Was California REALLY Stolen from Mexico? | Forgotten History

California is burning. Again. Ice raids have swept through Los Angeles. Marines are patrolling the streets and protesters waving Mexican flags are clashing with federal agents. Some say it's about immigration. Others say it's about invasion. But beneath it all lies a question few dare to ask. Was California even America's to begin with? In the 1800s, a rising America set its sights on the Pacific. And California, then a part of a struggling Mexican Republic, was right in the crosshairs of a young nation obsessed with expansion. Today, that same land is a powdery keg of identity, nationalism, and regret. So was California really stolen? Or was it earned? Or was it a deal struck at gunpoint and paid for in blood? Let's try and find out. Hello, I'm Mike Joberg, a Marine Corps veteran and filmmaker, and we will try to answer these questions on today's episode of Forgotten History. Before California became the economic engine of America and the fifth largest economy in the world, it was sparsely populated, underdeveloped, and still technically part of a fragile Mexican Republic. But even then, it had a target on its back. The United States had already doubled in size with the Louisiana Purchase, and now it had a new obsession, Manifest Destiny, a belief that America had a divine right to control everything from the Atlantic to the Pacific, no matter who stood in the way. In the early 1840s, California was part of a Mexican province called Alta California, but Mexico's grip on the region was weak, local rule was fragmented, the military underfunded, and the central government in Mexico City was constantly in chaos. Unfortunately for Mexico, its leader at the time was a walking disaster. Antonio López de Santa Ana had already lost Texas by mismanaging the Alamo campaign. He had been exiled, returned, exiled again, each time promising glory and leaving Mexico worse than it was before. By the mid-1840s, Santa Ana wasn't just unpredictable. He was seen by many as a sellout, switching sides, seizing power, losing wars, and somehow always slithering back into control. One Mexican general famously called him, a man who could lose a nation faster than he could saddle a horse. While Mexico flailed under Santa Ana's chaotic leadership, the U.S. acted. The U.S. annexed Texas in 1845, a region Mexico still considered its own. President James K. Polk, an open expansionist, sent troops to the Rio Grande, daring Mexico to retaliate, and they did. Congress declared war, but not everybody agreed. A young congressman named Abraham Lincoln called it out for what it was, a land grab wrapped in patriotism. While America claimed it was fighting a just war, the truth was far simpler. California was too valuable to ignore. The Mexican-American war wasn't a border dispute, it was a land heist with cannons. As war erupted in 1846, U.S. forces tore through Mexico with surgical precision, better armed, better supplied, and backed by a booming industrial economy. Mexico, meanwhile, was unraveling from the inside. In California, American settlers launched a bear flag revolt, pretending to declare independence, before handing the territory to the U.S. within weeks. The stars and stripes rose over Sonoma, before most Mexicans even knew a war had started. Meanwhile, Santa Anna, somehow back from exile again, rallied his army and marched north, only to lose again. In February of 1847, near the arid passes of northern Mexico, American and Mexican forces collided at the Battle of Buena Vista. Outnumbered nearly two to one, General Zachary Taylor's U.S. troops dug in against a massive assault, led by Santa Anna himself, eager to reclaim glory. For two brutal days, musket fire echoed through the mountains, as cavalry charges clashed with cannon volleys. But once again, Santa Anna overplayed his hand. Taylor's forces, outgunned but better positioned, held their ground and forced a retreat. It was a humiliating defeat, and for Santa Anna, it marked the beginning of the end. Then came the final blow, Mexico City. U.S. troops stormed the ancient capital in September of 1847, led by General Winfield Scott in a bold campaign that had marched inland from the Gulf, cutting through Mexico's defenses like a knife. The final obstacle, Chapultepec Castle, a fortress perched on a hilltop, guarding the western gates of Mexico City. Defended by a mix of regular troops and teenage military cadets, the Niño Heroes, the castle became a symbol of a last-ditch resistance. But the American assault was relentless. U.S. artillery hammered the walls. Marines and soldiers stormed uphill under musket fire and bayonet charges. By the end of the day, the defenders were dead, captured, or scattered, and the Stars and Stripes flew over the former seat of the Aztec Empire. That moment became legend, and the Marines never forgot it. From the halls of Montezuma, that line in the Marines' hymn, it's about this, the fall of Mexico's capital, the breach of its last stronghold, the conquest of a sovereign nation, the moment America took everything. With U.S. troops occupying their capital, Mexico had no choice. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed under duress in 1848. Over 500,000 square miles of territory ceded. California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah, all gone. The 15 million dollars in payment was barely a consolation prize. On paper, it was a deal. In reality, it was a gunpoint transaction. Critics at the time called it shameful. Abraham Lincoln refused to endorse the war, and President Polk, he took the land and didn't even run for re-election. And Santa Anna, disgraced and blamed for everything, was exiled again. He did eventually return in 1874, begging to be recognized again, but nobody cared. He died in poverty, partially blind, and politically irrelevant. After the ink dried on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, California belonged to the United States. It wasn't even civilized by East Coast standards, but gold would change everything. In just one year, tens of thousands of settlers flooded west. Towns sprang up overnight. California went from a barren outpost to a boom town, and by 1850, it became the 31st state, fast-tracked for its economic potential. And it worked. Railroads, oil, Hollywood, Silicon Valley. California became the crown jewel of the American empire. But fast forward to now, and the shine is gone. Today, that golden state is rusting at the edges. Around 187,000 people are experiencing homelessness in California, the highest per state count in the nation, and nearly one-fourth of all unhoused Americans. It has a shortage of over 1 million affordable homes, especially acute in LA, San Francisco, and San Diego. It has high taxes. The top state income tax rate is 13.3%, the highest in the nation. And the residents are fleeing. Roughly 1.46 million Californians left the state from 2020 to 2024, the largest out-migration in the country. It's also suffering a tax revenue hemorrhage. Out-migration caused a loss of 1.6% of state income revenue between 2022 and 2023, triple the pre-pandemic amount. It has a business exit as well. Since 2019, over 200 major companies like Hewlett Packard, Chevron, and Tesla relocated, citing taxes, regulation, and high costs. And now, the streets of California are once again filled with protests. But this time, it's not over gold or statehood. It's about immigration. Protestors waving Mexican flags, demanding ICE to be disbanded. America is certainly not perfect and has its problems. But here's a thought. If you're waving the flag of Mexico, the country we took this land from, and you think America is evil, racist, and oppressive, there's good news. The Mexican border is just a hop, skip, and jump away. You can walk there, right now, because here's the thing, no one is stopping you. In fact, millions of Americans would happily buy you a one-way bus ticket to the other side. If Mexico is better, if Mexico is just, then stay consistent. Don't demand benefits of a nation you claim to hate while clinging to the identity of the one that had lost it. But let's say the U.S. never took California. What then? Well, the Mexico of 1848 wasn't a modern democracy. It was a revolving door of dictators, coups, and foreign invasions. A fragile republic constantly on the brink of collapse. And it didn't get better. In the decades that followed, Mexico would experience a brutal civil war, a French-backed emperor, a revolution that killed over a million people, and eventually the rise of narco-cortels that turned entire regions into war zones. So if California had stayed under Mexican rule, here's what it likely would have become. A rural, impoverished frontier, neglected by an unstable central government. A corridor for corruption, drug trafficking, and cartel expansion. A battleground between rival generals or cartel-backed warlords, possibly seized by Britain or France, or sold off entirely during Mexico's countless debt crisis, or fractured into its own breakaway state like Texas, but with fewer guns and more bribes. Today, over 100,000 people are missing in Mexico, many presumed dead from cartel violence. Journalists are executed. Police chiefs vanish. Entire towns are controlled by drug lords. That's the likely fate of a Mexican California. So yes, it was stolen. But it was also rescued, rebuilt, and transformed into something far greater than it ever would have been under Mexican rule. So was the theft justified by what California became? Or are we just watching a once-golden prize slip back into chaos it was rescued from? If you believe stolen land must be returned, who are you giving it to? And will it be better off? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Thank you for watching Forgotten History. Please like, share, and subscribe. If you have any comments or show ideas, we'd love to hear from you. Thanks again.