The Mexican-American War

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Kern County was settled in the 1860s, soon after California joined the United States after the passage of the Compromise of 1850. The Compromise of 1850 allowed California to join the Union as a free state even though a major portion of the state was south of the Missouri Compromise line, and was potentially subject to southern settlement and slavery. Americans had long been visiting and working in California prior to the admission of California into the Union.
The Spanish moving north from Baja California into Alta California began European settlement of California in 1769. Father Junipero Serra, a Franciscan friar founded Mission San Diego de Alcala, beginning active European settlement of California. However, Spanish mission efforts …show more content…

The Mexican-American War was ostensibly fought to settle a boundary dispute with the Mexicans over the western boundary of the newly-annexed state of Texas, which had fought a successful rebellion against the Mexican Army in the mid-1830s. The Republic of Texas was an independent country for 9 years until Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845. One major outcome of the Mexican-American War was that Mexico rescinded its claims to much of the American southwest. In 1848, these territories were folded into the United States, including …show more content…

In the summer of 1848, when the gold strike was publicly announced, the overnight settlement of California began. The Mexican population of California was small and limited to the coasts and a few of southern California’s interior valleys. A sizable native population settled the remainder of California; Bakersfield and Kern County was Yokuts territory. The Gold Rush tipped the balance of native communities throughout California, as many of California’s natives were decimated.
Many areas experienced smaller gold rushes, including the Kern River Valley, when gold was discovered in Keyesville in 1853. The gold was soon played, and the true future of the region was soon identified—farming—as the gold prospectors came down from the mountains. Kern Island, a median point along the Kern Delta, between the mouth of the Kern River and Kern Lake, was settled in 1860. Soon, Col. Thomas Baker bought the property from the original owner, Christian Bohna, and the settlement of Bakersfield began in

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