California Republic

California Republic
June 14 – July 9, 1846
The Bear Flag
Mexico's Department of Alta California, of which a small area north of San Francisco was controlled by the Bear Flag rebels
Status	Unrecognized state
Capital	N/A
Common languages	Spanish, indigenous languages, and English
Commander
• 1846	William B. Ide
History
• Independence from Mexico declared	June 14, 1846
• Occupation of Sonoma by the U.S. military	July 9, 1846
Population
• 1846	15,000
Preceded by Succeeded by Centralist Republic of Mexico Department of the Californias United States California

Part of a series on the
History of California
Periods
Before 1900 Province of Las Californias Alta California California Republic Conquest of California Interim governments California Gold Rush Since 1900
Topics
Maritime Wine Newspapers Bread Railroads Highways Slavery Eugenics Oil
Cities
Anaheim Chico Fresno Los Angeles Oakland Pasadena Piedmont Riverside Sacramento San Bernardino San Diego San Francisco San Jose Santa Barbara Santa Monica Visalia
Regions
Bay Area San Fernando Valley Santa Catalina Island Yosemite
Bibliographies
Bibliography of California history Bibliography of Los Angeles
California portal
v t e

The California Republic (Spanish: República de California), or Bear Flag Republic, was an unrecognized breakaway state from Mexico, that for 25 days in 1846 militarily controlled an area north of San Francisco, in and around what is now Sonoma County in California.^[1]

In June 1846, thirty-three American immigrants in Alta California who had entered without official permission^[2] rebelled against the Mexican department's^{[notes 1]} government.^[3] Among their grievances were that they had not been allowed to buy or rent land and had been threatened with expulsion.^[2][4] Mexican officials had been concerned about a coming war with the United States and the growing influx of Americans into California. The rebellion was covertly encouraged by U.S. Army Brevet Captain John C. Frémont,^[5] and added to the troubles of the recent outbreak of the Mexican–American War.

The name "California Republic" appeared only on the flag the insurgents raised in Sonoma.^[6] It indicated their aspiration of forming a republican government under their control. The rebels elected military officers but no civil structure was ever established.^[7] Their flag, featuring a silhouette of a California grizzly bear, became known as the "Bear Flag" and was later the basis for the official state flag of California.

Three weeks later, on July 5, 1846, the Republic's military of 100 to 200 men was subsumed into the California Battalion commanded by Brevet Captain John C. Frémont. The Bear Flag Revolt and what remained of the California Republic ceased to exist on July 9 when U.S. Navy Lieutenant Joseph Revere raised the United States flag in front of the Sonoma Barracks and sent a second flag to be raised at Sutter's Fort.^[8]

Cite error: There are <ref group=notes> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=notes}} template (see the help page).