The Californias - past, current, future

July 09, 2018

The Californias - past, current, future

The ballot measure to split California into three new states passed in the June 2018 state election. This visualization, from the June 12, 2018 edition of Los Angeles Times, shows the new Californias as three islands. However, by July 18, 2018, the California State Supreme court unanimously decided to withdraw the proposition from the November 2018 state ballot. Short-lived.

Graphics source: Los Angeles Times, Jun12, 2018

The Court cited that the proposition's validity and "potential harm" that it would do as the reasons for pulling the measure off the November ballot. Just to illustrate the silliness that could have happened due to the naming conflicts between the three new states, let's pretend that the split happened. Then at a post-split party, I may engage with someone (say, named Dick) in a dialogue that goes like this:

Jane - "I attended University of California Los Angeles, UCLA, go Bruins!"
Dick - "Cool. I went to UC San Diego, go Tritons!"
Jane - "Wait, should that now be called University of Southern California San Diego?"
Dick - "But there is a USC, University of Southern California, the Trojans, located in Los Angeles."
Jane - "Moving on, I also went to UC Berkeley, in San Fransisco bay area. Go Bears."
Dick - "I think you mean University of Northern California Berkeley, right?"

Déjà Vu: a feeling of having already experienced the present situation; tedious familiarity. - Google dictionary.

The idea and implementations of splitting California are as old as when the region was a vast northwestern territory of New Spain in the mid-1700's. It was originally designated as California, and inhabited by indigenous peoples who were not asked about what they thought.

Modern-day 3 Californias - U.S. State of California, and Mexican States of Baja California & Baja California Sur. Name evolution explained below.

As the Spanish began colonization of the territory, the name changes started. First known as California; 1768 redesignated as Las Californias; 1804 formally divided into Alta California & Baja California; 1836 reunification back to Las Californias; 1848 [Alta] California, United States and [Baja] California, Mexico; 1974 Mexico splits Baja California to two states, Baja California and Baja California Sur.

Feeling dizzy?
Feeling fascinated and curious about why the name changes? If YES, see detailed explanations at the end of this post.

The Future - East California and West California

Literally, the geographic Californias has been physically splitting due to the tectonic action of the San Andreas Fault. The fun thing is that, as shown in the USGS map below, the two opposite sides of the San Andreas Fault are traveling (this is a travelogue) along the fault line in opposite directions.

So, eventually Los Angeles and San Francisco will be next to each other. Los Angeles and Baja California peninsula will be to the west, and San Francisco and the rest of Alta California to the east.

Graphics from United States Geological Survey (USGS)

PAST - SPLITTING AND RE-UNIFICATIONS OF CALIFORNIA

1768 - the Viceroy renamed the province to the plural - Las Californias, to distinguish between the Antigua (old) settled areas, corresponding to today's Mexican Baja California peninsula, and the Nueva (new) areas to the north yet to be explored, corresponding to present-day US state of California. However, the province continued to be administered as a single entity.
1804 - Formally, the single province was divided into two parts, Provincia de Alta California and Provincia de Baja California. By this time, Spanish Mexican settlement of Alta California had expanded as for north as the present-day San Francisco Bay Area.
1821 - Mexico declared independence from Spain. The sovereign Mexico decided to retain the two Californias but demoted the former provinces to territories, due to populations too small for statehood.
1836 - the conservative Mexican government instituted constitutional reforms known as the Siete_Leyes (Seven Laws). The designation Las Californias was revived, reuniting Alta and Baja California into a single departamento.
1846 - May 13 U.S. Congress declares war against Mexico (but official news of war reaches [Alta] California in August). June 8: Bear Flag revolt, at Sonoma, declares Republic of California, and is not recognized. July 9: At order of Commodore Sloat, US Navy under Lt. Revere lands at Yerba Buena (San Francisco) and claims the bay area for United States, raises U.S. flag at Yerba Buena and later that day in Sonoma (ending the Bear Flag revolt), and later at Sutter's Fort.
1848 - The Mexican-American War concluded with Mexico ceding Alta California territory to the United States, and the new Mexico-US border, frontera, was established slightly to the north of the previous Alta-Baja border.
1850 - Alta California achieves US statehood and is called California, the term Alta is dropped.

At this point, the history of California name changes has made a full circle. And from here, the story continues ...

1888 - Once again, but this time by Mexico, there is a formal split of Baja California territory into two parts, North Territory of Baja California and South Territory of Baja California.
1952 - Mexico formally promotes North Baja California to a Mexican state, called Baja California.
1974 -Mexico formally promotes South Baja California to a Mexican state, called Baja California Sur (Lower California South).

Despite wars and changing borders and names, the US and Mexican California regions continue to share culture and strong economic ties.

ADDENDUM

List of campuses of the University of California system, and the California State University system. These educational assets would be divided among the new Californias in the possible, but improbable, case of passage of the November 2018 ballot measure.

Proposed Northern California

(5 UC's) Berkeley, Davis, Merced, Santa Cruz, San Francisco
(9 CSUs) Chico, East Bay, Maritime Academy in Vallejo, Sacramento, Stanislaus, Humboldt State University, San Francisco State University, San José State University, Sonoma State University

Proposed California

(2 UCs) Los Angeles, Santa Barbara
(8 CSUs) CSU Channel Islands, Dominguez Hills, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Northridge, Monterey Bay, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo

Proposed Southern California