more centralist political organization (under the "[[Siete Leyes|Seven Laws]]") that reunited Alta and Baja California in a single California Department ({{lang|es|Departamento de las Californias}}).<ref>[[:es:República Centralista de México|See "República Centralista (México)" in the Spanish version of Wikipedia]]</ref> The change, however, had little practical effect in far-off Alta California. The capital of Alta California remained Monterey, as it had been since the 1769 [[Portola expedition]] first established a military/civil government, and the local political structures were unchanged.

The friction came to a head in 1836, when Monterey-born [[Juan Bautista Alvarado]] led a revolt against the 1836 constitution, seizing control of Monterey from [[Nicolás Gutiérrez]]. Alvarado's actions nearly led to a civil war with loyalist forces based in Los Angeles, but a ceasefire was arranged. After an unsettled period, Alvarado agreed to support the 1839 constitution, and Mexico City appointed him to serve as governor from 1837 to 1842. Other ''Californio'' governors followed, including [[Carlos Antonio Carrillo]], and [[Pío Pico]]. The last non-Californian governor, [[Manuel Micheltorena]], was driven out after another rebellion in 1845. Micheltorena was replaced by Pío Pico, last [[List of pre-statehood governors of California|Mexican governor of California]], who served until 1846 when the U.S. military occupation began.

====Early American interest in Alta California====
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left; font-size:87%;"
|style="background: #F0E68C" |'''Date'''||style="background: #F0E68C" |'''Timeline of events through 1841'''
|-
|width="80pt"|1816|| Thomas W. Doak from Boston became the first Anglo-American to settle in Spanish California after arriving in Monterey Bay aboard his ship, the ''Albatross''. He was baptized at San Carlos Mission in 1816 as Felipe Santiago and was employed at San Juan Bautista Mission in 1818.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Parker |first1=Robert J. |title=Larkin's Monterey Customers |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/41168001 |journal=The Quarterly: Historical Society of Southern California |pages=41–53 |language=en |doi=10.2307/41168001 |date=1 June 1942|volume=24 |issue=2 |jstor=41168001 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
|-
|09 Apr 1822||At the Governor's Hall in Monterey, a [[Californio]] Committee voted in favor of joining the newly independent [[First Mexican Empire]] ruled by [[Agustín de Iturbide|Emperor Iturbide]] in Mexico City.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bolton |first1=Herbert E. |title=The Iturbide Revolution in the Californias |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2505905 |journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review |pages=188–242 |doi=10.2307/2505905 |date=1919|volume=2 |issue=2 |jstor=2505905 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
|-
|1823||British-American [[Juan B. R. Cooper|John Rogers Cooper]] settled in Mexican California, arriving in Monterey Bay aboard his ship, the ''Rover''. He was the half-brother of [[Thomas O. Larkin]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nunis |first1=Doyce B. |last2=Larkin |first2=Thomas O. |title=Six New Larkin Letters |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41170073 |journal=Southern California Quarterly |pages=65–103 |doi=10.2307/41170073 |date=1967|volume=49 |issue=1 |jstor=41170073 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
|-
|04 Oct 1824||Mexico dissolved its monarchy and formed the [[First Mexican Republic]]. The new 1824 Mexican Constitution split [[Province of Las Californias|Las Californias]] into two provinces, Alta and Baja California, at the [[Palóu Line]].
|-
|27 Nov 1826||American fur trapper [[Jedediah Smith]] arrived at [[Mission San Gabriel Arcángel|San Gabriel Mission]]. Smith's party became the first Anglo-Americans to travel into California via a land trail from the U.S. He was detained and jailed in San Diego by [[José María de Echeandía|Governor Echeandía]] for illegal entry into Alta California. Echeandía ordered him to leave the same way he came to California. Smith, however, traveled into the [[Central Valley (California)|California Central Valley]] looking for the fabled [[Buenaventura River (legend)|Buenaventura River]]. Smith eventually left through [[Ebbetts Pass]] in spring 1827, becoming the first non-native to cross the [[Sierra Nevada]] mountain range.
|-
|19 Sep 1827||Jedediah Smith, leading a second California expedition, arrived at [[Mission San José (California)|Mission San José]]. He rendezvoused with his men after a Native American attack in the Mojave Desert. He was again arrested by Governor Echeandía for illegal entry and again released, after several English-speaking California residents vouched for him. Smith was ordered to leave and never return to California.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Woolfenden|first1=J.| last2=Elkinton |first2=A.| year=1983| title=Cooper: Juan Bautista Rogers Cooper, sea captain, adventurer, ranchero, and early California pioneer, 1791–1872 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xBg6AAAACAAJ| location=Pacific Grove, CA |publisher= Boxwood Press | pages=35–38 |isbn=0910286957}}</ref> Smith remained in California for months exploring the northern [[Sacramento Valley]] and left California into [[Oregon Country]].
|-
|12 Jan 1828||[[Treaty of Limits (Mexico–United States)|The 1828 Treaty of Limits]] was concluded at Mexico City. The treaty recognized the Mexico–U.S. boundary that had been established by the [[Adams–Onís Treaty|1819 Adams–Onís Treaty]] between Spain and the U.S.
|-
|1829||[[Abel Stearns]], an American trader, settled in the Pueblo de Los Angeles in 1829 and became a major landowner and cattle rancher and one of the area's wealthiest citizens.
|-
|31 Jan 1830||[[Antonio Armijo]] arrived at San Gabriel Mission, establishing a land route between the Mexican provinces of New Mexico and Alta California. His route, the southernmost and most direct, was known as the [[Old Spanish Trail (trade route)#Armijo Route|Armijo Route]] of the [[Old Spanish Trail (trade route)|Old Spanish Trail]].
|-
|11 July 1830||American fur trapper [[Ewing Young]], who had followed Jedediah Smith's trail, arrived at [[Mission San José (California)|Mission San José]] after a Mexican official who encountered him trapping in the Central Valley summoned him there. Young sold his fur pelts in San Francisco and Los Angeles, later returning to Taos, New Mexico, after his fur trading made him one of the wealthiest Americans in Mexican territory.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hill |first1=Joseph J. |title=Ewing Young in the Fur Trade of the Far Southwest, 1822–1834 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20610230 |journal=The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society |pages=1–35 |date=1923|volume=24 |issue=1 |jstor=20610230 }}</ref><ref name=HolmesCalif1>Holmes, Kenneth (1967) pp. 46–60</ref>
|-
|early 1831||[[William Wolfskill]], with a party of mountain men that included [[George C. Yount]], arrived in Southern California using Jedediah Smith's trail across the Mojave Desert, having left Taos, New Mexico, in September 1830. Later, after time spent hunting [[sea otters]] on the coast, Wolfskill returned to Southern California, while Yount decided to go north, and the two parted company. Yount settled in the [[Napa Valley]].
|-
|Apr 1832||[[Thomas O. Larkin]] settled in Alta California. His elder half-brother, pioneer businessman [[Juan B. R. Cooper|John Rogers Cooper]], had invited Larkin to join him, propelling Larkin to success and wealth. Larkin served as the only [[U.S. consulate|U.S. consul]] to Alta California during the Mexican era and was covertly involved in U.S. plans to annex California from Mexico.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of San Diego, 1542–1908 |url=https://sandiegohistory.org/archives/books/smythe/part2-2/ |website=San Diego History Center {{!}} San Diego, CA {{!}} Our City, Our Story |access-date=2 July 2023}}</ref>
|-
|1833||[[Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site|Bent's Fort]] was built on the Mexico-U.S. border adjacent to the [[Arkansas River]]. The fort was the only major Anglo-American permanent settlement on the Santa Fe Trail between Missouri and the Mexican settlements. It was destroyed in 1849.
|-
|Fall 1833||[[Benjamin Bonneville]] led a U.S. expedition to the Great Salt Lake area. He dispatched [[Joseph R. Walker]] to lead an auxiliary expedition into California, where he reached [[Half Moon Bay (California)|Half Moon Bay]] on November 20. Walker discovered a route along the [[Humboldt River]] across present-day [[Nevada]], as well as [[Walker Pass]] across the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]]. The path later became known as the [[California Trail]], the primary route for immigrants into California.  
|-
|14 Feb 1834||Joseph Walker party left California after camping for the winter under the authorization of California Governor [[José Figueroa]]. The Walker party rendezvoused with Bonneville in Utah, reaching him on July 12.
|-
|13 Apr 1834||Thomas O. Larkin's son, Thomas Oliver, Jr., was born in Monterey, the first child of U.S. parents born in California.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/larkin-thomas-oliver|title=Larkin, Thomas Oliver {{pipe}} NCpedia|website=www.ncpedia.org}}</ref> The mother of the child, Rachel Hobson Holmes, was the first American woman to live in California.<ref name=parker>{{cite book |last1=Parker |first1=Robert |title=The North Carolina Historical Review |date=1924 |publisher=Raleigh : North Carolina Historical Commission |pages=325–342 |url=https://archive.org/details/northcarolinahis1937nort/page/326/mode/2up |access-date=4 July 2023}}</ref>
|-
|06 Aug 1835||U.S. President [[Andrew Jackson]] sent [[Anthony Butler (diplomat)|Anthony Butler]] to Mexico City to negotiate the purchase of the Mexican provinces of [[Mexican Texas|Texas]], [[Santa Fe de Nuevo México|New Mexico]], and Alta California,<ref name="cleland 14 17">{{cite journal |last1=Cleland |first1=Robert Glass |title=The Early Sentiment for the Annexation of California: An Account of the Growth of American Interest in California, 1835–1846, I |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30234620 |journal=The Southwestern Historical Quarterly |pages=14–17 |date=1914|volume=18 |issue=1 |jstor=30234620 }}</ref> which the Mexican government refused. Jackson attempted to buy California two more times.
|-
|15 Dec 1835||General [[Antonio López de Santa Anna]] took power in a [[Coup d'état|coup]] and turned [[Centralist Republic of Mexico|Mexico]] into a [[unitary state]]. Alta California and [[Baja California Territory|Baja California territories]] were merged as the [[Las Californias#Department of Mexico|Department of Las Californias]] as part of the reforms made under [[Siete Leyes|Las Siete Leyes]], formalized under Santa Anna. 
|-
|03 Nov 1836||California interim Governor [[Nicolás Gutiérrez]], who had been sent directly from the centralist Mexican government, was ousted by local Californians after one [[cannon]] was fired. Californio [[Juan Bautista Alvarado]] was installed in his place by local Californians. 
|-
|07 Nov 1836||Led by [[Juan Bautista Alvarado]], a Californio independence movement against Centralist Mexico declared the independence of Alta California. Alvarado stated that Alta California was free and would sever her relations with Mexico until she ceased to be oppressed. A negotiated settlement led to Mexico's California territory becoming two departments, thus giving more autonomy to Californios. Mexico mandated that Alvarado remain governor of Alta California.
|-
|17 Jan 1837||Mexican President [[Antonio López de Santa Anna]] arrived in Washington D.C., after his liberation by Texian General Sam Houston, to request the mediation of the United States between Texas and Mexico. In expectation of his request, or after it was made, Jackson had drawn up the general terms upon which the U.S. government would assume the undertaking, in exchange for the sale by Mexico to the U.S. of a large amount of Mexican territory.<ref name="cleland 14 17"/>
|-
|Aug 1839||[[John Sutter]] began building [[Sutter's Fort]] on the bank of the American River near Sacramento. In the 1840s, Sutter's Fort became the largest concentration of Anglo-Americans in Mexican California.
|-
|1839||Governor Alvarado decreed that all foreigners who did not become Mexican citizens would be expelled from Alta California.
|-
|07 Apr 1840||General [[José Castro|Jose Castro]] arrested [[Isaac Graham]] and 60 conspirators in a plot known as the Graham Affair. 47 were found guilty. U.S. sloop of war ([[USS St. Louis (1828)|USS ''St. Louis'']]) was sent to defuse the situation between American settlers and Mexican Californios. The ship arrived in Monterey Bay on June 30, being the first American military ship to set anchor in California. U.S. marines landed on California soil, leading Castro to release prisoners. The sloop left California on July 5.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cleland |first1=Robert Glass |title=The Early Sentiment for the Annexation of California: An Account of the Growth of American Interest in California, 1835–1846, I |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30234620 |journal=The Southwestern Historical Quarterly |pages=21–23 |date=1914|volume=18 |issue=1 |jstor=30234620 }}</ref>
|-
|1840||[[Richard Henry Dana, Jr.]] published ''[[Two Years Before the Mast]]'', in which he described his sailing journey in Mexican California during 1834–1836. His book was the first to raise Anglo-American awareness of California for Americans on the east coast.
|-
|May 1841||[[Juan Almonte|General Juan Almonte]], Mexican minister of war, wrote to [[Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo]], comandante general of California, concerning the reported emigration of 58 families from Missouri and gave strict orders that every foreigner should be compelled to show a passport or leave the country. In the dispatch, Almonte enclosed a clipping from the ''National Intelligencer'' regarding "the convenience and necessity of the acquisition of the Californias by the United States". Almonte further warned Vallejo to put little trust in the alleged claim by the Americans that they were coming with peaceful intentions. Despite this command from Mexico City, the Californians showed little desire to molest the settlers from the United States.<ref name="cleland 26">{{cite journal |last1=Cleland |first1=Robert Glass |title=The Early Sentiment for the Annexation of California: An Account of the Growth of American Interest in California, 1835–1846, I |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30234620 |journal=The Southwestern Historical Quarterly |pages=26 |date=1914|volume=18 |issue=1 |jstor=30234620 }}</ref>
|-
|Jul 1841||American [[Peter Lassen]] was arrested at Bodega Bay, California, for illegally entering California.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bancroft|first=Hubert Howe|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofcal04bancroft|title=Bancroft's Works: History of California, Vol IV|publisher=A.L. Bancroft & Company|year=1886|location=San Francisco|page=121}}</ref>
|-
|Sep 1841||The [[United States Exploring Expedition]], on its world voyage under the command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, reached San Francisco Bay, with instructions from the U.S. government to survey the harbor.<ref name="cleland 26"/>
|-
|04 Nov 1841||[[Bartleson–Bidwell Party]], led by Captain John Bartleson and John Bidwell, arrived at [[Stone House of John Marsh|John Marsh's ranch]], becoming the first American emigrants to attempt a wagon crossing from Missouri to California.
|}

===Mexican–American War (1846–1848)===
{{main|Mexican–American War}}

In the final decades of Mexican rule, American and European immigrants arrived and settled in the former Alta California. Those in [[Southern California]] mainly settled in and around the established coastal settlements and tended to intermarry with the Californios. In Northern California, they mainly formed new settlements further inland, especially in the [[Sacramento Valley]], and these immigrants focused on fur-trapping and farming and kept apart from the Californios.
[[File:Map of Mexico including Yucatan and Upper California 1847.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|''Map of Mexico''. S. Augustus Mitchell, Philadelphia, 1847. New California is depicted with a northeastern border at the meridian leading north of the [[Rio Grande]] [[source (river or stream)|headwaters]].]]In 1846, following reports of the annexation of [[Texas]] to the United States, American settlers in inland Northern California took up arms, captured the Mexican garrison town of Sonoma, and declared independence there as the [[California Republic]]. At the same time, the United States and Mexico had gone to war, and forces of the [[United States Navy]] entered into Alta California and took possession of the northern port cities of Monterey and San Francisco. The forces of the California Republic, upon encountering the United States Navy and, from them, learning of the state of war between Mexico and the United States, abandoned their independence and proceeded to assist the United States forces in securing the remainder of Alta California. The California Republic was never recognized by any nation and existed for less than one month, but its flag (the "Bear Flag") survives as the flag of the State of California.

After the United States Navy's seizure of the cities of southern California, the Californios formed irregular units, which were victorious in the [[Siege of Los Angeles]], and after the arrival of the [[United States Army]], fought in the [[Battle of San Pasqual]] and the [[Battle of Dominguez Rancho|Battle of Domínguez Rancho]]. But the Californios were defeated in subsequent encounters, the battles of [[Battle of Rio San Gabriel|Río San Gabriel]] and [[Battle of La Mesa|La Mesa]]. The southern Californios formally surrendered with the signing of the [[Treaty of Cahuenga]] on January 13, 1847. After twenty-seven years as part of independent Mexico, California was ceded to the United States in 1848 with the signing of the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]]. The United States paid Mexico [[United States dollar#History|$15 million]] for the [[Mexican Cession|lands ceded]].

==Governors==
{{main|List of governors of California before 1850}}

==Pueblos==
Three civilian settlements (''pueblos'') were officially granted municipal status, recognized by the government. 
*[[Pueblo de Los Ángeles|Pueblo de la Reina de Los Ángeles]] (modern [[Los Angeles]])
*[[Branciforte|Pueblo de Branciforte]] (modern [[Santa Cruz, California|Santa Cruz]]
*[[History of San Jose, California|Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe]] (modern [[San Jose, California|San Jose]])

==Historic population figures==
===Population statistics of Alta California Province===
The data in this table includes California, Nevada, Utah and parts of Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming.{{#tag:ref|Almost the entire Spanish and mixed-race population lived in present-day California.|group="note"}}
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Year||Pop Spaniards/Mexican/[[Criollo people|Criollo]]||% pop||Mestizo, Castizo and other castes||% pop||Amerindians||% pop||Total Population||Inhabitants per Sq.League
|-
| 1769
!+ 300 <br /> (first foundation in Spanish California)<ref name="Coulson, Joyce 2003">{{cite web |first1=David P. |last1=Coulson |first2=Linda |last2=Joyce |title=United States state-level population estimates: Colonization to 1999 |date=August 2003 |publisher=USDA |page=33 |url=https://bivir.uacj.mx/Reserva/Documentos/rva2005128.pdf |access-date=2021-10-09 |archive-date=2021-10-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006235658/https://bivir.uacj.mx/Reserva/Documentos/rva2005128.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>  
!-
!
!
!
!
!
!
|-
| 1779
!500<ref name="Casado 2007">{{cite book|author= Matt A. Casado|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3atbDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT100|title=California Hispana: Descubrimiento, Colonización Y Anexión Por Los Estados|date=2017|page=| publisher=Palibrio |isbn = 9781506518763}}</ref>
!-
!
!-
!
!-
!
!
|-
| 1783
!1,000<ref name="Casado 2007"/>
!-
!
!-
!
!-
!
!
|-
| 1790<br /> ([[Juan Vicente de Güemes, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo|Revillagigedo]] census)<ref name="Revillagigedo Census">{{cite web|title=New Spain (Mexico), 1790 Statistics Charts |date=24 December 2013|access-date=23 December 2017 |url=http://vsalgs.org/stnemgenealogy/nwspstat.html |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224102407/http://vsalgs.org/stnemgenealogy/nwspstat.html |archive-date=24 December 2013}}</ref>
! [[N/A]]<br /> (by the late 1780s there were 1,137 Spaniards in Alta California<ref name="Casado 2007"/>)
!-
!18,780
!09,8% (1793)<ref name="Colegio de Mexico">[http://aleph.org.mx/jspui/bitstream/56789/29809/1/17-067-1968-0327.pdf "Consideraciones sobre la población de la Nueva España (1793-1810)"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731104825/http://aleph.org.mx/jspui/bitstream/56789/29809/1/17-067-1968-0327.pdf}}, ''El Colegio de Mexico'', Mexico, Retrieved on 24 July 2017.</ref>
!2,052–300,000<ref name="California museum">{{cite web|author= |url=http://explore.museumca.org/goldrush/curriculum/1stcalifornians/resourcesix.htm |title=Resource 6-1a: California Population by Ethnic Groups, 1790–1880 |publisher=Museum of California }}</ref>
!89.9% (1793)<ref name="Colegio de Mexico" />
!20,871
!10
|-
|1800
!1,800<ref name="Thompshon 2006">{{cite book|author= Linda Thompson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U21xDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA33|title=Los españoles en América: Spanish In America |publisher=Rourke Publishing|date=2006|page=33|isbn = 9781606941836}}</ref>
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
|-
|1810
!2,000<ref name="Casado 2007"/>
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!250,000<br />(19,000 of whom were baptised)<ref name="Casado 2007"/>
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
|-
|1820
!3,270<ref name="Casado 2007"/>
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
|-
|1838
!4,000 whites<br />(mostly being of Spanish origin and another 500 being foreigners; Faxon D. Atherton estimations (1982:206)<ref name="National Historic Trail"/>)
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A<br /> (in 1836, 29,000 people lived in Alta California according to ''El Diario Oficial'' of Mexico City (1836:180)<ref name="National Historic Trail"/>
!N/A
|-
|1845
!7,300 <br /> (Weber estimations (1982:206),<ref name="National Historic Trail">{{cite web|author= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7DNdqD66fugC&pg=PA40|title=National Historic Trail Feasibility Study and Environmental Assessment: Old Spanish Trail |publisher=University of Minnesota. Government Publications Library|date=July 2001|page=40}}</ref> although other sources indicated that in 1846 11,500 Californians were of Spaniard or Mexican descent<ref name="Other Californians">{{cite web|title=California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849 to 1900. Other Californians |website=[[Library of Congress]] |url=https://www.loc.gov/collections/california-first-person-narratives/articles-and-essays/early-california-history/other-californians/ |access-date=11 August 2022 }}</ref>)
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!150,000<ref name="California museum"/>
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
|}

===Regions (1850 census)===
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Region||Pop Mexican/[[Criollo people|Criollo]]||% pop||Mestizo, Castizo and other castes||% pop||Amerindians||% pop||Total Population||Inhabitants per Sq.League
|-
| [[Los Angeles]]
! 3,480  
!-
!
!
!
!
!
!
|-
|[[Monterey]]
!1,853
!-
!
!-
!
!-
!
!
|-
|[[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]]
!1,147
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!
!
!
!N/A
|-
|-
| [[San Diego, California|San Diego]]
! 757
!-
!
!-
!
!
!
!-
|-
|[[San José, California|San José]]
!500
!N/A
!N/A
!
!
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
|-
| [[Napa, California|Napa]]
!405
!-
!
!-
!
!
!
!-
|-
|[[San Luis Obispo, California|San Luis Obispo]]
!335
!N/A
!N/A
!
!
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
|-
|[[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]]
!186
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!
!
!N/A
|-
|Total
!8,663
!
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
!N/A
|}

==In popular culture==
* In the second half of the 19th century, there was a [[San Francisco]]-based [[newspaper]] called ''[[The Daily Alta California]]'' (or ''The Alta Californian''). [[Mark Twain]]'s first widely successful book, ''[[The Innocents Abroad]]'', was an edited collection of letters written for this publication.
* In the 1998 film ''[[The Mask of Zorro]]'', fictional former Governor Don Rafael Montero plans to purchase the area from Mexico to set up an independent republic, roughly corresponding to historical Alta California.
* The [[Carl Barks]] [[comic book]] ''[[Donald Duck in Old California!]]'' provided a glimpse into the lives of the [[Californios]].

==See also==
* [[History of California through 1899]]
* [[Territorial evolution of California]]
* [[Landing of the first Filipinos]]
* [[Bibliography of California history]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
===Footnotes===
{{notelist}}

===Citations===
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{See also|Bibliography of California history}}
* [http://quarriesandbeyond.org/states/ca/structures/pdf/album_of-views_of_the_missions_of_california_early_1890s.pdf ''Album of Views of the Missions of California''], Souvenir Publishing Company, San Francisco, Los Angeles, 1890s.
* Beebe, Rose Marie (2001). ''Lands of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535–1846''. Berkeley: Heyday Books. {{ISBN|1-890771-48-1}}
* Blomquist, L.R., A Regional Study of the Changes in Life and Institutions in the San Luis Obispo District, 1830–1850 (M.A. thesis, History Department, University of California, Berkeley, 1943). Source consulted by Ryan & Breschini (2010).
* Breschini, G.S., T. Haversat, and R.P. Hampson, A Cultural Resources Overview of the Coast and Coast-Valley Study Areas [California] (Coyote Press, Salinas, CA, 1983). Source consulted by Ryan & Breschini (2010).
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf3p3006vt/?query=California%2520Missions California Mission Sketches by Henry Miller, 1856] and [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf2k4002vx/?query=California%2520Missions Finding Aid to the Documents relating to Missions of the Californias : typescript, 1768–1802] at the [[Bancroft Library]]
* Fink, Augusta (1972). ''Monterey, The Presence of the Past.'' San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books. {{ISBN|978-8770107204}}
* {{cite web|last=Howser|first=Huell|title=Art of the Missions (110)|url=http://blogs.chapman.edu/huell-howser-archives/2000/12/08/california-missions-california-missions-110/|work=California Missions|publisher=[[Chapman University]] Huell Howser Archive|author-link=Huell Howser|date=December 8, 2000}}
* Milliken, Randall (1995). ''A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 1769–1910.'' Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication. {{ISBN|0-87919-132-5}}
* [http://quarriesandbeyond.org/states/ca/pdf_files/missions_of_california_e_l_smyth_1899.pdf ''The Missions of California''], by Eugene Leslie Smyth, Chicago: Alexander Belford & Co., 1899.

==External links==
* [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Mexico_spanish_provinces.html Worldstatesmen.org: Provinces of New Spain]
* Alta California [http://content.cdlib.org/search?facet=type-tab&relation=calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu&style=cui&newKeyword=land+case+maps&x=0&y=0land grants in] [[University of California|UC Library System ''Calisphere'']]
* [http://lib.berkeley.edu/EART/ranchos Mexican Land Grants of Santa Clara County] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160522014616/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/ |date=2016-05-22 }} at the [http://lib.berkeley.edu/EART/ University of California, Berkeley, Earth Sciences & Map Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160522014616/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/ |date=2016-05-22 }}
* [http://dspace.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/123817/McGovernCarolyn1978.pdf?sequence=1 Population in Alta California:1790–1830] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240624233236/https://dspace.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/123817/McGovernCarolyn1978.pdf?sequence=1 |date=2024-06-24 }}. California State University, Northridge 

{{New Spain topics}}
{{California history}}
{{Thirteen Colonies}}

<!-- Under Spanish rule, southern California and the ranchos prospered and grew with the missions. ''[[Californio]]'' cattle ranchers and the local people evolved into a different society from the northern American immigrant settlers of the fur-trapping and mining economy that developed in the [[Sacramento Valley|Sacramento River valley]]. This dichotomy of evolution was reflected during the Mexican–American War where the American immigrants of the north coveted the developed property, ranch lands, and personal riches of the more prosperous southern Alta California ''Californios'' and their vast ranchos. --> <!-- (Reference Historical California Adobes and Rancho San Pascual). Does not seem to belong-->

[[Category:Alta California]]
[[Category:New Spain]]
[[Category:Former Spanish colonies]]
[[Category:Former states of Mexico]]
[[Category:Modern Mexico]]
[[Category:Provinces of New Spain]]
[[Category:1804 in Nueva California]]
[[Category:1804 establishments in Nueva California]]
[[Category:1804 establishments in New Spain]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1804]]
[[Category:1846 disestablishments in Alta California]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1846]]
[[Category:Former territorial entities in North America]]
[[Category:Countries and territories where Spanish is an official language]]