California (province)

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The province of California was a colony of Spain in North America, part of that European power's vast American empire of New Spain. It covered the territories of the current Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur and of the modern-day U.S. states of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of northern Arizona and southwestern Wyoming.

In 1773 it was divided into Alta California and Baja California, along a line close to the modern-day United States-Mexico border, with the lands to the north given to the Franciscan Order and those to the south to the Dominican Order. Alta California and Baja California in turn became federally run territories of the federal government under the 1824 Constitution following Mexico's independence from Spain. Alta California was later ceded to the United States under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.