History of California

History of California
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Gold Rush (1848)
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The History of California is characterized by several periods: the Native American period; European exploration from 1542 to 1769; the Spanish colonial period, 1769 to 1821; the Mexican period, 1821 to 1848; and statehood in the United States which continues to the present day.

1 History prior to 1899
2 History of California, 1900 to present
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
6 Further reading

History prior to 1899

Main article: History of California to 1899

Native American period

Native Americans have lived in the area which is now California for 13,000 to 15,000 years. Numerous tribes and bands inhabited the area.^[1] Estimates of the Native American population during the pre-European period range from 100,000 to 700,000, with a median estimate of around 300,000.

European exploration

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

European explorers flying the flags of Spain and of 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,^[2] but in spite of his discoveries the myth persisted in European circles that California was an island. His account provides the first-recorded use of the name "California".

The first European to explore the California coast was João Rodrigues Cabrilho, better known by the Spanish version of his name, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. He was a Portuguese navigator sailing for the Spanish Crown. He was the first European to set foot in present day California, landing on September 28, 1542, on the shores of San Diego Bay. He claimed California for Spain.^[3] He also landed on San Miguel, one of the Channel Islands, and continued as far as Pt. Reyes. After his death the crew continued exploring as far north as Oregon.

The English explorer Francis Drake sailed along the coast of California in 1579. He put ashore somewhere north of Cabrillo's landing site - the actual location of Drake's landing was secret and is still undetermined^[4] - and claimed the land for England, calling it Nova Albion. The term "Nova Albion" was therefore used on many European maps to designate territory north of the Spanish settlements.^[5]

In 1602, 60 years after Cabrillo, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno explored California's coastline from San Diego as far north as Monterey Bay. He named San Diego Bay and held the first Christian church service recorded in California on the shores of San Diego Bay.^[6] He also put ashore in Monterey and made glowing reports of the Monterey area as an anchorage and as land suitable for settlement. He also provided detailed charts of the coastal waters, which were used for nearly 200 years.^[7]

In 1778 the British seafaring Captain James Cook mapped the coast of California and the western coast of the North American continent all the way to the Bering Strait.

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.^[8]

Spanish colonial period

Spanish missionaries had been establishing missions in present-day Baja California since 1697. The first permanent European settlement in present-day California ("Alta California") was the Mission San Diego de Alcala and Presidio of San Diego, established in 1769. Eventually 21 missions were established along the California coast, linked by the mission trail El Camino Real. 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.

Mexican period

In 1821 Mexico gained its independence from Spain, and Alta California became a state in the First Mexican Empire. The political turmoil by which Mexico gyrated from empire to republic and back again had little effect on California, which was regarded as a sleepy backwater and was ruled by appointed governors and alcaldes.

Conquest of California

In 1846 at the outset of the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), American military forces invaded and seized California, after several small-scale battles.

U.S. Navy Commodore John Drake Sloat, on hearing of imminent war and the Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma (which came under the control of U.S. Army captain John C. Frémont, ordered his naval forces to occupy Yerba Buena (present San Francisco) on July 7 and raise the American flag. On July 15, Sloat transferred his command to Commodore Robert F. Stockton, a much more aggressive leader. Commodore Stockton put Frémont's forces under his orders. On July 19th, Frémont's "California Battalion" swelled to about 160 additional men from newly arrived settlers near Sacramento, and he entered Monterey in a joint operation with some of Stockton's sailors and marines. The official word had been received -- the Mexican-American War was on. The American forces easily took over the north of California; within days they controlled San Francisco, Sonoma, and Sutter's Fort in Sacramento.

In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 the U.S. paid Mexico $10 million for California and New Mexico. Also in 1848 gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento, touching off the California Gold Rush.

Statehood

From 1847 to 1849 California was governed by the U.S. military. In 1849 a constitutional convention established civilian government. California was admitted to the United States as part of the Compromise of 1850 in which slavery was banned within the state. The state capital was moved several times before being established in Sacramento in 1854. A constitutional convention in 1879 established a new constitution for the state.

California Gold Rush

Main article: California Gold Rush

In the early years of the California Gold Rush, placer mining methods were used, from panning to "cradles" and "rockers" or "long-toms", to diverting the water from an entire river into a sluice alongside the river, and then dig for gold in the newly-exposed river bottom. Some 12-million ounces^[9] (370 t) of gold were removed in the first five years of the Gold Rush. By the mid-1880s it is estimated that 11-million ounces (340 t) of gold (worth approximately US$6.6 billion at November 2006 prices) had been recovered via "hydraulicking," a style of hydraulic mining that later spread around the world. By the late 1890s dredging technology had become economical,^[10] and it is estimated that more than 20 million ounces (620 t) were recovered by dredging (worth approximately US$12 billion at November 2006 prices). Both during the Gold Rush and in the decades that followed, hard-rock mining wound up being the single largest source of gold produced in the Gold Country.^[11].

Maritime history of California

Maritime history of California is a term used to describe significant past events relating to the U.S. State of California in areas concerning shipping, shipwrecks, military installations and lighthouses constructed to protect or aid navigation, and development of the state.

The first-recorded shipwreck in California is that of the San Augustin, a Spanish Manila galleon, which was driven ashore in a gale in 1595 and was anchored in Drake’s Bay, northwest of San Francisco. The Farallon Islands and the mainland coast north of the Golden Gate have historically provided hazardous navigational obstacles to shipping. Year-round fogs, and dangerous winds and storms often led ships to rocks and beaches to be pounded by the Pacific swells. Since the San Augustin, thousands of vessels have been lost in the states' coastal waters.

History of slavery in California

A type of slavery existed among the native peoples of the California region long before the arrival of European colonists. Spanish colonists — participants in the Atlantic slave trade and owners of both Indian and African slaves — introduced such concepts as chattel slavery and involuntary servitude to the area. Anglo settlers from the Southern and Eastern United States brought centuries of experience with slavery to California.

Many free and enslaved people of African ancestry were part of the California Gold Rush (1848–1855). Many were able to buy their freedom, and to search for and free their families with the gold they found.^[12] The California Constitution of 1849 abolished slavery in the state.

California in the American Civil War

The possibility of splitting off Southern California as a territory or a state was rejected by the national government, and the idea was dead by 1861 when patriotic fervor swept California after the attack on Fort Sumter.

California's involvement in the American Civil War included sending gold east, recruiting or funding a limited number of combat units, maintaining numerous fortifications and sending troops east, some of whom became famous. Following the split in the Democratic Party in 1860, Republican supporters of Lincoln took control of the state in 1861, minimizing the influence of the large southern population. Their great success was in obtaining a Pacific railroad land grant and authorization to build the Central Pacific as the western half of the transcontinental railroad.

California was settled primarily by Midwestern and Southern farmers, miners and businessmen. Though the southerners and some Californios tended to favor the Confederacy, the state did not have slavery, and they were generally powerless during the war itself. They were prevented from organizing and their newspapers were closed down by denying them the use of the mail. Former Sen. William M. Gwin, a Confederate sympathizer, was arrested and fled to Europe.

Nearly all 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. Some 2,350 men in the California Column marched east across Arizona in 1862 to expel the Confederates from Arizona and New Mexico. The California Column then spent most of the remainder of the war fighting hostile Indians in the area.

Transportation

Ships provided easy, cheap, slow links among the coastal towns. within California and on routes leading there. The Panama route provided a shortcut for getting from the East Coast to California and a brisk maritime trade developed, featuring fast clipper ships.^[13]

Steamboats (which needed fresh water and wood every day) plied the Bay Area and the rivers that flowed from the goldfields, moving passengers and supplies. With few roads, pack trains brought supplies to the miners. Soon a system of wagon roads, bridges, and ferries was set up. Large freight wagons replaced pack trains, and crude roads made it easier to get to the mining camps, enabling express companies to deliver mail and packages to the miners. Stagecoach lines eventually created routes connecting Missouri to California.

Ships brought in many miners from around the globe.

Before the 1870s, stagecoaches provided the primary form of transportation between towns. Even when railroads arrived stages were essential to link more remote areas to the railheads. Top of the line in quality, with least discomfort was the nine-passenger Concord, but the cheaper, rougher “mud wagons” were also in general use. The Wells Fargo company contracted with independent lines to deliver its express packages and transport gold bullion and coins. Stagecoach travel was usually uncomfortable as passengers shared limited space. Drivers were famous for their skill in driving six horses down winding roads at top speed, rarely overturning. Competition reduced fares to as little a two cents per mile on some routes. Bandits found robbing coaches a profitable if risky venture. US government mail subsidies provided essential base income, but running a stage line was a financially unstable business enterprise.

California and the railroads

Prior to the railroad, travel between California and the East Coast usually involved a hazardous, six-months-long sea voyage or overland journey from the East. Most 49ers joined groups that walked overland across the plains, deserts and mountains; 17,000 to 25,000 took the southern route from Texas through Arizona, and 25,000-30,000 walked the better-known northern route from Kansas.

When the Central Pacific (built east from San Francisco using Chinese laborers) reached Utah in 1869 it linked with the Union Pacific Railroad, built west from Omaha using Irish labor. The transcontinental route meant it was no longer necessary to travel for six+ months by ship or on foot to reach the golden state; travel from Chicago to San Francisco took less than six days. The plunge in the cost and time of travel ended the state's isolation, and brought in cheap manufactured goods, along with more migrants. The establishment of America's transcontinental rail lines in 1869 securely linked California to the rest of the country, and the far-reaching transportation systems that grew out of them during the century that followed contributed to the state’s social, political and economic development. In recent years, passenger railroad building has picked up steam, with the introduction of services such as Metrolink, Caltrain, Amtrak California, and others. This is expected to continue, thanks to the passing of various rail-construction measures on November 4, 2008, including Proposition 1a.