Law Commons^™

1976 - Mexican-American Land Tenure Conflict In California, David Hornbeck

Overview of California Private Land Claims and the Public Domain

This paper examines the merging of the Mexican and American land tenure systems and how the two very different concepts of land acquisition, organization and maintenance clashed resulting in a distinctive settlement pattern not usually associated with Anglo settlement. The Mexican landscape, organized according to centuries of Spanish tradition, was the antithesis of the type established by the westward moving American pioneer. Spatial differences were many, particularly in the areas of agriculture, settlement, transportation, space economy and land tenure.