San Francisco Harbor in 1850
(3 years after California was captured from Mexico)
Monday, October 15, 2012
Exploration 7: The Claiming of California
The origin of California is mentioned at the beginning of chapter 19. The book describes how Americans poured into Mexican California and forced the Mexicans out, claiming California as part of the America. However, the occupation of California was not quite that simple. For the reason California came to be part of the U.S. is due to the Mexican-American war. During the war the U.S. Navy sailed into California and began a military campaign to take it from Mexico. The battle for California lasted about seven months. The story in Grapes of Wrath describes the take over of California as being a sort of migration of Americans, who then forced out the Mexicans. The truth is that California was taken by force during the war between the U.S. and Mexico. California became a state in 1850.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I never knew California was taken by war and force. That seems like one of those facts the government chooses not to talk about often or to teach to students in history classes.
ReplyDeletei cant imagine living somewhere where you would have been this crowded and had this many people around you all the time
ReplyDeleteCalifornia is my dream state, but if this is how it would be now I'd want to stay as far away from it as possible.
ReplyDeleteUSA! ... Hope that does not offend anyone.. I think that it was a little risky just taking the land away from people, but it did make more sense for California to be a part of the United States considering the geographic continuity. It would be tough to expand anymore than we already have, so it was a good place to just venture east and west than too far north and south.
ReplyDelete