The Spanish Mission Belt, Don Luis Peralta, and a Deluge of Americans.
The Spanish Mission belt strapped the bay area in 1776, a notable year in our country's history. With the Catholic missions, came military presidios. The Spanish didn't try to exterminate the locals like the Americans did, they just tried to exterminate their culture. So they rounded everyone up and forced them to convert to Catholicism. In addition to the missions, the Spanish established these absolutely massive ranches.
Luis Maria Peralta arrived in the Bay Area in 1775 with the De Anza colonists, became a soldier in 1780 and fought for the presidios of Monterey and San Francisco.
Apparently he did very well against the Ohlone, because in 1820 he retired from service and was granted by the crown of Spain one of the largest and most beautiful chunks of California land. 44,800 acres all for Don Luis Peralta. His ranch is now composed of the cities of Alameda, part of San Leandro, Oakland, Piedmont, Emeryville, Berkeley and Albany.
This didn't last long for Peralta's family, because a few decades later, a flood of Americans showed up, and they just kept coming. By 1845, The United States' westward expansion was a subtle hint that American rule was inevitable, especially when the US tried to buy California that year from our southern neighbor. And when the offers were refused? President Polk went to war with Mexico and guess what he took? Should'a taken the cash Mexico.
California was made a state of the union September 9, 1850.
* Beth Bagwell, Oakland, The Story of a City p. 9
The Spanish Mission belt strapped the bay area in 1776, a notable year in our country's history. With the Catholic missions, came military presidios. The Spanish didn't try to exterminate the locals like the Americans did, they just tried to exterminate their culture. So they rounded everyone up and forced them to convert to Catholicism. In addition to the missions, the Spanish established these absolutely massive ranches.
Luis Maria Peralta arrived in the Bay Area in 1775 with the De Anza colonists, became a soldier in 1780 and fought for the presidios of Monterey and San Francisco.
Apparently he did very well against the Ohlone, because in 1820 he retired from service and was granted by the crown of Spain one of the largest and most beautiful chunks of California land. 44,800 acres all for Don Luis Peralta. His ranch is now composed of the cities of Alameda, part of San Leandro, Oakland, Piedmont, Emeryville, Berkeley and Albany.
This didn't last long for Peralta's family, because a few decades later, a flood of Americans showed up, and they just kept coming. By 1845, The United States' westward expansion was a subtle hint that American rule was inevitable, especially when the US tried to buy California that year from our southern neighbor. And when the offers were refused? President Polk went to war with Mexico and guess what he took? Should'a taken the cash Mexico.
California was made a state of the union September 9, 1850.
* Beth Bagwell, Oakland, The Story of a City p. 9