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VIDEO PROGRAM
Volume 277: Episode II: War for the Borderlands
OBJECTIVE
Students will develop an understanding of the role California played in the U.S.-Mexican War.
CLASS QUESTIONS
How did Spain colonize California, and what problems emerged? How did an independent Mexico govern it?What pressures did Californios experience and what were their options?
How was California conquered?
PRIOR TO CLASS VIEWING
Review the CLASSROOM TIPS FOR USING ANY VIDEO CHAPTER .
CONNECTIONS TO SEMESTER STUDIES
Compare French, Russian and British fur traders and businesses with American fur traders and U.S.-operated businesses.Discuss the establishment of the Spanish missions in California and their collapse in the mid-1830s.
Discuss the experiences of native peoples when confronted by Mexican and U.S. settlers and governments.
STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Class Discussions
Compare and contrast reasons why Americans immigrated to California, New Mexico and Texas.
Terms like "push" factors (reasons to leave home) and "pull" factors (appealing qualities of a new place) are used in discussions about migration and immigration. What social, political and economic pressures were happening in the U.S. that would "push" migrants to those areas? Discuss the influence of newspapers or other printed literature in attracting people to California and Oregon.
Have students project how the California Gold Rush of 1849 would change the size and diversity of the population.
Web Search and Analysis
Ask students to search and report on the meanings of the name "California" and the history of its flag.
Mapping Activity
Ask students to plot the Oregon Trail and one of the routes to California. Write about the obstacles immigrants would encounter on the routes. (The Donner Party met with tragedy in the winter of 1846-47 in the midst of the U.S.-Mexican War.)
Biography as History
Ask students to research and write biographical reports on Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and Thomas Larkin, the U.S. consul in Monterey at the time of the war. Their relationship reveals the complexity of business and personal connections between Californios and Americans.
| NCSS Standards | United States | California
| II, III, VII
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| The 7,000 Californios who lived along the coastal plains were far outnumbered by native peoples. The ports of Monterey, Los Angeles and San Diego supported trading and whaling ships from different nations, and cowhides were popular, valuable exports.
| I, II, III, VI
| In December 1845, Captain John Fremont, son-in-law of the powerful senator, Thomas Hart Benton, arrived in northern California with 65 heavily armed men and planted a U.S. flag on a mountain top.
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| II, III, V
| Fremont and his men escaped to Oregon, but encouraged American immigrants to revolt. These "Bear-Flaggers" arrested one of the most pro-American Californios in the area, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo.
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| I, II, III, VI
| On July 7, 1846, U.S. Navy Commodore John Sloat and his forces occupied Monterrey.
| In northern and southern California, Mexicans resisted the conquest of California in a series of battles. One was against General Stephen Kearny's company of dragoons and surveyors as they ended their march from Santa Fe.
| VI
| By January 1847, the battles ended and the U.S. flag flew uncontested over Los Angeles.
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