Clash of Cultures & the Discovery of Gold      123456

The Struggle to Control California

While Smith, Fremont, and others were heading west, the governance of California was rapidly changing. Mexico gained freedom from Spain in 1821. Once the Republic of Mexico was established in 1824, California came under Mexican control. Many Californios — people of Spanish and Mexican heritage who lived in California — sought independence from the distant government in Mexico. California residents also demanded an end to the Church of Spain's control of the missions, and by 1834 the center of society and culture in California shifted from the presidios and missions to the pueblos and rancheros. Into this mix came the American explorers and trappers. Many Californios worried that the maps these frontiersmen were making would be used by the U.S. Army for territorial expansion. This was true in the case of the maps produced by John C. Fremont, who charted everything from trails and coastlines to mountain ranges.

The number of explorers and trappers in California grew in the 1830s. Independent fur trappers were replaced by new fur trading and trapping companies such as the Pacific Fur Company owned by John Jacob Astor. The profitability of the fur trade and the desire for new maps of the region — or routes through it — assured continual American incursions in California during the period from 1821–46, when the state was still a Mexican territory.