tration: THE BEAR FLAG.]

[Sidenote: California.]

[Sidenote: The "Bear Republic," 1846.]

[Sidenote: California seized by American soldiers.]

336. Seizure of California.--California was the name given to the
Mexican possessions on the Pacific coast north of Mexico itself. There
were now many American settlers there, especially at Monterey. Hearing
of the outbreak of the Mexican War, they Set up a republic of their own.
Their flag had a figure of a grizzly bear painted on it, and hence their
republic is often spoken of as the Bear Republic. Commodore Stockton
with a small fleet was on the Pacific coast. He and John C. Fremont
assisted the Bear Republicans until soldiers under Colonel Kearney
reached them from the United States by way of Santa Fe.

[Illustration: JOHN C. FREMONT.]

[Sidenote: Mexican cessions, 1848.]

[Sidenote: The Gadsden Purchase, 1853. _McMaster_, 334.]

337. Treaty of Peace, 1848.--The direct cause of the Mexican War
was Mexico's unwillingness to give up Texas without a struggle. But the
Mexicans had treated many Americans very unjustly and owed them large
sums of money. A treaty of peace was made in 1848. Mexico agreed to
abandon her claims to Texas, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and
Colorado. The United States agreed to withdraw its armies from Mexico,
to pay Mexico fifteen million dollars, and to pay the claims of American
citizens on Mexico. These claims proved to amount to three and one-half
million dollars, In the end, therefore, the United States paid eighteen
and one-half million dollars for this enormous and exceedingly valuable
addition to its territory. When the time came to run the boundary line,
the American and Mexican commissioners could not agree. So the United
States paid ten million dollars more and received an additional strip of
land between the Rio Grande and the Colorado rivers. This gave the
United States its present southern boundary. This agreement was made in
1853 by James Gadsden for the United States, and the land bought is
usually called the Gadsden Purchase.

[Sidenote: Oregon.]

[Sidenote: Joint occupation by United States and Great Britain.]

338. The Oregon Question.--It was not only in the Southwest that
boundaries were disputed; in the Northwest also there was a long
controversy which was settled while Polk was President. Oregon was the
name given to the whole region, between Spanish and Mexican California
and the Russian Alaska. The United St