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With nearly It is also the most populated subnational entity in North America and the 34th most populous in the world. The Greater Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions respectively, with the former having more than San Francisco is the second most densely populated major city in the country.
Los Angeles County is the country's most populous , while San Bernardino County is the largest county by area in the country. California borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; and has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the west. If California were a sovereign nation, it would rank as the world's fifth-largest economy as of [update] , [16] [17] behind Germany and ahead of India, as well as the 37th most populous.
Prior to European colonization , California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America and contained the highest Native American population density north of what is now Mexico. European exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the colonization of California by the Spanish Empire.
The area became a part of Mexico in , following its successful war for independence , but was ceded to the United States in after the Mexican—American War. The California Gold Rush started in and led to dramatic social and demographic changes, including large-scale immigration into California, a worldwide economic boom, and the California genocide of indigenous peoples.
The western portion of Alta California was then organized and admitted as the 31st state on September 9, , following the Compromise of Notable contributions to popular culture , for example in entertainment , sports and music , have their origins in California. The state also has made noteworthy contributions in the fields of communication, information, innovation, education, environmentalism, economics, and politics.
It is considered the origin of the American film industry , hippie counterculture, beach and car culture , [26] the personal computer , the internet , [27] fast food , diners , burger joints , skateboarding , and the fortune cookie among other innovations. The state's extremely diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast and metropolitan areas in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east, and from the redwood and Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast.
The Central Valley , a major agricultural area, dominates the state's center. California is well known for its warm Mediterranean climate and monsoon seasonal weather. The large size of the state results in climates that vary from moist temperate rainforest in the north to arid desert in the interior, as well as snowy alpine in the mountains. Drought and wildfires are a persistent issue for the state.
California has established a state program in recognition of Native American use of fire in ecosystems to mitigate wildfires. The Spaniards gave the name Las Californias to the peninsula of Baja California and to Alta California, the latter region becoming the present-day state of California. Know ye that at the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very close to that part of the Terrestrial Paradise, which was inhabited by black women without a single man among them, and they lived in the manner of Amazons.
They were robust of body with strong passionate hearts and great virtue. The island itself is one of the wildest in the world on account of the bold and craggy rocks. Official abbreviations of the state's name include CA, Cal.
California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. Living in these diverse geographic areas, Indigenous peoples developed complex forms of ecosystem management, which included forest gardening to ensure the regular availability of food and medicinal plants.
These groups were also diverse in their political organization, with bands, tribes, villages, and, on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms , such as the Chumash , Pomo and Salinan. Trade, intermarriage, craft specialists, and military alliances fostered social and economic relationships between many groups.
Although nations would sometimes war, most armed conflicts were between groups of men for vengeance. Acquiring territory was not usually the purpose of these small-scale battles. Men and women generally had different roles in society. Women were often responsible for weaving, harvesting, processing, and preparing food, while men for hunting and other forms of physical labor. Most societies also had roles for people who the Spanish referred to as joyas , [51] who they saw as "men who dressed as women.
The Chumash referred to them as 'aqi. Cabrillo was commissioned by Antonio de Mendoza , the Viceroy of New Spain , to lead an expedition up the Pacific coast in search of trade opportunities; they entered San Diego Bay on September 28, , and reached at least as far north as San Miguel Island.
Such depictions appeared on many European maps well into the 18th century. Juan Bautista de Anza led a similarly important expedition throughout California in —76, which would extend deeper into the interior and north of California. The Anza expedition selected numerous sites for missions, presidios, and pueblos, which subsequently would be established by settlers. Gabriel Moraga , a member of the expedition, would also christen many of California's prominent rivers with their names in —, such as the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River.
During this same period, sailors from the Russian Empire explored along the northern coast of California. The settlement did not meet much success, failing to attract settlers or establish long term trade viability, and was abandoned by During the War of Mexican Independence , Alta California was largely unaffected and uninvolved in the revolution, [60] though many Californios supported independence from Spain , which many believed had neglected California and limited its development.
Following Mexican independence, Californian ports were freely able to trade with foreign merchants. For the next 25 years, Alta California remained a remote, sparsely populated, northwestern administrative district of the newly independent country of Mexico, which shortly after independence became a republic. The missions , which controlled most of the best land in the state, were secularized by and became the property of the Mexican government.
These huge ranchos or cattle ranches emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. The ranchos developed under ownership by Californios Hispanics native of California who traded cowhides and tallow with Boston merchants.
Beef did not become a commodity until the California Gold Rush. From the s, trappers and settlers from the United States and Canada began to arrive in Northern California.
The early government of the newly independent Mexico was highly unstable, and in a reflection of this, from onwards, California also experienced a series of armed disputes, both internal and with the central Mexican government. One of the largest ranchers in California was John Marsh. After failing to obtain justice against squatters on his land from the Mexican courts, he determined that California should become part of the United States. Marsh conducted a letter-writing campaign espousing the California climate, the soil, and other reasons to settle there, as well as the best route to follow, which became known as "Marsh's route".
His letters were read, reread, passed around, and printed in newspapers throughout the country, and started the first wagon trains rolling to California. After ushering in the period of organized emigration to California, Marsh became involved in a military battle between the much-hated Mexican general, Manuel Micheltorena and the California governor he had replaced, Juan Bautista Alvarado.
The armies of each met at the Battle of Providencia near Los Angeles. Marsh had been forced against his will to join Micheltorena's army. Ignoring his superiors, during the battle, he signaled the other side for a parley. There were many settlers from the United States fighting on both sides. He convinced each side that they had no reason to be fighting each other. As a result of Marsh's actions, they abandoned the fight, Micheltorena was defeated, and California-born Pio Pico was returned to the governorship.
This paved the way to California's ultimate acquisition by the United States. Afterward, rebels raised the Bear Flag featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe and the words "California Republic" at Sonoma. The Republic's only president was William B. Ide , [74] who played a pivotal role during the Bear Flag Revolt.
This revolt by American settlers served as a prelude to the later American military invasion of California and was closely coordinated with nearby American military commanders. The California Republic was short-lived; [75] the same year marked the outbreak of the Mexican—American War — Commodore John D. After a series of defensive battles in the south, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the Californios on January 13, , securing a censure and establishing de facto American control in California.
Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo February 2, that ended the war, the westernmost portion of the annexed Mexican territory of Alta California soon became the American state of California, and the remainder of the old territory was then subdivided into the new American Territories of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah. The even more lightly populated and arid lower region of old Baja California remained as a part of Mexico.
In , the total settler population of the western part of the old Alta California had been estimated to be no more than 8,, plus about , Native Americans, down from about , before Hispanic settlement in In , only one week before the official American annexation of the area, gold was discovered in California, this being an event which was to forever alter both the state's demographics and its finances.
Soon afterward, a massive influx of immigration into the area resulted, as prospectors and miners arrived by the thousands. By the time of California's application for statehood in , the settler population of California had multiplied to , By , more than , settlers had come. The seat of government for California under Spanish and later Mexican rule had been located in Monterey from until In , a state Constitutional Convention was first held in Monterey.
Among the first tasks of the convention was a decision on a location for the new state capital. The first full legislative sessions were held in San Jose — Subsequent locations included Vallejo — , and nearby Benicia — ; these locations eventually proved to be inadequate as well.
The capital has been located in Sacramento since [82] with only a short break in when legislative sessions were held in San Francisco due to flooding in Sacramento. Once the state's Constitutional Convention had finalized its state constitution, it applied to the U. Congress for admission to statehood. On September 9, , as part of the Compromise of , California became a free state and September 9 a state holiday. During the American Civil War — , California sent gold shipments eastward to Washington in support of the Union.
Still, several smaller military units within the Union army were unofficially associated with the state of California, such as the "California Company" , due to a majority of their members being from California. At the time of California's admission into the Union, travel between California and the rest of the continental United States had been a time-consuming and dangerous feat. Nineteen years later, and seven years after it was greenlighted by President Lincoln, the First transcontinental railroad was completed in California was then reachable from the eastern States in a week's time.
Much of the state was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Vast expanses of wheat, other cereal crops, vegetable crops, cotton, and nut and fruit trees were grown including oranges in Southern California , and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production in the Central Valley and elsewhere. In the nineteenth century, a large number of migrants from China traveled to the state as part of the Gold Rush or to seek work. Under earlier Spanish and Mexican rule, California's original native population had precipitously declined, above all, from Eurasian diseases to which the Indigenous people of California had not yet developed a natural immunity.
While we cannot anticipate the result with but painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power and wisdom of man to avert. As in other American states, Indigenous peoples were forcibly removed from their lands by American settlers , like miners, ranchers, and farmers. Although California had entered the American union as a free state, the "loitering or orphaned Indians," were de facto enslaved by their new Anglo-American masters under the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians.
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