Even then, most of California was predominantly Hispanic from the mid 1700s onward. When the Spaniards came to Baja California in the mid 1750s, they established 5 Franciscan missions in baja, along with 21 missions between San Diego and just north of the bay. They mixed with the indigenous population, who then became known as Californios. It wasn’t until white people started showing up just prior to and especially during the gold rush, with then California becoming a US state in 1850. Even then, it wasn’t until the late 1800s/early 1900s that California became predominantly white, and that was primarily due to the sheer number of white folks that moved west in such numbers that eclipsed the local Hispanic population.