History of California

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search
This article is about the history of the U.S. state of California. For the history of northern
Baja California, see Baja California §  History. For the history of southern Baja
California, see Baja California Sur §  History.
See also: History of California before 1900, History of California 1900 to present,
and Historical outline of California

Part of a series on the

History of California

Periods

 Before 1900
 Province of Las Californias
 Alta California
 California Republic
 Conquest of California
 Interim governments
 California Gold Rush
 Since 1900

Topics
 Maritime
 Wine
 Newspapers
 Bread
 Railroads
 Highways
 Slavery
 Oil
 Cities
 Anaheim
 Chico
 Fresno
 Los Angeles
 Oakland
 Pasadena
 Piedmont
 Riverside
 Sacramento
 San Bernardino
 San Diego
 San Francisco
 San Jose
 Santa Barbara
 Santa Monica
 Visalia

Regions
 Bay Area
 San Fernando Valley
 Santa Catalina Island
 Yosemite

 California portal

 v
 t
 e

The history of California can be divided into the Native American period (about 10,000

years ago until 1542), the European exploration period (1542–1769), the Spanish
colonial period (1769–1821), the Mexican period (1821–1848), and United
States statehood (September 9, 1850–present). California was one of the most
culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. After contact
with Spanish explorers, most of the Native Americans died out from foreign
diseases and genocide campaigns.[1]
After the Portolá expedition of 1769–70, Spanish missionaries began setting up
21 California missions on or near the coast of Alta (Upper) California, beginning with
the Mission San Diego de Alcala near the location of the modern day city of San Diego,
California. During the same period, Spanish military forces built several forts (presidios)
and three small towns (pueblos). Two of the pueblos would eventually grow into the
 cities of Los Angeles and San Jose. After Mexican Independence was won in 1821,
California fell under the jurisdiction of the First Mexican Empire. Fearing the influence of
the Roman Catholic church over their newly independent nation, the Mexican
government closed all of the missions and nationalized the church's property. They left
behind a small "Californio" (White Hispanic) population of several thousand families,
with a few small military garrisons. After the Mexican–American War of 1846–48,
Mexico was forced to relinquish any claim to California to the United States.
The California Gold Rush of 1848–1855 attracted hundreds of thousands of ambitious
young people from around the world. Only a few men struck it rich, and many returned
home disappointed. Most appreciated the other economic opportunities in California,
especially in agriculture, and brought their families to join them. California became the
31st US state in the Compromise of 1850 and played a small role in the American Civil
War. Chinese immigrants increasingly came under attack from nativists; they were
forced out of industry and agriculture and into Chinatowns in the larger cities. As gold
petered out, California increasingly became a highly productive agricultural society. The
coming of the railroads in 1869 linked its rich economy with the rest of the nation, and
attracted a steady stream of settlers. In the late 19th century, Southern California,
especially Los Angeles, started to grow rapidly.

Contents

 1History of California before 1900

o 1.1Pre-contact period
o 1.2European exploration
 1.2.1First European contact (1542)
 1.2.2Opening of Spanish–Philippine trading route (1565)
 1.2.3Francis Drake's claim (1579)
 1.2.4Sebastián Vizcaíno's exploration
o 1.3Spanish colonial period (1769–1821)
 1.3.1Portolá expedition (1769–1770)
 1.3.2Food shortages
 1.3.3Anza explorations (1774–1776)
 1.3.4California Mission network
o 1.4Mexican period (1821 to 1846)
 1.4.1Trade policy
 1.4.2Mexico and the mission system
 1.4.3Land grants
o 1.5American period
 1.5.1Annexation of California (1846–1847)
 1.5.2US capture of coastal ports and towns
 1.5.3Taking of Los Angeles
 1.5.4Reinforcements arrive
 1.5.5Military governor
 1.5.6California Constitutional Convention (1849)
 1.5.7Statehood (1850)
 1.5.8California Gold Rush (1848–1855)
 1.5.9Gold Rush effects
  1.5.10Effects on indigenous population
 1.5.11Maritime history of California
 1.5.12Slavery
 1.5.13California in the American Civil War
 1.5.14Early California transportation
 1.5.15Railroads
 2History of California, 1900 to present
 3See also
o 3.1Specific locations
 4References
o 4.1Sources
 5Further reading
o 5.1Historiography and teaching
 6External links

History of California before 1900[edit]

Main article: History of California before 1900
Pre-contact period[edit]
Main article: Indigenous peoples of California

Balthazar,  Inhabitant of Northern California, painting by Mikhail Tikhanov.

Different tribes of Native Americans lived in the area that is now California for an
estimated 13,000 to 15,000 years. Over 100 tribes and bands inhabited the area.
[2]
 Various estimates of the Native American population in California during the pre-
European period range from 100,000 to 300,000. California's population held about
one-third of all Native Americans in the land now governed by the United States. [3]
The native horticulturalists practiced various forms of forest gardening and fire-stick
farming in the forests, grasslands, mixed woodlands, and wetlands, ensuring that
desired food and medicine plants continued to be available. The natives controlled
fire on a localized basis to create a low-intensity fire ecology to facilitate the growth of
food and fiber materials and may have sustained a low-density agriculture in loose
rotation; a sort of "wild" permaculture.[4][5][6][7][8]
European exploration[edit]

A 1562 map of the Americas, which applied the name California for the first time.

California was the name given to a mythical island populated only by

beautiful Amazon warriors, as depicted in Greek myths, using gold tools and weapons
in the popular early 16th-century romance novel Las Sergas de Esplandián (The
Adventures of Esplandián) by Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. This
popular Spanish fantasy was printed in several editions with the earliest surviving
edition published about 1510. In exploring Baja California the earliest explorers thought
the Baja California Peninsula was an island and applied the name California to it.
[9]
 Mapmakers started using the name "California" to label the unexplored territory on the
North American west coast.
European explorers from Spain and England explored the Pacific Coast of California
beginning in the mid-16th century. Francisco de Ulloa explored the west coast of
present-day Mexico including the Gulf of California, proving that Baja California was a
peninsula,[10] but in spite of his discoveries the myth persisted in European circles that
California was an island.
Rumors of fabulously wealthy cities located somewhere along the California coast, as
well as a possible Northwest Passage that would provide a much shorter route to
the Indies, provided an incentive to explore further.
First European contact (1542)[edit]
The first Europeans to explore the California coast were the members of
a Spanish sailing expedition led by captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo; they entered San
Diego Bay on September 28, 1542, and reached at least as far north as San Miguel
Island.[11] Cabrillo and his men found that there was essentially nothing for the Spanish to
easily exploit in California; located at the extreme limits of exploration and trade from
Spain, it would be left essentially unexplored and unsettled for the next 234 years.
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.[12] 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. Some shelters were made of
branches and mud; some dwellings were built by digging into the ground two to three
feet and then building a brush shelter on top covered with animal skins, tules and/or
mud.[12] The Cabrillo expedition did not see the far north of California, where on the coast
and somewhat inland traditional architecture consists of rectangular redwood or cedar
plank semisubterranean houses.
Opening of Spanish–Philippine trading route (1565)[edit]
Main article: Manila galleon
In 1565 the Spanish developed a trading route where they took gold and silver from the
Americas and traded it for goods and spices from China and other Asian areas. The
Spanish set up their main base in Manila in the Philippines.[13][14] The trade with Mexico
involved an annual passage of galleons. The Eastbound galleons first went north to
about 40 degrees latitude and then turned east to use the westerly trade winds and
currents. These galleons, after crossing most of the Pacific Ocean, would arrive off the
California coast from 60 to over 120 days later somewhere near Cape Mendocino,
about 300 miles (480 km) north of San Francisco, at about 40°  latitude. They could
then sail south down the California coast, utilizing the available winds and the south-
flowing California Current, about 1 mph (1.6 km/h). After sailing about 1,500 miles
(2,400 km) south on they eventually reached their home port in Mexico.
The first Asians to set foot on what would be the United States occurred in 1587,
when Filipino sailors arrived in Spanish ships at Morro Bay.[15][16]
Francis Drake's claim (1579) [edit]
Further information: Francis Drake's circumnavigation
National Historic Landmark commemorating and honoring Sir Francis Drake, Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeño,
and Coast Miwok people at Point Reyes, California

After successfully sacking Spanish towns and plundering Spanish ships along their
Pacific coast colonies in the Americas, English explorer and circumnavigator Francis
Drake landed in Oregon,[17] before exploring and claiming an undefined portion of the
California coast in 1579. This is believed to have taken place north of the future city
of San Francisco, perhaps around Point Reyes or the nearby Drake's Cove.[18][19] Drake
established friendly relations with the Coast Miwok and claimed the area for the English
Crown as Nova Albion, or New Albion.[20]
Sebastián Vizcaíno's exploration[edit]
In 1602, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno explored California's coastline on behalf
of New Spain from San Diego. He named San Diego Bay, also putting ashore
in Monterey, California, and made glowing reports of the Monterey bay area [21] as a
possible anchorage for ships with land suitable for growing crops. He also provided
rudimentary charts of the coastal waters, which were used for nearly 200 years.
Spanish colonial period (1769–1821)[edit]

The Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó, Loreto, Baja California Sur, was founded in 1697.

The Spanish divided California into two parts, Baja California and Alta California, as
provinces of New Spain (Mexico). Baja or lower California consisted of the Baja
Peninsula and terminated roughly at San Diego, California, where Alta California
started. 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 first permanent mission in Baja California, Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto
Conchó, was founded on October 15, 1697, by Jesuit priest Juan Maria
Salvatierra (1648–1717) accompanied by one small boat's crew and six soldiers. After
the establishment of Missions in Alta California after 1769, the Spanish treated Baja
California and Alta California as a single administrative unit, part of the Viceroyalty of
New Spain, with Monterey as its capital.
Nearly all the missions in Baja California were established by members of
the Jesuit order supported by a few soldiers. After a power dispute between Charles III
of Spain and the Jesuits, the Jesuit colleges were closed and the Jesuits were
expelled from Mexico and South America in 1767 and deported back to Spain. After the
forcible expulsion of the Jesuit order, most of the missions were taken over
by Franciscan and later Dominican friars. Both of these groups were under much more
direct control of the Spanish monarchy. This reorganization left many missions
abandoned in Sonora Mexico and Baja California.

This 1745 map by British cartographer R. W. Seale incorrectly depicted California as an island.

Concerns about the intrusions of British and Russian merchants into Spain's colonies in

California prompted the extension of Franciscan missions to Alta California, as well
as presidios.[22][23][24][25]
One of Spain's gains from the Seven Years' War was the French Louisiana
Territory which was given to Spain in the 1763 Treaty of Paris. Another potential
colonial power already established in the Pacific was Russia, whose maritime fur
trade of mostly sea otter and fur seals was pressing down from Alaska to the Pacific
Northwest's lower reaches. These furs could be traded in China for large profits.
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. Approximately half the cost of settling Alta California was
borne by donations and half by funds from the Spanish crown. Massive Indian revolts
in New Mexico's Pueblo Revolt among the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande valley in
the 1680s as well as Pima Indian Revolt in 1751 and the ongoing Seri conflicts
in Sonora Mexico provided the Franciscan friars with arguments to establish missions
with fewer colonial settlers. In particular, the sexual exploitation of Native American
women by Spanish soldiers sparked violent reprisals from the Native community and
the spread of venereal disease.[26]
The remoteness and isolation of California, the lack of large organized tribes, the lack of
agricultural traditions, the absence of any domesticated animals larger than a dog, and
a food supply consisting primarily of acorns (unpalatable to most Europeans) meant the
missions in California would be very difficult to establish and sustain and made the area
unattractive to most potential colonists. A few soldiers and friars financed by the Church
and State would form the backbone of the proposed settlement of California.
Portolá expedition (1769–1770)[edit]
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. Gaspar
de Portolà volunteered to command the expedition. The Catholic Church was
represented by Franciscan friar Junípero Serra and his fellow friars. All five
detachments of soldiers, friars and future colonists were to meet on the shores of San
Diego Bay. The first ship, the San Carlos, sailed from La Paz on January 10, 1769, and
the San Antonio sailed on February 15. The San Antonio arrived in San Diego Bay on
April 11 and the San Carlos on April 29. The third vessel, the San José, left New Spain
later that spring but was lost at sea with no survivors.

Spanish colonial coat of arms for the Californias.

The first land party, led by Fernando Rivera y Moncada, left from the Franciscan Misión
San Fernando Velicatá on March 24, 1769. With Rivera was Juan Crespí,[27] famed
diarist of the entire expedition. That group arrived in San Diego on May 4. A later
expedition led by Portolà, which included Junípero Serra, the President of the Missions,
along with a combination of missionaries, settlers, and leather-jacket soldiers
including José Raimundo Carrillo, left Velicata on May 15, 1769, and arrived in San
Diego on June 29.[28]
They took with them about 46 mules, 200 cows and 140 horses—all that could be
spared by the poor Baja Missions. Fernando de Rivera was appointed to command the
lead party that would scout out a land route and blaze a trail to San Diego. [28] Food was
short, and the Indians accompanying them were expected to forage for most of what
they needed. Many Indian neophytes died along the way; even more deserted. The two
groups traveling from Lower California on foot had to cross about 300 miles (480 km) of
the very dry and rugged Baja Peninsula.
The part of the expedition that took place over land took about 40–51 days to get to San
Diego. The contingent coming by sea encountered the south flowing California
Current and strong head winds, and were still straggling in three months after they set
sail. After their arduous journeys, most of the men aboard the ships were ill, chiefly
from scurvy, and many had died. Out of a total of about 219 men who had left Baja
California, little more than 100 survived. The survivors established the Presidio of San
Diego on May 14, 1769. Mission San Diego de Alcala was established on July 16, 1769.
As the first of the presidios and Spanish missions in California, they provided the base
of operations for the Spanish colonization of Alta California (the present-day US state of
California).
On July 14, 1769, an expedition was dispatched from San Diego to find the port of
Monterey. Not recognizing the Monterey Bay from the description written by Sebastián
Vizcaíno almost 200 years prior, the expedition traveled beyond it to what is now
the San Francisco, California area. The exploration party, led by Don Gaspar de
Portolà, arrived on November 2, 1769, at San Francisco Bay.[29] One of the greatest
natural harbors on the west coast of America had finally been discovered by land. The
expedition returned to San Diego on January 24, 1770. The Presidio and Mission of San
Carlos de Borromeo de Monterey were established on June 3, 1770, by Portola, Serra,
and Crespi, with Monterey becoming the capital of the California province in 1777. [30]
Food shortages[edit]
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. They
subsisted by eating some of their cattle, wild geese, fish, and other food exchanged with
the Indians for clothing, but the ravages of scurvy continued because there was then no
understanding of the cause or cure of scurvy (a deficiency of vitamin C in fresh food). A
small quantity of corn they had planted grew well, only to be eaten by birds. Portolá sent
Captain Rivera and a small detachment of about 40 men south to the Baja California
missions in February to obtain more cattle and a pack-train of supplies.
Fewer mouths to feed temporarily eased the drain on San Diego's scant provisions, but
within weeks, acute hunger and increased sickness (scurvy) again threatened to force
abandonment of the San Diego "Mission". Portolá finally decided that if no relief ship
arrived by March 19, 1770, they would leave to return to the "New Spain" 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". At three o'clock in the
afternoon on March 19, 1770, as if by a miracle, the sails of the sailing ship San
Antonio, loaded with relief supplies, were discernible on the horizon. The Spanish
settlement of Alta California would continue.
Map of the route, Juan Bautista de Anza travelled in 1775–76 from Mexico to today's San Francisco via the
Gila River corridor and the Yuma Crossing of the Colorado River.

The Mojave and Sonoran deserts block easy land travel to California. The easiest way across was to use the
Gila River corridor.

Anza explorations (1774–1776)[edit]

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. They went across the Sonoran
desert to California from Mexico by swinging south of the Gila River to
avoid Apache attacks until they hit the Colorado River at the Yuma Crossing—about the
only way across the Colorado River. The friendly Quechan (Yuma) Indians (2,000–
3,000) he encountered there were growing most of their food, using irrigation systems,
and had already imported pottery, horses, wheat and a few other crops from New
Mexico.[31]
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. It took Anza about 74 days to do this initial reconnaissance trip to
establish a land route into California. On his return trip he went down the Gila River until
hitting the Santa Cruz River and continuing on to Tubac. The return trip only took 23
days, and he encountered several peaceful and populous agricultural tribes with
irrigation systems located along the Gila River.[31]
In Anza's second trip (1775–1776) he returned to California with 240 friars, soldiers and
colonists with their families. They took 695 horses and mules and 385 Texas
Longhorn cattle with them. The approximately 200 surviving cattle and an unknown
number of horses (many of each were lost or eaten along the way) started the cattle
and horse raising industry in California. In California the cattle and horses had few
predators and plentiful grass in all but drought years. They essentially grew and
multiplied as feral animals, doubling roughly every two years. The party started from
Tubac, Arizona, on October 22, 1775, and arrived at San Francisco Bay on March 28,
1776. There they established the Presidio of San Francisco, followed by
a mission, Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores), within the future city
of San Francisco, which took its name from the mission.
In 1780, the Spanish established two combination missions and pueblos at the Yuma
Crossing: Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer and Mission Puerto de Purísima
Concepción. Both these pueblos and missions were on the California side of the
Colorado River but were administered by the Arizona authorities. On July 17–18, 1781,
the Yuma (Quechan) Indians, in a dispute with the Spanish, destroyed both missions
and pueblos—killing 103 soldiers, colonists, and Friars and capturing about 80
prisoners, mostly women and children. In four well-supported punitive expeditions in
1782 and 1783 against the Quechans, the Spanish managed to gather their dead and
ransom nearly all the prisoners, but failed to re-open the Anza Trail. The Yuma
Crossing was closed for Spanish traffic and it would stay closed until about 1846.
California was nearly isolated again from land based travel. About the only way into
California from Mexico would now be a 40 to 60-day voyage by sea. The average of 2.5
ships per year from 1769 to 1824 meant that additional colonists coming to Alta
California were few and far between.[32]
Eventually, 21 California Missions were established along the California coast from San
Diego to San Francisco—about 500 miles (800 km) up the coast. The missions were
nearly all located within 30 miles (48 km) of the coast and almost no exploration or
settlements were made in the Central Valley or the Sierra Nevada. The only expeditions
anywhere close to the Central Valley and Sierras were the rare forays by soldiers
undertaken to recover runaway Indians who had escaped from the Missions. The
"settled" territory of about 15,000 square miles (39,000 km2) was about 10% of
California's eventual 156,000-square-mile (400,000 km2) territory.
In 1786, Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse led a group of scientists and
artists who compiled an account of the Californian mission system, the land, and the
people. Traders, whalers, and scientific missions followed in the next decades.
California Mission network