Editing John Sutter (section)

===Beginnings of Sutter's Fort===
{{Main|New Helvetia}}
[[File:JohannAugustSutter.jpg|thumb|Portrait of John Sutter by [[Frank Buchser]], painted in 1866.]]

At the time of Sutter's arrival, Alta California was a province of [[Mexico]] and had a population of [[Population of Native California|Native Americans]] estimated at 100,000–700,000. Sutter had to go to the capital at [[Monterey, California|Monterey]] to obtain permission from the [[List of pre-statehood governors of California|governor]], [[Juan Bautista Alvarado]], to settle in the territory. Alvarado saw Sutter's plan of establishing a colony in [[Central Valley (California)|Central Valley]] as useful in "buttressing the frontier which he was trying to maintain against Indians, Russians, Americans and British."<ref name=Dillion4>Dillion (1967), pp. 76–77.</ref> Sutter persuaded Governor Alvarado to grant him 48,400 acres of land for the sake of curtailing American encroachment on the Mexican territory of California. This stretch of land was called New Helvetia and Sutter was given the right to "represent in the Establishment of New Helvetia all the laws of the country, to function as political authority and dispenser of justice, in order to prevent the robberies committed by adventurers from the United States, to stop the invasion of savage Indians, and the hunting and trading by companies from the Columbia (river)."<ref name="historynet.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.historynet.com/john-sutter-and-californias-indians.htm|title=John Sutter and California's Indians|date=June 12, 2006}}</ref>

The governor required Sutter to meet certain conditions to qualify for [[land grant|land ownership]]. These included residing in the territory for one year and becoming a Mexican citizen, which Sutter fulfilled on August 29, 1840.<ref name=Dillion4/> After receiving the land grant and building his fort, Sutter did not strictly adhere on his initial agreement to deter European settlers. Instead, he actively supported the migrations of Europeans to California. Sutter later stated, "I gave passports to those entering the country… and this (Bautista) did not like it… I encouraged immigration, while they discouraged it. I sympathized with the Americans while they hated them."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dev.historynet.com/john-sutter-and-californias-indians.htm|title=John Sutter and California's Indians|work=HistoryNet |date=June 12, 2006}}</ref>

[[File:Sutter's Fort - A tour of duty 1849.jpg|thumb|left|Contemporaneous illustration of Sutter's Fort]]

Construction began on August 1839 on a fortified settlement which Sutter named [[New Helvetia]], or "New Switzerland," after his homeland. In order to elevate his social standing, Sutter impersonated a Swiss guard officer who had been displaced by the French Revolution and identified himself accordingly as 'Captain Sutter of the Swiss Guard'. When the settlement was completed on June 18, 1841, he received title to {{convert|48827|acre|km2}} on the [[Sacramento River]]. The site is now part of the California state capital of [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]].