Alta California (English: Upper California) was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, western Colorado and southwestern Wyoming. The territory passed to American control after the Mexican–American War and ceased to exist with the creation of the State of California in 1850.
Read more about Alta California: Spanish Colonization, Spanish Rule, Ranchos, Independent Mexico, Mexican–American War, Spanish Governors, Flags That Have Passed Over California, In Popular Culture
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“But why go to California for a text? She is the child of New England, bred at her own school and church.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)