The Battle of Río San Gabriel and the Conquest of California

A concrete river channel east of Los Angeles was the site of the last major battle of the Mexican-American War in California, the Battle of Río San Gabriel. This is a short video about the battle and its context in the Conquest of California and the Mexican-American War. The Battle of Río San Gabriel was fought in an afternoon, but it was also part of a longer process that played out over many years, beginning with early Anglo attempts to sieze California from Mexico and continuing after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which officially ceded California to the United States. Of course, the battle site now looks nothing like it did in 1847. The Río San Gabriel doesn’t even flow down this channel anymore; it’s now occupied by the Río Hondo, a completely different river! The concrete channel was built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the mid-20th century, after a devastating series of floods in the Los Angeles area. Here is the location of the battle marker, if you want to check it out yourself (although as you probably tell from the video, there’s not much to see there): https://goo.gl/maps/MDxUY4KAkYfnA1pKA If you enjoyed this video, please consider checking out my blog, in which I share other history- and technology-related content: www.willylogan.com. Camera: Verónica Logan Music: “The Colonel,” by Zachariah Hickman Archival photos from Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress, University of Texas Arlington Library, University of California Berkeley Library, University of Southern California Libraries, and California Historical Society. Mexican-American War map by Wikimedia user Kaidor (CC BY-SA 3.0)