Alta California

American  

[ahl-tuh] / ˈɑl tə /

noun

1. a former Spanish colony of New Spain, in the modern-day states of California, Nevada, and N Arizona: ceded by Mexico to the United States 1848.

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Example Sentences

Take “Recuerdos: Historical and Personal Remembrances Relating to Alta California, 1769-1849” by Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, which was written in Spanish in 1875 and finally published in English this year by the University of Oklahoma Press.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 16, 2023

While doing more research on the history of the estate, the brothers discovered an 1872 news clipping from the Alta California, a daily newspaper published in San Francisco.

From Washington Post • Sep. 22, 2022

Headed to Oregon again without explicit orders to either assault or avoid California, he made an intrusion into the Mexican region called Alta California.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 20, 2020

Cattle ranches later took shape on huge private land grants, but Alta California still grew slowly, with a Hispanic population that did not reach 1,000 until 1790.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

Spain wished to settle Alta California, or that region north of the peninsula, and Father Serra, the head and leader of these Franciscans, was chosen to begin this work.

From Stories of California by Sexton, Ella M.