| Native Name: | Departamento de California |
| Common Name: | California Department |
| Subdivision: | Department |
| Nation: | the Second Mexican Empire |
| Government Type: | Empire |
| Title Leader: | Prefect |
| Capital: | La Paz |
| Year Start: | 1865 |
| Year End: | 1867 |
| Life Span: | 1865–1867 |
| Era: | Second French intervention in Mexico |
| Image Map Caption: | Location of the California Department (red) in the Second Mexican Empire. |
| P1: | Baja California Territory |
| S1: | Baja California Territory |
| Today: | Mexico |
The California Department (1865−1867) was a department of the Second Mexican Empire, located in Northwestern Mexico.
The department included all the Baja California peninsula. It did not include any of the former Alta California (the present-day U.S. state of California), which was ceded to the U.S. in 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.[1] [2]
It was established by an imperial decree on March 3, 1865, which specified:[3]
The present-day Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur are located where the department was.