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CALIFORNIA BRIEF HISTORY
California Under Mexican Rule
In 1821 Mexico gained its
independence from Spain. In 1825, after several years of local provisional
government, Alta California, as the region was then called, formally became a
territory of the Republic of Mexico.
Mexican-American
War Pictorial
A number of influential
Californians had disliked the wealth and power of the missions during Spanish
rule, and after Mexican independence protested to the Mexican authorities
against the missions. Eventually the new republic agreed to reduce the power of
the missions, and in 1833 the Mexican congress released Native Americans from
the control of the missions and opened mission lands for settlement by
Californians.
Most of the former mission lands
were given as grants to several hundred long-established families. Huge
semifeudal estates, known as ranchos, replaced the missions as the
dominant institution in California. Cattle raising, developed during the mission
days, was the main economic activity on the ranchos. Ranchos traded cattle
hides, tallow, horns, and pickled beef for processed food and manufactured goods
from foreign ships, including some from the United States.
During the period of Mexican
rule, which lasted into the 1840s, a series of largely bloodless uprisings broke
out in California. Sometimes these pitted the rancheros, or ranch owners,
against the Mexican authorities, but at other times they involved feuds between
rancheros themselves, who fought over land or issues of pride.
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