Oh hell, we don't have to ever feel bad about the Spaniard claim. It was based on the Treaty of Tordesillas and the Pope gave them everything to the North Pole. It was utterly silly and the people in Europe at the time thought so too: especially us Protestants in England and Germany. California was land they never had and never held, which is why it fell so quickly to Stockton and Fremont.
As for denial of resources to the newly occupied Aztlan, don't forget where the electric power for California really comes from, and ask yourself if the Governors of the Western States should pay attention to things like the interstate water compacts negotiated and agreed to long ago when the population of California was not predominantly foreign.
Seems to me that if California’s population is sufficiently “foreign” the states upstream would be well within their rights to restrict water rights in California to the levels negotiated by the foreigner’s own countries.
The Russians were not bound by any Papal decision and acted on their own right.