We’ve all heard the claims that the United States stole California from Mexico and therefore in reality it belongs to Mexico.
Prior to the Spanish arrival in 1565 there were over
100 different tribes inhabiting what we know as California. Most were small
and the total population of the area is estimated to be approximately
300,000.
Although there were some minor explorations, and small
settlements, California remained largely
unexplored and unsettled by Spain for most of the next 200 years. This was due
to a combination of factors such as the distance from Spain, the strained
Spanish finances but also the fact that there were no pack animals, little
agricultural tradition, and a food supply that was less than appealing to
Spanish palates.
By the late 18th century however the Spanish
decided they needed to better organize their North American territories to
preempt incursions from other European powers, particularly the French and Russians.
As a result Spain began a more robust exploration of the state and would slowly
colonize it, setting up missions along the vast coastal areas.
By the early part of the 19th century however
Spain’s fortunes were changing, the empire was stretched too thin and after a
decade of fighting, Mexico gained
its independence in 1821. The new nation included what is today Mexico as
well as California and much of the American Southwest, stretching east to Texas
and north to Colorado. And here’s where
the rub in the argument that the United States stole California begins.
The population of California in 1800 was approximately
300,000 – almost all natives – essentially the same as it had been for
centuries. By
1848 however it had dropped to half of that due to disease, which was
responsible for 60-80% of the decline and the working to death or killing of
the natives by the Spanish.
California at the time of Mexico’s independence was already
sparsely populated, with just 200,000 people and that number was rapidly
shrinking. (For perspective, that’s ½ of
1% of today’s 40 million inhabitants.) Add to that the fact that Mexico could
barely be called a functioning country as in the 27 years from 1821 to 1848 it
had literally 40
different governments. As would seem obvious, the governments were
dysfunctional, had an incredibly large land mass to govern, little tax revenue
coming in and very limited finances with which to field an army to secure it,
nevermind carry out the minimum responsibilities of a government.
To better understand how dysfunctional and empty Mexico was
at the time take a
look at Texas. In 1835 Texas had a
population of less than 45,000 people, 30,000 of whom were Anglo settlers who’d
been given permission to settle the lands by the Mexican government. The remainder included approximately 7,000
Mexicans and 5,000 black slaves. Because of conflict with the Mexican
government on issues from slavery to religion, in October of that year Texas started
a war for independence and by March 1836 it had declared itself the Republic of
Texas. That could never have happened
had Mexico been able to populate the area on its own or keep it from breaking
away. But it couldn’t, so Texas was
born.
The American annexation of Texas a decade later in 1845 was
the catalyst that brought California to the United States. When the US annexed
Texas there was a dispute with Mexico as to exactly where the southern border
was. The Americans said it was the Rio Grande while the Mexicans said it was
the more northern Nueces River. After negotiations failed to reach an agreement
American troops marched to the Rio Grande to bolster the American claim. The
Mexicans, seeing this as an encroachment on their land, attacked the American
troops and the
United States then declared war.
The war, like the Texas war for independence, was short
lived, with hostilities ending in September of 1847, and resulted in Mexico
ceding California and much of what is today the Southwest of the United States,
as well as relinquishing all claims to Texas. At the same time the Americans
paid Mexico $15 million and assumed $3.5 million of debt owed to Americans by
Mexico. After negotiations of terms, The
Treaty of Hidalgo ending the war was signed in February 1848 and California
was admitted to the Union in 1850.
At that time California had a population of approximately
150,000, the majority of whom were the remnants of the native Indian tribes.
Over the next twenty years that native population would decline to
approximately 30,000, with diseases being the main cause, but with upwards of
20-25,000 being the result of intentional killings by the new settlers.
The year of 1848 was of course an important year for
California for another reason, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, and the
resulting whirlwind would bring over 300,000 prospectors and would be treasure
hunters into the state from across America and elsewhere. By the 1860
Census the population of the state was recorded as 379,000, 90% of whom were
white.
And here we get to the most interesting part of this
argument. If it were truly the case that California belonged to the people who
lived there previously, it most certainly wouldn’t be Mexicans. When California
became a state there were very few Mexicans living there and 50 years later
that had not changed. According to the Census
of 1900, California had a population of 1,485,000 people, of which only
8,086 were from Mexico. That’s less than 1% and only 2% of the foreign born.
Compare that to Brits at 85,000, Germans at 72,000, Chinese at 40,000 and half
a dozen other countries who had more than Mexico, including Italy, Ireland,
France, Sweden and even Switzerland with 10,000. Certainly some of the 1.1
million native born Californians may have had Mexican heritage, but based on
the 1860 Census, not very many did.
Which brings us to modern day California. Today 40% of the
state’s 40 million people are Hispanic, and if we suppose that 65% of those are
Mexican or of Mexican heritage, that would mean about 10 million people living
in California are of Mexican heritage.
Ten million is a big number, but the reality is, it doesn’t
do a single thing to support the notion that California belongs to Mexico or
that they are the original natives to California. They are clearly not. Almost
all of them, or their parents or grandparents came to the United States within
the last century, most likely during the last half century.
The reality is, Californians of Mexican heritage not only
have no more claim on California than anyone else, they actually have much less
than white and Asian families that go back to the 19th century. And
Mexico itself has no claims against California because their country was too weak
and dysfunctional to even maintain it, nevermind defend it.
The United States won California as a result of winning a
war, the way lands have changed hands for virtually all of human history. This latest attempt to undermine the
legitimacy of the United States in general and its western states in particular
is disingenuous at best and an outright lie at worst. But of course leftists
never let facts get in the way of a good victimization story…
Follow me on X at @ImperfectUSA
Originally published on June 14, 2025
https://thefederalist.com/2025/06/13/the-claim-that-america-stole-california-from-mexico-is-an-ignorant-lie/
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