Alta California

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about a historical political entity. For other uses, see Alta California (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with the U.S. state of California or its region Northern California.
Alta California
Governor
 
• 1804–1814
José Joaquín de Arrillaga
(First Spanish governor)
• 1815–1822
Pablo Vicente de Solá
(Last Spanish governor)
• 1822–1825
Luis Antonio Argüello
(First Mexican governor)
• 1836
Nicolás Gutiérrez
(Last Alta California governor)
Historical era
Las Californias
1769
• Established
1804
August 24, 1821
• Disestablished
1836
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Province of the Californias
Department of the Californias
Department of ''Las Californias''
Today part ofUnited States

Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as Nueva California ('New California') among other names,

Las Californias, but was made a separate province in 1804 (named Nueva California).[1] Following the Mexican War of Independence, it became a territory of Mexico in April 1822[2]
and was renamed Alta California in 1824.

The territory included all of the U.S. states of

31st state
.

The

Pueblo peoples in the establishment of Alta California.[7]

Evidence of Alta California remains in the numerous Spanish place names of American cities such as

Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana, and Santa Rosa
.

History

Plans for colonization (1697–1769)

See also: Portolá expedition
Loreto, Mexico
) in 1697.

Father Eusebio Kino missionized the Pimería Alta from 1687 until his death in 1711. In 1697, a Jesuit expansion into California was funded and the Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó was established that same year.[8][9] 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 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.[10]

Don Fernando Sánchez Salvador 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."[11][12] 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.[10]

Spanish interest in colonizing Alta California was revived under the visita of

Russian colonization and maritime fur trading in Alaska, and the 1768 naval expedition of Pyotr Krenitsyn and Mikhail Levashov alarmed the Spanish government and served to justify Gálvez's vision.[14]

Spanish colonization (1769–1821)

Further information: Spanish missions in California and Ranchos of California
Spanish missions in Alta California
(outline of the present state of California).

The

water deprivation.[16]

The first Alta California mission was founded that same year adjacent to the village Mission San Diego de Alcalá, founded by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra and Gaspar de Portolá in San Diego in 1769.[17] 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[18] and the Pueblo de Los Ángeles at the village of Yaanga.[19] The first settlers of Los Angeles were African and mulatto Catholics, including at least ten of the recently re-discovered Los Pobladores.[20] Mission San Juan Capistrano was founded at the Acjachemen village of Acjacheme.[21] Mission San Fernando was founded at Achooykomenga.[22]

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.

Wá’peat, the chief of which refused to give them up.[26][27] 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.[28]

The precolonial Indigenous population of California is estimated to have numbered around 340,000 people, who were diverse culturally and linguistically.[29] From 1769-1832, at least 87,787 baptisms and 63,789 deaths of Indigenous peoples occurred, demonstrating the immense death rate at the missions in Alta California.[30] Conversion to Christianity at the colonial missions was often resisted by Indigenous peoples in Alta California.[31] 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.[31]

Establishment of ranchos

In 1784, the Spanish established the first rancho,

Californio culture.

Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, established in 1770, was the headquarters of the 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.[33][34]

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.

Ohlone against the Spanish settlers in nearby San José.[36] 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.[37]

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 (lower) California's as Palóu's division, while the division became the political reality under José Joaquín de Arrillaga, who would become the first governor of Alta California.[38][39]

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)

Mexico in 1838. From Britannica 7th edition.

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)

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] Laws were imposed by the central government without much consideration of local conditions, such as the Mexican secularization act of 1833,[15] causing friction between governors and the people.

In 1836, Mexico repealed the 1824 federalist constitution and adopted a more centralist political organization (under the "

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

Mexican governor of California
, who served until 1846 when the U.S. military occupation began.

Mexican–American War (1846–1848)

Main article: 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.

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

Río San Gabriel and 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 $15 million for the lands ceded
.

Governors

For Mexican governors see List of governors of California before 1850

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 the colony of Alta 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).[41][42][43]
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
Ivan Alexandrovich Kuskov, the founder of Fort Ross and, from 1812 to 1821, its colonial administrator. The Russian-American Company only controlled a small portion of the northern coast of California, while the entire territory was diplomatically recognized as territory of Mexico; this situation was terminated when 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. Bouchard claimed California on behalf of Argentina, but this claim was never recognized, even by the Argentine government.
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.
Flag of the United Mexican States (1823–64)
United Mexican States military, 1823, until January 13, 1847, at Los Angeles
.
1836 California Lone Star Flag Flag of California, for a few months in 1836, when Alvarado's coup declared independence from Mexico (the Declaration of Independence is available on Wikisource).
Bear Flag of the California Republic Bear Flag of the California Republic, June 14, 1846, at Sonoma until July 9, 1846. The California Republic was declared by American citizens who had settled inland (in the valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers), and it is thought that the inclusion of one star and one stripe was meant to highlight their American origins. The Republic's existence was never officially recognized by any other government.
28-star flag of the United States of America United States, 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.

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.[note 1]

Year Pop Spaniards/Mexican/Criollo % pop Mestizo, Castizo and other castes % pop Amerindians % pop Total Population Inhabitants per Sq.League
1769 + 300
(first foundation in Spanish California)[44] 		-
1779 500[45] - - -
1783 1,000[45] - - -
1790
(Revillagigedo census)[46] 		N/A
(by the late 1780s there were 1,137 Spaniards in Alta California[45]) 		- 18,780 09,8% (1793)[47] 2,052 - 300,000[48] 89.9% (1793)[47] 20,871 10
1800 1,800[49] N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
1810 2,000[45] N/A N/A N/A 250,000
(19,000 of whom were baptised)[45] 		N/A N/A N/A
1820 3,270[45] N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
1838 4,000 whites
(mostly being of Spanish origin and another 500 being foreigners; Faxon D. Atherton estimations (1982:206)[50]) 		N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
(in 1836, 29,000 people lived in Alta California according to El Diario Oficial of Mexico City (1836:180)[50] 		N/A
1845 7,300
(Weber estimations (1982:206),[50] although other sources indicated that in 1846 11,500 Californians were of Spaniard or Mexican descent[51]) 		N/A N/A N/A 150,000[48] N/A N/A N/A

Regions (1850 census)

Region Pop Mexican/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 1,147 N/A N/A N/A N/A
San Diego
 757 - - -
San José
 500 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Napa 405 - - -
San Luis Obispo 335 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
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
    Donald Duck in Old California! provided a glimpse into the lives of the Californios
    .

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Almost the entire Spanish and mixed-race population lived in present-day California.

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ California Septentrional ('Northern California'), California del Norte ('North California') or California Superior ('Upper California') were unofficial names.[1]
  2. great Sierra (Sierra Nevada)."[5]
  3. Baja California to an undefined north.[6]

Citations

  1. ^ a b Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1884). History of California. The History company. p. 68. without any uniformity of usage, the upper country began to be known as California Septentrional, California del Norte, Nueva California, or California Superior. But gradually 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, Nueva California became the legal name, as did Alta California after 1824.
  2. ^
    JSTOR 25613566
    . Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0520038754
    . Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  4. ISBN 1592233198
    .
  5. ISBN 0-405-09538-4
  6. ^ Chapman, Charles Edward (1973) [1916]. The Founding of Spanish California: The Northwestward Expansion of New Spain, 1687–1783. New York: Octagon Books. pp. xiii.
  7. OCLC 1048786636.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link
    )
  8. ^ See Bonialian, op. cit, p. 277; or in English book review by Duggan, op. cit.
  9. ^ 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, pages 215–216.
  10. ^
    ISBN 978-0-07-353464-0
    .
  11. ^ Plans for the Occupation of Upper California: A New Look at the "Dark Age" from 1602 to 1769 Archived 2016-04-06 at the Wayback Machine, The Journal of San Diego History, San Diego Historical Society Quarterly, Winter 1978, Volume 24, Number 1
  12. ^ The elusive West and the contest for empire, 1713–1763, Paul W. Mapp, Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture
  13. ^ Starr, California: A History, 31-32. Rawls and Bean, California: An Interpretive History, 33.
  14. ISBN 978-0-295-98249-6
    .
  15. ^ a b Ryan, Mary Ellen & Breschini, Gary S. (2010). "Secularization and the Ranchos, 1826–1846". Salinas, CA: Monterey County Historical Society. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  16. ^ "Kosa'aay (Cosoy) History". www.cosoy.org. Retrieved 2020-08-28.
  17. ^ Starr, California: A History, 35-36. Rawls and Bean, California: An Interpretive History, 37-39.
  18. ^ Peet, Stephen Denison (1881–82). Gatschet, Alb. S. (ed.). The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal. Jameson & Morse. p. 73.
  19. ^ Masters, Nathan (June 27, 2012). "El Aliso: Ancient Sycamore Was Silent Witness to Four Centuries of L.A. History". KCET.
  20. ^ "History". COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES. 2016-12-02. Archived from the original on 2020-10-11. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
  21. ^ Woodward, Lisa Louise (2007). The Acjachemen of San Juan Capistrano: The History, Language and Politics of an Indigenous California Community. University of California, Davis. pp. 3, 8.
  22. JSTOR 41172612
    .
  23. OCLC 1143823194
    . 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.
  24. S2CID 161256567
    .
  25. OCLC 42683042
    .
  26. ^ Sutton, Mark Q.; Earle, David D. (2017). The Desert Serrano of the Mojave River (PDF). Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly. p. 8.
  27. ^ Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, Volumes 25-26. Malki Museum. 2005. p. 19.
  28. S2CID 161847670
    – via JSTOR.
  29. S2CID 197573059
    , retrieved 2021-12-04
  30. OCLC 37418391.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link
    )
  31. ^
    OCLC 1143823194
    . 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.
  32. ISBN 978-0-405-11352-9
    .
  33. ^ Beebe, 2001, page 71
  34. ^ Fink, 1972, pages 63–64.
  35. ^ Milliken, 1995, page 2 footnote.
  36. ^ Milliken, 1995, page 72–73
  37. ^ Milliken, 1995, page 73, quoting Murguia and Pena [1782] 1955:400.
  38. ^ Field, Maria Antonia (1914). "California under Spanish Rule". Chimes of Mission Bells. San Francisco: Philopolis Press.
  39. ^ 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.)
  40. ^ See "República Centralista (México)" in the Spanish version of Wikipedia
  41. ^ "Biographical Notes: Sir Francis Drake" Wandering Lizard. Consulted on 2008-08-07.
  42. ISBN 978-1-74104-154-5
  43. ISBN 0-679-64240-4
  44. ^ Coulson, David P.; Joyce, Linda (August 2003). "United States state-level population estimates: Colonization to 1999" (PDF). USDA. p. 33.
  45. ^
    ISBN 9781506518763
    .
  46. ^ "New Spain (Mexico), 1790 Statistics Charts". 24 December 2013. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  47. ^ a b "Consideraciones sobre la población de la Nueva España (1793-1810)" Archived 2017-07-31 at the Wayback Machine, El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico, Retrieved on 24 July 2017.
  48. ^ a b "Resource 6-1a: California Population by Ethnic Groups, 1790-1880". Museum of California.
  49. ISBN 9781606941836
    .
  50. ^ a b c "National Historic Trail Feasibility Study and Environmental Assessment: Old Spanish Trail". University of Minnesota. Government Publications Library. July 2001. p. 40.
  51. ^ "California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849 to 1900. Other Californians". Library of Congress. Retrieved 11 August 2022.

Further reading

See also: Bibliography of California history

External links

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