PC/WI: Mexico sells California, no Mexican-American War

IOTL, the main causes for the Mexican-American War of the 1840's were a dispute over the texan border and the mexican government's refusal to sell California to the US for $30 million.
But is there any way the mexicans could realize that trying to hold on to California was a pain by that point and that going to war with the US was a bad idea?
If California is sold instead of conquered, will the mexicans hold on to more territory in the area than they were left with IOTL? I'm under the impression that the mexicans could keep San Diego.
 

Greenville

Banned
Perhaps if Mexico collapses into civil war ever earlier than the 1860s or is invaded or at war with a European power like France or England.
 
So, basically like Louisiana Territory? 'We're going to lose it anyway, might as well get some money from it'?

Except 'Louisiana' was a colony, not part of the Metropole of France, whereas California was (considered) part of the Metropole of Mexico, I believe.

So, no, I don't see the Mexicans doing that.

Giving up after the US seizes California (but without a wider war)? Yeah.
Selling it with no shots fired? I don't see it.
 
The Mexican war was not started over California per se, but rather over the disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers in Texas. Texas and Mexico both claimed it. Not to discount the the role Manifest Destiny was playing in American territorial expansion or that the US wouldn't have loved to have acquired California.
 
maybe if for whatever reason, the Spanish/Mexicans aren't able to get even the small numbers of people they had in OTL to move into those territories? If those vast lands are occupied only by a few dozen settlers and the Native Americans, they might be more willing to sell it all away?
 
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