05/09/2026
Californio Chronicles: Sunday Sit Down
(on a Friday🫠)
Entry 3: Spain Pushes North
This one’s late. I said it would be posted Sunday but life has its way derailing me sometimes. Maybe it was meant to be because when I revisited it to post a couple days later it wasn’t enough. Too much material was missed, overlooked, not emphasized or touched on enough. This chapter deserved a little more time to put together.
I had already told everyone when I reposted Entry 1 that you’d only really need to read that to get caught back up, so I also felt like I owed a little more context before pushing forward again. Besides the idea of this series is to have as complete context that I possibly can. This context is what will allow us to see the life and perspectives of the people of that time to better understand their lifestyle and motivations that helped shape Californio Horsemanship. To accomplish this, I feel, we must really undestined the times. Such as sequence of events and the geopolitical motivation that connected exploration to colonization to really understand frontier development in Alta California
So.. this one’s long.
The good news is the next entry is already finished and will be out in a couple days. You won’t want to miss it!
Now let’s get into it..
—The Search for “Another Mexico”—
After conquering Mexico and gaining an exuberant amount of riches, the Spaniards soon began pushing further north along the Pacific looking for “another Mexico.” Around 1533 they found Baja California and reported riches in the form of huge quantities of pearls in a peaceful bay they landed in which they named La Paz. Cortés followed in 1535 to see for himself, but after relentless encounters with hostile indigenous people and the deaths of many sailors due to lack of supplies, he abandoned the effort. However, in 1539 Cortés sent Francisco de Ulloa north, who successfully confirmed the body of land was a peninsula, not an island.
Although many Spanish explorers continued pushing north along Baja California, the next notable event was when Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo landed in San Diego Bay in 1542. They continued north and by mid November he and his crew had likely sailed past the entrance of what we know today as San Francisco Bay, though heavy fog prevented them from recognizing it. It’s reported they sailed as far north as Point Reyes before turning back south. On the trip south Cabrillo died and was buried, likely on San Miguel Island, due either to injuries sustained during a hostile encounter with indigenous people or from an accident. At that point his chief pilot took command and they continued north again, reportedly reaching as far as Oregon before returning south.
It’s believed that beyond exploration, this expedition and many others were in search of the Strait of Anián, a mythical passage believed to cut through North America connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
—English and Russian Encroachment—
News of Spain’s discoveries along the Pacific coast also reached rivals of Spain. Queen Elizabeth I of England did everything she could to disrupt Spanish interests, encouraging English privateers like Sir Francis Drake to target Spanish ships and settlements.
Sir Francis Drake sailed around Cape Horn and raided Spanish villages along his voyage north, making it all the way to somewhere near San Francisco Bay and claiming the country for England in 1579, hence the name Drakes Bay in Point Reyes, California. Although English encroachment was a nuisance, it was never a real long term threat to Spain in California.
In 1602, due to the creation of the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company, the Spaniards began taking the Pacific coast more seriously as a strategic route and refuge for ships crossing the Pacific.
This led the Spanish Viceroy to instruct Sebastián Vizcaíno to sail north to discover and document safe havens and natural harbors along the coast. Vizcaíno and his crew encountered many indigenous people during this journey, having mostly peaceful encounters contrary to many reported in earlier expeditions.
In mid December of 1602 Vizcaíno and his crew dropped anchor in a bay he named Monterey after his sponsor, the Count of Monterrey, the Viceroy of New Spain. Monterey was significant because it offered one of the few deep natural harbors along the California coast.
It would be more than 160 years before Spain seriously pushed north again with plans to occupy and settle Alta California
—Russian Expansion and Spanish Alarm—
In 1725 the Russian Emperor Peter the Great ordered an expedition to sail the coast of Siberia in search of a land connection to North America. It was concluded there was no connection. However, in 1741 a second expedition sailed as far south as what is known today as Oregon, bringing home large quantities of valuable pelts. This pushed Russian exploration further south along the Pacific coast. In 1812 they even established a permanent Russian settlement at Fort Ross in present day Sonoma County.
The Spanish Crown and its decisions directly affected New Spain, as their word was law. In the early 1700s there was a new royal family on the throne, the Bourbons, originally from France.
Due to differences in policy and ideology with the Jesuits, a Roman Catholic religious order that spread throughout the world, the King of Spain ordered their expulsion from all Spanish territories.
In 1767 José de Gálvez was appointed the new Inspector General of New Spain. As Inspector General it was his duty to carry out the Jesuit expulsion in New Spain. For this he enlisted the help of Baja California Governor Gaspar de Portolá, the very first governor of Las Californias.
In a short period of time the Jesuits were forced to leave the peninsula and their missions were placed under Franciscan control instead.
—The Push Into Alta California—
Portolá was a dedicated governor with a personal mission to strengthen the Spanish position in areas under his control. This included plans to settle Alta California, the northern frontier of Spanish California.
During this time the Russians, as mentioned before, were really starting to encroach on Spanish claimed territory of Alta California causing alarm. This prompted a pamphlet titled “Muscovites in California” written by José Torrubia to be written about the severity and impact of Russian encroachment. This pamphlet pushed the Spanish Crown toward action.
King Carlos III instructed the Viceroy of New Spain to investigate Russian encroachment in 1767, the same year as the Jesuit expulsion from the peninsula. This not only supported but accelerated plans already forming for Alta California.
With their new mission in mind they planned to launch a push north both by land and sea from Baja California which was approved in 1768.
In January of 1769 the first ship, the San Carlos, set sail followed by a second ship, the San Antonio, a month later. The appointed leader of this expedition was Governor Portolá with Father Junípero Serra in charge of the religious delegation.
The first leg of the land expedition departed at the end of March reaching San Diego at the end of May. The second leg of the land expedition departed in early May arriving in San Diego July 1, 1769.
From here Portolá, accompanied by a small group of soldiers, was joined by two Franciscan friars, Juan Crespí and Francisco Gómez, and ventured further north in search of the port Vizcaíno had discovered and documented over 160 years prior.
The purpose of this expansion was to establish a civilian and military presence in the area to deter the Russians and British from advancing further south and staking claims.
Gálvez intended to build presidios, military encampments, along the coast. He knew he would never have enough Spanish troops to defend them alone. His hope was to use a method the Spaniards had used time and time again by creating militias made up of local indigenous allies.
To accomplish this, the goal was to attract local natives to Christianity by founding missions overseen by the Franciscans. The missions were not only religious centers. They were also instruments of colonization meant to strengthen Spain’s claim to the territory. The hope was that by converting natives to Christianity and encouraging adoption of a Spanish lifestyle they would eventually see themselves as allies of Spain against rival powers.
By November they had not only reached Vizcaíno’s Monterey Bay but had also become the first Europeans to document San Francisco Bay.
—The Anza Expedition—
A few months after their return to San Diego, Portolá led another land expedition while a parallel group that included Father Serra proceeded by sea.
In June of 1770 the first mission and presidio were established in Monterey.
The final goal was to bring settlers and cattle to the area. However rumors of English voyages as well as Russian activity drove Spanish officials to focus efforts on locating a reliable land route from their outposts in northern Mexico to Alta California.
The path Portolá took was deemed much too dangerous for large scale civilian travel due to mountainous and desert terrain coupled with hostile native encounters.
Eventually a man named Juan Bautista de Anza, from the Basque region of Spain as well as a veteran commander, was given the task of finding this route.
In early 1774 Anza departed with approximately 24 men from Tubac(Mexico at the time and Arizona today). With the help of indigenous guides they managed to navigate the inhospitably dry and arid region between Arizona and California. They arrived at Mission San Gabriel, outside modern day Los Angeles, in March of that year. Further entries will cover the missions and their expansion but for now.. Mission San Gabriel was established in early Sept 1771, it was the 4th of 21 missions in California. In May they reached Monterey then returned to Tubac, making a round trip of nearly 2,000 miles in just five months.
With this incredible success a new expedition was soon approved. This expedition included over 200 men, women, and children as well as hundreds of head of livestock. These expeditions didn’t just move people north. They brought horses, cattle, and the beginnings of the ranching culture that would eventually shape the Californio lifestyle and horsemanship.
These 200 colonists were recruited largely from poorer regions of northern Mexico with the goal being to establish civilian settlements in Alta California. They left Tubac in October of 1775 reaching Monterey in March of 1776.
From here Anza continued north with a small group to explore the San Francisco Bay area and select a site for a new presidio and mission to establish presence further north in Alta California.
In 1777 Anza’s second in command José Joaquín Moraga led the same group of settlers to a site between Monterey and San Francisco, founding the first official civilian town of Alta California, El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe today known as San Jose California.
Thanks for your patience on this one. I know it not only took a long time for me to put together and post, it also took a long time to read!🤣
Hopefully this made sense to everyone and wasn’t too difficult to follow along. I can’t wait to post the next one, it goes further into the minds and ideology of the people of that time with a fun story that at the time was believed to be reality but today is considered folklore. I hope you stay with me as we continue on our journey into Alta California and the Californio way of life this Sunday.
![🚨[Update: Entry 3 was late but its posted!👇comments]🚨Californio Chronicles officially start again tomorrow!Since I was o...](https://img3.voofla.com/362/405/958592583624057.jpg)
