Sep 11, 200610:43 AMThe Life

Happy belated statehood day!

We're 156 years old! Or we were, on Saturday. Funny, I don't feel a day over 155...

The Mexican War officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 2, 1848), in which Mexico ceded 525,000 square miles to the US government. This land was further subdivided to become California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.

The US Congress approved California statehood as part of a compromise to avoid civil war. On September 9, 1850, President Fillmore signed the bill for California admission, just after the Gold Rush had begun in earnest. So the transition of California from a Mexican region to US statehood occurred in less than three years, without having to go through the territorial stage.