Republic of California

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California Republic (English)
República de California (Spanish)
Republic of California
1846
California flag
flag
Official language English
Spanish ( de facto )
Capital Sonoma
Form of government republic
Head of state , also head of government Commandant
William B. Ide
surface 423,970 km²
population 15,000
founding June 14 , 1846
Time zone Pacific : UTC-8 / -7
Mexico's Territorial Evolution.png

The Republic of California ( Spanish República de California and english California Republic ) was a state that in the June 14, 1846 Sonoma by American colonists during the American Mexican War founded by the United States on July 9 of that year annexation was . The capital of the republic was Sonoma.

The Bear Flag Revolt

Even before the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, a group of American settlers revolted against the centralization policy of the Mexican head of state Antonio López de Santa Anna . This type of policy resulted from the Texan War of Independence , which ended in April 1836. As war between the United States and Mexico became more and more likely, American explorer and politician John Charles Frémont organized an uprising among the region's Anglo-American settlers. The Hispanic Californians also rose against Mexico, but while their junta of Monterey was wavering between independence and annexation to the USA, 33 American settlers proclaimed the Republic of California on June 14, 1846 . Your California flag was first hoisted in Sonoma Plaza in Sonoma. The flag showed a star and a bear as symbols of the new republic. Hence the name of the uprising Bear Flag Revolt .

On the day it was founded, the insurgents captured the headquarters of Northern California, which until then had been General Mariano Guadelupe Vallejo . The first and only head of state of the Republic of California, headed by around 30 settlers, was Commander William Brown Ide , whose term of office lasted only 25 days. On June 24, 1846, the Battle of Olómpali in what is now Marin County , when 55 Mexican soldiers under the command of General José Castro were defeated by the soldiers of the Republic of California.

Unnoticed by the insurgents, the Mexican-American War began on May 13, 1846. However, the news reached the republic until early July, when the frigate USS Savannah and the two sloops USS Cyane and USS Levant the US Navy Monterey conquered. After the battle of Monterey , John Charles Frémont gave up his idea of ​​a republic of his own; the bear flag has been replaced by the flag of the United States .

The Bear Flag

The then bear flag was the basis for today's flag of California . It was designed and manufactured by William L. Todd, a cousin of Abraham Lincoln's wife , Mary Lincoln . The star was borrowed from that on the flag of the first uprising against Mexican rule (1836 under Juan Alvarado and Isaac Graham). At that time, the insurgents carried a white flag with a red star - called the California Lone Star (not to be confused with the Texas Lone Star). The grizzly bear symbolizes strength. Although the bear appears to be on the flag, Todd's intention was to depict a running bear. This running bear can be found on today's California flag. The original Bear Flag was destroyed by one of the numerous fires in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake .

  • Photograph of the original Bear Flag from 1890. The flag was destroyed in 1906

  • Sonoma Plaza (here: Sonoma City Hall), the place where the Bear Flag was first hoisted

  • Bear Flag Memorial in Sonoma Plaza in Sonoma

Web links and sources

Individual evidence

  1. ^ California State Library - State Symbols