Thread: How California became US territory

How California became US territory
This is posted to use as evidence to show the trolls that claim the USA is Mexico. more info, can be found at...........
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0108187.html
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Although California was sighted by Spanish navigator Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542, its first Spanish mission (at San Diego) was not established until 1769. California became a U.S. territory in 1847 when Mexico surrendered it to John C. Frémont. On Jan. 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill, starting the California Gold Rush and bringing settlers to the state in large numbers. By 1964, California had surpassed New York to become the most populous state. One reason for this may be that more immigrants settle in California than any other state—more than one-third of the nation's total in 1994. Asians and Pacific Islanders led the influx.

Leading industries include agriculture, manufacturing (transportation equipment, machinery, and electronic equipment), biotechnology, aerospace-defense, and tourism. Principal natural resources include timber, petroleum, cement, and natural gas.

Death Valley, in the southeast, is 282 ft below sea level, the lowest point in the nation. Mt. Whitney (14,491 ft) is the highest point in the contiguous 48 states. Lassen Peak is one of two active U.S. volcanoes outside of Alaska and Hawaii; its last eruptions were recorded in 1917.

More importantly, California, like most of the rest of the Southwestern US, initially belonged to Spain, not to Mexico. Those areas, which had not been part of the Aztec or other Mesoamerican nations prior to colonial times, fell to Mexico only after Mexico revolted against Spanish rule. Most of those areas were not under Mexican rule for more than a few decades at most, and some far less than that. Even pinning down a date for Mexican independence is not as easy as many believe. Effective independence from Spain was first declared in 1821 when former Spanish general de Iturbide declared himself Emperor of Mexico as Augustin I. He was overthrown in 1823 after another revolt which created the United Mexican States. Felix Ferdinandez became that nation's first president under the name Guadalupe Victoria, but that government was overthrown by the republican forces, who made Bustamante president in 1830. He was overthrown by Santa Anna in 1832.

So in the very brief period following the collapse of Spanish rule, no less that three (four if you include the rule of Emperor Augustin) Mexican governments came and went under different forces with different regional and territorial claims. Texas declared its independence in 1836, not to become part of the US, but rather as a protest against the despotic rule of Santa Anna. So Mexico, as it exists today and it has existed historically, had never had any real claim to the American Southwest. It laid tenuous claim to former Spanish territories until the people of those regions cast off its corrupt rule somewhere between immediately and as soon as possible.

Thanks CG, I always enjoy detailed history lessons. That article is just a small portion of what can be found in the link..

Mexico controlled California a little over twenty years. In that time they did little except tick off the Indians native to the region. When we showed up many of the Indians sided with us and some say saved us in the Battle of San Pasqual.

It is a shame we are letting them down now.

http://www.militarymuseum.org/SanPasqual.html

Crockett is so knowledgable in this area (as well as others ). I recall he posted a very interesting map of the region showing who the true ingenous people of the region were too. Needless to say, it was not the Mexicans.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
1. In November 1835, the northern part of the Mexican state of Coahuila-Tejas declared itself in revolt against Mexico's new centralist government headed by President Antonio López de Santa Anna. By February 1836, Texans declared their territory to be independent and that its border extended to the Rio Grande rather than the Rio Nueces that Mexicans recognized as the dividing line. Although the Texans proclaimed themselves citizens of the Independent Republic of Texas on April 21, 1836 following their victory over the Mexicans at the Battle of San Jacinto, Mexicans continued to consider Tejas a rebellious province that they would reconquer someday.
In December 1845, the U.S. Congress voted to annex the Texas Republic and soon sent troops led by General Zachary Taylor to the Rio Grande (regarded by Mexicans as their territory) to protect its border with Mexico. The inevitable clashes between Mexican troops and U.S. forces provided the rationale for a Congressional declaration of war on May 13, 1846.
Hostilities continued for the next two years as General Taylor led his troops through to Monterrey, and General Stephen Kearny and his men went to New Mexico, Chihuahua, and California. But it was General Winfield Scott and his army that delivered the decisive blows as they marched from Veracruz to Puebla and finally captured Mexico City itself in August 1847.
Mexican officials and Nicholas Trist, President Polk's representative, began discussions for a peace treaty that August. [b]On February 2, 1848 the Treaty was signed in Guadalupe Hidalgo, a city north of the capital where the Mexican government had fled as U.S. troops advanced. Its provisions called for Mexico to cede 55% of its territory (present-day Arizona, California, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado, Nevada and Utah) in exchange for fifteen million dollars in compensation for war-related damage to Mexican property.
Other provisions stipulated the Texas border at the Rio Grande (Article V), protection for the property and civil rights of Mexican nationals living within the new border (Articles VIII and IX), U.S. promise to police its side of the border (Article XI), and compulsory arbitration of future disputes between the two countries (Article XXI). When the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in March, it deleted Article X guaranteeing the protection of Mexican land grants. Following the Senate's ratification of the treaty, U.S. troops left Mexico City.