Chronology Of Californias Transition

Excerpt from The Transition Period of California: From a Province of Mexico in 1846 to a State of the American Union in 1850 The writer's home was in Monterey in 1849. It was then the capital of the territory and the head quarters oi the United States army. The governor and his staff resided there, and there were the offices of the civil government. The officers and their employees constituted the larger part of the English-speaking portion of the population, and among them the very important questions concerning a Civil government to take the place of military rule, which was now at an end, were constantly discussed. Although my vocation as a clergyman left me little time to look into these things, I became very much interested in them, and in all that pertained to the history of this new country to which I had come. I took every Opportunity to gather information from those who had been long residents here, and carefully preserved such historical papers and documents as fell into my hands. All the events that led up to the calling of the convention which formed the state constitution in September, 1849, were familiar to me, and being connected with that body as chaplain, all its proceedings were familiar also. I never had time, however, in a busy life that followed, to make any use of the historical materials that had accumulated by the way, till within a few years past. Then, in looking over events in the past perspective, it seemed clear to me that the transition of California from its connection with Mexico to become one of the United States of America, especially at the time at which this took place, and under the unprecedented circumstances which surrounded it, and in view of the amazing consequences that followed, made it an event that ought to be considered by itself. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

"This volume ... aims to complement the work of Dr. Charles E. Chapman, whose History of California : the Spanish period, has already been published."--Preface

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Antonio María Osio’s La Historia de Alta California was the first written history of upper California during the era of Mexican rule, and this is its first complete English translation. A Mexican-Californian, government official, and the landowner of Angel Island and Point Reyes, Osio writes colorfully of life in old Monterey, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and gives a first-hand account of the political intrigues of the 1830s that led to the appointment of Juan Bautista Alvarado as governor. Osio wrote his History in 1851, conveying with immediacy and detail the years of the U.S.-Mexican War of 1846–1848 and the social upheaval that followed. As he witnesses California’s territorial transition from Mexico to the United States, he recalls with pride the achievements of Mexican California in earlier decades and writes critically of the onset of U.S. influence and imperialism. Unable to endure life as foreigners in their home of twenty-seven years, Osio and his family left Alta California for Mexico in 1852. Osio’s account predates by a quarter century the better-known reminiscences of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and Juan Bautista Alvarado and the memoirs of Californios dictated to Hubert Howe Bancroft’s staff in the 1870s. Editors Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz have provided an accurate, complete translation of Osio’s original manuscript, and their helpful introduction and notes offer further details of Osio’s life and of society in Alta California.