 The British Pacific Station's squadron of ships off California were stronger in ships, guns, and men than the American ships.Apparently the British never had any orders on whether to interfere or not if hostilities broke out between The Californios and the United States and requesting new orders would have taken from one and a half and two years to get a message to England and back.Initially there was little resistance from anyone in California as they replaced the dysfunctional and ineffective Mexican government which had already been replaced by the Californios.