Mexican California: The Heyday of the Ranchos

For a quarter century after the achievement of Mexican independence in 1821, California was a remote northern province of the nation of Mexico. Huge cattle ranches, or ranchos, emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. Traders and settlers from the United States began to arrive, harbingers of the great changes that would sweep California during the Mexican American War of 1846-1848.

Life in Mexican California
 Mexican Independence
 Secularization of the Missions
 Dividing the Spoils
 The Rancho Elite
 Native American Serfs
 Provincial Autonomy
 Trading Hides and Tallow
 Bull and Bear Fights
 A California Wedding

Harbingers of Change
 Sea-Otter Hunters
 Jedediah and the Beaver
 Richard Henry Dana
 The Donner Party
 The Jones Incident

Mexican American War
 A Loose Cannon
 The Bear Flag Revolt
 Lances at San Pascual
 Treaty and Transfer


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