Columbia River just north of today's Portland, Oregon. From this headquarters, Company fur trappers spread throughout the Pacific Northwest, extending as far east as the Rocky Mountains and, by using the Siskiyou Trail, as far south as California's Central Valley. Mexican independence After the Spanish possession now known as Mexico (first known as "América Septentrional" or "Northern America") won its War of Independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico initially retained Spain's missions and settlements along the Pacific coast, and continued Spain's claims to territory as far north as today's border between California and Oregon. In the 1830s, Mexico ended Church control of the missions in California and opened the land to secular development, particularly ranching. By the 1840s, there were small Mexican settlements at San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the territorial capital at Monterey. These settlements primarily traded cattle hides and tallow with American and European merchant vessels. This period is vividly portrayed in Bostonian Richard Henry Dana, Jr.'s famous seafaring memoir, Two Years Before the Mast'' and the culture of the great Mexican landowners of this period is often harked back to as exemplifying the height of California's romantic pastoral era. Mexican control of the territory ended after only 25 years, when attempts by local Mexican officials to expropriate the property of American ranchers and drive them out of California in the winter led to the successful uprising known as the Bear Flag Revolt. Central American independence During the 1820s, the Central American possessions of Spain gained their independence, and the boundaries of the young nations shifted in alliances and configurations. For example, what was to become the nation of Panama was simply a province of Colombia, and Guatemala was variously part of a confederation with Mexico, and part of the United Provinces of Central America, before becoming a separate nation in 1838. Almost all of these Central American nations saw continuing political strife throughout this period (and into the 20th century), as struggles continued between indigenous peoples and elites, and among factions of the elites. French interest In 1786, Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse led a group of French scientists and artists on a voyage of exploration ordered by Louis XVI and were welcomed in Monterey, California. They compiled an account of the California mission system, the land and the people. The leader of a further French scientific expedition to California, Eugène Duflot de