History of California

[3] The different kelps of the Pacific Rim are major contributors to the areas of productivity and biodiversity and support a wide variety of life such as marine mammals, shellfish, fish, seabirds and edible seaweeds.

The Cabrillo expedition depicted the Indigenous populations as living at a subsistence level, typically located in small rancherias of extended family groups of 100 to 150 people.

[14] They had no apparent agriculture as understood by Europeans, no domesticated animals except dogs, no pottery; their tools were made out of wood, leather, woven baskets and netting, stone, and antler.

The first modern Asians to set foot on what would be the United States occurred in 1587, when Filipino slaves, prisoners, and crew arrived aboard these Novohispanic ships at Morro Bay on their way to central New Spain (Mexico).

Unlike their Crypto-Muslim and Crypto-Jewish compatriots from Spain who supported the illegal slave trade,[20] the mixed Muslim-Christian Filipinos in the Americas stood in solidarity with Native American and African efforts against slavery.

The eastern and northern boundaries of Alta California were very indefinite, as the Spanish, despite a lack of physical presence and settlements, claimed essentially everything in what is now the western United States.

The Spanish settlement of Alta California was the last colonization project to expand Spain's vastly over-extended empire in North America, and they tried to do it with minimal cost and support.

In 1769, the Spanish Visitor General, José de Gálvez, planned a five part expedition, consisting of three units by sea and two by land, to start settling Alta California.

[35] Without any agricultural crops or experience gathering, preparing and eating the ground acorns and grass seeds the Indians subsisted on for much of the year, the shortage of food at San Diego became extremely critical during the first few months of 1770.

Portolá finally decided that if no relief ship arrived by March 19, 1770, they would leave to return to the Novohispanic missions on the Baja Peninsula the next morning "because there were not enough provisions to wait longer and the men had not come to perish from hunger".

Juan Bautista de Anza, leading an exploratory expedition on January 8, 1774, with 3 chaplains, 20 soldiers, 11 servants, 35 mules, 65 cattle, and 140 horses set forth from Tubac south of present-day Tucson, Arizona.

[36] After crossing the Colorado to avoid the impassable Algodones Dunes west of Yuma, Arizona, they followed the river about 50 miles (80 km) south (to about the Arizona's southwest corner on the Colorado River) before turning northwest to about today's Mexicali, Mexico and then turning north through today's Imperial Valley and then northwest again before reaching Mission San Gabriel Arcángel near the future city of Los Angeles.

As the cattle herds increased there came a time when nearly everything that could be made of leather was—doors, window coverings, stools, chaps, leggings, vests lariats (riatas), saddles, boots, etc.

In Alta California, Mexico inherited a large, sparsely settled, poor, backwater province paying little or no net tax revenue to the Mexican state.

The Acts sought to break the monopoly of the Franciscan missions, while paving the way for additional settlers to California by making land grants easier to obtain.

The main products of these ranchos were cattle hides (called California greenbacks) and tallow (rendered fat for making candles and soap) that were traded for other finished goods and merchandise.

On June 15, 1846, some thirty settlers, mostly American citizens, staged a revolt and seized the small Californio garrison, in Sonoma, without firing a shot and declared the new California Republic government.

Hearing word of the Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma, California, and the arrival of the 2,600-ton, 600-man Royal Navy man-of-war HMS Collingwood flagship under Sir George S. Seymour, outside Monterey Harbor, Commodore Sloat was finally stirred to action.

USMC Captain Archibald H. Gillespie, Frémont's second in command of the California Battalion, with an inadequate force of 40 to 50 men, were left to occupy and keep order in the largest town (about 3,500) in Alta California—Los Angeles.

About 150 Californios who were worried about possible punishment from the Americans for not keeping their non-aggression promises rounded up about 300 horses and retreated into Sonora, Mexico over the Yuma Crossing Gila River trail.

To meet the demands of the Gold Rush, ships bearing food, liquors of many types, tools, hardware, clothing, complete houses, lumber, building materials, etc.

By the mid-1880s, it is estimated that 11 million troy ounces (340 t) of gold (worth approximately US$6.6 billion at November 2006 prices[citation needed]) had been recovered via "hydraulicking", a style of hydraulic mining that later spread around the world, despite its drastic environmental consequences.

Nevertheless, as per the 1850 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians, a number of Native Americans were formally enslaved in the state, a practice that continued until the mid-1860s, when California changed its laws to conform to the 14th Amendment.

Nearly all of the men who volunteered as Union soldiers stayed in the West, within the Department of the Pacific, to guard forts and other facilities, occupy secessionist regions, and fight Indians in the state and the western territories.

The city of Stockton, on the lower San Joaquin, quickly grew from a sleepy backwater to a thriving trading center, the stopping-off point for miners headed to the gold fields in the foothills of the Sierra.

The Ranchos produced the largest cowhide (called California Greenbacks) and tallow business in North America by killing and skinning their cattle and cutting off their fat.

The classic book Two Years Before the Mast (originally published 1840) by Richard Henry Dana Jr. gives a good first-hand account of a two-year sailing ship sea trading voyage to California which he took in 1834–35.

[104] A large part of the Californio diet was beef, but since there was no easy way to preserve it most of the time another animal was killed when fresh meat was needed as when visitors showed up—the hides and tallow could be salvaged and very little was lost.

The largely illiterate ranchero owners lost nearly all their land to a few bad years for cattle in the 1860s and the many mortgages they had taken out to finance a "prosperous" life style and could no longer pay back.

The economy was widely based on specialty agriculture, oil, tourism, shipping, film, and after 1940 advanced technology such as aerospace and electronics industries – along with a significant military presence.

Balthazar, Inhabitant of Northern California , an 1818 portrait of a Miwok man by artist Mikhail Tikhanov .
The 1562 map of the Americas, created by Spanish cartographer Diego Gutiérrez , which applied the name California for the first time.
Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claiming California for the Spanish Empire in 1542.
Map of Spain's Manila galleon trade routes, showing routes between the Spanish East Indies and Acapulco passing along the coast of California .
Francis Drake 's 1579 landing in " New Albion " (modern-day Point Reyes ); engraving by Theodor De Bry , 1590.
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo , established in 1770, was the headquarters of the Californian mission system from 1797 until 1833.
The colonial coat of arms of the Californias , granted by Antonio de Mendoza , the first Viceroy of New Spain .
California was often depicted as an island , due to the Baja California peninsula , from the 16th to the 18th centuries, such as in this 1650 map by cartographer Johannes Vingboons .
Gaspar de Portolá served as the first Governor of the Californias and led the famed Portolá expedition of 1769-70 .
Junípero Serra conducting the first mass in Monterey Bay in 1770.
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel , founded in 1771 by padres Pedro Benito Cambón and Ángel de la Somera.
Juan Bautista de Anza led the 1774-76 Anza Expeditions .
Map of the route taken by the Anza Expedition of 1775–76, from the Presidio of Tubac to San Francisco Bay .
Presidio of San Francisco , founded by José Joaquín Moraga in 1776.
Bodega y Quadra led a 1775 expedition along the coast of California into the Pacific Northwest .
The Spanish founded Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776, the third to be established of the Californian missions .
Depiction of the revolt of the Mission Indians against padre Luis Jayme at Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1775.
Mission Santa Barbara , founded in 1786, was the first mission to be established by Fermín de Lasuén .
Founded by Vicente Francisco de Sarría in 1817, Mission San Rafael Arcángel , was the last mission founded during the Spanish period.
Portrait of a Californio in traditional vaquero clothing. Californios benefitted immensely by the establishment of the ranchos of California , following the Mexican secularization act of 1833 .
Mission San Francisco Solano , founded in 1823 by order of Governor Luis Antonio Argüello , was the last Californian mission established.
Manuel Domínguez built Domínguez Adobe on Rancho San Pedro in 1826.
Pacheco Adobe , built 1835 by Salvio Pacheco on Rancho Monte del Diablo .
The Petaluma Adobe , built by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo in 1836 on Rancho Petaluma .
General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo reviewing his troops in Sonoma in 1846.
The 1846 Bear Flag Revolt declared the California Republic and prefaced the American conquest of California .
Forces raising the U.S. flag over the Monterey Customhouse following their victory at the Battle of Monterey
The American capture of San Diego by the USS Cyane in 1846
The Battle of San Pasqual in 1846.
The Battle of Río San Gabriel , in 1847, was a decisive victory for the American campaign in Alta California .
The Treaty of Cahuenga , signed at the Campo de Cahuenga in 1847 by Californio general Andrés Pico and American general John C. Frémont , proclaimed a ceasefire under an American victory. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo , signed a year later in 1848, officially ended the Mexican–American War and formally ceded Alta California to the United States.
General Richard Barnes Mason was the longest serving U.S. Military Governor of California (1847–1849), overseeing California's transition into statehood .
Angustias de la Guerra played a crucial role in defending women's property rights during the drafting of the Constitution of California. [ 64 ]
California's first State Capitol building in San Jose , which served as the capital of California 1850–51.
Goldfields in the Sierra Nevada and Shasta Cascade .
San Francisco harbor, c. 1850 –51.
"Independent Gold Hunter on His Way to California", c. 1850 [ a ]
Joaquín Murrieta , called the " Robin Hood of California", was a notorious outlaw during the California Gold Rush . He served as inspiration for Zorro , the famed Californian bandit-hero.
Advertisement for sailing to California, c. 1850.
Between 1846 and 1873, U.S. government agents waged an extermination campaign against Indigenous Californians , known as the California genocide , resulting in as many as 100,000 deaths.
Portrait of an " assimilated " Maidu man in Sacramento , 1867.
While slavery was abolished in California by Mexican authorities in 1829, the first California State Legislature under U.S. statehood passed the 1850 Indian Indenture Act , which allowed for the forced labor of indigenous Californians by Americans.
Flag of Company A (The California 100) during the U.S. Civil War .
Depiction of the California hide trade .
Depiction of the Donner Party heading west on the California Trail .
SS California (1848) , the first paddle steamer to steam between Panama City and San Francisco , as part of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company .
Steamboats and riverboats on the Sacramento River waterfront in Sacramento .
Map of the Butterfield Overland Mail routes through California, c. 1858.
The Vallecitos stop of the Butterfield Overland Mail , in Julian, California .
The California Bureau of Highways surveying with a buckboard wagon in 1896.
Concord Coach no. 251 in Wells Fargo livery in Old Town San Diego .
The railway station in Sacramento in 1874.
A Southern Pacific Train at Arcade Depot , Los Angeles, 1891