alternatehistory.com

Update time! I should probably say that the end result for California is still fairly tentative, but that is the likely possibility I'm considering for its future.

Part Forty-Eight: California Dreaming

Immigration Policy: The Republic of California enjoyed a prosperous history during the late nineteenth century. Or at least, the Iberos living in the coastal provinces and San Isidro did. With the Gold Rush and the National War bringing in many immigrants from the United States, native Californios became ever more protective of their identity as descendants of Mexicans and Spaniards. By the 1870s, Espejo was established as an officially English district by the government in Monterey. The San Xavier Purchase which gave a portion of eastern Espejo and the encouragement of American immigrants to live in the district angered the Mormon population that had already been living in Espejo. Between 1878 and 1882, the Mormons launched an uprising against Monterey and threatening to proclaim an independent state. Fearing the Mormons in Espejo might join the United States, Californio President Alonso Rivera sent a large portion of the country's army into Espejo and after a grueling four-year campaign, destroyed the Mormon uprising. In the late 1880s, restriction of American and English immigration was relaxed as the Mormon Rebellion sent the country deeply into debt.

In the late nineteenth century, the Republic of California also experienced a large amount of immigration from eastern Asia. With the development of San Diego and Yerba Buena as the major port cities in the country, many migrants primarily from China, Korea, and the Philippines arrived in the country during the 1860s and 1870s. While most Filipinos were welcomed as fellow Iberos, the Californio government initially put restrictive laws on the movement of other Asian peoples. Zhenbao Island[1] in San Francisco Bay was turned into an immigration facility where new migrants were processed before entering the country. The island also had a special town only for Asian immigrants, while the rest of Yerba Buena was off limits to most Asians. Similar neighborhoods were created in other cities. These policies persisted until the mid-1870s, when some of the restrictions were lifted for those immigrants who were employed by railroad companies.


A Political Pendulum: The late nineteenth century was a period of expansion for California in all areas, including the military. Part of the reason for this is because it received a large amount of competing aid from both Great Britain and the United States. This was part of a larger overall economic war in the petty North American states in the late 1800s between the two countries. Britain aided several nations in their ambitions, such as assisting Rio Bravo in annexing Chihuahua and developing the port of Victoria in Rio Bravo.

California was caught between the two nations, and received aid from both countries. California enlisted military advisors from Great Britain in the 1870s when Alonso Rivera launched a war against the sparsely populated Sonora. As the Mexican region was still in relative chaos, the war was bloody and the Road to Hermosillo cost several thousand Californio lives. The monetary and human cost of Rivera's military campaigns in Sonora and Espejo cast him out of favor in the populace, and in 1884 he was ousted from the Presidency and Joaquin Murrieta[2] was elected president. In the 1880s and early 1890s, California swung away from Great Britain and toward the United States.

California's relationship with the United States during this period was primarily focused around the waters surrounding the country. In exchange for once again granting the United States unlimited access to San Francisco Bay, a policy which Rivera had discontinued, the United States assisted California with building up its fleet as well as providing loans for the construction of ships. During these years, the prosperity of California boomed and the country even participated in colonial ventures in the Pacific. In 1888 several members of a California small arms company laid claim to Clipperton Island, which had remained nominally unclaimed since its discovery. Four years later, California, in a move supported by the United States, sent an expedition to the Hawaiian islands and established a fort on Hilo Bay to protect the rights of Californio sugar planters who had come to the islands. By 1900, California had acquired the entirety of the island of Hawaii and several other islands in the archipelago[3].


Ups and Downs: California prospered immensely from the gold rush in the early 1860s. Capital and investors from all over the Americas and parts of Europe came flowing in to mine and profit from the extraction of gold and silver in the Sierra Nevada, which made many new business spring up and cities grow. In the 1870s, railroads began expanding in the country and several areas experienced a massive railroad boom. The first major railroad in California connected Monterey and Yerba Buena, with and extension running down the San Fernando Valley to San Deigo. After the conquest of Sonora and Rio Bravo's annexation of Chihuahua, Great Britain financed a railroad across the continent from Tampico and Ciudad Victoria through Chihuahua and Hermosillo where it connected to the existing Californian railroads at Yuma.

However, California's prosperity was short-lived. It's numerous military adventures required many loans from both Great Britain and the United States. In the 1890s the Californio economy slumped during the general global recession and by the turn of the century the Republic of California found that it could not pay its debts to either the United States or Great Britain. The fear of war from debt collection was mitigated somewhat as Great Britain offered California debt forgiveness in exchange for a military alliance. However, this would prove to be the country's undoing as it brought war with the United States during the Great War. Juan Francisco Sepulveda, the final president of California and a nationalist blowhard, enthusiastically joined the war on the side of Great Britain against the United States. Sepulveda claimed that the San Xavier Purchase was illegally obtained by the United States and sent an army to claim the area of Colorado west of the Continental Divide. The Californio army was easily pushed back and at the end of the war, Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt authorized the annexation of all of California in exchange for outstanding debts, including the Californio possessions in the Hawaiian islands.

[1] Yerba Buena Island, translated into English roughly means Treasure Island IIRC.
[2] The only real figure in this section, and in OTL a bandit who became the basis for Zorro.
[3] The Hawaiian archipelago is being split between California, Japan, and possibly Britain. I'm not sure whether a war between California and Japan will be involved, but it might be.