Events that were international in scope and of lasting effect spotlighted California during the 1840s. War between the United States and Mexico swept the Pacific province into America's hands. Shortly after hostilities ended, miners from all over the world rushed into California, dramatically expanding and diversifying the population and shaping the future of what came to be known as the Golden State.
Timeline
1820 The single U. S. warship Constellation, according to Secretary of the Navy Smith Thompson, is
“cruising the Pacific Ocean for the protection of our trade and whale fisheries”
1840 Mexican officials imprison a group of Americans and Britons for trying to set up an independent
Government in Monterey; the U. S. warship St. Louis arrives at that port and U. S. Secretary of the Navy Abel P. Upshur intervenes and secures the release of the captives
Early 1840s The U. S. Pacific Squadron of six warships and a supply vessel intensifies its focus on Hawai’i and California as areas critical to American trade expansion in that ocean
1842 Thomas ap Catesby Jones, commander of the U. S. Pacific Squadron, sails from Peru to Monterey,
Where he raises the American flag, declaring California under American rule; discovering that his seizure of the province was based on false information, the following day Jones orders the flag lowered and the province returned to Mexico
Captain William D. Phelps, of the American merchant vessel Alert, captures the presidio at San Diego; he holds the fort for three days before learning that war has not erupted between the United States and Mexico and that Jones has relinquished Monterey; Phelps, like Jones before him, withdraws
1845 President James K. Polk sends John Slidell to Mexico to negotiate the transfer of Upper California
And New Mexico to the United States for up to $40 million; the Mexican government refuses to receive Slidell
Pacific Eldorado: A History of Greater California, First Edition. Thomas J. Osborne. © 2013 Thomas J. Osborne. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
The United States declares war on Mexico
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852 1855
Americans in Sonoma arrest Mexican General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and proclaim the independent Republic of California, which lasts less than a month
John D. Sloat, commander of the U. S. Pacific Squadron, raises the American flag over California’s capital at Monterey, proclaiming that “henceforth California will be a portion of the United States”
Andres Pico leads Mexicans in a victory over U. S. General Stephen Kearny at the Battle of San Pasqual
Yerba Buena is renamed San Francisco by U. S. Navy Lieutenant Washington Bartlett
Mexican California surrenders to American forces in the so-called Cahuenga Capitulation
President James K. Polk declares that the harbors on the California coast “would afford shelter for our navy, for our numerous whale ships, and other merchant vessels employed in the Pacific ocean, [and] would in a short period become the marts of an extensive and profitable commerce with China, and the other countries of the East”
James Marshall, an employee of John Sutter, discovers gold on the South Fork of the American River
The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ends the war with Mexico, transferring most of the Southwest, including California, to the United States
Mormon elder Sam Brannan waves a bottle of gold dust and shouts in San Francisco: “Gold! Gold! Gold! from the American River,” touching off the California gold rush
Outside of California, the earliest news of the gold discovery travels by sea and is first publicized in the Honolulu Polynesian newspaper on June 24
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company is founded in New York with an office, wharf, and other facilities in and around San Francisco Bay; the shipping company provides the world’s first transpacific service linking the United States to Asia
The California gold rush is in full force as multitudes of so-called “forty-niners” pour into the Mother Lode country
According to the June 6 edition of the Alta (San Francisco) newspaper, 509 ships - mostly carrying gold miners - are in port
According to the 1850 federal census females comprise less than one-tenth of California’s population
The California clipper ship Flying Cloud voyages from New York to San Francisco in 89 days and 21 hours, setting a sailing record that held until 1989
California’s Chinese number 25,000, constituting a tenth of the non-Indian population
American international shipping magnate William H. Aspinwall completes the construction of a 65-mile transcontinental railroad across the Panamanian Isthmus, reducing the time of an isthmus crossing for gold-seekers from four or five days to three or four hours
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company has 47 vessels, and has become America’s largest and most profitable maritime carrier
World History
