Alta California

This article is about a historical political entity. For other uses, see Alta California (disambiguation).
Alta California
Alta California  (Spanish)
Province in the Viceroyalty of New Spain
Territory and department in independent Mexico
←
1804–1848 →
Map of independent Mexico before 1848, with Alta California in red, showing the northern border established in 1819 by the Adams-Onis Treaty
Capital Monterey
36°36′N 121°54′W / 36.600°N 121.900°W / 36.600; -121.900Coordinates: 36°36′N 121°54′W / 36.600°N 121.900°W / 36.600; -121.900
Governor (See also complete list)
 • 1804–14 José Joaquín de Arrillaga
(first Spanish governor)
 • 1815–22 Pablo Vicente de Solá
(last Spanish governor)
 • 1822–25 Luis Antonio Argüello
(first Mexican governor)
 • 1845–46 Pío de Jesus Pico IV
(last Mexican governor)
Historical era Spanish colonization of the Americas
 • Las Californias 1769
 • Las Californias split into Alta and Baja 1804
 • Mexican independence August 24, 1821
 • Mexican-American War
    
May 13, 1846
 • Mexican Cession
    by treaty
February 2, 1848
 • California statehood
September 9, 1850
Population
 • 1847 85,000[1] 
Today part of  United States
-  California
-  Arizona
-  Nevada
-  Utah
-  Colorado
-  Wyoming

Alta California (English: Upper California) was a polity of New Spain, founded in 1769 by Gaspar de Portolá.[2] Alta California had an area comprising the modern state of California and other states to the east. In 1822, Alta California became the territory of Alta California Territory in independent Mexico.[3]

Neither Spain nor Mexico ever colonized much beyond the southern and central coastal area, so effective control never extended much beyond Sonoma in the north or the California Coast Ranges in the west. Most of interior areas such as the Central Valley and the deserts of California remained in de facto possession of indigenous peoples until later in the Mexican era when more inland land grants were made, and especially after 1841 when overland immigrants from the United States began to settle inland areas.

Large areas east of the Sierra Nevada and San Gabriel Mountains were claimed to be part of Alta California, but were never colonized. To the southeast, beyond the deserts and the Colorado River, lay the Spanish settlements in Arizona.[4][5]

Alta California ceased to exist as an administrative division separate from Baja California in 1836, when the Siete Leyes constitutional reforms in Mexico re-established Las Californias as a unified department. The areas formerly comprising Alta California were ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican–American War in 1848. Two years later, California joined the union as the 31st state. Other parts of Alta California became all or part of the later U.S. states of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Spanish colonization

The Spanish explored the coastal area of Alta California by sea beginning in the 16th century and considered the area a domain of the Spanish monarchy. During the following two centuries there were various plans to settle the area, none of which were effectively carried out. These included: (a) Sebastián Vizcaíno's expedition in 1602–03 preparatory to colonization planned for 1606–07 which was cancelled in 1608; (b) plans promoted by Father Eusebio Kino who missionized the Pimería Alta from 1687 until his death in 1711, (c) plans by Juan Manuel de Oliván Rebolledo in 1715 resulting in a decree in 1716 for extension of the conquest (of Baja California) which came to nothing; (d) Juan Bautista de Anssa's proposed expedition from Sonora in 1737; (e) a plan by the Council of the Indies in 1744; (f) and the one by Don Fernando Sánchez Salvador, who researched the earlier proposals and suggested the area of the Gila and Colorado Rivers as the locale for forts or presidios preventing the French or the English from "occupying Monterey and invading the neighboring coasts of California which are at the mouth of the Carmel River."[6][7] Alta California was not easily accessible from New Spain: land routes were cut off by deserts and often hostile Native populations and sea routes ran counter to the southerly currents of the distant northeastern Pacific. Ultimately, New Spain did not have the economic resources nor population to settle such a far northern outpost.[8]

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 Interior Provinces and push Spanish settlement further north.[9] In subsequent decades, news of Russian colonization and maritime fur trading in Alaska, and the 1768 naval expedition of Pyotr Krenitsyn and Mikhail Levashev, in particular, alarmed the Spanish government and served to justify Gálvez's vision.[10] To ascertain the Russian threat a number of Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest were launched. In preparation for settlement of Alta California, the northern, mainland region of Las Californias was granted to Franciscan missionaries to convert the Native population to Catholicism, following a model that had been used for over a century in Baja California. The Spanish Crown funded the construction and subsidized the operation of the missions, with the goal that the relocation, conversion and enforced labor of Native people would bolster Spanish rule.

The first Alta California mission and presidio were established by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra and Gaspar de Portolá in San Diego in 1769. The following year, 1770, the second mission and presidio were founded in Monterey.[11] In 1773 a boundary between the Baja California missions (whose control had been passed to the Dominicans) and the Franciscan missions of Alta California was set by Francisco Palóu. The missionary effort coincided with the construction of presidios and pueblos, which were to be manned and populated by Hispanic people. The first pueblo founded was San José in 1777, followed by Los Ángeles in 1781. (Branciforte, founded in 1797, failed to maintain enough settlers to be granted pueblo status.)

Spanish rule

By law, mission land and property were to pass to the indigenous population after a period of about ten years, when the natives would become Spanish subjects. In the interim period, the Franciscans were to act as mission administrators who held the land in trust for the Native 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.[12][13]

Map of N. America showing California when it was part of New Spain. Map dated 1789 from Dobson's Encyclopedia.

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 and between Natives and settlers arose. State and ecclesiastical bureaucrats debated over authority of the missions.[14] 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 against the Spanish settlers in nearby San José.[15] 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 Natives owned property and had the right to defend it.[16]

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 Alta (upper) and Baja (lower) California's official borders.[17]

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 1822, and Alta California became a territory of Mexico.

Ranchos

Main article: Ranchos of California

The Spanish and later Mexican governments rewarded retired 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. The construction, ranching and domestic work on these vast estates was primarily done by Native Americans, who had learned to speak Spanish and ride horses. Unfortunately, a large percentage of the population of Native Californians died from European diseases. Under Spanish and Mexican rule the ranchos prospered and grew. Rancheros (cattle ranchers) and pobladores (townspeople) evolved into the unique Californio culture.

Independent Mexico

Mexico in 1838. From Britannica 7th edition

Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821 upon conclusion of the decade-long Mexican War of Independence. As the successor state to the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Mexico automatically included the provinces of Alta California and Baja California as territories. With the establishment of a republican government in 1823, Alta California Territory, like many northern territories, was not recognized as one of the constituent States of Mexico because of its small population. The 1824 Constitution of Mexico refers to Alta California as a "territory".

In 1836, Mexico repealed the 1824 federalist constitution and adopted a more centralist political organization (under the Siete Leyes) that reunited Alta and Baja California in a single California Department (Departamento de las Californias).[18] The change, however, had little practical effect in far-off Alta California. The capital of Alta California Territory remained Monterey, as it had been since the 1769 Portola expedition first established an Alta California government, and the local political structures were unchanged. The 1824 constitution was restored in 1846.

A more important development was increasing resentment of appointed governors sent from distant Mexico City, who came with little knowledge of local conditions and concerns. Also, laws imposed by the central government without much consideration of local conditions, such as the Mexican secularization act of 1833, caused friction between governors and the people.

The friction came to a head in 1836, when Monterey-born Juan Bautista Alvarado led a revolt and seized the governorship from Nicolás Gutiérrez. Alvarado's actions began a period of de facto home rule, in which the weak and fractious central government was forced to allow more autonomy in its most distant department. Other Californio governors followed, including Carlos Antonio Carrillo, Alvarado himself for a second time, 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 Mexican governor of California, who served until 1846.

Mexican–American War

In the final decades of Mexican rule, American and European immigrants arrived and settled in 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.

Map of Mexico. S. Augustus Mitchell, Philadelphia, 1847. New California is depicted with a north-eastern border at the meridian leading north of the Rio Grande headwaters.

In 1846, following reports of the annexation of Texas to the United States, American settlers in inland Northern California formed an army, 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 Army and Navy entered into Alta California and overpowered the Mexican garrison and Californio militia units. The forces of the California Republic abandoned their independence and assisted the United States forces after their arrival. 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.

In southern California, the Californios formed defensive units, which were victorious in the Siege of Los Angeles, the Battle of San Pasqual and the Battle of Domínguez Rancho. But subsequent encounters, the battles of Río San Gabriel and La Mesa, were indecisive. The southern Californios formally surrendered with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. After twenty-seven years in 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 fifteen million dollars for the total lands ceded.

Spanish governors

For Mexican governors see List of pre-statehood governors of California

Flags that have flown over California

Cross of Burgundy flag of New Spain Spanish Empire, may have been flown by the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542, upon entering the bay of San Diego, and by the Portolá expedition that founded California in 1769.
St George's Cross flag of England St. George Cross of England, June 1579, voyage of the Golden Hind under Captain Francis Drake at Bodega Bay, Tomales Bay, Drakes Bay or Bolinas Bay (exact location disputed).[19][20][21]
Flag of Spain (1785–1873) October 1775, the Sonora at Bodega Bay, under Lt. Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra until 1821, when New Spain gained independence from the Spanish Empire.
Variant flag of Russia Russian-American Company, by Ivan Alexandrovich Kuskov, the founder of Fort Ross and, from 1812 to 1821, its colonial administrator. Note: There is an overlap of rule with the Mexican Empire (second item below), until the Russians sold Fort Ross in 1841 to John Sutter, and subsequently left the area in 1842.
Flag of Argentina on a ship from Argentina, by Hippolyte Bouchard, a French-born pirate who attacked Monterey Bay from November 24 to November 29, 1818 in order to annoy Spain, who ruled Argentina. Argentina never claimed California.
Flag of the First Mexican Empire (1821–23) First Mexican Empire, August 24, 1821, Mexico under Emperor Agustín de Iturbide (October 1822, probable time new flag raised in California) until 1823.
1836 California Lone Star Flag Flag of California, from 1836, when the Diputación, or Legislature, of California declared independence from Mexico (the Declaration of Independence is available on Wikisource). In 1838, Mexico recognized California as a "free and sovereign state." This flag was included in the flag of the "Republic of California" in 1846 and also in the U.S. state flag.
Bear Flag of the California Republic Bear Flag of the California Republic, June 14, 1846, at Sonoma until July 9, 1846.
28-star flag of the United States of America United States of America, July 9, 1846; see History of California.

For even more Californian flags see: Flags over California, A History and Guide (PDF). Sacramento: State of California, Military Department. 2002. 

In popular culture

See also

Spanish and Mexican control

Russian colonies

United States control

Notes

  1. ↑ "the American Conquest of California" Wilson, John L. Stanford University
  2. ↑ While Portolá was founding Alta or Nueve ("New") California, he was styled governor of "The Californias" until 1770, when Pedro Fages succeeded him as Governor of Alta California. The boundary between Alta and Baja California was shifted south from San Diego to Ensenada in 1804. This did not create any new polity; it just moved the border.
  3. ↑ The text of the 1824 Constitution of Mexico specifically rfers to "las ambas Californias," the two Californias because they were and had always been separate since 1770.
  4. ↑ José Bandini, in a note to Governor Echeandía or to his son, Juan Bandini, a member of the Territorial Deputation (legislature), noted that Alta California was bounded "on the east, where the Government has not yet established the [exact] border line, by either the Colorado River or the great Sierra (Sierra Nevada)." 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
  5. ↑ Chapman explains that the term "Arizona" not used in period. Arizona south of the Gila River was referred to as the Pimería Alta. North of the Gila were the "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 to an undefined north. Chapman, Charles Edward (1973) [1916]. The Founding of Spanish California: The Northwestward Expansion of New Spain, 1687-1783. New York: Octagon Books. pp. xiii.
  6. ↑ Plans for the Occupation of Upper California: A New Look at the "Dark Age" from 1602 to 1769, The Journal of San Diego History, San Diego Historical Society Quarterly, Winter 1978, Volume 24, Number 1
  7. ↑ The elusive West and the contest for empire, 1713–1763, Paul W. Mapp, Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture
  8. ↑ Starr, Kevin (2005). California: A History. New York: Modern Library. p. 28. ISBN 978-08129-7753-0.Rawls, James J.; Walton Bean (2008). California: An Interpretive History (9th ed.). McGraw Hill. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-07-353464-0.
  9. ↑ Starr, California: A History, 31-32. Rawls and Bean, California: An Interpretive History, 33.
  10. ↑ Haycox, Stephen W. (2002). Alaska: An American Colony. University of Washington Press. pp. 59–60. ISBN 978-0-295-98249-6.
  11. ↑ Starr, California: A History, 35-36. Rawls and Bean, California: An Interpretive History, 37-39.
  12. ↑ Beebe, 2001, page 71
  13. ↑ Fink, 1972, pages 63–64.
  14. ↑ Milliken, 1995, page 2 footnote.
  15. ↑ Milliken, 1995, page 72–73
  16. ↑ Milliken, 1995, page 73, quoting Murguia and Pena [1782] 1955:400.
  17. ↑ Field, Maria Antonia (1914). "California under Spanish Rule". Chimes of Mission Bells. San Francisco: Philopolis Press.
  18. ↑ See "República Centralista (México)" in the Spanish version of Wikipedia
  19. ↑ "Biographical Notes: Sir Francis Drake" Wandering Lizard. Consulted on 2008-08-07.
  20. ↑ Sterling, Richard and Tom Downs. San Francisco: City Guide. (Lonely Planet, 2004), 233–234. ISBN 978-1-74104-154-5
  21. ↑ Starr, Kevin. California: A History. (New York: Modern Library, 2005), 25. ISBN 0-679-64240-4

References

External links

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