Editing Baja California peninsula (section)

==History==
{{See also|Etymology of California}}
The name of California existed as a myth among European explorers before it was discovered. The earliest known mention of the ''idea'' of California was in the 1510 romance novel ''Las Sergas de Esplandián'' by Spanish author [[Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo]]. The book described the [[Island of California]] as being west of the [[West Indies|Indies]], "very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of [[Amazons]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://scholarworks.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.2/2492/CAgeographer1987_p1-38.pdf?sequence=1 |title=Spain's Fantastic Vision and the Mythic Creation of California |access-date=2017-01-31 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525081730/http://scholarworks.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.2/2492/CAgeographer1987_p1-38.pdf?sequence=1 |archive-date=2017-05-25 }}</ref>

The Baja peninsula was originally believed by the first Spanish sea explorers to be an island, and acquired the name California, after the mythical paradise. Following [[Hernán Cortés]]'s [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire|conquest of Mexico]], the search for the fabled [[Strait of Anián]] connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific helped motivate him to send several expeditions to the west coast of [[Viceroyalty of New Spain|New Spain]] in the 1530s and early 1540s. In 1539, explorer [[Francisco de Ulloa]] proved that Baja California was a peninsula rather than an island,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Gulf of California|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Gulf-of-California#ref134536|website=Encyclopaedia Britannica|date=30 August 2023 }}</ref> and named the water separating it from the mainland the "Vermillion Sea" (sometimes referred to as the "Red Sea"). The Spaniards gave the name ''[[The Californias|Las Californias]]'' to the peninsula and lands to the north, including both Baja California and [[Alta California]], the region that became parts of the present-day U.S. states of [[California]], [[Nevada]], [[Utah]], [[Arizona]], and parts of [[Colorado]] and [[Wyoming]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2015}} Over time the name "Sea of Cortez" replaced Vermillion Sea, and today the term "Gulf of California" is used by some.<ref>{{Cite web|title=California as Island? The Valk Map in the USC Chronicle {{!}} USC Libraries|url=https://libraries.usc.edu/article/california-island-valk-map-usc-chronicle|access-date=2021-04-04|website=libraries.usc.edu}}</ref>

Although cartographers such as Abraham Ortelius showed the Baja as an extensive peninsula in his ''[[Theatrum Orbis Terrarum]]'', published in [[Antwerpen]] in 1589, and on the map ''[[Maris Pacifici]]'' from 1589, in the first half of the 17th century the idea of California as an island spread again; this persisted well into the 18th century, and was included in many erroneous maps that did not have the knowledge of the Spanish sailors about the Pacific coast of North America.<ref>{{Cite web|title="For Centuries, Europeans Thought California Was an Island"|url=https://www.cntraveler.com/story/for-centuries-europeans-thought-california-was-an-island|last=Jennings|first=Ken|author-link=Ken Jennings|date=March 19, 2018|website=Condé Nast Traveler}}</ref> It is believed to have originated with Carmelite friar Antonio Ascension, who around 1620 drew a map of California depicting it as an island, supposedly on a misconception of reports by Spanish navigators [[Juan de Fuca]] and Martin d'Aquilar.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/california-island |title=The Mapping of America |year=1980 |last=Toley |first=R. V. |page=110}}</ref> A copy of this map was sent to Spain and was seized by the Dutch on its way and then reproduced in the Netherlands, and eventually found its way to [[Henry Briggs (mathematician)|Henry Briggs]] in London who widely disseminated this misinformation. The first printed map showing California as an island was published by Briggs in 1622 (this map was also included in ''Hakluytus Posthumus'' by [[Samuel Purchas]], 1625), where it was written that it was sometimes supposed to be a peninsula, but had since been shown by the Dutch to be an island. The idea was warmly accepted by cartographers and presented even in c.&nbsp;1720 on ''Carte Nouveelle de la Mer du Sud'', published in Amsterdam by Andries and {{ill|Hendrik de Leth|nl|Hendrik de Leth}}.<ref>{{cite book |title=Vigenjc: Glasilo Kovaškega muzeja v Kropi: Rodbina Kappus pl. Pilchstein |language=sl |trans-title=Vigenjc: Newsletter of the Blacksmith Museum in Kropa: The Kappus von Pilchstein family |last=Nabergoj |first=Tomaž |chapter=Marko Anton Kappus (1657–1717): misijonar, ki je odkrival Ameriko |trans-chapter=Marcus Antonius Kappus (1657–1717): The Missionary Who Was Discovering the America |year=2009 |volume=IX |publisher=Museums of the Municipality of Radovljica |url=https://issuu.com/mropdf/docs/vigenjc_9_web |issn=1580-6529 |access-date=2023-10-13 |pages=29–30}}</ref> Garcia and Jorge opined in 2023 that a reason for such a mistake could have originated in the secret in which the Spaniards held their cartography from other European powers' eyes.<ref name="Presidio 2023">''Presidio. Soldados del Rey.'' Garcia Ruiz, Jorge L. (2023) {{ISBN|979-8378355877}}</ref>

The final blow to the notion of California as an island was struck by an influential map created by Italian Jesuit priest [[Eusebio Kino]] during his mission in the [[Pimería Alta]]. It was titled ''Paso por tierra a la California y sus confinantes nuevas Naciones y Misiones nuevas de la Compañía de JHS [Jesús] en la América Septentrional'' ("Overland Passage to California and its Contiguous New Nations and New Missions of the Society of Jesus in Northern America").<ref>{{cite web |url=https://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/20921 |title=Paso por tierra a la California y sus confinantes nuevas Naciones y Misiones nuevas de la Compañía de JHS [Jesús] en la América Septentrional. Descubierto, andado y demarcado por el Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino, jesuita, desde el año de 1698 hasta el de 1701 |year=1701 |first=Eusebio| last=Kino}}</ref> Originally, in 1695, it depicted California as a peninsula but based on the presence of blue abalone shells (most likely ''[[Haliotis fulgens]]'') from the Pacific coast in the Pimería Alta, the information from natives, and his own travels and sightings, Eusebio Kino redrew the map in 1701.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270394387 |last=Hans |first=Bertsch |title=Las Conchas Azules (The Blue Shells): Father Kino, abalones, and the Island of California |journal=The Nautilus |year=2010 |volume=124 |issue=4 |pages=188–191}}</ref> The map was printed in 1707 in [[Hamburg]] and [[Leipzig]] and became one of the best-known maps of northern New Spain. A notable colleague of Eusebio Kino who accompanied him on one of his major travels (in 1694) and acted as the intermediary in the publication of this map and dissemination of Kino's knowledge in Europe was [[Carniola]]n priest {{ill|Marcus Antonius Kappus|es|Marko Anton Kappus}}.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-EMQRXPEC?&language=eng |last=Stanonik |first=Janez |title=Marcus Antonius Kappus: a Reevaluation |journal=Acta Neophilologica |volume=40 |issue=1/2 |id={{COBISS|ID=35705186}} |year=2007 |pages=61–74|doi=10.4312/an.40.1-2.61-74 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

{{anchor|Partition}}

===Timeline===
{{more citations needed section|date=October 2023}}

* "At the time of contact, Baja California Norte was primarily inhabited by several indigenous groups belonging to the [[Yuman]] language branch of the [[Hokan]] linguistic family." Other indigenous groups in Baja California at the time of first contact include the [[Paipai people|Paipai]], [[Kumeyaay]] (Kumiai), [[Cochimí]], [[Cocopah|Cucapás]] (Cocopá), [[Kiliwa people|Kiliwa]], [[Guaycura people|Guaycura]] (Guaicura or Waicuri), and [[Pericú]] peoples.<ref name="Schmal">{{Cite web |last=Schmal |first=John P. |date=2019-09-14 |title=Indigenous Baja California: The Rarest of the Rare |url=https://indigenousmexico.org/baja-california/indigenous-baja-california-the-rarest-of-the-rare/ |access-date=2022-12-17 |website=Indigenous Mexico |language=en-US}}</ref>
*1532: [[Hernán Cortés]] sends three ships north along the coast of Mexico in search of the [[Island of California]]. The three ships disappear without a trace.
*1533: Cortés sends a follow-up mission to search for the lost ships. Pilot [[Fortún Ximénez]] leads a mutiny and founds a settlement in the [[Bay of La Paz]] in today's Baja California before being killed.
*1539: Francisco de Ulloa explores both coasts, confirms the Baja as a peninsula.
*1539: Domingo del Castillo a cartographer in the Francisco de Ulloa expedition draw his map with an accurate rendering of the peninsula.<ref name="Presidio 2023"/>
*1578 or 1579: The ''[[San Juanillo]]'' was the [[Manila galleon]] which wrecked on a beach at [[Baja California]] in late 1578 or early 1579 became the first [[shipwreck]] on the coast of the Californias.<ref>{{cite book | title=Ghost Galleon: The Discovery and Archaeology of the San Juanillo on Shores of Baja California | first=Edward | last=Von der Porten | page=208 | date=2019 | publisher=Texas A&M University Press}}</ref>
*1622: A map by Michiel Colijn of Amsterdam showed California as a [[Island of California|peninsula rather than an island]]. Previous maps show the Gulf terminating in its correct location.
*1690s–1800s: Spanish settlement and colonization in lower Las Californias (Baja California peninsula), the first [[Spanish missions in Baja California]] are established by [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] missionaries.
*1701: Explorations by [[Eusebio Kino]] expanded knowledge of the Gulf of California coast. 
*1767: [[Suppression of the Society of Jesus|Jesuits expelled]]; [[Franciscans]] take over the Baja missions.
*1769: Franciscans go with the [[Portola expedition]] to establish new missions in Alta California. Control of the existing Baja missions passes to the [[Dominican Order]].
*1773: [[Francisco Palóu]]'s [[Palóu Line|line]] demarcates Franciscan and Dominican areas of mission control.
*1804: [[The Californias|Las Californias]] divided into Alta ("Upper") and Baja ("Lower") California, using Palóu's line.
*1810–1821: [[Mexican War of Independence]]
*1821: [[First Mexican Empire]], [[Baja California Territory]] established, covering Baja California peninsula.
*1847: The [[Battle of La Paz]] and the [[Siege of La Paz]] occurs, as well as several other [[Battle of San José del Cabo|engagements]].
*1848: [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]] cedes [[Alta California]] to the United States. As a U.S. territory it receives the [[California Gold Rush]], causing increased maritime traffic along the peninsula.
*1850: [[California]] admitted to U.S. statehood.
*1853: [[William Walker (filibuster)|William Walker]], with 45 men, captures the capital city of [[La Paz, Baja California Sur|La Paz]] and declares himself President of the Republic of Lower California. Mexico forces him to retreat a few months later.
*1931: The Territory of Baja California is further divided into Northern and Southern territories ([[Territory of Baja California Norte]] and [[Territory of Baja California Sur]]).
*1952: The North territory becomes the 29th [[List of states of Mexico|State of Mexico]], [[Baja California]]. The southern portion, below 28°N, remains a federally administered territory.
*1973: The {{convert|1700.|km|mi|abbr=on}} long Trans-Peninsular Highway ([[Mexican Federal Highway 1]]), is finished. It is the first paved road that spans the entire peninsula. The highway was built by the Mexican government to improve Baja California's economy and increase tourism.<ref>Barkenbus, Jack, "The Trans-Peninsular Highway: A New Era for Baja California", ''Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs'', Vol. 16, No. 3. (Aug., 1974), pp. 259–273.</ref>
*1974: The South territory becomes the 31st State of Mexico, [[Baja California Sur]].
* As of 2000, the five most common indigenous languages in Baja are [[Mixteco]], [[Zapoteco]], [[Náhuatl]], [[Purépecha]], and [[Triqui]].<ref name="Schmal"/>