alternatehistory.com

...And I'm back. Happy new year to you all, I hope that you all had a wonderful time with your friends, families, and significant others. I actually liked this chapter, as it feels like the ones from the previous effort, as a bored highschooler in this timeline writing all of this in a self-sabotaging effort born out of boredom because he hates this subject; though, to be fair, chapters will get more serious when we get to the 20th century due to the events that will transpire. As I said, this chapter will be a primer on how the Californias were settled, with a few surprises thrown in. And food. Without anything else to add, let's begin. Though, I pity those using a 56k modem in this civilized era.


Back in the time when the Independence of Mexico was just finished, the main problem that the Empire was facing was that the northern territories were largely uninhabited, uncivilized, and unsettled. This was also a problem back when Spain was in control of this region, as it was the ass-end of their domains in the New Spain, and thus an easy way to get rid of pesky priests and soldiers without demoting them. Most of the population in these territories were just rough-living ranchers, some nomadic tribes, and a few indigenous tribes living within the confines of missions established by religious orders dedicated to evangelising them. And the local garrison of soldiers, which were undersupplied and bored beyond what can be considered as acceptable.


The problem, however, was that the population was extremely low, due to the former living in vast expanses in the middle of nowhere, the middle ones were living in dispersed settlements that were always on the move, and the latter were decimated by the diseases brought in by the Europeans. As if the poor guys had it already rough with most fiction authors ignoring the existence of the last ones. And the independence of Mexico caused also a logistical nightmare, which combined with Californian weather and terrain on the coasts as not too suitable for farming (at least until the mid to late 19th century when people realized that the weather in the Inland was good enough for establishing year-long agriculture), keeping up with the costs of allowing the continued operation of the misiones. And while Agustín I pondered on disbanding them and send them packing, after considerable debate with the religious authorities within the Empire and the military, he chose to keep on footing the bills, however, he would be providing with tax breaks to incentivize people from Central Mexico to go to California, along with allowing petty criminals to either go to jail or to be sent to California to start a new life. No points on guessing what used to be chosen seven out of every times.


And even before that, the population in the Peninsula has been so low that California Menor only became a province in 1936, due to the lack of resources or jobs in the location (though, the kiné boom came later). [1]


Therefore, a plan was put in action to invite people onto settling the northern territories and increase the tenuous presence of the Imperial government, before the Americans or the British or the Russians, or even xenos came in knocking. And all of those would be of disastrous consequences for the well-being of the Empire… Fine, I exaggerated with the Xenos part.


The main method of settling here was to invite Chinese settlers into the region. According to local documents which unfortunately were lost by a drunk librarian at the Universidad Pontificia de California Mayor, 325 Chinese settlers came into the northern parts of Las Californias. They were, by the most part, traders, bankers, and other sorts of wealthy individuals that sought to find to make riches in the New World. Other settlers arrived later on, as penal colonies sprung up after 1830, inhabited by debtors, minor criminals, and pardoned rebels that preferred to continue living by renouncing to their republican ideals. The population in the province swelled the populations of the ports of La Paz, Ensenada and Yerbabuena. However, the amerindian population got the short end of the stick, by hitting them with diseases that they had no defences for. Approximately half of the amerindian population in the Californias died during this time period, which is a shame, as plenty of unique cultural and linguistic forms were lost to diseases.


An unintended consequence of having these Chinese immigrants thrive in Las Californias is the mixture of South Chinese cuisine, local indigenous food and Mexican cuisine, giving origin to the Californian cuisine. Examples of this can be seen if you go to any of the mayor cities, such as Bieniewski [2], Alcalá de Tijuana [3], La Toba [4] or Yerbabuena [5].


It is worth mentioning also how valuable were the Missions [6], which were previously installed by the Spaniards, in the establishment of permanent centres of population in California, in which instead of having to spring up a town in the middle of nowhere, there was already the comfort of an already civilised place within the path of the Camino Real. Within the Missions, the indigenous population of the province of California Mayor were safe from any kind of depredations from possible rival tribes, greedy ranchers, and other unpleasant fellows such as bandits. These missions also allowed the establishment of garrisons of the Imperial Army, which drawed recruits from the indigenous population, and a few from the recently arrived. The newly recruited amerindians knew the terrain, how to deal with it, and fostered further exploration of the province, allowing the government of the Empire to know where to set up new settlements, new tribes, and establish new defensive positions against hostile tribes. These were tested at the outbreak of the First Mexican-American War.


However, California would grow sometime later, after a Criollo boy called Diego de la Vega [8] found gold while cleaning dishes in a creek in 1946. Then the place got swamped with immigrants, conflicts between natives and Chinese settlers against newly arrived immigrants from Europe came and went. And then the First Mexican-American War came in. But that's a story for another time.



[1] TTL term "Kiné" = OTL "Film"
[2] OTL Mexicali – Calexico
[3] ITTL it comprises the OTL San Diego – Tijuana metropolitan area
[4] OTL Ciudad Insurgentes, Baja California Sur. ITTL is going to be the capital of California Menor.
[5] OTL San Francisco Bay metro
[6] Unlike OTL, the Empire chose not to disestablish the Missions in California, and will keep them working until the late 19th century. OTL these were already in decline due to apathy or distrust by the Mexican authorities.
[7] Baseball in this timeline will be the most popular sport in the Empire. You'll see an update on this when we get to the 1860's. Because fuck Soccer.
[8] Cookies if you get the reference.