he hard work of the missionaries the preparations for Spanish and, later, Mexican colonization of California never paid off. The unwillingness of the people of the two nations to emigrate and the unwillingness of the Native Americans to cooperate fully with the plan caused the preparations to come to nothing. By 1846 the United States had possession of California and the colonists there only amounted to 8,000 people -- 6,000 of them women and children. The seventy-five years of Spanish and Mexican control of the area had produced only this small beginning of a society "which had no chance of maintaining its cultural identity against" the new owners. The gold rush of 1849 brought a total of 115,000 Americans to California and, thirty-five years later the land booms in the Southern part of the territory finished eliminating the struggling society. If the colonization plans of the government and the Church proceeded at the same pace as the growth of the cattle export industry Mexico would have been far more reluctant to give up the territory. A flourishing culture there would either have aided Mexico in defeating the United States and retaining California or would have been better able to withstand the influence of the new American settlers and left a much greater mark on the new culture.
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