The Californias
The Californias
Las Californias | |
---|---|
Country |
|
U.S. state | California |
Mexican states | Baja California Baja California Sur |
Principal cities | |
Area | |
• Total | 569,329 km2 (219,819 sq mi) |
Population | |
• Total | 43,636,740 |
• Density | 77/km2 (200/sq mi) |
Mountain Daylight Time ) |
The Californias (
Originally a single, vast entity within the
Today, Californias is a collective term to refer to the American and Mexican states bearing the
Etymology
There has been understandable confusion about use of the plural Californias by Spanish colonial authorities. California historian
In very early times, while the country was supposed to be an island or rather several islands, it was commonly known by the plural appellation of "Las Californias" (The Californias). Afterwards, when its peninsular character was ascertained, it was called simply California; but the territory so designated was unlimited in extent. When the expeditions for the settlement of San Diego and Monterey marched, it was understood that they were going, not out of California, but into a new part of it. The peninsula then began to be generally spoken of as Antigua or Old California and the unlimited remainder as Nueva or New California, subsequently more commonly called Alta or Upper California. At the same time the old plural name of The Californias was revived, but with a more definite signification than before.[16]
History
The first attempted Spanish occupation of California was by the Jesuit missionary
Province of New Spain
In 1767, the
The more ambitious province name, Las Californias, was established by a joint dispatch to the King from
The single province was divided in 1804, into Alta California province and Baja California province.[18] By the time of the 1804 split, the Alta province had expanded to include coastal areas as far north as what is now the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. Expansion came through exploration and colonization expeditions led by Portolá (1769), his successor Pedro Fages (1770), Juan Bautista de Anza (1774–76), the Franciscan missionaries and others. Independent Mexico retained the division but demoted the former provinces to territories, due to populations too small for statehood.
Department of Mexico
Preceded by | Succeeded by | ||||||||||
|
|
Baja California
Baja California Sur
Nevada
Arizona
Utah
Wyoming
In 1836, the designation Las Californias was revived, reuniting Alta and Baja California into a single departamento (
California briefly achieved independence after the
Following Mexico's defeat in the war, most of the former Alta California territory was ceded on 2 February 1848 to the United States, under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The new Mexico–United States border was established slightly to the north of the previous Alta-Baja border, and the terms Las Californias and Alta California were no longer formally used. The areas in North America acquired by the U.S. were designated as unorganized "territory" under a military governor, pending re-establishment of civilian control and organization. California was the first section of the territory to achieve statehood, two years later.
Geography
The Baja California Peninsula is bordered on three sides by water, the Pacific Ocean (south and west) and Gulf of California (east); while Alta California had the Pacific Ocean on the west and deserts on the east. A northern boundary was established by the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819. That boundary line remains the northern boundary of the U.S. states of California, Nevada, and the western part of Utah.
Inland regions were mostly unexplored by the Spanish, leaving them generally outside the control of the colonial authorities.
Initial Spanish Colonialization (1767–1804) | Late Spanish Colonial Period – First Mexican Republic (1804–1835) | Centralist Republic of Mexico (1837–1847) | After Mexican–American War | Territory prior to statehood | Statehood |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Provincia de las Californias | Territorio de Baja California |
|
Territorio de Baja California (1824–1931) (with land transferred from Alta California)
|
Baja California Sur (1931–1974) | Baja California Sur (1974) |
Territorio Norte de Baja California (1931–1952)
|
Baja California (1952) | ||||
Territorio de Alta California | Mexican Cession (1848–1850) | California (1850) | |||
Nevada Territory (1861–1864)
|
Nevada (1864) | ||||
Utah Territory (1850–1896) | Utah (1896) | ||||
New Mexico Territory (1850–1866)
Arizona Territory (1863–1912) |
(Northern) Arizona (1912) | ||||
Utah Territory (1850–1868)
Wyoming Territory (1868–1890) |
(Southwestern) Wyoming (1890) |
See also
- List of governors in the Viceroyalty of New Spain
- Spanish missions in Baja California
- Spanish missions in California
- Indigenous peoples of California
- Population of Native California
- Indigenous peoples of Baja California
- Ranchos of California
- History of California
- History of California through 1899
- Territorial evolution of California
- Spanish colonization of the Americas
- The Canadas
- The Carolinas
- The Dakotas
- The Floridas
- The Virginias
References
- ^ "Wilson Center – Institute of the Three Californias" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
- ^ "Freemasons of California: Conference of the Three Californias". Archived from the original on 2018-07-12. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
- ISBN 978-0-87565-257-3.
- ^ Assembly, California Legislature (1942). Journal of the Assembly, Legislature of the State of California.
- JSTOR 25155757.
- ^ Two California, Three Religious Orders, and Fifty Missions
- ^ Staff, Liberation. "Two Californias meet at the border to demand justice for farm workers – Liberation News". Retrieved 2023-03-18.
- ^ "Missions of the Californias". CA State Parks. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
- ^ "Lieutenant-Governor of California: Commission of the Californias". Archived from the original on 2019-01-02. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
- S2CID 146950170.
- ^ "Video: Is this the first or last beach in the Californias?". Los Angeles Times. 2015-03-06. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
- ^ Farnham, Thomas Jefferson (1844). Travels in the Californias, and scenes in the Pacific Ocean. University of California Libraries. New York : Saxton & Miles.
- ^ School, Stanford Law. "The Case of the Pious Fund of the Californias. United States of America Vs. Republic of Mexico. Replication of the United States of America to the Answer of the Republic of Mexico". Stanford Law School. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
- ^ MexicoMatters – Economy of the Three Californias
- ^ LA Times – What the Baja Boom Means for Our State
- OCLC 21706930.
las californias.
- ^ Richman, I. B. (1965). California under Spain and Mexico, 1535–1847: A contribution toward the history of the Pacific coast of the United States, based on original sources, chiefly manuscript, in the Spanish and Mexican Archives and other repositories, pp.64–66. New York: Cooper Square Publishers.
- ^ 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.)
- ^ "Bear Flag Revolt | United States history".
- ISBN 0-405-09538-4
- ^ Chapman, Charles Edward (1973) [1916]. The Founding of Spanish California: The Northwestward Expansion of New Spain, 1687–1783. New York: Octagon Books. p. xiii.
Further reading
- Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1884). History of California: 1542–1800. The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft. Vol. 18. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Company.
- Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1886). History of California: 1801–1824. The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft. Vol. 19. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Company.
- Beebe, Rose Marie (2001). Lands of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535–1846. Berkeley: Heyday Books. ISBN 1-890771-48-1.
- Bouvier, Virginia Marie (2001). Women and the Conquest of California, 1542–1840: Codes of Silence. Tucson: University of Arizona. ISBN 978-0-8165-2446-4.
- Chapman, Charles E. (1916). The Founding of Spanish California: The Northwestward Expansion of New Spain, 1687–1783. New York: Macmillan.
- Chapman, Charles E. (1921). A History of California: The Spanish Period. New York: Macmillan.
- Forbes, Alexander (1919) [1839]. California: A History of Upper and Lower California from Their First Discovery to the Present Time. San Francisco: Thomas C. Russell.
- González Cruz, Edith; Altable, María Eugenia, eds. (2003). Historia general de Baja California Sur: Los procesos políticos. Vol. 2. Mexico City: Plaza y Valdes. ISBN 970-722-199-2.
- María Luisa Rodríguez-Sala; Karina Neria (2003). Los gobernadores de las Californias, 1767–1804: contribuciones a la expansión territorial y del conocimiento (in Spanish). Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, UNAM. ISBN 978-9-703-20277-5.