Alta California

**Alta California** ('Upper California'), also known as **Nueva California** ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but was made a separate province in 1804 (named ). Following the Mexican War of Independence, it became a territory of Mexico in April 1822 and was renamed  in 1824.

The territory included all of the U.S. states of California, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Arizona, Wyoming, and Colorado. The territory was  with Baja California (as a single ) in Mexico's 1836 _Siete Leyes_ (Seven Laws) constitutional reform, granting it more autonomy. That change was undone in 1846, but rendered moot by the outcome of the Mexican–American War in 1848, when most of the areas formerly comprising Alta California were ceded to the U.S. in the treaty which ended the war. In 1850, California joined the union as the 31st state.

## Further reading

- _Album of Views of the Missions of California_, Souvenir Publishing Company, San Francisco, Los Angeles, 1890s.
- Beebe, Rose Marie (2001). _Lands of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535–1846_. Berkeley: Heyday Books.
- Blomquist, L.R., A Regional Study of the Changes in Life and Institutions in the San Luis Obispo District, 1830–1850 (M.A. thesis, History Department, University of California, Berkeley, 1943). Source consulted by Ryan & Breschini (2010).
- Breschini, G.S., T. Haversat, and R.P. Hampson, A Cultural Resources Overview of the Coast and Coast-Valley Study Areas [California] (Coyote Press, Salinas, CA, 1983). Source consulted by Ryan & Breschini (2010).
- California Mission Sketches by Henry Miller, 1856 and Finding Aid to the Documents relating to Missions of the Californias : typescript, 1768–1802 at the Bancroft Library
- Fink, Augusta (1972). _Monterey, The Presence of the Past._ San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.
- Milliken, Randall (1995). _A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 1769–1910._ Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication.
- _The Missions of California_, by Eugene Leslie Smyth, Chicago: Alexander Belford & Co., 1899.

## Other websites

- Worldstatesmen.org: Provinces of New Spain
- Alta California grants in UC Library System _Calisphere_
- Mexican Land Grants of Santa Clara County  at the University of California, Berkeley, Earth Sciences & Map Library
- POPULATION IN ALTA CALIFORNIA:1790-1830 . CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE

## Infobox (former subdivision)

- **conventional long name**: Alta California
- **common name**: California
- **image map**: Alta California in Mexico (1824).svg
- **subdivision**: Territory
- **nation**: Mexico
- **era**: Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonial era
- **p1**: Province of the Californias
- **s1**: Department of the Californias
- **today**: United States
* Arizona
* California
* Colorado
* Nevada
* Utah
* Wyoming
- **year start**: 1804
- **year end**: 1836
- **event pre**: Las Californias
- **date pre**: 1769
- **event1**: Treaty of Córdoba
- **date event1**: August 24, 1821
- **title leader**: List of Governors of California before 1850, Governor
- **leader1**: José Joaquín de Arrillaga
(First Spanish governor)
- **year leader1**: 1804–1814
- **leader2**: Pablo Vicente de Solá
(Last Spanish governor)
- **year leader2**: 1815–1822
- **leader3**: Luis Antonio Argüello
(First Mexican governor)
- **year leader3**: 1822–1825
- **leader4**: Nicolás Gutiérrez
(Last Alta California governor)
- **year leader4**: 1836
- **capital**: Monterey, California, Monterey
- **demonym**: Californio
- **status text**: Province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain
(1804–1821)
Province of the First Mexican Empire
(1821–1824)
Federal Territory of Mexico
(1824–1836)
- **native name lang**: Spanish