Alta California Territory

Alta California Territory (Upper California) was a 19th-century federal territory formed under the Mexican Constitution of 1824. Its boundaries corresponded with those of the preceding Spanish colonial Alta California Province. It included the territory of the present day U.S. states of California, Nevada and Utah and parts of Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.

Between 1683 and 1834, Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries established a series of religious outposts from today's Baja California and Baja California Sur into present-day California.

The Spanish missions in Alta California were a series of 21 religious and military outposts established by Catholic priests of the Franciscan order between 1769 and 1833, to spread Christianity among the local Native Americans. The missions were part of the first major effort by Europeans to colonize the Pacific Coast region, the most northern and western of Spain's North American land claims. The El Camino Real road connected the missions from San Diego to Mission San Francisco Solano, in Sonoma, a length of 529 miles. Settlers to the region introduced European fruits, vegetables, cattle, horses, ranching and technology into Alta California.

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