Pueblo de Los Angeles - Mexican Independence and Era

Mexican Independence and Era

See also: California History: Mexican era (1821–1846)

After Mexico's War of Independence (1810–1821) from Spain was won, life began to change in Los Angeles and Alta California . With the secularization of the missions, their land was distributed for the establishment of many more ranchos. The Native population was displaced or absorbed into the Hispanic population.

Beginning about 1827, Los Angeles, now the largest pueblo of the territory, became a rival of Monterey for the honor of being the capital of California; was the seat of conspiracies to overthrow the Mexican authority; and the stronghold of the South California party in the bickering and struggles that lasted down to the American occupation.

In about 1834, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. visited San Pedro Harbor as a sailor. His book, Two Years Before the Mast, includes a brief depiction of the pueblo and area, then dependent on the export of cattle hides and tallow. In 1835 it was made a city by the Mexican Congress, and declared the capital, but the last provision was not enforced and was soon recalled. In 1836–1838, it was the headquarters of Carlos Antonio Carrillo, a legally named but never de facto governor of California, whose jurisdiction was never recognized in the north; and, in 1845–1847, it was the actual capital.

In 1842, a sheep rancher, pausing under an oak tree, discovered gold in Placerita Canyon in Rancho San Francisco, just north of the city sparking a minor gold rush. In subsequent decades local mining employed hard rock and placer techniques. Land however turned out to be the more "profitable gold", as ranching and development expanded as the town and region grew.