2026/01/01 by Alan Taylor
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #American History and Culture #Archaeology and Natural History #Latin American and Latino Studies
paper · doi:10.1525/ch.2026.103.3.139
openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
With the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War, the new republic faced multiple challenges regarding the Continental West, including the continued power of the Spanish and French empires and the pressures placed on international relations by the massive settler expansion into Louisiana and Texas. The Spanish attempted to colonize California, and to appeal American settlers’ interests in the American interior. Ultimately, the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848, and the simultaneous Gold Rush, transformed California virtually overnight into an American state, with the same unresolved racism that divided the antebellum United States.