So say that at the end of the Mexican war the US takes Baja as well as every thing they took in OTL. What sort of effects would this have on the US and Mexico, as well as the rest of the world? Or does it not really make a difference?
I think it's a good possibility California would be split into two states with Baja California and the Southern 1/3 of California being one and the Northern 2/3 becoming another.
Why? California is already a geographically massive state as it is, (A thousand miles drive, or the better part of, from top to bottom isn't it?) and there's nothing in Baja California to merit it being it's own state. If Baja California is acquired after California statehood, then annexing it to an existing state would be problematic I would have thought, but not if it's taken in the Mexican-American War.
The "Baja" state Iori's talking here would include LA and San Diego, so that'd be a very populous state.
This requires a change to the gold rush and the Compromise of 1850.If all of California was taken, I suspect it would have been divided into two states, right along the Missouri Compromise line.