These California land grants were made by Spanish (1784–1821) and Mexican (1822–1846) authorities of

Las Californias The Californias ( Spanish: ''Las Californias''), occasionally known as The Three Californias or Two Californias, are a region of North America spanning the United States and Mexico, consisting of the U.S. state of California and the Mexican sta ...

and

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

to private individuals before California became part of the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

.Shumway, Burgess M.,1988, ''California Ranchos: Patented Private Land Grants Listed by County'', The Borgo Press, San Bernardino, CA, Under Spain, no private land ownership was allowed, so the grants were more akin to free leases. After Mexico achieved independence, the Spanish grants became actual land ownership grants. Following the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored.

Alta California ranchos in Mexico

From 1773 to 1836, the

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ca ...

between Alta California and

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

was about 30 miles south of the

Mexico–United States border The Mexico–United States border ( es, frontera Estados Unidos–México) is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traver ...

drawn by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the

in 1848. Under the

Siete Leyes ''Las Siete Leyes'' (, or Seven Laws was a constitution that fundamentally altered the organizational structure of Mexico, away from the federal structure established by the Constitution of 1824, thus ending the First Mexican Republic and creating ...

constitutional reforms of 1836, the Alta California and Baja California territories were recombined into a single

"department", with a single governor. None of the rancho grants near the former border, however, were made after 1836, so none of them straddled the pre-1836 territorial border. The result of the shifting borders is that some of the ranchos in this list, created by pre-1836 governors, are located partially or entirely in a 30-mile-wide sliver of the former Alta California that is now in Mexico rather than in the U.S. state of California. Since those ranchos remained in Mexico, in today's Mexican state of

, the grants were not subject to review by the Public Land Commission except for Rancho Tijuan that had claimed part of its lands were on the American side of the border.

List of ranchos of California

Alta California ranchos in Mexico

List of ranchos of California

Notes

References

See also