Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as Nueva California ('New California'), among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of Las Californias, but was split off into a separate province in 1804 (named Nueva California). Following the Mexican War of Independence, it became a territory of Mexico in April 1822 and was renamed Alta California in 1824. The claimed territory included all of the modern U.S. states of California, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. In the 1836 Siete Leyes government reorganization, the two Californias were once again combined (as a single departamento). That change was undone in 1846, but rendered moo