Juan Bautista Alvarado in the context of "Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica"

Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California. The county seat of Sacramento County, it is located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in the Sacramento Valley. It is the fourth-most populous city in Northern California, sixth-most populous city in the state, and 35th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 524,943 at the 2020 census. The Sacramento metropolitan area, with 2.46 million residents, is the 27th-largest metropolitan area in the country.

Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area was inhabited by the Nisenan, Maidu, and other indigenous peoples of California. In 1808, Spanish cavalryman Gabriel Moraga surveyed and named the Río del Santísimo Sacramento (Most Holy Sacrament River), after the Blessed Sacrament. In 1839, Juan Bautista Alvarado, Mexican governor of Alta California, granted the responsibility of colonizing the Sacramento Valley to Swiss-born Mexican citizen John Augustus Sutter, who subsequently established Sutter's Fort and the settlement at the Rancho Nueva Helvetia. Following the American Conquest of California and the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the waterfront developed by Sutter began to be developed and incorporated in 1850 as the City of Sacramento. In 1852, the city offered its county courthouse to the state of California to house the state legislature, resulting in the city becoming the permanent state capital in 1854 and ushering in the construction of a new state capitol building which was finished in 1874.

Below is a list of the governors of early California (1769–1850), before its admission as the 31st U.S. state. First explored by Gaspar de Portolá, with colonies established at San Diego and Monterey, Las Californias was a remote, sparsely settled Spanish province of the viceroyalty of New Spain. In 1822, following Mexican independence, California became part of Mexico.

In 1836, a coup led by Californios Juan Bautista Alvarado and José Castro eventually resulted in Alvarado becoming governor. That conflict ended in 1838, when the central government of Mexico recognized Alvarado as California Governor. The territorial diputación (legislature) approved the appointment.

Rancho San Bernardino was a 35,509-acre (143.70 km) Mexican land grant in present-day San Bernardino County, California given in 1842 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to José del Carmen Lugo, José María Lugo, Vicente Lugo, and Diego Sepulveda. The grant included a large part of the San Bernardino valley, and encompassed present-day San Bernardino, Fontana, Rialto, Redlands and Colton.