How did Baja California Sur get its name?

Answer 1

After the Mexican-American War, the whole territories of California were split on Alta California (Upper California) which corresponds to the present-day US state of California, and Baja California (Lower California) which corresponds to the peninsula of the same name. It became the territory of Baja California for the following 80 years, until 1930 when the Mexican Congress decided to split up such territory in two: the North Territory of Baja California (Territorio Norte de Baja California) and South Territory of Baja California (Territorio Sur de Baja California), being divided by the 28th parallel.

Years later in 1951, Mexican president Miguel Aleman Valdes announced that the North Territory of Baja California satisfied the conditions required by the Constitution to be admitted as a free and sovereign state: population and economic ability to survive without federal support. The new state was named as Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California (English: Free and Sovereign State of Baja California).

Finally, in 1974 Mexican President Luis Echeverria Alvarez pushed a bill for the South Territory of Baja California to be elevated to the category of state.