Editing San Jose, California (section)

=== Spanish period ===
{{see also|List of pre-statehood mayors of San Jose}}
[[File:1781 Diseño del Pueblo de San José, California.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A 1781 map of the ''Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe'']]

California was claimed as part of the [[Spanish Empire]] in 1542, when explorer [[Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo]] charted the [[Californian coast]]. During this time [[Alta California]] and the [[Baja California peninsula]] were administered together as [[Province of Las Californias|Province of the Californias]] ({{langx|es|Provincia de las Californias|link=no}}). For nearly 200 years, the Californias remained a distant frontier region largely controlled by the numerous Native Nations and largely ignored by the government of the [[Viceroyalty of New Spain]] in [[Mexico City]]. Shifting power dynamics in North America—including the British/American victory and acquisition of North America, east of the Mississippi following the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|1763 Treaty of Paris]], as well as the start of [[Russian colonization of North America|Russian colonization of northwestern North America]]— prompted Spanish/Mexican authorities to sponsor the [[Portolá expedition|Portolá Expedition]] to survey [[Northern California]] in 1769.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.californiahistory.net/4_PAGES/missions_junipero.htm |title=Junípero Serra |year=2000 |work=California History Online |publisher=California Historical Society |access-date=June 20, 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20040812151444/http://www.californiahistory.net/4_PAGES/missions_junipero.htm |archive-date = August 12, 2004}}</ref>

In 1776, the Californias were included as part of the Captaincy General of the ''[[Provincias Internas]]'', a large administrative division created by [[José de Gálvez]], Spanish [[Council of the Indies|Minister of the Indies]], in order to provide greater autonomy for the [[Spanish Empire]]'s borderlands. That year, King [[Charles III of Spain|Carlos III of Spain]] approved an expedition by [[Juan Bautista de Anza]] to survey the [[San Francisco Bay Area]], in order to choose the sites for two future settlements and their accompanying [[Spanish missions in California|mission]]. De Anza initially chose the site for a military settlement in San Francisco, for the [[Presidio of San Francisco|Royal Presidio of San Francisco]], and [[Mission San Francisco de Asís]]. On his way back to Mexico from San Francisco, de Anza chose the sites in [[Santa Clara Valley]] for a civilian settlement, San Jose, on the eastern bank of the [[Guadalupe River (California)|Guadalupe River]], and a mission on its western bank, [[Mission Santa Clara de Asís]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Edward F. O'Day |title=The Founding of San Francisco |date=October 1926 |url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist6/founding.html |access-date=February 7, 2013 |publisher=Spring Valley Water Authority |work=San Francisco Water |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100727190828/http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist6/founding.html |archive-date=July 27, 2010}}</ref>
[[File:Luis María Peralta Adobe (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|The [[Peralta Adobe]] in [[San Pedro Square]] was built in 1797 and is San Jose's oldest standing building.]]
San Jose was officially founded as California's first civilian settlement on November 29, 1777, as the ''[[Pueblo]] de San José de Guadalupe'' by [[José Joaquín Moraga]], under orders of [[Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa]], [[Viceroy of New Spain]].{{sfn|Arbuckle|1986|p=10}} San Jose served as a strategic settlement along [[El Camino Real (California)|El Camino Real]], connecting the military fortifications at the [[Presidio of Monterey, California|Monterey Presidio]] and the [[Presidio of San Francisco|San Francisco Presidio]], as well as the [[Spanish missions in California|California mission network]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sanjosehistory.org/spanish-period/ |title=Spanish Period |website=San Jose History |access-date=November 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201031856/http://www.sanjosehistory.org/spanish-period/ |archive-date=December 1, 2017 }}</ref> In 1791, due to the severe flooding which characterized the pueblo, San Jose's settlement was moved approximately a mile south, centered on the Pueblo [[Plaza]] (modern-day [[Plaza de César Chávez]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://historysanjose.org/wp/research-collection/pueblo-papers/ |title=Spanish-Mexican Records of the San José Pueblo: The Pueblo Papers |website=History San Jose  |access-date=November 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201043651/http://historysanjose.org/wp/research-collection/pueblo-papers/ |archive-date=December 1, 2017 }}</ref>

In 1800, due to the growing population in the northern part of the Californias, [[Diego de Borica]], Governor of the Californias, officially split the province into two parts: [[Alta California]] (''Upper California''), which eventually became several western [[U.S. states]], and [[Baja California]] (''Lower California''), which eventually became two [[States of Mexico|Mexican states]].