<p>The California Land Act sought to
remake landholding in early California. Though bound by promises to uphold
existing ownership in the treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo, the United States
attempted to use the law to fundamentally change who held land in California
and the exploitation of its resources. Analysis of archival materials
demonstrates that the California Land Act intended to transform California from
a ranching-based economy dominated by large landholders of Spanish descent into
an agrarian economy dependent on small scale farming modeled on the traditional
land use of the eastern United States. This intrinsic policy characterized the
legislative formation of the act, and years later influenced North American
settlement policies of formerly French and Imperial Mexican territories. As
such, this study focuses on a little understood agent of change: the
administrative law. A careful examination of the crafting and implementation of
the California Land Act reveals that land law legislation and its
extra-judicial commission, alongside other more traditional markers of American
occupation, occupied a prominent place in the continued colonization
California. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/7967288 |
| Date | 10 June 2019 |
| Creators | Maximilian Joseph Rieger (6565676) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/Destiny_and_the_Law_The_California_Land_Act_of_1850/7967288 |
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