Editing San Francisco (section)

===Mexican era===
{{See also|Yerba Buena, California}}
[[File:Doña_Juana_Briones_de_Miranda_(7222900876)_(cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Juana Briones de Miranda]], known as the "Founding Mother of San Francisco"<ref name="Briones de Miranda">{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Juana-Briones-San-Francisco-s-founding-mother-4757183.php|title=Juana Briones – San Francisco's founding mother|first=Gary|last=Kamiya|date=August 23, 2013|work=SFGATE}}</ref>]]
In 1821, the [[The Californias|Californias]] were [[Mexican War of Independence|ceded to Mexico]] by Spain. The extensive [[missions in California|California mission system]] gradually lost its influence during the period of [[First Mexican Republic|Mexican rule]], although it was not  until 1833 that the missions would be secularized. Agricultural land became largely privatized as [[Ranchos of California|ranchos]], as was occurring in other parts of California. Coastal trade increased, including a half-dozen [[barques]] from various Atlantic ports which regularly sailed in California waters.<ref name="sfmuseum-early">{{cite web |last = San Francisco News Letter| title=From the 1820s to the Gold Rush |date= September 1925|url = http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/early.html |access-date = November 11, 2024|publisher = The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco| url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091022224825/http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/early.html |archive-date=October 22, 2009}}</ref><ref>Cf. {{cite book|author-link=Richard Henry Dana Jr. |author-first1=Richard Henry|author-last1=Dana Jr. |title=[[Two Years before the Mast]]|year=1840}}</ref>

With the enactment of the [[Mexican Secularization Act of 1833]], the missions were made to divest themselves of their extensive landholdings and emancipate the indigenous people under their control. As part of the process of secularization, Governor [[José Figueroa]] opened up San Francisco to civilian settlement. Prior to secularization, the only settlements in San Francisco had been the military settlement at the Presidio and the religious settlement at Mission Dolores.<ref name="Briones de Miranda"/> In 1835, the Presidio garrison, commanded by [[Mariano Vallejo]], relocated to the [[Presidio of Sonoma]], which was regarded as needing a greater military presence due the proximity of the Russian settlement at [[Fort Ross]]. Only a small detachment remained at the Presidio of San Francisco.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing USA| isbn = 9781598842227| pages = 343–345| editor = Danver, Steven L| last = Chandler| first = Robert J| title = Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History: An Encyclopedia| chapter = Bear Flag Revolt (1846): Sonoma| date = 2010| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Qk7eEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA343}}</ref> Mission Dolores sold most of its property in 1836, retaining only the church and related structures.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yenne |first=Bill |title=The Missions of California |publisher=Thunder Bay Press |year=2004 |isbn=1-59223-319-8 |location=San Diego, California |pages=18–19}}</ref>

In 1833, [[Juana Briones de Miranda]] was granted a small [[ranchos of California|rancho]] at [[El Polín Spring]], near the Presidio, founding the first non-indigenous civilian household in San Francisco.<ref name="Briones de Miranda"/> In 1834, the ''pueblo'' of [[Yerba Buena, California|Yerba Buena]] was founded. [[Yerba Buena Cove]] (named after [[Clinopodium douglasii|a native herb]]) was already a favored anchorage spot and the new settlement and trading post was founded by its shores. Yerba Buena was located in what is now the city's [[Chinatown, San Francisco|Chinatown]] and [[Financial District, San Francisco|Financial District]] and was centered on a plaza that is now  [[Portsmouth Square]].<ref name="sfmuseum-early"/><ref>{{Cite journal| volume = 9| issue = 11| pages = 110–111| last = Eldredge| first = Zoeth Skinner| title = El Paraje de Yerba Buena| journal = Municipal Record| location = San Francisco, CA| date = 1916-03-16| hdl = 2027/uc1.32106019794160?urlappend=%3Bseq=110| url = https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.32106019794160?urlappend=%3Bseq=110}}</ref><ref name="browning">{{Cite book| publisher = Great West Books| isbn = 9780944220085| last = Browning| first = Peter| title = San Francisco/Yerba Buena: From the Beginning to the Gold Rush 1769-1849| date = 1998}}</ref> A land survey of Yerba Buena was made by the Swiss immigrant [[Jean Jacques Vioget]] as prelude to the city plan.<ref name="sfmuseum-early"/> 
[[File:A view of Yerba Buena (San Francisco). On July 9, 1846, Capt. Montgomery of the Sloop of War Portsmouth, raised the American Flag in the plaza and seized the region of the United States LCCN2004666425.jpg|thumb|left|The 1846 [[Battle of Yerba Buena]] was an early U.S. victory in the [[Conquest of California|American conquest of California]].]]
[[Francisco de Haro]] became the first [[alcalde]] of Yerba Buena. In 1835, the second alcalde, [[José Joaquín Estudillo]], approved the first land grant in Yerba Buena: to [[William A. Richardson|William Richardson]].<ref name="sfmuseum-early"/> Yerba Buena began to attract American and European settlers; an 1842 census listed 21 residents (11%) born in the United States or Europe, as well as one Filipino merchant.<ref>{{Cite web |title=san_francisco_history:san_francisco_census_1842 [SFgenealogy] |url=https://www.sfgenealogy.org/doku.php?id=san_francisco_history:san_francisco_census_1842 |access-date=June 18, 2022 |website=www.sfgenealogy.org}}</ref> 
Following the [[Bear Flag Revolt]] in Sonoma and the beginning of the [[Conquest of California|U.S. Conquest of California]], American forces from the ''[[USS Portsmouth (1843)|USS Portsmouth]]'' under the command of [[John B. Montgomery]] captured Yerba Buena on July 9, 1846, with little resistance from the local Californio population, raising the American flag over Yerba Buena plaza (later renamed Portsmouth Square in commemoration of this event).

Following the capture, U.S. forces appointed both [[José de Jesús Noé]] and [[Washington Allon Bartlett]] to serve as co-[[alcalde]]s (mayors), while the conquest continued on in the rest of California. On January 30, 1847, Mayor Bartlett ordained that the city should officially change its name from "Yerba Buena" to "San Francisco", as the former name was only locally recognized and the latter name was in use on international maps.<ref>{{cite web |title=Yerba Buena Renamed San Francisco |publisher=The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco |url=http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist/name.html |access-date=November 20, 2024}}</ref> There was also concern that a new town being planned by General Vallejo on the [[Carquinez Strait]] was to be called "Francisca", after the first name of his wife. After the name change to "San Francisco", the name of Vallejo's town was changed to [[Benicia, California|Benicia]], after his wife's middle name. Following the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]] in 1848, [[Alta California]] was [[Mexican Cession|ceded from Mexico to the United States]].

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