A History of California

Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, California was one of the most culturally & linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America; the area was inhabited by more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans. Large, settled populations lived on the coast & hunted sea mammals, fished for salmon, & gathered shellfish, while groups in the interior hunted terrestrial game & gathered nuts, acorns, & berries. California groups also were diverse in their political organization with bands, tribes, villages, & on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo & Salinan. Trade, intermarriage, & military alliances fostered many social & economic relationships among the diverse groups.

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The first European to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was the portuguese Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542, sailing for the Spanish Empire. Some 37 years later, the English explorer Francis Drake also explored & claimed an undefined portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila Galleons on their return trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565. Sebastián Vizcaíno explored & mapped the coast of California in 1602 for New Spain.

Spanish missionaries began setting up twenty-three California Missions along the coast of what became known as Alta California (Upper California), together with small towns & presidios. The first mission in Alta California was established at San Diego in 1769. In 1821, the Mexican War of Independence gave Mexico (including California), independence from Spain; for the next twenty-five years, Alta California remained a remote northern province of the nation of Mexico. Cattle ranches, or ranchos, emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. After Mexican independence from Spain, the chain of missions became the property of the Mexican government, & were secularized by 1832. The ranchos developed under ownership by Californios (Spanish-speaking Californians) who had received land grants & traded cowhides & tallow with Boston merchants.

Beginning in the 1820s, trappers & settlers from the United States & Canada began to arrive in Northern California, harbingers of the great changes that would later sweep the Mexican territory. These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail,Oregon Trail & Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains & harsh deserts surrounding California. In this period, Imperial Russia explored the California coast, & established a trading post at Fort Ross.

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In 1846, at the outset of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the California Republic was founded & the Bear Flag (featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe, & the words "California Republic") was flown in an attempt to control Northern California. The attempt to form this republic came to a sudden end, however, when Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into San Francisco Bay & began the military occupation of California by the United States. Northern California capitulated in less than a month to the US forces. Get a Flag of the state of California T Shirt

Following a series of defensive battles in Southern California, including; The Siege of Los Angeles, the Battle of Dominguez Rancho, the Battle of San Pascual, the Battle of Rio San Gabriel & the Battle of La Mesa, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the Californios on January 13, 1847, securing American control in California.

Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the war, the region was divided between Mexico & the United States; the western territory of Alta California, was to become the U.S. state of California, & the Arizona, Nevada, Colorado & Utah Territories, while the lower region of California, Baja California, remained in the possession of Mexico.

In 1848, the non-native population of California has been estimated to be no more than 15,000. But after gold was discovered, the population burgeoned with U.S. citizens, Europeans, & other immigrants during the great California Gold Rush. In 1850, California was admitted to the United States as a free state (one in which slavery was prohibited).

The seat of government for California under Mexican rule was located at Monterey from 1777 until 1846, when Mexican authorities abandoned California at the outset of the Mexican-American war. In 1849, the Constitutional Convention was first held there. Among the duties was the task of determining the location for the new State capital. The first legislative sessions were held in San Jose (1850-1851). Subsequent locations included Vallejo (1852-1853), & nearby Benicia (1853-1854), although these locations eventually proved to be inadequate as well. The capital has been located in Sacramento since 1854.

At first, travel between California & the central & eastern parts of the United States was time-consuming & dangerous. A more direct connection came in 1869 with the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. After this rail link was established, hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens came west, where new Californians were discovering that land in the state, if irrigated during the dry summer months, was extremely well-suited to fruit cultivation & agriculture in general. Vast expanses of wheat & other cereal crops, vegetable crops, cotton, & nut & fruit trees were grown (including oranges in Southern California), & the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production in the Central Valley & elsewhere.

During the early 20th century, migration to California accelerated with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway & Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965, the population grew from fewer than one million to become the most populous state in the Union. From 1965 to the present, the population changed radically & became one of the most diverse in the world. The state is regarded as a world center of technology & engineering businesses, the entertainment & music industries, & of U.S. agricultural production

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