who led a small force to overthrow mexican rule in northern california
California Republic In June 1846, thirty-three American immigrants in Alta California rebelled against the Mexican department's[notes 1][2] government. The immigrants had not been allowed to buy or rent land and had been threatened with expulsion from California because they had entered illegally without official permission.[3][4] Mexican officials were concerned about a coming war with the United States coupled with the growing influx of Americans into California. The rebellion was soon overtaken by the beginning of the Mexican–American War.
Mexican War of Independence Mexican resistance and struggle for independence began with the brutal Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire when Spanish conquerors had considerable autonomy from crown control. Don Martín Cortés (son of Hernán Cortés), the second marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, led a conspiracy of holders of encomiendas against the Spanish crown after it sought to eliminate privileges for the conquistadors, particularly putting limitations on encomiendas.[1] After the suppression of that mid-16th-century conspiracy, elites raised no substantial challenge to royal rule until the Hidalgo revolt of 1810.