Las Californias (Paperback)

Las Californias (English: The Californias) was the name given by the Spanish to the area comprising the modern states of Baja California and Baja California Sur in Mexico, and the modern state of California and part of the state of Nevada in the United States of America. Administratively, it was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. As the name is plural, it must be understood to apply from approximately 1770, when the region was divided into north and south administrative areas, until 1848 when Alta California was ceded to the United States. It may perhaps still be used to refer to the two states in Mexico. The inland part of the Californias was not precisely defined and at times was understood to include the present states of Nevada and Arizona and portions of New Mexico and Utah. To the east it was bordered by the Gobernaciones (provinces) of Sonora, which included the settlements in Arizona, and Nuevo Mxico. Most of the colonization of the area was done first by Jesuit missionaries, who set out, with the aid of Spanish soldiers stationed in a system of presidios, to convert and to politically and socially reorganize the Native communities of the region.