History of California

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Through 1899 Gold Rush (1848)

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This article's lead section may not adequately summarize key points of its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (June 2013)
The history of California can be divided into: the Native American period; European exploration period from 1542 to 1769; the Spanish colonial period, 1769 to 1821; the Mexican period, 1821 to 1848; and United States statehood, which continues to the present day.
Contents
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1 History of California through 1899

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1.1 Pre-contact period 1.2 European exploration

1.2.1 First European contact (1542) 1.2.2 Spanish trading route (1565) 1.2.3 Francis Drake (1579)

1.3 Spanish colonial period (1769-1821)

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1.3.1 Portol expedition (1769-1770) 1.3.2 Food shortages 1.3.3 Anza explorations (1774-1776) 1.3.4 California Mission network

1.4 Mexican period (1821 to 1848) 1.5 California state period

1.5.1 Annexation of California (1846-1847) 1.5.2 US capture of coastal ports and towns 1.5.3 Taking of Los Angeles 1.5.4 Reinforcements arrive 1.5.5 Military governor 1.5.6 California statehood (1850) 1.5.7 California Gold Rush (18481855) 1.5.8 Gold Rush Effects

1.5.9 Effects on indigenous population 1.5.10 Maritime history of California 1.5.11 Slavery 1.5.12 California in the American Civil War 1.5.13 Transportation 1.5.14 California and the railroads

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

History of California through 1899[edit]

Main article: History of California through 1899

Pre-contact period[edit]
Main article: Indigenous peoples of California 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.[1] 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 what is now the United States.[2] The native hunter-gatherers 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 regional scale to create a low-intensity fire ecology which prevented larger, catastrophic fires and sustained a low-density agriculture in loose rotation; a sort of "wild" permaculture.[3][4][5][6]

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 Esplandin (The Adventures of Esplandin) by Spanish author Garci Rodrguez 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 Peninsulawas an island and applied the name California to it.[7] Mapmakers started using the name "California" to label the unexplored territory on the North American west coast. 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,[8] 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 European to explore the California coast was Portuguese explorer and adventurer Joo Rodrigues Cabrilho (Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo). Cabrillo was commissioned by the Viceroy of New Spain and in 1542 he sailed into what is now San Diego, California. He continued north as far as Pt. Reyes, California.[9]

On November 23, 1542, the little fleet limped back to "San Salvador" (Santa Catalina Island) to overwinter and make repairs. There, around Christmas Eve, Cabrillo stepped out of his boat and splintered his shin when he stumbled on a jagged rock. The injury developed gangrene and he died on 3 January 1543 and was buried there. His second-in-command brought the remainder of the party back to Barra de Navidad, where they arrived 14 April 1543. They had found no wealth, no advanced Indian civilization, no apparent agriculture and no Northwest Passage. As a result California was of little further interest. The Indians they encountered were living at a bare subsistence level typically located in small rancherias of extended family groups of 100 to 150 people.[10] They had no apparent agriculture, no domesticated animals except dogs, no pottery, and their only tools or weapons were made out of wood, leather, woven baskets and netting, stones and horns. Most lived in rudimentary shelters made of branches and mud with a hole in the center to allow smoke to escape. Some homes 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.[10] Their clothing was minimal in the summer, with animal skins and coarse woven articles of grass clothing used in winter. Some tribes around Santa Barbara, California and the Channel Islands (California) were using large canoes to fish and trade. It would be found over 200 years later that some Indians in the California delta were using Tule rafts and some Indians on the Northwest coast were using dugout canoes.[10] Despite the fact that California now grows almost every food crop,[11] the staple foods then used by other American Indian tribes, corn and/or potatoes, would not grow without irrigation in the typically short three- to five-month wet season and nine- to seven-month dry seasons of California (see Mediterranean climate). Indians thrived by catching and eating deer, Tule elk, small game, fish, mollusks, grass seed, berries, insects, edible plants and roots, making it possible to sustain a subsistence hunter-gatherer economy without any agriculture. Without agriculture or migratory herds of animals or fish there are no known ways to support villages, towns or citiessmall tribes and extended family groups are the typical hunter-gatherer grouping. A dietary staple for most Indian tribes in interior California was acorns, which were dried, shelled, ground to flour, roasted and soaked in water to leach out their tannin. The holes they ground into large rocks over centuries of use are still visible in many rocks today.[12] The ground and leached acorn flour was then usually cooked into a tasteless mush. This was a very labor intensive process nearly always done by the women in the tribe. There are estimates that some Indians might have eaten as much as one ton of acorns in one year.[13] A major advantage of acorns is that they grew wild, could be easily gathered in large quantities, and could be easily stored over a winter for a reliable winter food source.[14] Almost none of these Indian food supplies were in a typical European's diet.

Basket weaving was the highest form of art and utility, and canoes were the peak in man made products. Local trade between Indian tribal groups enabled them to acquire seasonings such as salt, or foodstuffs and other goods that might be rare in certain locales, such as flint for making spear and arrow points. The high and rugged Sierra Nevada mountains located behind the Great Basin Desert east of California, extensive forests and deserts on the north, the rugged and harsh Sonoran Desert and Mojave Desert in the south and the Pacific Ocean on the west effectively isolated California from any easy trade or tribal interactions with Indians on the rest of the continent. The Indians located in the core of California are much different in culture than any other Indian cultures in North America. Cabrillo and his men found that there was essentially nothing for the Spanish to easily exploit in California, and located at the extreme limits of exploration and trade from Spain it would be left essentially unexplored and unsettled for the next 234 years.

Spanish trading route (1565)[edit]

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 centered their trade in the Philippines at first around Cebu, which they had recently conquered, and later in Manila. The trade between the Philippines and Mexico involved using an annual passage of Manila galleon(s). These galleons returning to Mexico from the Philippines went north to about 40 degrees latitude and then turning East they could 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 degrees N. latitude. They then could turn right and sail south down the California coast utilizing the available winds and the south flowing (about 1 mi/hr(1.6(km/h))California Current. After sailing about 1,500 miles (2,400 km) south on they eventually got to their port in Mexico. This highly profitable trade with an almost annual trip by one to two ships (number of ships limited by Spanish Crown) down the California coast was continued for over 200 years. The maps and charts were poor and the coast was often shrouded in fog, so most journeys were well off shore. One of the greatest bays on the west coastSan Francisco Bayescaped discovery for centuries until it was finally discovered by land exploration on November 4, 1769.

Francis Drake (1579)[edit]

The journey of Francis Drake up the Pacific Coast in 1579.

The English explorer and privateer Francis Drake sailed along the coast of California in 1579 after capturing two Spanish treasure ships in the Pacific. It is believed that he landed somewhere on the California coast. There his only surviving ship, the Golden Hind, underwent extensive repairs, and needed supplies were accumulated for a trip across the Pacific. Leaving California he

followed Ferdinand Magellan on the second recorded circumnavigation of the world and the first English circumnavigation of the world, being gone from 1577 to 1580. It's believed Drake put ashore somewhere north of San Francisco. The exact location of Drake's landing is still undetermined, but a prominent bay on the California coast, Drakes Bay, bears his name. He claimed the land for England, calling it Nova Albion. The term "Nova Albion" was often used on many European maps to designate territory north of the Spanish settlements. Spanish maps, explorations etc., of this and later eras were generally not published, being regarded as state secrets. As was typical in this era, there were conflicting claims to the same territory, and the Indians who lived there were never consulted. In 1602, 60 years after Cabrillo, the Spaniard Sebastin Vizcano 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 inMonterey, California and made glowing reports of the Monterey bay area 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 Misin de Nuestra Seora de Loreto Conch, 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 claimed essentially everything in the western United States, even though they did not occupy hardly any of it for over 200 years.

The first permanent mission in Baja California, Misin de Nuestra Seora de Loreto Conch, was founded on October 15, 1697, by Jesuit FriarJuan Maria Salvatierra (16481717) 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, withMonterey, California, 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 laterDominican friars. Both of these groups were under much more direct control of the Spanish monarchy. Many missions were abandoned in Sonora Mexico and Baja California.

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

After the conclusion of the Seven Year War between Britain and France and their allies (called the French and Indian War in the British colonies on the East Coast) (17541763), France was driven out of North America. Spain and Britain were the only colonial powers left. Britain, as yet, had no Pacific colonies in North America. The Bourbon King Charles III of Spain established missions and other outposts in Alta California out of fear that the territory would be claimed by the British, who not only had 13 colonies on the East Coast, but also several islands in the Caribbean, and had recently taken over Canada from the French.

One of Spain's rewards for helping Britain in the Seven Years' War was the French Louisiana Territory. 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.[15] 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.

Portol expedition (1769-1770)[edit]

In 1769, the Spanish Visitor General, Jos de Glvez, planned a five part expedition, consisting of three units by sea and two by land, to start settling Alta California. Gaspar de Portol volunteered to command the expedition. The Catholic Church was represented by Franciscan friar Junpero 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 theSan Carlos on April 29. The third vessel, the San Jos, 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 Mission San Fernando Velicata on March 24, 1769. With Rivera was Father Juan Cresp,[16] famed diarist of the entire expedition. That group arrived in San Diego on May 4. A later expedition led by Portol, which included Father Junpero Serra, the President of the Missions, along with a combination of missionaries, settlers, and leather-jacket soldiers includingJos Raimundo Carrillo, left Velicata on May 15, 1769 and arrived in San Diego on June 29.[17] They took with them about 46 mules, 200 cows and 140 horsesall 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.[18] 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 4051 days to get to San Diego. The contingent coming by sea encountered the south flowingCalifornia 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 (present-day 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 bySebastin Vizcano almost 200 years prior, the expedition traveled beyond it to what is now the San Francisco, California area. The exploration party, led by DonGaspar de Portol, arrived on November 2, 1769, at San Francisco Bay.,[19] One of the greatest ports 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.[20]

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. Portol 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". Portol 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.

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

Typical sand dunes west of Yuma Arizona

Anza explorations (1774-1776)[edit]

Juan Bautista de Anza, leading an exploratory expedition on January 8, 1774, with 3 padres, 20 soldiers, 11 servants, 35 mules, 65 cattle, and 140 horses set forth from Tubac south of present day Tucson, Arizona. They went to 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 Crossingabout the only way across the Colorado River. The friendly Quechan (Yuma) Indians (23,000) 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.[21] After crossing the Colorado to avoid the impassible 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 Arcngel near the future city of Los Angeles, California. 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 (Arizona) 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.[22] In Anza's second trip (17751776) he returned to California with 240 friars, soldiers and colonists with their families. They took 695 horses and mules, 385 Texas Longhorn bulls and cows 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 enemies 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 amission, Mission San Francisco de Ass (Mission Dolores) --the future city of San Francisco.

In 1780, the Spanish established two combination missions and pueblos at the Yuma Crossing: Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuer andMission Puerto de Pursima Concepcin. Both these pueblos and missions were on the California side of the Colorado River but were administered by the Arizona authorities. On July 1718, 1781 the Yuma (Quechan) Indians, in a dispute with the Spanish, destroyed both missions and puebloskilling 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 40-60 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.[23] Eventually, 21 California Missions were established along the California coast from San Diego to San Franciscoabout 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 (California) or the Sierra Nevada (California). 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 (40,000 km2) was about 10% of California's eventual 156,000 square miles (400,000 km2) territory. In 1786, Jean-Franois de Galaup, comte de La Prouse 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[edit]

The California Missions, after they were all established, were located about one day's horseback ride apart for easier communication and linked by theEl Camino Real trail. These Missions were typically manned by two to three friars and three to ten soldiers. Virtually all the physical work was done by Indians convinced to or coerced into joining the missions. The padres provided instructions for making adobe bricks, building mission buildings, planting fields, digging irrigation ditches, growing new grains and vegetables, herding cattle and horses, singing, speaking Spanish, and understanding theCatholic faithall that was thought to be necessary to bring the Indians to be able to support themselves and their new church. The soldiers supervised the construction of the Presidios (forts) and were responsible for keeping order and preventing and/or capturing runaway Indians that tried to leave the missions. Nearly all of the Indians adjoining the missions were induced to join the various missions built in California. Once the Indians had joined the mission, if they tried to leave, soldiers were sent out to retrieve them. In the 1830s, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. observed that Indians were regarded and treated as slaves by the Spanish-speaking Californios.[24]

The courtyard of Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, with California's oldest pepper tree ( Schinus molle), planted in 1830, visible through the arch.[25]

The missions eventually claimed about 1/6 of the available land in California or roughly 1,000,000 acres (4,047 km2) of land per mission. The rest of the land was considered the property of the Spanish monarchy. To encouraged settlement of the territory, large land grants were given to retired soldiers and colonists. Most grants were virtually free and typically went to friends and relatives in the California government. A few foreign colonists were accepted if they accepted Spanish citizenship and joined the Catholic Faith. The Mexican Inquisition was still in nearly full force and forbade Protestants living in Mexican controlled territory. In the Spanish colonial period many of these grants were later turned into Ranchos. Spain made about 30 of these large grants, nearly all several square leagues (1 Spanish league = 2.6 miles (4.2 km)) each in size. The total land granted to settlers in the Spanish colonial era was about 800,000 acres (3,237 km2) or about 35,000 acres (142 km2) each. The few owners of these large ranchos patterned themselves after the landed gentry in Spain and were devoted to keeping themselves living in a grand style. The rest of the population they expected to support them. Their mostly unpaid workers were nearly all Spanish trained Indians or peons that had learned how to ride horses and raise some crops. The majority of the ranch hands were paid with room and board, rough clothing, rough housing and no salary. The main products of these ranchos were cattle, horses and sheep, most of which lived virtually wild. The cattle were mostly killed for fresh meat, as well as hides and tallow (fat) which could be traded or sold for money or goods. As the cattle herds increased there came a time when nearly everything that could be made of leather wasdoors, window coverings, stools, chaps, leggings, vests lariats (riata)s, saddles, boots etc. Since there was no refrigeration then, often a cow was killed for the day's fresh meat and the hide and tallow salvaged for sale later. After taking the cattle's hide and tallow their carcasses were left to rot or feed the California grizzly bears which roamed wild in California at that time, or to feed the packs of dogs that typically lived at each rancho. A series of four presidios, or "royal forts", each manned by 10 to 100 men, were built by Spain in Alta California. California installations were established in San Diego (El Presidio Real de San Diego)

founded in 1769, in San Francisco (El Presidio Real de San Francisco) founded in 1776, and in Santa Barbara (El Presidio Real de Santa Brbara) founded in 1782. After the Spanish colonial era the Presidio of Sonoma in Sonoma, California was founded in 1834.[26]) To support the presidios and the missions, half a dozen towns (called pueblos) were established in California. The pueblos of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Villa de Branciforte (later abandoned before later becoming Santa Cruz, California) and the pueblo of San Jose, California were all established to support the Missions and presidios in California. These were the only towns (pueblos) in California.

Mexican period (1821 to 1848)[edit]

In 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain, and Alta California became one of the three interior provinces in the First Mexican Empire north of the Rio Grande, along with Texas andNew Mexico. The Franciscans Missionaries and soldiers in Alta California had not been paid in about seven years in 1821. The capital of the Mexican government in Alta California was Monterey, California (originally called San Carlos de Monterrey). Mexico, after independence, continued to be unstable with about 40 changes of government, in the 27 years prior to 1848an average government duration was 7.9 months. In Alta California Mexico inherited a large, sparsely settled, poor, backwater province paying little or no net tax revenue to the Mexican State. In addition,Alta California had a rapidly declining Mission system as the Mission Indian population in Alta California continued to rapidly decrease. The number of Alta California settlers, always a small minority of total population, slowly increased mostly by more births than deaths in the Californio population in California. After the closure of the de Anza Trail across the Colorado River in 1781 immigration from Mexico was nearly all by ships. California continued to be a small, nearly isolated province. Even before Mexico gained control of Alta California the onerous Spanish rules against trading with foreigners began to break down as the declining Spanish fleet couldnt enforce their no trading policies. The Californios, with essentially no industries or manufacturing capabilities, were eager to trade for new commodities, finished goods, luxury goods, and other merchandise. The Mexican government abolished the no trade with foreign ships policy and soon regular trading trips were being made. The Californios hides and tallow provided the necessary trade articles for a mutually beneficial trade. The first American, English, and Russian trading ships began showing up in California in about 1816. The classic book Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.provides a good first hand account of this trade. From 1825 to 1848 the average number of ships traveling to California increased to about 25 ships per yeara large increase from the average of 2.5 ships per year from 1769 to 1824.[27] The port of entry for trading purposes was Monterey, California where custom duties (also called tariffs) of about 100% were applied. These high duties gave rise to much bribery and smuggling, as avoiding the tariffs made more money for the ship owners and made the goods less costly to the customers. Essentially all the cost of the California government (what little there was) was paid for by these tariffs. In this they were much like the United

States in 1850, where about 89% of the revenue of its federal government came from import tariffs, although at an average rate of about 20%.[28] So many Mission Indians died from exposure to harsh conditions and diseases like measles, diphtheria, smallpox, syphilis, etc. that at times raids were undertaken to new villages in the interior to supplement the supply of Indian women. This increase in deaths was accompanied by a very low live birth rate among the surviving Indian population. As reported by Krell, as of December 31, 1832, the mission Franciscan padres had performed a combined total of 87,787 baptisms and 24,529 marriages, and recorded 63,789 deaths. If Krell's numbers are to be believed (others have slightly different numbers) the Mission Indian population had declined from a peak of about 87,000 in about 1800 to about 14,000 in 1832 and continued to decline. The Missions were becoming ever more strained as the number of Indian converts drastically declined and the deaths greatly exceeded the births. The ratio of Indian births to deaths is believed to have been less than 0.5 Indian births per death.[29] The Missions, as originally envisioned, were to last only about 10 years before being converted to regular parishes. When the California Missions were abolished in 1834 some missions had existed over 66 years but the Mission Indians were still not self-sufficient, proficient in Spanish, or wholly Catholic. Taking people from a hunter-gatherer type existence to an educated, agricultural-based existence was much more difficult than the missionaries had originally thought. The severe and continuing decline in Mission Indian populations exacerbated this problem. In 1834 Mexico, in response to demands that the Catholic Church give up much of the Mission property, started the process of secularizing the Franciscan run missions. Mission San Juan Capistrano was the very first to feel the effects of this legislation the following year when, on August 9, 1834 Governor Figueroa issued his "Decree of Confiscation." [30] Nine other Missions quickly followed, with six more in 1835; San Buenaventura and San Francisco de Ass were among the last to succumb, in June and December 1836, respectively.[31] The Franciscans soon thereafter abandoned most of the missions, taking with them almost everything of value they could, after which the locals typically plundered the mission buildings for construction materials, furniture, etc. or the Mission buildings were sold off to serve other uses. In spite of this neglect, the Indian towns at San Juan Capistrano, San Dieguito, and Las Flores did continue on for some time under a provision in Governor Echeanda's 1826 Proclamation that allowed for the partial conversion of missions to new pueblos.[32] After the secularizing of the Missions, many of the surviving Mission Indians switched from being unpaid workers for the missions to unpaid laborers and vaqueros (cowboys) of the about 500 large Californio owned ranchos. Before Alta California became a part of the Mexican state, about 30 Spanish land grants had already been deeded in all of Alta California to a few friends and family of the Alta California Governors. The 1824 Mexican Colony Law established rules for petitioning for land grants in California; and by 1828, the rules for establishing land grants were codified in the Mexican Reglamento (Regulation). The

Acts sought to break the monopoly of the Catholic Franciscan missions, while paving the way for additional settlers to California by making land grants easier to obtain. When the Missions were secularized, the Mission property and cattle were supposed to be mostly allocated to the Missions Indians. In practice, nearly all Mission property and livestock were taken over by the about 455 large ranchos granted by the governorsmostly to friends and family at low or no cost. The rancho owners claimed about 8,600,000 acres (35,000 km2) averaging about 18,900 acres (76 km2) each. This land was nearly all distributed on former mission land within about 30 miles (48 km) of the coast. The Mexican land grants were provisional until settled and worked on for five years, and often had very indefinite boundaries and sometimes conflicting ownership claims. The boundaries of each rancho were almost never surveyed, and marked, and often depended on local landmarks that often changed over time. Since the government depended on import tariffs for its income, there was virtually no property taxthe property tax when introduced with U.S. statehood was a big shock. The grantee could not subdivide, or rent out, the land without approval. The rancho owners tried to live in a grand manner, and the result was similar to a European feudal aristocracy. For these few rancho owners and families, this was California's Golden Age; for the vast majority it was not golden. Much of the agriculture, vineyards, and orchards established by the Missions were allowed to deteriorate as the rapidly declining Mission Indian population required less food, and the Missionaries and soldiers supporting the Missions disappeared. The new Ranchos and slowly increasing Pueblos mostly only grew enough food to eat and to trade with the occasional trading ship or whaler that put into a California port to trade, get fresh water, replenish their firewood and obtain fresh vegetables. The main products of these ranchos were cow hides (called California greenbacks) and tallow (rendered fat for making candles and soap) that were traded for other finished goods and merchandise. This hide-and-tallow trade was mainly carried on by Boston-based ships that traveled 14,000 miles (23,000 km) to 18,000 miles (29,000 km) around Cape Horn to bring finished goods and merchandise to trade with the Californio Ranchos for their hides and tallow. The cattle and horses that provided the hides and tallow essentially grew wild. By 1845, the province of Alta California had a non-native population of about 1,500 Spanish and Latin American-born adult men along with about 6,500 women and their native-born children (who became the Californios). These Spanish-speakers lived mostly in the southern half of the state from San Diego north to Santa Barbara.[33] There were also around 1300 American immigrants and 500 European immigrants from a wide variety of backgrounds. Nearly all of these were adult males and a majority lived in central and northern California from Monterey north to Sonoma and east to the Sierra Nevada foothills. A large non-coastal land grant was given to John Sutter who, in 1839, settled a large land grant close to the future city of Sacramento, California, which he called "New Helvetia" (New Switzerland). There, he built an extensive fort equipped with much of the armament from Fort Rossbought from the Russians on credit when they abandoned that fort. Sutter's Fort was the first non-Native

American community in the California Central Valley. Sutter's Fort, from 1839 to about 1848, was a major agricultural and trade colony in California, often welcoming and assistingCalifornia Trail travelers to California. Most of the settlers at, or near, Sutter's Fort were new immigrants from the United States.[34][35]

California state period[edit]

Annexation of California (1846-1847)[edit]
Main articles: Conquest of California and MexicanAmerican War

The Battle of Palo Alto during the Mexican-American War.

The USS Cyane taking San Diego 1846.

Hostilities between the U.S. and Mexico were inspired by the Battle of the Alamo in February-March 1846. Several actual battles between U.S. and Mexican troops over the next few months led the United States Congress to issue a declaration of war against Mexico on May 13, 1846; theMexican American War had begun.

The main forces available to the United States in California were the bluejacket sailors and U.S. Marines on board the ships of the Pacific Squadron. Speculating that war with Mexico over Texas and other land was very possible, the U.S. Navy had sent several additional naval vessels to the Pacific in 1845 to protect U.S. interests there. It took about 200 days, on average, for ships to travel the greater than 12,000-mile (19,000 km) trip from the East coast around Cape Horn to California. Initially as the war with Mexico started there were five vessels in the U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron near California. In 1846 and 1847 this was increased to 13 Navy vesselsover half the U.S. Navy's available ships. The only other U.S. military force then in California was the about 30 military topographers etc. and 30 mountain men, guides, hunters, etc. in Captain John C. Frmont's United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers exploratory force. They were exiting California on their way to Oregon when they got word in early June 1846 that war was imminent and a revolt had already started in Sonoma, California. On hearing this, Fremont and his exploratory force returned to California. The former fleet surgeon William M. Wood and John Parrot, the American Consul of Mazatln, arrived in Guadalajara, Mexico on May 10, 1846. There they heard word of the on-going hostilities between the U.S. and Mexico forces and sent a message by special courier back to Commodore Sloat, then visiting Mazatln. On May 17, 1846, this courier's messages informed Commodore Sloat that hostilities between the U.S. and Mexico had commenced.[36] Commodore (Rear Admiral) John D. Sloat, commander of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron and his fleet of four vessels were then at anchor in the harbor of Mazatln, Mexico.[37] On hearing the news, Commodore Sloat dispatched his flagship, the Frigate Savannah, and the sloop Levant (1837) toMonterey harbor, where they arrived on July 2, 1846. They joined the sloop Cyane which was already there.[38] There were U.S. fears that the British might try to annex California to satisfy British creditors.[39] The British Pacific Station's ships off California were stronger in ships, guns, and men than the American ships.[37] Hearing rumors of possible Mexican military action against the newly arrived settlers in California (this had already happened in 1840),[40] some settlers decided to neutralize the small Californio garrison at Sonoma, California. On June 15, 1846, some thirty settlers, mostly former American citizens, staged a revolt and seized the small Californio garrison, in Sonoma, without firing a shot. Initially there was little resistance from anyone in California as they replaced the dysfunctional and ineffective Mexican governmentwhich had already had 40 presidents in the first 24 years of its existence. Most settlers and Californios were neutral or actively supported the revolt. John A. Sutter and his men and supplies at Sutter's Fort joined the revolt. They raised the "Bear Flag" of the California Republic over Sonoma. The republic was in existence scarcely more than a week before Frmont returned and took over on June 23 from William B. Ide the leader of the Bear Flag Revolt. The California state flag of today is based on this original Bear Flag and still contains the words "California Republic."

US capture of coastal ports and towns[edit]

In 1846, the U.S. Navy was under orders to take over all California ports in the event of war. There were about 400500 U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy bluejacket sailors available for possible land action on the Pacific Squadron's ships. Hearing word of the Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma, California, and the arrival of the large British 2,600-ton, 600-man man-of-war HMS Collingwood flagship under Sir George S. Seymour, outside Monterey Harbor, Commodore Sloat was finally stirred to action. On July 7, 1846, seven weeks after war had been declared, Sloat instructed the captains of the ships USS Savannah and sloops Cyane and Levant of the Pacific Squadron in Monterey Bay to occupy Monterey, Californiathe Alta California capital. Fifty American marines and about 100 bluejacket sailors landed and captured the city without incidentthe few Californio troops formerly there having already evacuated the city. They raised the flag of the United States without firing a shot. The only shots fired were a 21-gun salute to the new U.S. flag fired by each of the U.S. Navy ships in the harbor.[41] The British ships observed but took no action. The abandoned Presidio and Mission San Francisco de Ass (Mission Dolores) at San Francisco, then called Yerba Buena, was occupied without firing a shot on July 9, 1846 by U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy sailors from the sloop USS Portsmouth. Militia Captain Thomas Fallon led a small force of about 22 men from Santa Cruz, California and captured the small town of Pueblo de San Jose without bloodshed on July 11. 1846. Fallon received an American flag from Commodore John D. Sloat, and raised it over the pueblo on July 14. On 1July 15, 1846, Commodore (Rear Admiral) Sloat transferred his command of the Pacific Squadron to Commodore Robert F. Stockton when Stockton's ship, the frigate USS Congress, arrived from the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). Stockton, a much more aggressive leader, asked Fremont to form a joint force of Fremont's soldiers, scouts, guides etc. and a volunteer militiamany who were former Bear Flag Revolters. This unit, called the California Battalion, was mustered into U.S. service and were paid regular army wages. On July 19, Frmont's newly formed "California Battalion" swelled to about 160 men. These men included Fremont's 30 topographical men and their 30 scouts and hunters, U.S. Marine Lieutenant Archibald H. Gillespie, a U.S. Navy officer to handle their two cannons, a company of Indians trained by Sutter and many other permanent California settlers from several different countries as well as American settlers. The California Battalion members were used mainly to garrison and keep order in the rapidly surrendering California towns. The Navy went down the coast from San Francisco, occupying ports without resistance as they went. The small pueblo (town) of San Diego surrendered 29 July 1846 without a shot being fired. The small pueblo (town) of Santa Barbara surrendered without a shot being fired in August 1846. On August 13, 1846, a joint force of U.S. Marines, bluejacket sailors and parts of Frmont's California Battalion carried by the USS Cyane entered Los Angeles, California with flags flying and band playing. Captain Archibald H. Gillespie, (Frmont's second in command), 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 CaliforniaLos Angeles.

Taking of Los Angeles[edit]

On August 13, 1846, a joint force of U.S. Marines, bluejacket sailors and parts of Frmont's California Battalion carried by the USS Cyane entered Pueblo de Los Angeles, California with flags flying and band playing. USMC Captain Archibald H. Gillespie, (Frmont'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 CaliforniaLos Angeles. The Californio government officials had already fled Alta California. In September 1846 a minor Californio led and organized revolt under Jos Mara Flores, Jos Antonio Carrillo and Andrs Pico, broke out in Los Angeles and the out numbered United States force there of 4050 men evacuated the city for a time. Later, U.S. forces fought minor skirmishes with the Californio Lancers in the Battle of San Pasqual, the Battle of Dominguez Rancho, and the Battle of Rio San Gabriel. After the Los Angeles revolt started, the California Battalion was expanded to a force of about 400 men. In early January 1847, a 600-man joint force of U.S. Marine, U.S. Navy bluejacket sailors, General Stephen W. Kearny's 80 U.S. Army dragoons (cavalrymen), who had arrived over the Gila river trail in December 1846, and about two companies of Fremont's California Battalion re-occupied Los Angeles after some very minor skirmishes (mostly posturing)after four months the same U.S. flag again flew over Los Angeles. The minor armed resistance in California ceased when the Californios signed the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. 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. The Californios, who had wrested control of California from Mexico in 1845, now had a new and much more stable government.[42] After the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed in early 1847, the Pacific Squadron then went on to capture all Baja California cities and harbors and sink or capture all the Mexican Pacific Navy they could find. Baja California was returned to Mexico in subsequent Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo negotiations. California was under U.S. control by January 1847 and formally annexed and paid for by the U.S. in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed in 1848.[43]

Reinforcements arrive[edit]
After hostilities had ceased with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847, on January 22, 1847 Commodore Stockton's replacement, Commodore William B. Shubrick, showed up in Monterey in the razee USS Independence with 54 guns and about 500 crew members. On January 27, 1847 the transport Lexington showed up in Monterey, California with a regular U.S. Army artillery company of 113 men under Captain Christopher Tompkins.[44] More reinforcements of about 320 soldiers (and a few women) of the Mormon Battalion arrived at San Diego on January 28, 1847after hostilities had ceased. They had been recruited from

theMormon camps on the Missouri Riverabout 2,000 miles (3,200 km) away. These troops were recruited with the understanding they would be discharged in California with their weapons. Most were discharged before July 1847. More reinforcements in the form of Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson's 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers of about 648 men showed up in MarchApril 1847again after hostilities had ceased. After desertions and deaths in transit, four ships brought Stevenson's 648 men to California. Initially they took over all of the Pacific Squadron's on-shore military and garrison duties and the Mormon Battalion and California Battalion's garrison duties. The New York Volunteer companies were deployed from San Francisco in Alta California to La Paz, Mexico in Baja California. The ship Isabella sailed from Philadelphia on 16 August 1847, with a detachment of one hundred soldiers, and arrived in California on 18 February 1848, the following year, at about the same time that the ship Sweden arrived with another detachment of soldiers. These soldiers were added to the existing companies of Stevenson's 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers. Stevenson's troops were recruited with the understanding that they would be discharged in California. When gold was discovered in late January 1848, many of Stevenson's troops deserted. The U.S. 1850 California Census asks state of birth of all residents and finds about 7300 residents that were born in California. The San Francisco, Contra Costa and Santa Clara county U.S. censuses were lost or burned in one of San Francisco's many fires. Adding the approximate 200 Hispanics in San Francisco (1846 directory) and an unknown (but small as shown in 1852 CA Census recount) number of Hispanics in Contra Costa and Santa Clara county in 1846 gives less than 8,000 Hispanics state wide in 1846 before hostilities commenced. The number of California Indians is unknown since they were not included in the 1850 census but has been roughly estimated to be between 50,000 and 150,000.

Military governor[edit]
After 1847, California was controlled (with much difficulty due to desertions) by a U.S. Armyappointed military governor and an inadequate force of a little over 600 troops. Due to the California Gold Rush, by 1850 California had grown to have a non-Indian and non-Californio population of over 100,000[45] Despite a major conflict in the U.S. Congress on the number of slave versus non-slave states, the large, rapid and continuing California population gains and the large amount of gold being exported east gave California enough clout to choose its own boundaries, select its representatives, write its Constitution, and be admitted to the Union as a free state in 1850 without going through territorial status as required for most other states. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally ended the MexicanAmerican War in February 1848. For $15,000,000, and the assumption of U.S. debt claims against Mexico, the new state of Texas's boundary claims were settled, and New Mexico, California, and the unsettled territory of several future states of the American Southwest were added to U.S. control.

California statehood (1850)[edit]

From 1847 to 1850, California had military governors appointed by the senior military commander in California. This arrangement was distinctly unsettling to the military, as they had no inclination, precedent, or training for setting up and running a government. President James K. Polk in office from March 4, 1845 March 4, 1849, tried to get the 1848 Congress to make California a territory with a territorial government and again in 1849 but was unsuccessful in getting Congress to agree on the specifics of how this was to be donethe issues was the number of free states vs. slave state problem.[46] General Bennett C. Riley who had fought in the Siege of Veracruz and Chapultepec during the MexicanAmerican War and considered an able military commander, was the last military governor of California in 1849-1850. In response to popular demand for a better more representative government, General Riley issued an official proclamation dated June 3, 1849, calling for a Constitutional Convention and an election of representatives on August 1, 1849.

Colton Hall in Monterey, site of California's 1849 Constitutional Convention

Convention delegates were chosen by secret ballot but lacking any census data as to California's population and where they lived its representatives only roughly approximated the rapidly changing state population as later shown in the 1850 U.S. California Census taken a year later.[47] The 48 delegates chosen were mostly pre-1846 American settlers; eight were native born Californios who had to use interpreters. The new miners in El Dorado County were grossly under-represented as they had no representatives at the convention despite then being the most populated county in California. After the election the California Constitution Convention met in the small town and former Californio Capital of Monterey, California, on September 1849 to write a state constitution.[48] Like all U.S. State's constitutions, the California Constitution adhered closely to the format and government roles set up in the original 1789 U.S. Constitutiondiffering mainly in details. The Constitutional Convention met for 43 days debating and writing the first California Constitution. The 1849 Constitution[49] copied (with revisions) a lot out of the Ohio and New York Constitutions but had parts that were originally several different state constitutions as well as original material. The 21-article Declaration of Rights in the California Constitution (Article I: Sec.1 to Sec.-21) was broader than the U.S. Constitution's 10-article Bill of Rights. There were four other significant

differences from the U.S. Constitution. The convention chose the boundaries for the stateunlike most other territories, whose boundaries were set by Congress (Article XII). Article IX encouraged statewide education and provided for a system of common schools partially funded by the state and provided for the establishment of a University (University of California). The California version outlawed slavery, except as punishment (Article I Sec. 18) and dueling (Article XI Sec.2) and gave women and wives the right to own and control their own property (Article XI Sec. 14). The debt limit for the state was set at $300,000 (Article VIII). Like all other states they guaranteed the rights of citizens to sue in Civil court to uphold the rights of contracts and property (Article I Sec. 16). They created a court system with a supreme court with judges who had to be confirmed every 12 years.(Article VI) They set up the states original 29 counties (Article I Sec. 4), created a legislature of two houses, set up polling places to vote, set up uniform taxation rules. The 1849 Constitution guaranteed the right to vote to "Every citizen of California, declared a legal voter by this Constitution, and every citizen of the United States, a resident of this State on the day of election, shall be entitled to vote at the first general election under this Constitution, and on the question of the adoption thereof (Article XII Sec. 5)".[50] The California Constitution was ratified by popular vote at an election held on a rainy November 13, 1849 (as specified in Article 12 Sec. 8). The Pueblo de San Jose was chosen as the first state capitol (Article XI Sec. 1). Soon after the election they set up a provisional state government that set up the counties, elected a governor, senators, and representatives, and operated for ten months setting up a state government before California was given official statehood by Congress on September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850.[51] Thirty eight days later the Pacific Mail Steamship SS Oregon brought word to San Francisco on October 18, 1850, that California was now the 31st state. There was a celebration that lasted for weeks. The state capital was variously at San Jose (18501851), Vallejo (18521853), and Benicia (18531854) until Sacramento was finally selected in 1854. The constitution of 1849 was only judged a partial success as a founding document and was superseded by the current constitution, which was first ratified on May 7, 1879.

California Gold Rush (18481855)[edit]

Main article: California Gold Rush

California goldfields in the Sierra Nevada andnorthern California

The first to hear confirmed information of the California Gold Rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), Mexico, Peru, and Chile. They were the first to start flocking to the state in late 1848. By the end of 1848, some 6,000 Argonauts had come to California.[52] Americans and foreigners of many different countries, statuses, classes, and races rushed to California for gold. Almost all (~96%) were young men. Women in the California Gold Rush were few and had many opportunities to do new things and take on new tasks.Argonauts, as they were often called, walked over the California Trail or came by sea. About 80,000 Argonauts arrived in 1849 aloneabout 40,000 over the California trail and 40,000 by sea. San Francisco was designated the official port of entry for all California ports where U.S. customs (also called tariffs and Ad valorem taxes) (averaging about 25%) were collected by the Collector of Customs from all ships bearing foreign goods. The first Collector of customs was Edward H. Harrison, appointed by General Kearny. Shipping boomed from the average of about 25 vessels from 1825 to 1847[53] to about 793 ships in 1849 and 803 ships in 1850.[54] All ships were inspected for what goods they carried. Passengers disembarking in San Francisco had one of the easier accesses to the gold country since they could take another ship from there to get to Sacramento and several other towns. San Francisco shipping boomed, and wharves and piers had to be developed to handle the onslaught of cargo--Long Wharf was probably the most prominent. To meet the demands of the Gold Rush, ships bearing food, liquors of many types, tools, hardware, clothing, complete houses, lumber,

building materials, etc. as well as farmers, business men, prospective miners, gamblers, entertainers and prostitutes, etc. from around the world came to San Francisco. Initially, the large supplies of food needed were imported from close ports in Hawaii, Mexico,Chile, Peru, and the future state of Oregon. The Californios initially prospered, as there was a sudden increase in the demand for livestock. These food shipments changed mainly to shipments from Oregon and internal shipments in California as agriculture was developed in both states. Starting in 1849, many of the ship crews jumped ship and headed for the gold fields when they reached port. Soon San Francisco Bay had many hundreds of abandoned ships anchored offshore. The better ships were recrewed and put back in the shipping and passenger business. Others were bought cheap and hauled up on the mud flats and used as store ships, saloons, temporary stores, floating warehouses, homes, and a number of other uses. Many of these repurposed ships were partially destroyed in one of San Francisco's many fires and ended up as landfill to expand the available land. The population of San Francisco exploded from about 200 in 1846 to 36,000 in the 1852 California Census.[55] In San Francisco, many people were initially housed in wooden houses, ships hauled up on the mud flats to serve as homes or businesses, wood-framed canvas tents used for saloons, hotels and boarding houses as well as other flammable structures. All these canvas and wood structures, combined with a lot of drunken gamblers and miners, led almost inevitably to many fires. Most of San Francisco burned down six times in six Great Fires between 1849 and 1852.[56]

Merchant ships fill San Francisco harbor in 1850 or 1851

Californios who lived in California had finally had enough of the Mexican government and seized control of the territory of Alta California in 1846.[42] At the time gold was discovered in 1848, California had about 9,000[57] former Californios and about 3,000 United States citizens including members of Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson's 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers and discharged members of the California Battalion and Mormon Battalions. The Pacific Squadron secured San Francisco Bay.

The state was formerly under the military governor Colonel Richard Barnes Mason who only had about 600 troops to govern Californiamany of these troops deserted to go to the gold fields. Before the Gold Rush, almost no infrastructure existed in California except a few small Pueblos (towns), secularized and abandoned Missions and about 500 large (averaging over 18,000 acres (73 km2)) ranchos owned the Californios who had mostly taken over the Missions land and livestock. The largest town in California prior to the Gold Rush was the Pueblo de Los Angeles with about 3,500 residents. The sudden massive influx into a remote area overwhelmed the state infrastructure, which in most places didn't even exist. Miners lived in tents, wood shanties, wagons, or deck cabins removed from abandoned ships.[58] Wherever gold was discovered, hundreds of miners would collaborate to put up a camp and stake their claims. With names like Rough and Ready and Hangtown (Placerville, California), each camp often had its own saloon, dance hall, and gambling house.[59] Some of the first Argonauts, as they were also known, traveled by the all sea route around Cape Horn. Ships could take this route year round and the first ships started leaving East Coast ports as early as November 1848. From the East Coast, a sailing voyage around the southern tip of South America would typically take five to eight monthsaveraging about 200 days by standard sailing ship.[60] This trip could easily cover over 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km) depending on the route chosensome even went by way of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). When clipper ships began to be used starting in early 1849, they could complete this journey in an average of only 120 days; but they typically carried few passengers. They specialized in high value freight.

Gold Rush Effects[edit]

Starting in 1848 before gold in California was even confirmed, Congress had contracted with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to set up regular paddle steamer packet ship, mail, passenger and cargo routes in the Pacific Ocean. This was to be a regular route from Panama, Nicaragua and Mexico to and from San Francisco and Oregon. The Atlantic Ocean mail contract from East Coast cities and New Orleans, Louisiana to and from the Chagres River in Panama was won by the United States Mail Steamship Company whose first steamship, the SS Falcon (1848') was dispatched on December 1, 1848. The SS California (1848), the first Pacific Mail Steamship Company steamship, showed up in San Francisco loaded with gold seekers on February 28, 1849 on its first trip from Panama and Mexico after steaming around Cape Horn from New York. Once the California Gold Rush was confirmed, other paddle steamers soon followed on both the Pacific and Atlantic routes. By late 1849 paddle steamers like the SS McKim (1848)[61] were carrying miners and business men over the 125 miles (201 km) trip from San Francisco up the Sacramento River to Sacramento and Marysville, California. Steam powered tugboats started working in the San Francisco Bay soon after this. Agriculture expanded throughout the state to meet the food needs of the new settlers. Agriculture was soon found to be limited by the difficulty of finding enough water in the right places to grow

irrigated crops. Winter wheat planted in the fall and harvested in the spring was one early crop that grew well without irrigation. At the beginning of the Gold Rush, there was no written law regarding property rights in the goldfields, and a system of "staking claims" was developed by the miners. The Gold Rush also had negative effects: Native Americans were pushed off of traditional lands, and gold mining caused environmental harm. 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 sluicealongside the river, and then digging for gold in the gravel down to the rocky river bottom. This placer gold had been freed by the slow disintegration, over geological time, that freed the gold from its ore. This free gold was typically found in the cracks in the rocks found at the bottom of the gravel found in rivers or creeks, as the gold typically worked down through the gravel or collected in stream bends or bottom cracks. Some 12-million ounces[62] (370 t) of gold were removed in the first five years of the Gold Rush. This gold greatly increased the available money in the United States, which was on the gold standard at that timethe more gold you had, the more you could buy. As the easier gold was recovered, the mining became much more capital and labor intensive as the hard rock quartz mining, hydraulic mining, and dredging mining evolved. 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, despite its drastic environmental consequences. By the late 1890s, dredging technology had become economical,[63] 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.[64] By 1850, the U.S. Navy started making plans for a west coast navy base at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. The greatly increased population, along with the new wealth of gold, caused: roads, bridges, farms, mines, steamship lines, businesses, saloons, gambling houses, boarding houses, churches, schools, towns, mercury mines, and other components of a rich modern (1850) U.S. culture to be built. The sudden growth in population caused many more towns to be built throughout Northern, and later Southern, California and the few existing towns to be greatly expanded. The first cities started showing up as San Francisco and Sacramento exploded in population.

Effects on indigenous population[edit]

Most California Indians are thought to have been located near the coast, the same areas the Spanish Missions were established. Since California Indians had no agriculture before it was introduced by the Franciscan padres, they were were strictly hunter-gather society tribes which could not support large populations--large populations require agriculture. During the Spanish and Mexican California occupation period the tribes were nearly all coastal tribes were induced to join a mission. So many Mission Indians died from exposure to harsh conditions at the missions and diseases like measles,

diphtheria, smallpox, syphilis, etc. that at times raids were undertaken to new villages in the interior to supplement the supply of Indian women at the missions. As reported by Krell, as of December 31, 1832, the mission Franciscan padres from 1800 to 1830 had performed a combined total of 87,787 baptisms and 24,529 marriages, and recorded 63,789 deaths.[65] If Krell's numbers are to be believed (others have slightly different numbers) the Mission Indian population had declined from a peak of about 87,000 in about 1800 to about 14,000 in 1832 and continued to decline. The Missions were becoming ever more strained as the number of Indian converts drastically declined and the deaths greatly exceeded the births. The ratio of Indian births to deaths is believed to have been less than 0.5 Indian births per death.[66] After the missions were disbanded in 1832 the surviving Indians mostly went to work on the about 500 newly established ranchos who appropriated the mission's "property" (about 1,000,000 acres (400,000 ha) acres/mission). The Indians typically worked at one of the four Spanish pueblos as servants or at the newly established ranchos for room and board or attempted to join other tribes in the interior. The new ranchos occupied nearly all their original tribal territories. The new wave of immigration that was sparked by the gold rush would continue to have a disastrous impact on California's native population, which continued to precipitously decline mainly due to Eurasian diseases to which they had no natural immunity. [67] Like when the Spanish missions in California were established the native inhabitants were often forcefully removed from their traditional tribal lands by incoming miners, ranchers, and farmers. There were a number of massacres, including the Yontoket Massacre, the Bloody Island Massacre at Clear Lake, and the Old Shasta Massacre, in which perhaps hundreds of indigenous people were killed. Thousands more are thought to have died due to disease. Combined with a low birth rate for Indian women the Indian population precipitously declined. Between 1850 and 1860, the state of California paid around 1.5 million dollars (some $250,000 of which was reimbursed by the federal government)[68] to hire "militias" whose purpose was to protect settlers from the indigenous populations. These "private military forays" were involved in several of the above-mentioned massacres, and sometimes participated in the "wanton killing" of Native peoples. The first governor of California, Peter Burnett, openly called for the extermination of the Indian tribes, and in reference to the violence against California's Native population, he said, That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected. 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.[69] As a result, the rise of modern California equalled great tragedy and hardship for the native inhabitants. Several scholars, including Benjamin Madley and Ed Castillo, have described the actions of the California government as a genocide.[70][69] In subsequent decades after 1850, the native population of more than 100 tribes were gradually placed in a series of reservations and rancherias, which were often very small and isolated and

lacked adequate natural resources or funding from the government to sustain the populations living on them in the hunter-gathering style they were used to living.

Maritime history of California[edit]

Main article: Maritime history of California The Maritime history of California includes Native American dugouts, tule canoes, and sewn canoes (Tomols); early European explorers; Colonial Spanish and Mexican California maritime history; Russians and Aleut Eskimo kayaks in the Maritime Fur Trade. U.S. Naval Activity including: Pacific Squadron, MexicanAmerican War. California Gold Rush shipping includes paddle steamers,Clippers, sailing ships, passage via Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Cape Horn and the growth of the Port of San Francisco. Also included are sections on California naval installations, California shipbuilding, California shipwrecks, and California lighthouses.

Slavery[edit]
Main article: History of slavery in California Tribes in northwest California practiced slavery long before the arrival of Europeans.[71] There were never black slaves owned by Europeans, and many free men of African ancestry joined theCalifornia Gold Rush (18481855). Some returned east with enough gold to purchase their relatives.[72] The California Constitution of 1849 outlawed any form of slavery in the state, and later theCompromise of 1850 allowed California to be admitted into the Union, undivided, as a free state. Nevertheless, as per the 1853 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 Amendement.[69][73]

California in the American Civil War[edit]

Main article: 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 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. 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[edit]
Even before Mexico gained control of Alta California in 1851 the onerous Spanish rules in effect from 1770 to 1821 against trading with foreigners began to break down as the declining Spanish fleet couldn't enforce their no trading policies. The Californios, with essentially no industries or manufacturing capabilities, were eager to trade for new commodities, glass, hinges, nails, finished goods, luxury goods and other merchandise. The Mexican government abolished the no trade with foreign ships policy and soon regular trading trips were being made. The main products of theseCalifornia Ranchos were cow hides (called California greenbacks), tallow (rendered fat for making candles and soap) and California/Texas longhorn cattle horns[74] that were traded for other finished goods and merchandise. This hide-and-tallow trade was mainly carried on by Boston-based ships that traveled for about 200 days in sailing ships about 17,000 miles (27,000 km) to 18,000 miles (29,000 km) around Cape Horn to bring finished goods and merchandise to trade with the Californio Ranchos for their hides, tallow and horns. The cattle and horses that provided the hides, tallow and horns essentially grew wild. The Californios' hides, tallow and horns provided the necessary trade articles for a mutually beneficial trade. The first United States, English and Russian trading ships began showing up in California before 1816. The classic book Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. written about 1832 provides a good first hand account of this trade.,[75][76] From 1825 to 1848 the average number of ships traveling to California increased to about 25 ships per yeara large increase from the average of 2.5 ships per year from 1769 to 1824.[77] The port of entry for trading purposes was the Alta California Capital, Monterey, California, where custom duties (tariffs) of about 100% were applied. These high duties gave rise to much bribery and smuggling, as avoiding the tariffs made more money for the ship owners and made the goods less costly to the customers. Essentially all the cost of the California government (what little there was) was paid for by these tariffs (custom duties). In this they were much like the United States in 1850, where about 89% of the revenue of its federal government came from import tariffs (also called Customs or ad valorem taxes), although at an average rate of about 20%.[78] Ships after 1848 provided easy, cheap, links among the coastal towns within California and on routes leading there. Nearly all cargo to California came by sailing ship over the more than 17,000 miles (27,000 km) route from the east coast or Europe around Cape Horn in South America. This route

took about 200 days by "standard" sailing ship or about about 120 days by Clipper. The Panama and Nicaragua routes provided a shortcut for getting from the East Coast to California and a brisk maritime trade developed, featuring fast paddle steamers from cities on the east coast,New Orleans, Louisiana and Havana Cuba to the Caribbean mouth of the Chagres River in Panama and the mouth of San Juan River in Nicaragua. After a trip up the Chagres River by native dugouts the last 20 miles (32 km) were completed to Panama City by mule back. The trip up the San Juan River in Nicaragua was usually done by small steam launch to Lake Nicaragua, a boat trip on the lake and a final 25 miles (40 km) trip by stage coach or mule back to San Juan del Sur or other city in the Pacific side of Nicaragua. After 1855 when the Panama Railroad was completed the Nicaragua route largely shut down. In 1846 the Oregon boundary dispute was settled with Great Britain and California was under U.S. control in 1847 and annexed and paid for in 1848. The United States was now a Pacific Ocean power. Starting in 1848 the U.S. Congress, after the annexation of California but before the California Gold Rush was confirmed there, had subsidized the Pacific Mail Steamship Company with $199,999 to set up regular packet ship, mail, passenger and cargo routes in the Pacific Ocean. This was to be a regular scheduled route from Panama City, Nicaragua and Mexico to and fromSan Francisco and Oregon. Panama City was the Pacific terminus of the Isthmus of Panama trail across Panama. The Atlantic Ocean mail contract from East Coast cities and New Orleans to and from the mouth of the Chagres River in Isthmus of Panama was won by the United States Mail Steamship Company whose first paddle wheel steamship, the SS Falcon (1848) was dispatched on 1 December 1848 to the Caribbean (Atlantic) terminus of the Isthmus of Panama trailthe Chagres River. In 1849 William H. Aspinwall, the man who had won the bid for the building and operating of the Pacific mail steamships, conceived a plan to construct a railway across the isthmus of Panama; he and his partners created a company registered in New York, the Panama Railroad Company, raised US$1,000,000 from the sale of stock, and hired companies to conduct engineering and route studies. Their venture happened to be well-timed, as the discovery of gold in California in January 1848 created a rush of emigrants wanting to cross the Isthmus of Panama and go on to California. Cholera, yellow fever, and malaria took a deadly toll on the Railroad workers, and despite the continual importation of large numbers of new workers, there were times when the work stalled for simple lack of alive and semi-fit workers. All supplies and nearly all foodstuffs had to be imported from thousands of miles away, greatly adding to the cost of construction. Laborers came from the United States, the Caribbean Islands, and as far away as Ireland, India, China, and Australia.[79] Upon completion in 1855 the road stretched 47 miles (76 km) and had cost over $8,000,000 and about 5,000 lives. By 1855 this arduous trip across the Isthmus of Panama had been shortened to a one day $25.00 excursion on the Panama Railroad. The SS California (1848), the first of three Pacific Mail Steamship Company paddle wheel steamships contracted for on the Pacific route, left New York City on 6 October 1848. This was

before the gold strikes in California were confirmed and she left with only a partial passenger load in her 60 saloon (about $300 fare) and 150 steerage (about $150 fare) passenger compartments. Only a few were going all the way to California.[80] As word of the gold strikes spread, the SS California picked up more passengers in Valparaiso Chile and Panama City Panama and showed up in San Francisco on 28 February 1849. She was loaded with about 400 gold seeking passengers; twice the number of passengers it had been designed for. In San Francisco all her passengers and crew except the captain and one man deserted the ship and it would take the Captain two more months to gather a much better paid return crew to return to Panama city an establish the route they had been contracted for. Many more paddle steamers were soon running from the east coast cities to the Chagres River in Panama and the San Juan River in Nicaragua. By the mid 1850s there were over ten Pacific and ten Atlantic/Caribbean paddle wheel steamboats shuttling high valued freight like passengers, gold and mail between California and both the Pacific and Caribbean ports. The trip to the east coast could be executed after about 1850 in as short as 40 days if all ship connections could be met with a minimum of waiting. Steamboats plied the Bay Area and the rivers that flowed from the goldfields, moving passengers and supplies from San Francisco to Sacramento, Marysville and Stockton. With few roads, initially pack trains and wagons brought supplies to the miners. Soon a system of wagon roads, bridges, ferries and toll roads were set up. Large freight wagons pulled by up to 10 mules replaced pack trains, and toll roads built and kept passable by the tolls made it easier to get to the mining camps, enabling express companies to deliver mail and packages to the miners. Some steamboats were even used to haul cargo up the Colorado River as high as where Lake Mead is today. The Butterfield Overland Mail Trail [81] was a stagecoach service operating from 1857 to 1861 of over 2,800 miles (4,500 km). It carried passengers and U.S. Mail from Memphis, Tennesseeand St. Louis, Missouri to San Francisco, California. The routes from each eastern terminus met at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then continued through Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Texas, and the future states of New Mexico, Arizona along the Gila River trail, across the Colorado River at the Yuma Crossing, and into California ending in San Francisco.[82] With the prospects of the civil war looming the Butterfield stage contract was terminated and the stage route to California rerouted. An Act of Congress, approved March 2, 1861, discontinued this route and service ceased June 30, 1861. On the same date the central route from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Salt Lake City, Utah, Carson City, Nevada and on to Placerville, California, went into effect. From the end of Central Overland route in Carson City, Nevada they followed the Placerville Toll road route over Johnson Pass (now U.S. Highway 50) to California since it was the fastest and only route that was then kept open in winter across the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) mountains.[83] The draft horses and mules, coaches, etc., on the southern Gila River route Butterfield Stage route were pulled off and moved to the new route between St. Joseph, Missouri and Placerville, California along the existing Oregon, California Trails to Salt Lake City and then through central Utah and Nevada. It took

about three months to make the transfer of stages and stock, and to build a number of new stations, secure hay and grain, and get everything in readiness for operating a six-times-a-week mail line.[84] On 30 June 1861 the Central Overland California Route from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Placerville, California, went into effect. By traveling day and night and using frequent team changes the stages could make the trip in about 28 days. News paper correspondents reported that they had a preview of "hell" when they took the trip.[85] The new line was designated by the postoffice department as the "Central Overland California Route." The Pony Express used much of this same route across Nevada and the Sierras in 1860-1861. These combined stage and Pony Express stations along the Central Route across Utah and Nevada were joined by the first transcontinental telegraph stations (completed 24 October 1861). The Pony express terminated soon after the telegraph was established. This combination wagon-stagecoachpony express-telegraph line route is labeled the Pony Express National Historic Trail on the National Trail Map.[86] From Salt Lake City, the telegraph line followed much of the Mormon-California-Oregon trail(s) to Omaha, Nebraska. After the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, the telegraph lines along the railroad tracks became the main line, since the required relay stations, lines and telegraph operators were much easier to supply and maintain along the railroad. The telegraph lines that diverged from the railroad lines or significant population centers were largely abandoned. After the 1870s, stagecoaches provided the primary form of local transportation between inland towns that were not connected to a railroad, with sailing ships and paddle wheel steamships connecting port cities. Even when railroads arrived, stages were essential to link more remote areas to the railheads. Top of the line in quality, with crowded discomfort, was the nine-passenger Concord stagecoach, 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 were often crowded together in limited space, dust pouring through open windows from rough unpaved roads, rough rides, un-bathed fellow passengers and poorly sprung steel tired stagecoaches. Some drivers were famous for their skill in driving six horses down winding roads at top speed, fortunately only rarely overturning. Rate competition from competing stage lines reduced fares to as little a two cents per mile on some routes--a $1.00/day was then a common wage. Bandits found robbing coaches a profitable if risky venture as they may be shot or hanged if caught. U.S. government mail subsidies provided essential base income for many stage lines, but running a stage line was often a financially unstable business enterprise. The first Transcontinental Railroad from Sacramento, California to Omaha, Nebraska was completed on 9 May 1869. The Central Pacific Railroad, the Pacific end of the railroad, largely took over nearly all freight across the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) mountains. By 1870 there were railroad connections to Oakland, California and via a train ferry to San Francisco, California from Sacramento--effectively

connecting all the major cities in California to the east coast. Other railroad connections were soon made to other cities. (See: Maritime history of California, California Trail, First Transcontinental Railroad, Butterfield Overland Mail, Pony Express, First Transcontinental Telegraph, Central Pacific Railroad, etc. for more information)

California and the railroads[edit]

Main article: California and the railroads Prior to the First Transcontinental Railroad, travel between California and the East Coast usually involved a hazardous, 200 day trip by sailing ship, a 120 day trip Clippers sea voyage aroundCape Horn or an expensive 40+ day paddle steamer trip to Panama, a canoe ride up the Chagres River and a 20 miles (32 km) ride across the Isthmus of Panama on the back of mule and then another paddle steamer to California. Nearly all cargo going to California took the Cape Horn route. Travelers going east reversed these routes; but most if they could afford it took the Panama route. Nearly all women going to California and returning miners and/or their gold took the Panama route. After 1855 the Panama Railroad cut the trip across Panama to a one day $25.00 trip. About half the 49er Argonauts came by sea. From 17,000 to 25,000 took the southern wagon route from Texas through the future state of Arizona and the Gila River, and 25,000 to 30,000 walked along side their ox or mule pulled wagons over the better-known northern Platte River route of the California Trail across the future states of Kansas and Nebraska. The more fortunate rode their horses over most of this distance. Wagons were needed on all these routes to carry enough supplies to get to California. The wagon trips typically took 140 to 160 days. By 1850 the corrected U.S. Census of 1850 would show over 110,000 new residents in California with about 95% of them being male and below the age of 40. When the Central Pacific (built east from Sacramento using Chinese laborers with white supervisors) reached Utah in 9 May 1869, it linked with the Union Pacific Railroad, built west from Omaha using mostly ex-Confederate and Union soldiers. The First Transcontinental Railroad route meant it was no longer necessary to travel for six or more months by ship or on foot to reach the golden state; travel from Chicago to San Francisco typically took less than six to seven days and cost less than $70 economy fare. 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 First Transcontinental Railroad 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. The construction of these routes was heavily subsidized by the federal government, through direct payments, loan guarantees and land grants, marking one of the first major federal investments in internal infrastructure. In recent years, passenger railroad building has picked up steam, with the

introduction of other locally-subsidized rail 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.

History of California, 1900 to present[edit]

Main article: History of California 1900 to present

History of California 1900 to present

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Part of a series on the

History of California

Timeline

Through 1899 Gold Rush (1848)

US Civil War (18611865) Since 1900 Topics

Maritime Railroad Highways Slavery Cities

Chico Los Angeles Pasadena Piedmont Riverside Sacramento

San Bernardino

San Diego

San Fernando Valley to 1915 San Francisco San Jose Santa Barbara Santa Monica Visalia

California portal

V T E

This article continues the history of California in the years 1900 and later; for events through 1899, see History of California through 1899. After 1900, California became an industrial power. While fundamentally conservative, it also exhibited periods of liberal ascension. The economy was widely based on specialty agriculture, oil, tourism, shipping, film, and after 1940 advanced technology. The films and stars of Hollywood made the state the center of worldwide attention. California became an American cultural phenomenon; the idea of the "California Dream" as a portion of the larger American Dream of finding a better life drew 35 million new residents from the start to the end of the 20th century (19002010).[1] Silicon Valley became the world's center for computer innovation.
Contents
[hide]

1 California Demographics 2 California Earthquakes 3 California oil industry 4 Lincoln-Roosevelt League

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4.1 California Businessmen 4.2 California Women

5 Organized labor

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5.1 1920s 5.2 1930s

6 Large water and transport infrastructure projects 7 Oil, movies, and the military

8 Baby boomers and free spirits 9 Economic power house 10 The California legal revolution 11 High-tech expansion 12 Post 2000: problems mount

12.1 Housing bubble bursts

13 Third millennium politics 14 See also 15 References 16 Bibliography

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16.1 Scholarly surveys 16.2 Environment, transportation, agriculture, water 16.3 Scholarly specialty studies

California Demographics[edit]
Historical populations
Census Pop. 8,000 120,000 379,994 560,247 864,694 1,213,398 1,485,053 2,377,549 3,426,861 5,677,251 6,907,387 % 1,400.0% 216.7% 47.4% 54.3% 40.3% 22.4% 60.1% 44.1% 65.7% 21.7%

1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

10,586,223 15,717,204 19,953,134 23,667,902 29,760,021 33,871,648 37,253,956

53.3% 48.5% 27.0% 18.6% 25.7% 13.8% 10.0%

Sources: 1850-2010 U.S. Census[2]

California is now the most populous state in the United States. If it were an independent country, California would rank 34th in over the years. The first big wave was the California Gold Rush miners and businessmen as well as their many supporters. The non-Indian population of California in 1840 was about 8,000 as confirmed by the 1850 U.S. Census which asked everyone

estimated at about 50,000 to 150,000 in 1840. The population in 1850, the first U.S. California census, does not count the Indian

Clara and Contra Costa counties whose censuses were lost before they could be included. A corrected California 1850 Census w

1850 U.S. California Census, the first census that included everyone, showed only about 7,019 females with 4,165 non-Indian fe

greater than 15 from San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Contra Costa counties whose censuses were lost and not included in the to

population (not including Indians who were not counted) of about 120,000 residents in 1850 or about 4.5% female. The number

subtracting the roughly 2,000 females who lived in predominately Californio (Hispanics born in California before 1848) commu

Argonauts before 1850 were female or about 3,500 female Gold Rushers compared of about 115,000 male California Gold Rush

By Californias 1852 State Census the population has already increased to about 200,000 of which about 10% or 20,000 are fem

via Panama to about $200. Many of the new California residents sent off for their wives, sweethearts and families. After 1850 th

the Isthmus of Panama making it ever easier to get to California in about 40 days. The "normal" male to female ratio of about on short on females.

The gold rush emigrations coming to California continued to build till the end of Gold Rush in the 1880s. The 1900 census show

massive population increase of over 60% between 1900 and 1910. The population more than doubled again in the next 20 years

immigration to the U.S. was held to a low of 23,068/year by 1933 and only starting to increase significantly in 1946 when immi

There were not enough jobs to go around. These very low immigration limits, unfortunately, had the effect of limiting the option

massive buildup of U.S. workers in California in the World War II years from other states increased the California population to

almost doubled the California population again to 19,953,134 by 1970. The 1970-2010 population growth has still been substan population growth had been lowered to 10% by the high taxes and high cost of living in California.

California Earthquakes[edit]
Main article: List of earthquakes in California

Earthquakes in California are common occurrences since the state is traversed by six major slip-strike fault systems with hundre

Andreas Fault all of which are stressed by the relative motion between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate or by com

Fault Zone, Calaveras Fault, Clayton-Marsh Creek-Greenville Fault, and the San Gregorio Fault. Significant blind thrust faults (

portions of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the northern reaches of the Diablo Range and Mount Diablo. California earthquake fo are.

Stockton Street from Union Square, looking toward Market Street

Arnold Genthe's famous photograph, looking toward the fire on Sacramento Street

The intensity of the earthquake.

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a major earthquake that struck the city and nearby at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April destroying about 28,000 buildings. As a result of the quake and fires, about 3,000 people died [8] and over 80% of San Francisco greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California's history.

California oil industry[edit]

Oil is one of the most important products used in the modern industrial age as it lubricates and powers most of the modern indus

As California pioneers continued to arrive and settle after 1848, they discovered an increasing number of oil seeps--oil seeping t

Humboldt, Colusa, Santa Clara, and San Mateo Counties, and in the asphaltum seeps and bituminous residues in Mendocino, M

California, large seeps in Ventura, Santa Barbara, Kern, and Los Angeles Counties received the most attention. [9] Interest in oil a

after the 1859 discovery of oil in Pennsylvania by Edwin Drake. Samuel Martin Kier is credited with founding the first America

crude oil into lamp oil (kerosene). Along with a new lamp to burn Kier's product a new market to replace whale oil as a lamp oi

an lantern fuel became generally known the market for kerosene blossomed it was much cheaper than whale oil and much eas a material that could be used to hold down dust and mud.

As early as 1856, a company organized in San Francisco began working the tar pits at La Brea Ranch, near Los Angeles, distilli

the kerosene price from 58 to 26 cents from 1865 to 1870. Competitors disliked the company's business practices, but consumer

Much of Californias early oil discoveries were in the form of asphalt also known as bitumen a sticky, black and highly viscous

may be a refined product. One of the primary uses of asphalt/bitumen is in road construction, where it is used as the glue or bind

are forbituminous waterproofing products, including production of roofing felt and for sealing flat roofs. Some cities in Californ

At the turn of the century, oil production in California continued to rise at a booming rate. In 1900, the state of California produ

state in the US, and traded the number one position back-and forth with Oklahoma through the year 1930. [12] Production at the v

has reached 78 million barrels. The story of oil production in California began in the late 19th century.[13]

However, the development of increased oil production in California had consequences. The additional California oil fields alo

surplus of oil reaching the market, again impacting the price of the commodity. With the accelerated oil drillings, the price of oi

increasingly debated topic in the American economy and political arena. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge created the Federal Ultimately, through APIs resistance, Coolidges program never succeeded in controlling oil production. [16]

market.[15] However, The American Petroleum Institute (API), representing over 500 oil companies, opposed the program becau

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that antitrust law required Standard Oil to be broken into smaller, independent companie Beach and Santa Fe Springs in 1921, and Dominguez in 1923.[18] Southern California had become the hotbed for oil production

1920, production had expanded to 77 million barrels. [17] Between 1920 and 1930, new oil fields across Southern California were

Oil Company of California (now Chevron) is the largest individual producer of crude oil in the U.S. and dominates the marketin these industries.[20]

same period, Californias agriculture, manufacturing, railroad, shipping and electrical production markets were also expanding r

In 1929, however, the sense of crisis in the oil market grew as vast amounts of oil supplies were going unused in Southern Calif

members to limit its oil production.[22] Additionally, like his predecessor, President Herbert Hoover attempted to control oil over

Young to create a commission to regulate the oil industry.[23] Hoovers proposal was defeated because many of the largest oil co for the depressed oil prices in California and across the United States. As of 2012, California was the nation's third most prolific oil-producing state, behind only Texas and North Dakota. In the past one GDP export and one of the most profitable industries in the region. [25]

Except for a couple of mediocre wells on the "westside" of the San Joaquin Valley, and a few tar mining operations, farming wa

late 1800s. However, the 1899 discovery of "black gold" in a shallow hand-dug oil well on the west bank of the Kern River chan

discovery started an oil boom, and a forest of wooden derricks sprang up overnight on the flood plain just north of Bakersfield, a

"Bakers Swamp". Soon Kern River production accounted for 7 out of every 10 barrels of oil that came from California, and Ker

California the top oil-producing state in the country. Inspired by the Kern River discovery, "oil prospectors" fanned out across th

began to pop up everywhere. Many discoveries followed, and a string of spectacular gushers at Coalinga, McKittrick and Midw

the oil news. And of course, there was the Lakeview Gusher . . . the greatest oil well the west, for that matter the country, has ev Over century later, the San Joaquin Valley still produces a lot of oil. In fact, just the Kern County part of the valley in 2008 had

provided about 68% of the oil produced in California, 10% of the entire United States production, and close to 1% of the total w

another producing 2,000 wells in Fresno County. If the Valley was a state in its own right, it would rank right behind Texas, Ala largest oil producer in the country.

The Valley is also home to 21 giant oil fields that have produced over 100 million barrels of oil each, with four "super giants" th

are Midway-Sunset . . . the largest oil field in the lower 49 United States, and Elk Hills . . . the former U.S. Naval Petroleum Re Chronology of the California Oil industry

1866 Oil is collected from tunnels dug at Sulphur Mountain in Ventura County by the brothers of railroad baron Leland Sta 1866 First steam-powered rig in California drills an oil well at Ojai, not far from the Sulphur Mountain seeps. 1875 First commercial oil field in California is discovered at Pico Canyon in Los Angeles County.

1878 Electric light bulb invented by Thomas Edison starts eliminating demand for kerosene where there is electricity availa 1885 Gas wells are drilled in Stockton, California for fuel and lighting.

1885 Oil burners on steam engines in the California oil fields, and later on steam locomotives and steamships, create new c

1886 Gasoline-powered automobiles introduced in Europe by Karl Benz and Wilhelm Daimler--gasoline was a cheap solve fuel.

1888 A steel-hulled tanker sails from Ventura to San Francisco. 1899 Discovery of Kern River oil field in 1899 propels Kern County to top oil-producing region in state. 1864 - Tar mined from open pits at Asphalto (McKittrick) on west side of San Joaquin Valley. 1866 - First refinery in Kern County built near McKittrick tar pits to process kerosene and asphalt. 1878 - First wooden derrick in Kern County constructed at Reward to drill for flux oil to mix with asphalt. 1887 - "Wild Goose" well at Oil City, Coalinga comes in at 10 bbls/day, demonstrating potential of north part of basin. 1889 - Oil wells drilled at Old Sunset (Maricopa) with a steam-powered rig mark discovery of Midway-Sunset field. 1893 - Railroad reaches McKittrick, where tunnels and shafts are dug to mine asphalt. 1894 - Old Sunset (Maricopa) part of Midway-Sunset has 16 wells producing 30 barrels of oil per day. 1890s to 1920s - Gushers and Cable Tools 1896 - Shamrock Gusher blows in at McKittrick and hastens end of tar mining operations. 1899 - Hand-dug oil well discovers Kern River field and starts an oil boom in Kern County. 1902 - Arrival of railroad to haul fuel makes development of Midway-Sunset field economically feasible.

1902 - First rotary drill rig in California reportedly drills a well at Coalinga field, but the hole is so crooked that a cable too 1903 - Kern River and Midway-Sunset production makes California the top oil producing state. 1904 - 17.2 million bbls of oil produced at Kern River site exceeds annual production from Texas.

1908 - Rotary drilling rigs and crews arrive in California from Louisiana and successfully drill wells at Midway-Sunset fiel 1908 - Ford Model T (built from 1908-1927) introduced the automobile as a mass consumer product the average person co 1909 - Midway Gusher blows out near Fellows and focuses attention on Midway-Sunset field. 1910 - Lakeview Gusher blows in near Taft and becomes America's greatest oil gusher. 1919 - Hay No. 7 catches fire at Elk Hills and becomes America's greatest gas gusher. 1929 - Blowout prevention equipment becomes mandatory on oil and gas wells drilled in California. 1930s to 1950s - Well Logs, Seismic, and Rotary Drilling 1929 - First well logs in California run by Shell in a well near Bakersfield (Kern County). 1930 - Deepest well in the world is Standard Mascot #1, rotary drilled to 9,629 feet at Midway-Sunset.

1936 - First seismic exploration in California discovers Ten Section field near Bakersfield. Seismic discovery of the produc 1943 - Deepest well in the world is Standard 20-13, drilled to 16,246 feet at South Coles Levee. 1953 - Deepest well in the world is Richfield 67-29 drilled to 17,895 feet at North Coles Levee. 1958 - Eisenhower administration starts the Interstate Highway System 1960s to Today - Steam, Horizontal Wells, and Computers

1961 - First steam recovery projects in Kern County start up at Kern River and Coalinga fields after a successful pilot by S

1973 - Tule Elk and Yowlumne fields become the last 100-million barrel fields discovered in Kern County. 1980 - First horizontal well in Kern County is Texaco Gerard #6 in fractured schist at Edison field. 1980s - Cogeneration hastens the spread of steam recovery projects, which dramatically ramp up oil production.

1985 - Kern County reaches an all-time production high of 256 million barrels of oil/year. At the same time, California reac 1990s - 3D-seismic data and 3D-computer modeling of reservoirs bring new life to old fields.

1997 - Deepest horizontal well in Kern County is Yolwumne 91X-3 with measured depth of 14,300 feet. However, the wel 1998 - A blowout and oil well fire at the Bellevue #1 wildcat in the East Lost Hills subthrust fuels hopes for the first major be a disappointment.[27]

Lincoln-Roosevelt League[edit]

California was a leader in the Progressive Movement from the 1890s into the 1920s. A coalition of reform-minded Republicans

Bard's election in 1899 as U.S. Senator enabled the anti-machine Republicans to sustain a continuing opposition to the Southern Johnson became the running mate for Theodore Roosevelt on the new Bull Moose Party ticket.[28]

Pardee for governor in 1902 and formed the "Lincoln-Roosevelt League." In 1910 Hiram W. Johnson won the campaign for gov

By 1916 the Progressives were supporting labor unions, which helped them in ethnic enclaves in the larger cities but alienated th Johnson and President Wilson in 1916.[29]

Political progressivism varied across the state. Los Angeles (population 102,000 in 1900) focused on the dangers posed by the S (population 342,000 in 1900) confronted with a corrupt machine that was finally overthrown following the earthquake of 1906. machine.[31]

somewhat different concerns, such as fruit cooperatives, urban development, rival rural economies, and Asian labor. [30] San Die

California Businessmen[edit]

Progressives created a new railroad commission with vastly enlarged powers and brought public utilities under state supervision

force for railroad regulation came less from an outraged public seeking lower rates than from shippers and merchants who want securities, and allow them to escape continual wrangling with county and municipal authorities. [32]

the passage, and, later, the enlargement of the Public Utilities Act. They expected that state regulation would reduce wasteful co

Although the businessmen were influential in obtaining the passage of bills the wanted, no group of businessmen dominated the proposed by some businessmen were opposed by other business interests.[33] Organized labor made significant gains during the reformer actions, but of a powerful lobbying activity on the part of unions with their solid base in San Francisco and Oakland.

In the 1920s, most progressives came to view the business culture of the day not as a repudiation of progressive goals but as the

passage of administrative reorganization laws, the King Bill, increasing corporate taxes, and a progressive budget. In 1927-31, g

the state. The state began large-scale hydroelectric power development, and began state aid to the handicapped. California becam

upgraded and California (like most states) rapidly expanded its highway program, funding it through a tax on gasoline, and crea

California Women[edit]

The Progressive movement aimed to purify society of its corruption, and one way was to enfranchise supposedly "pure" women

nationally in 1920. Women's clubs flourished and turned a spotlight on issues such as public schools, dirt and pollution, and pub

reform, conservation, public schools, recreation, and other issues. The women did not often run for office that was seen as ent

Organized labor[edit]

Organized labor was centered in San Francisco for much of the state's early history. By the opening decades of the twentieth cen

Valley. In 1901, the San Francisco based City Front Federation was reputed to be the strongest trade federation in the country. I the start of the 20th century.

Employers also organized during the building trades strike of 1900 and the (San Francisco) City Front Federation strike of 1901

was at stake. Out of the City Front strike came the Union Labor Party because workers were angry at the mayor for using the po

party's ticket, making San Francisco the only town in the United States, for a time, to be run by labor. A combination of corrupti

In 1910, Los Angeles was still an open shop and employers in the north threatened for a new push to open San Francisco shops.

sent in during a lockout of 1,200 idled metal-trades workers. Then occurred an incident that would set back Los Angeles organiz Times newspaper plant that killed twenty-one workers.

In the decade following, the rapid growth of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or Wobblies) in ununionized trades, log

and agriculture. The IWW came to public notice after the Wheatland Hop Riot when a sheriff's posse broke up a protest meeting IWW was harmed by anti-union drives and prosecution of members under the state's California Criminal Syndicalism Act.

The IWW was also involved in the 1923 seamen's strike at San Pedro, where Upton Sinclair was arrested for reciting the Declar all, Thomas Mooney, soon became a cause-celebre of labor and the most important political prisoner in America.

1920s[edit]

The Preparedness Day Bombing killed ten people and hurt labor for decades. During the 1920s, the open shop efforts succeeded

Industrial Association of San Francisco raised over a million dollars to break the building trades strikes in 1921 that led to the co

in one year, and the Metal Trades Council was defeated, losing an agreement that had been in effect since 1907. The Seamen's U

1930s[edit]

Unions grew rapidly after 1935 with political and legal support from the national New Deal and its Wagner Act of 1935. The m

and longshoremen along the West Coast went on strike for better hours and pay, a union hiring hall and a coast-wide contract. C Association (ILA), led by Harry Bridges (19011990).[36]

On "Bloody Thursday", July 5, 1934, San Francisco was swept by bloody rioting . Striking maritime workers, pitting themselve resulted in a victory for the strikers. and the unionization of all West Coast ports in the United States.[37]

the city. Two workers were killed and hundreds were clubbed and gassed. The West Coast Waterfront Strike lasted 83 days with

Kern County, April 1938. An agricultural worker with union membership book and pin against the 1938 anti-picketing ballot. (Photo: Dorothea Lange

San Francisco in the late 1930s had 120,000 union members. Longshoreman wore union buttons on their white union made caps

conductors, motormen, newsboys, retail clerks, hotel employees, newspapermen and bootlacks all had representation. Against 3

even against a severe 1938 anti-picketing ordinance. But Los Angeles became unionized in the mass production industries of air unionization spread through musicians, teamsters, building trades, movies, actors, writers and directors. Farm labor remained unorganized, the work brutal and underpaid. In the 1930s, 200,000 farm laborers traveled the state in tune

rights when they took up the early effort to organize farm labor. A number of valley towns endorsed anti-picketing ordinances to

In the 1933-1934 period, a wave of agricultural strikes flooded the central valley, including the Imperial Valley lettuce strike an

violence shocked the nation. Again, in the spring of 1938, about three hundred men, women and children were driven by vigilan A 1938 ballot proposition against picketing, "Proposition #1," considered fascist by commentators for the state grange, became distinctions fell as California unions began to admit non-white members.

By the advent of World War II, California had an old-age assistance law, unemployment compensation, a 48 hour work week m

Large water and transport infrastructure projects[edit]

The terminus of the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, near Sylmar.

Beginning around the start of the 20th century, there were several feats of engineering in Californian history. Among many, the

Aqueduct, which runs from the Owens Valley, through the Mojave Desert and its Antelope Valley, to dry Los Angeles far to the

Mulholland and is still in use today. Creeks flowing from the eastern Sierra are diverted into the aqueduct. This attracted contro in the Owens Valley. See also California Water Wars.

Other feats are the building of Hoover Dam (which is in Nevada, and provides power and water to Southern California), Hetch H

northern California to dry and sprawling southern California. Another project was the draining ofLake Tulare, which, during hig

large wet area amid the dry San Joaquin Valley and swamps abounded at its shores. By the 1970s, it was completely drained, bu

Automobile travel became important after 1910. A key route was the Lincoln Highway, which was America's first transcontinen

creation of the Lincoln Highway in 1913 was a major stimulus on the development of both industry and tourism in the state. Sim

Oil, movies, and the military[edit]

In the 1850s, oil was collected and refined for the first time in California, both in Ventura County and the Los Angeles area, and

including the Summerland Oil Field near Santa Barbara, location of the world's first offshore oil wells, the giant Midway-Sunse

contributing to an oil boom that made California one of the largest oil producers in the nation. Oil during the period was the mo The first decades of the twentieth century saw the rise of the studio system. MGM, Universal and Warner Brothers all acquired

"Hollywoodland" on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The enormous variety in terrain and the sunshine made film making easier an

The movies made California even better known, attracting hundreds of thousands of migrants, especially from the Midwest, wh

By the 1930s, Hollywood had extended its reach into radio, and by mid-century Southern California had also become a major ce as NBC and CBS.

In the 1934 California gubernatorial election novelist Upton Sinclair was the narrowly defeated Democratic nominee, running o

radical response to the Great Depression. Other radical movements flourished, such as the Townsend Plan for old age pension, a

age 50. Voters narrowly rejected it in 1938 and the utopians failed to enact any panaceas; however the movements did spawn a g

During World War II, California's mild climate became a major resource for the war effort. Numerous air-training bases were es

including Douglas Aircraft and Hughes Aircraft expanded or established factories. Major naval, shipyards were established or e the home of the liberty ships.

Baby boomers and free spirits[edit]

After the war, hundreds of land developers bought land cheap, subdivided it, built on it, and got rich. Real-estate development re

1955, Disneyland opened in Anaheim. In 1958, Major League Baseball's Dodgers and Giants left New York City and came to L expanded dramatically, to nearly 20 million by 1970. This was the coming-of-age of the Baby Boom.

In the late 1960s the baby-boom generation reached draft age, and many risked arrest to oppose the war in Vietnam. There were

campus of the University of California, across the bay from San Francisco. In 1965, race riots erupted in Watts, in the South Ce

were also immortalized by Buffalo Springfield in "For What It's Worth" (1966). Some commentators predicted revolution. Then last happened in 1974. The radical political movements, having achieved a large part of their aim, lost members and funding.

California still was a land of free spirits, open hearts, easy-going living. Popular music of the period bore titles such as "Californ

Your Hair)," "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" and "Hotel California". These reflected the Californian promise of easy livin

jobs and joined the surfers living in trailers at the beach and many others forsook ambition and joined the hippies free living in c The most famous hippie hangout was the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. The state's cities, especially San Francisco,

Californian culture emerged for a time. The peak of this culture, in 1967, was known as the Summer of Love. California became

Economic power house[edit]

Conversely, during the same period, the Golden State also attracted commercial and industrial expansion of astronomical rates.

development of a highly efficient system of public higher education in the Community Colleges and the University of California

attracted investment, particularly in areas related to high technology. By 1980, California became recognized as the world's eigh high population of the time caused tremendous problems with urban sprawl, traffic, pollution, and, to a lesser extent, crime.

Urban sprawl created a backlash in many urban areas, with the local governments limiting growth beyond certain boundaries, re

in several parts of the state specifically to obtain, manage, and preserve undeveloped land. For example, in the San Francisco Ba

permanently undeveloped land running through the coastal range and hills surrounding the Bay's urban valleys, enabling the cre circumnavigate the Bay in an unbroken loop.

The immense problem with air pollution (smog) that had developed by the early 1970s also caused a backlash. With schools bei

too unhealthy and the hills surrounding urban areas seldom visible even within a mile, Californians were ready for changes. Ove

regulations in the United States and has been a leader in encouraging nonpolluting strategies for various industries, including au

two/three or more occupants (whether the base number is two or three depends on what freeway you are on), but electric cars ca

reduced from its peak, although local Air Quality Management Districts still monitor the air and generally encourage people to a

Traffic and transportation remain a problem in urban areas. Solutions are implemented, but inevitably the implementation expen

with the population growth. There have been some improvements. Carpool lanes have become common in urban areas, which a

automobiles. San Jose is gradually building a light rail system (ironically, often over routes of an original turn-of-the-century ele

automobile age). None of the implemented solutions are without their critics. The sprawling nature of the Bay Area and of the L a significant portion of the population.

The California legal revolution[edit]

During the 1960s, under the aegis of Chief Justice Roger J. Traynor, the California Supreme Court became more liberal and pro

number of firsts: California was the first state to create true strict liability in product liability cases, the first to allow the action o

physical injury to the plaintiff, and the first to allow bystanders to sue for NIED where the only physical injury was to a relative

Starting in the 1960s, California became a leader in family law. California was the first state to allow true no-fault divorce, with

law out of the Civil Code and created a new Family Code. In 2002, the Legislature granted registered domestic partners the sam state to legalize same-sex marriage when the California Supreme Court ruled the ban unconstitutional.

Since the mid-1980s, the California Supreme Court has become more conservative, particularly with regard to the rights of crim

penalty stance of Chief Justice Rose Bird in the early 1980s although the funding that eventually brought about her defeat was fr

business stance by the Chief Justice. The state's electorate responded by removing her (and two of her perceived liberal allies) fr

High-tech expansion[edit]
Starting in the 1950s, high technology companies in Northern California began a spectacular growth that continued through the

games, and networking systems. The majority of these companies settled along a highway stretching from Palo Alto to San Jose Valley, the so-called "Silicon Valley," named after the material used to produce the integrated circuits of the era.

This era peaked in 2000, by which time demand for skilled technical professionals had become so high that the high-tech indust

quotas so that they could recruit from overseas. When the "Dot-com bubble" burst in 2001, jobs evaporated overnight and, for th moved in. This somewhat mirrored the collapse of the aerospace industry in southern California some twenty years earlier. By 2004, it seemed that many of the coveted high-tech jobs were either "off-shored" to India at ten percent of the labor costs in

India and China. New laws have removed caps to visas, especially since the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreem

U.S. since 1960, settling at first mainly in California and the Southwest, but now throughout the continent. In 1960 (when the bi million; in 2000, it was 280 million.

Post 2000: problems mount[edit]

Although air pollution problems have been reduced, health problems associated with pollution have continued. The brown haze restrictions on automobile exhaust.[40][41]

An energy crisis in 2001 led to rolling blackouts, soaring power rates, and the importation of electricity from neighboring states under heavy criticism.[42]

Housing bubble bursts[edit]

The ongoing demand for well educated workers continued. Housing prices in urban areas continued to increase so that a modest

urban areas by 2005. More people commuted longer hours to afford a home in more rural areas while earning larger salaries in t

expecting to make a huge profit in a matter of months then rolling it over by buying more properties. Mortgage companies were

in 2007-8 as housing prices began to crash and the boom years ended. Hundreds of billions in property values vanished and fore

Third millennium politics[edit]

In the 2002 gubernatorial campaign, Democratic incumbent Gray Davis defeated Republican challenger Bill Simon.

On October 7, 2003, Davis was recalled, with 55.4% of the voters supporting the recall (see results of the 2003 California recall

chosen as the new governor. Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante received 31.5% of the vote, and Republican State Senator T

Schwarzenegger began his shortened term with a soaring approval rating and soon after began implementing a conservative age

Senate over the state budget, battles which provided his infamous "girly men" comment but also began taking their toll on his ap

ballot propositions in a 2005 Special Election touted as reforming California's budget system, redistricting powers, and union po Association contributed heavily to the defeat of every proposition in the Special Election.

Since this conspicuous failure, Schwarzenegger made a turn back to the left, criticizing the Bush Administration at many junctu

the traditionally Democratic issue of education spending. His approval rating has also been revived, and he was re-elected in 20

Legislature and Governor to work out the fundamental funding questions resulted in voter disapproval of both the legislators an pending the election of a successor in November 2010.

History of Los Angeles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from History of Los Angeles, California)

See also: History of Los Angeles County and History of the Greater Los Angeles Area Los Angeles changed rapidly after 1848, when California was transferred to the United States as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the MexicanAmerican War. Much greater changes were to come from the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1876. For the next 120 years of Los Angeles' growth, it was plagued by often violent ethnic and class conflict, reflected in the struggle over who would control the city's identity, image, geography and history.
Part of a series on the

History of California

Timeline

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US Civil War (18611865) Since 1900 Topics

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California portal

Contents
[hide]

V T E

1 Early history 2 Sixteenth Century to today

2.1 Spanish era 17691821

2.1.1 Plans for the pueblo 2.1.2 Pobladores 2.1.3 Founding 2.1.4 Early pueblo

2.2 Mexican Era, 18211848

2.2.1 Secularization of the missions 2.2.2 Battle of Los Angeles

2.3 Transitional Era, 18481870

2.3.1 Gangs of Los Angeles 2.3.2 Plight of the Indians

2.4 Industrial expansion and growth, 18701913

2.4.1 Chinese Massacre 2.4.2 Railroads 2.4.3 Oil discovery 2.4.4 Activists on the left 2.4.5 Class conflict

2.4.6 Battle of the Los Angeles River 2.4.7 Water from a distance

2.5 Boom town, 19131941

o o

2.5.1 Notable events 2.5.2 Annexations and consolidations 2.5.3 Olvera Street 2.5.4 Civic corruption and police brutality

2.6 World War II and after, 19411950 2.7 19502000

2.7.1 Proposition 14 2.7.2 Economic changes 2.7.3 Demographic changes

3 Population growth 4 Ethnicity

o o o

4.1 African-Americans 4.2 Latinos 4.3 Asians

5 See also 6 Sources 7 Bibliography

o o o

7.1 Guides, architecture, geography 7.2 Contemporary issues 7.3 History

o o o

7.3.1 Planning, environment and autos

7.4 Hollywood 7.5 Ethnicity, race and religion 7.6 Collections of primary sources

8 External links

Early history[edit]
Recent archeological studies show there was a seafaring culture in Southern California in 8000 B.C.[citation needed] By 3000 B.C. the area was occupied by the Hokan-speaking people of the Milling Stone Period who fished, hunted sea mammals, and gathered wild seeds. They were later replaced by migrants possibly fleeing drought in the Great Basin who spoke a Uto-Aztecan language called Tongva. The Tongva people called the Los Angeles region Yaa in Tongva.[1]

By the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the 18th century A.D., there were 250,000 to 300,000 native people in California and 5,000 in the Los Angeles basin. Since contact with Europeans, the people in what became Los Angeles were known as Gabrielinos and Fernandeos, after the missions associated with them.[2] The land occupied and used by the Gabrielinos covered about four thousand square miles. It included the enormous floodplain drained by the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers and the southernChannel Islands, including the Santa Barbara, San Clemente, Santa Catalina, and San Nicholas Islands. They were part of a sophisticated group of trading partners that included the Chumash to the west, the Cahuilla and Mojave to the east, and the Juaneos and Luiseos to the south. Their trade extended to the Colorado River and included slavery.[3] The lives of the Gabrielinos were governed by a set of religious and cultural practices that included belief in creative supernatural forces. They worshipped a creator god, Chinigchinix, and a female virgin god, Chukit. Their Great Morning Ceremony was based on a belief in the afterlife. In a purification ritual similar to the Eucharist, they drank tolguache, a hallucinogenic made from jimson weed and salt water. Their language was called Kizh or Kij, and they practiced cremation.[4][5][6] Generations before the arrival of the Europeans, the Gabrielinos had identified and lived in the best sites for human occupation. The survival and success of Los Angeles would depend greatly on the presence of a nearby and prosperous Gabrielino village called Yaanga. Its residents would provide the colonists with seafood, fish, bowls, pelts, and baskets. For pay, they would dig ditches, haul water, and provide domestic help. They often intermarried with the Mexican colonists.[7]

Sixteenth Century to today[edit]

Spanish era 17691821[edit]
Main articles: Pueblo de Los Angeles and Los Angeles Pobladores

The "Old Plaza Church" facing the Plaza, 1869. The brick reservoir in the middle of the Plaza was the original terminus of the Zanja Madre.

In 1542 the first Europeans to visit the Los Angeles region were Captain Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and his crew. They were sailing up the coast looking for a new passage to Asia. In 1602,

Captain Sebastin Vizcano dropped anchor atSanta Catalina Island and near San Pedro. It would be another 166 years before another European would visit the region.[2]

Plans for the pueblo[edit]

The one person most responsible for the founding of Los Angeles was the new Governor of California, Felipe de Neve. In 1777 Neve toured Alta California and decided to establish civic pueblos for the support of the military presidios. Neve was a Renaissance person. The new pueblos would reduce the secular power of the missions by reducing the dependency of the military on them. At the same time, they would promote the development of industry and agriculture. Neve identified Santa Barbara, San Jose, and Los Angeles as sites for his new pueblos. His plans for them closely followed a set of Spanish city-planning laws contained in the Laws of the Indies promulgated by King Philip II in 1573. Those laws were responsible for laying the foundations of the largest cities in the region, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tucson, and San Antonio as well as Sonoma, Monterey, Santa Fe, San Jose, and Laredo.[8] The royal regulations were based on the ancient teachings of Vitruvius, who set down the rules for founding of new cities in the Roman Empire. Basically, the Spanish laws called for an open central plaza, surrounded by a fortified church, administrative buildings, and streets laid out in a grid, defining rectangles of limited size to be used for farming (suertes) and residences (solares).[9] It was in accordance with such precise planningspecified in the Law of the Indiesthat Governor Neve founded the pueblo of San Jose de Guadalupe, California's first municipality, on the great plain of Santa Clara on 29 November 1777.[10]

Pobladores[edit]
The Los Angeles Pobladores ("townspeople") is the name given to the 44 original settlers, 22 adults and 22 children, who founded the town. In December, 1777 Viceroy Antonio Mara de Bucareli y Ursa and Commandant General Teodoro de Croix gave approval for the founding of a civic municipality at Los Angeles and a new presidioat Santa Barbara. Croix put the California lieutenant governor Fernando Rivera y Moncada in charge of recruiting colonists for the new settlements. He was originally instructed to recruit 55 soldiers, 22 settlers with families and 1,000 head of livestock that included horses for the military. After an exhausting search that took him to Mazatln, Rosario, and Durango, Rivera y Moncada only recruited 12 settlers and 45 soldiers. Like the people of most towns in New Spain, they were a mix of Indian and Spanish backgrounds. Croix instructed Rivera y Moncada to delay no longer and proceed north. The soldiers, settlers, and livestock were assembled at Alamos, Sonora, before departure. [11]

They were divided into two groups. One group, under Alfrez Jos de Ziga and Alfrez Ramon Laso de la Vega, set out for the coast. They crossed the Gulf of California on launches and then travelled overland to San Diego and up to San Gabriel.[11] The second group, under Rivera y Moncada, took an overland route over the desert, passing by the new missions on the Colorado River, La Pursima Concepcin and Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuer. The group arrived at the Colorado River in June 1781. Rivera y Moncada sent most of his party ahead, but he stayed behind to rest the livestock before their drive across the desert. His party would never reach San Gabriel. The Quechan and Mojave Indians rose up against the party for encroaching on their farmlands and for other abuses inflicted by the soldiers. The Quechan Revolt was swift and killed 95 settlers and soldiers, including Rivera y Moncada.[11] Governor Neve had arrived in San Gabriel in April to finish his plans , El Reglamento, and select the exact location for Los Angeles. He carefully attended to every detail. While waiting for the colonists to arrive, he visited Yaanga, the Indian village near his selected site. He selected several children for reception into the Church and baptized a young couple and had their marriage blessed. In his Reglamento, the newly baptized Indians were no longer to reside in the mission but live in their traditional rancheras (villages). Neve's new plans for the Indians' role in his new town drew instant disapproval from the mission priests.[12] Ziga's party arrived at the mission on 18 July 1781. Because they had arrived with smallpox, they were immediately quarantined a short distance away from the mission. Members of the other party would arrive at different times by August. They made their way to Los Angeles and probably received their land before September.[12]

Founding[edit]
The official date for the founding of the city is September 4, 1781. According to a written message sent by Governor Neve to report the pueblo's juridical foundation, that was when 44 pobladores, or settlers, gathered at San Gabriel Mission and, escorted by soldiers and two padres from the mission, set out for the chosen spot that Cresp had recorded twelve years earlier. According to historian Antonio Rios-Bustamante, however, the families had arrived from Mexico earlier in 1781, in two groups, and some of them had most likely been working on their assigned plots of land since the early summer.[13] The name first given to the settlement is debated. Historian Doyce P. Nunis has said that the Spanish named it "El Pueblo de la Reyna de los Angeles" ("The Town of the Queen of the Angels"). For proof, he pointed to a map dated 1785, where that phrase was used. Frank Weber, the diocesan archivist, replied, however, that the name given by the founders was "El Pueblo de Nuestra Seora de los Angeles de Porciuncula", or "the town of Our Lady of the Angels of Porciuncula." and that the map was in error.[14]

Early pueblo[edit]

At the end of the first year only eight of the original founders were still in the pueblo; three had been forced out "for being useless to themselves and the town." But the town grew as soldiers and other settlers came into town and stayed. In 1784 a chapel was built on the Plaza. The pobladores were given title to their land two years later. By 1800, there were 29 buildings that surrounded the Plaza, flat-roofed, one-story adobe buildings with thatched roofs made of tule.[15] By 1821 Los Angeles had grown into a self-sustaining farming community, the largest in Southern California. Its development conformed strictly to the Law of the Indies and the Reglamento of Governor Neve. The pueblo itself included a square of 10,000 varas, five and a quarter miles on each side. The central Plaza was in the middle, 75 varas (208 ft.) wide and 100 varas (277 ft.) long. On the west side of the Plaza facing east, space was reserved for a church and municipal buildings. Each vecino received a solar (lot) 20 varas (55.5 ft.) wide and 40 varas (110 ft.) long.[10] Each settler also received four rectangles of land, suertes, for farming, two irrigated plots and two dry ones. Each plot was 200 square varas. The farm plots were separated from the pueblo by a tract of land 200 varas wide. Some plots of land, propios, were set aside for the pueblo's general use and revenue. Other plots of land, realengas, were set aside for future settlers. Land outside the city, baldos, included mountains, rivers, lakes, and forests, and belonged to the king. [8][16] When the settlers arrived, the Los Angeles floodplain was heavily wooded with willows and oaks. The Los Angeles river flowed all year. Wildlife was plentiful, including deer, antelope, and bear, even an occasional grizzly. There were abundant wetlands and swamps. Steelhead and salmon swam the rivers. The first settlers built a water system consisting of ditches ( zanjas) leading from the river through the middle of town and into the farmlands. Indians were employed to haul fresh drinking water from a special pool farther upstream. The city was first known as a producer of fine wine grapes. The raising of cattle and the commerce in tallow and hides would come later.[17] Because of the great economic potential for Los Angeles, the demand for Indian labor grew rapidly. Yaanga began attracting Indians from the islands and as far away as San Diego and San Luis Obispo. The village began to look like a refugee camp. Unlike the missions, the pobladores paid Indians for their labor. In exchange for their work as farm workers, vaqueros, ditch diggers, water haulers, and domestic help; they were paid in clothing and other goods as well as cash and alcohol. The pobladores bartered with them for prized sea-otter and seal pelts, sieves, trays, baskets, mats, and other woven goods. This commerce greatly contributed to the economic success of the town and the attraction of other Indians to the city.[7] During the 1780s, San Gabriel Mission became the object of an Indian revolt. The mission had expropriated all the suitable farming land; the Indians found themselves abused and forced to work on lands that they once owned. A young Indian healer, Toypurina began touring the area, preaching against the injustices suffered by her people. She won over four rancheras and led them in an attack

on the mission at San Gabriel. The soldiers were able to defend the mission, and arrested 17, including Toypurina.[18] Because the Indians were exploited, starved, beaten, and raped in the pueblo as often as anywhere else, the officials knew they had to protect them to assure a cheap supply of labor. In 1787 Governor Pedro Fages drew up his "Instructions for the Corporal Guard of the Pueblo of Los Angeles." The Instructions included rules for employing Indians, not using corporal punishment, and protecting the Indian rancheras. As a result, Indians found themselves with more freedom to choose between the benefits of the missions and the pueblo-associated rancheras.[19] In 1784 California's first three ranchos were granted to soldiers, all in Los Angeles County. Rancho San Pedro was given to Juan Jos Dominguez, Rancho San Rafael to Jos Mara Verdugo, andRancho Los Nietos to Mauel Nieto. The grants stipulated that Indian employees stay clear of San Gabriel, further drawing them away from the missions and closer to the life of the pueblo. [13] In 1795, Sergeant Pablo Cota led an expedition from the Simi Valley through the Conejo-Calabasas region and into the San Fernando Valley. His party visited the rancho of Francisco Reyes. They found the local Indians hard at work as vaqueros and caring for crops. Padre Vincente de Santa Maria was traveling with the party and made these observations: All of pagandom (Indians) is fond of the pueblo of Los Angeles, of the rancho of Reyes, and of the ditches (water system). Here we see nothing but pagans, clad in shoes, with sombreros and blankets, and serving as muleteers to the settlers and rancheros, so that if it were not for the gentiles there would be neither pueblos nor ranches. These pagan Indians care neither for the missions nor for the missionaries.[20] Not only economic ties but also marriage drew many Indians into the life of the pueblo. In 1784 only three years after the foundingthe first recorded marriages in Los Angeles took place. The two sons of settler Basilio Rosas, Maximo and Jos Carlos, married two young Indian women, Mara Antonia and Mara Dolores.[21] The construction on the Plaza of La Iglesia de Nuestra Seora de Los ngeles took place between 1818 and 1822, much of it with Indian labor. The new church completed Governor Neve's planned transition of authority from mission to pueblo. The angelinos would no longer have to make the bumpy 11-mile (18 km) ride to Sunday Mass at Mission San Gabriel. In 1820 the route ofEl Camino Viejo was established from Los Angeles, over the mountains to the north and up the west side of the San Joaquin Valley to the east side of San Francisco Bay. Although many Indians benefited from assimilation into the life of the pueblo, traditional Indians remained at the bottom of the social ladder and were exploited as workers.

Mexican Era, 18211848[edit]

Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821 was celebrated with great festivity throughout Alta California. No longer subjects of the king, people were now ciudadanos, citizens with rights under the law. In the plazas of Monterey, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and other settlements, people swore allegiance to the new government, the Spanish flag was lowered, and the flag of independent Mexico raised.[13] Independence brought other advantages, including economic growth. There was a corresponding increase in population as more Indians were assimilated and others arrived from America, Europe, and other parts of Mexico. Before 1820, there were just 650 people in the pueblo. By 1841, the population nearly tripled to 1,680.[22]

Secularization of the missions[edit]

During the rest of the 1820s the agriculture and cattle ranching expanded, as did the trade in hides and tallow. The new church was completed, and the political life of the city developed. Los Angeles was separated from Santa Barbara administration. The system of ditches which provided water from the river was rebuilt. Trade and commerce further increased with the secularization of the California missions by the Mexican Congress in 1833. Extensive mission lands suddenly became available to government officials, ranchers, and land speculators. The governor made more than 800 land grants during this period, including a grant of over 33,000-acres in 1839 to Francisco Sepulveda which was later developed as the westside of Los Angeles.[23][24] Much of this progress, however, bypassed the Indians of the traditional villages who were not assimilated into the mestizo culture. Being regarded as minors who could not think for themselves, they were increasingly marginalized and relieved of their land titles, often by being drawn into debt or alcohol.[25] In 1834, Governor Pico was married to Maria Ignacio Alvarado in the Plaza church. It was attended by the entire population of the pueblo, 800 people, plus hundreds from elsewhere in Alta California. In 1835, the Mexican Congress declared Los Angeles a city, making it the official capital of Alta California. It was now the region's leading city. The same period also saw the arrival of many foreigners from the United States and Europe. They would play a pivotal role in the U.S. takeover. Early California settler John Bidwell included several historical figures in his recollection of people he knew in March, 1845. It then had probably two hundred and fifty people, of whom I recall Don Abel Stearns, John Temple, Captain Alexander Bell, William Wolfskill, Lemuel Carpenter,[26][27][28] David W. Alexander; also of Mexicans, Pio Pico (governor), Don Juan Bandini, and others.[29] Upon arriving in Los Angeles in 1831, Jean-Louis Vignes bought 104 acres (0.42 km2) of land located between the original Pueblo and the banks of the Los Angeles River. He planted a vineyard and prepared to make wine.[30] He named his property El Aliso after the centuries old tree found near the entrance. The grapes available at the time, of the Mission variety, were brought to Alta California

by the Franciscan Brothers at the end of the 18th century. They grew well and yielded large quantities of wine, but Jean-Louis Vignes was not satisfied with the results. Therefore, he decided to import better vines from Bordeaux: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Sauvignon blanc. In 1840, Jean-Louis Vignes made the first recorded shipment of California wine. The Los Angeles market was too small for his production, and he loaded a shipment on the Monsoon, bound for Northern California.[31] By 1842, he made regular shipments to Santa Barbara, Montereyand San Francisco. By 1849, El Aliso, was the most extensive vineyard in California. Vignes owned over 40,000 vines and produced 150,000 bottles, or 1000 barrels, per year.[32]

Battle of Los Angeles[edit]

In May, 1846, the Mexican American War broke out. Because of Mexico's inability to defend its northern territories, California was exposed to invasion. On August 6, 1846, Commodore Robert F. Stockton anchored off San Pedro and proceeded to march inland to occupy Los Angeles. On August 13, accompanied by John C. Frmont, Stockton marched into the Los Angeles Plaza with his brass band playing "Yankee Doodle" and "Hail Columbia." Stockton's troops occupied the headquarters and home of Governor Pico, who had fled to Mexico. After three weeks of occupation, Stockton left, leaving Lieutenant Archibald H. Gillespie in charge. Subsequent maltreatment by Gillespie and his troops caused a local force of 300 locals to rise up in protest, led by Captain Jos Mara Flores, Jos Antonio Carrillo, and Andrs Pico. Flores demanded the Americans surrender and promised safe passage to San Pedro. Gillespie accepted and departed, ending the first phase of the Battle of Los Angeles.[13] Full-scale warfare came to the area when Los Angeles residents dug up a colonial cannon that had been used for ceremonial purposes. They had buried it for safe-keeping when Stockton approached the city. They used it to fire on American Navy troops on 8 October 1846, in the Battle of Dominguez Rancho. The victorious locals named the cannon el piedrero de la vieja (the old woman's gun). In December, the Mexicans were again victorious at the Battle of San Pascual near present-day Escondido. Determined to take Los Angeles, Stockton regrouped his men in San Diego and marched north with six hundred troops, along with U.S. Army General Stephen Watts Kearny and his guide Kit Carson. Captain Frmont marched south from Monterey with 400 troops. After a few skirmishes outside the city, the two forces entered Los Angeles, this time without bloodshed. Confronted with overwhelming force, Andrs Pico, who had succeeded Flores as military commander and acting as chief administrative officer, met with Fremont. At a ranch in what is now Studio City, they signed the Treaty of Cahuenga on 13 January 1847. That formally ended the California phase of the MexicanAmerican War. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on 2 February 1848, ended the war and ceded California to the U.S.[13]

Transitional Era, 18481870[edit]

According to historian Mary P. Ryan, "The U.S. army swept into California with the surveyor as well as the sword and quickly translated Spanish and Mexican practices into cartographic representations."[33] Under colonial law, land held by grantees was not disposable. It reverted to the government. It was determined that under U.S. property law, lands owned by the city were disposable. Also, the diseos (property sketches) held by residents did not secure title in an American court. California's new military governor Bennett C. Riley ruled that land could not be sold that was not on a city map. In 1849, Lieutenant Edward Ord surveyed Los Angeles to confirm and extend the streets of the city. His survey put the city into the real-estate business, creating its first real-estate boom and filling its treasury.[34] Street names were changed from Spanish to English. Further surveys and street plans replaced the original plan for the pueblo with a new civic center south of the Plaza and a new use of space. The fragmentation of Los Angeles real estate on the Anglo-Mexican axis had begun. Under the Spanish system, the residences of the power-elite clustered around the Plaza in the center of town. In the new American system, the power elite would reside in the outskirts. The emerging minorities, including the Chinese, Italians, French, and Russians, joined with the Mexicans near the Plaza. [8]

Gangs of Los Angeles[edit]

In 1848, the gold discovered in Coloma first brought thousands of miners from Sonora in northern Mexico on the way to the gold fields. So many of them settled in the area north of the Plaza that it came to be known as Sonoratown. During the Gold Rush years in northern California, Los Angeles became known as the "Queen of the Cow Counties" for its role in supplying beef and other foodstuffs to hungry miners in the north. Among the cow counties, Los Angeles County had the largest herds in the state followed closely by Santa Barbara and Monterey Counties.[35] With the temporary absence of a legal system, the city was quickly submerged in lawlessness. Many of the New York regiment disbanded at the end of the war and charged with maintaining order were thugs and brawlers. They roamed the streets joined by gamblers, outlaws, and prostitutes driven out of San Francisco and mining towns of the north by Vigilance Committees or lynch mobs. Los Angeles came to be known as the "toughest and most lawless city west of Santa Fe."[36] Some of the residents resisted the new Anglo powers by resorting to banditry against the gringos. In 1856, Juan Flores threatened Southern California with a full-scale revolt. He was hanged in Los Angeles in front of 3,000 spectators. Tiburcio Vasquez, a legend in his own time among the Mexicanborn population for his daring feats against the Anglos, was captured in present-daySanta Clarita, California on May 14, 1874. He was found guilty of two counts of murder by a San Jose jury in 1874, and was hanged there in 1875.

Los Angeles had several active Vigilance Committees during that era. Between 1850 and 1870, mobs carried out approximately 35 lynchings of Mexicansmore than four times the number that occurred in San Francisco. Los Angeles was described as "undoubtedly the toughest town of the entire nation."[37] The homicide rate between 1847 and 1870 averaged 158 per 100,000 (13 murders per year), which was 10 to 20 times the annual murder rates for New York City during the same period.[38] The fear of Mexican violence and the racially motivated violence inflicted on them further marginalized the Mexicans, greatly reducing their economic and political opportunities. [39] John Gately Downey, the seventh Governor of California was sworn into office on January 14, 1860, thereby becoming the first Governor from Southern California. Governor Downey was born and raised in Castlesampson, County Roscommon, Ireland, and came to Los Angeles in 1850. He was responsible for keeping California in the Union during the Civil War.

Plight of the Indians[edit]

In 1836, the Indian village of Yaanga was relocated near the future corner of Commercial and Alameda Streets. In 1845, it was relocated again to present-day Boyle Heights. With the coming of the Americans, disease took a great toll among Indians. Between 1848 and 1880, the total population of Los Angeles went from 75,050 to 12,500. Self-employed Indians were not allowed to sleep over in the city. They faced increasing competition for jobs as more Mexicans moved into the area and took over the labor force. Those who loitered or were drunk or unemployed were arrested and auctioned off as laborers to those who paid their fines. They were often paid for work with liquor, which only increased their problems.[40] Los Angeles was incorporated as an American city on April 4, 1850. Five months later, California was admitted into the Union. Although the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo required the U.S. to grant citizenship to the Indians of former Mexican territories, the U.S. did not get around to doing that for another 80 years. The Constitution of California deprived Indians of any protection under the law, considering them as non-persons. As a result, it was impossible to bring an Anglo to trial for killing an Indian or forcing them off their property. Anglos concluded that the "quickest and best way to get rid of (their) troublesome presence was to kill them off, (and) this procedure was adopted as a standard for many years."[41] When New England author and Indian-rights activist Helen Hunt Jackson toured the Indian villages of Southern California in 1883, she was appalled by the racism of the Anglos living there. She found they treated Indians worse than animals, hunted them for sport, robbed them of their farmlands, and brought them to the edge of extermination. While Indians were depicted by whites as lazy and shiftless, she found most of them to be hard-working craftsmen and farmers. Jackson's tour inspired her to write her 1884 novel, Ramona, which she hoped would give a human face to the atrocities and indignities suffered by the Indians in California. And it did. The novel was enormously successful,

inspiring four movies and a yearly pageant in Hemet, California. Many of the Indian villages of Southern California survived because of her efforts, including Morongo, Cahuilla, Soboba, Temecula, Pechanga, and Warner Hot Springs.[42] Remarkably, the Gabrielino Indians, now called Tongva, also survived. in 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that there were 2,000 of them still living in Southern California. Some were organizing to protect burial and cultural sites. Others were trying to win federal recognition as a tribe to operate a casino.[43]

An 1887 aerial photo of Los Angeles, taken from a balloon.

Industrial expansion and growth, 18701913[edit]

In the 1870s, Los Angeles was still little more than a village of 5,000. By 1900, there were over 100,000 occupants of the city. Several men actively promoted Los Angeles, working to develop it into a great city and to make themselves rich. Angelenos set out to remake their geography to challenge San Francisco with its port facilities, railway terminal, banks and factories. The Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles was the first incorporated bank in Los Angeles, founded in 1871 by John G. Downey and Isaias W. Hellman.

Chinese Massacre[edit]
The first Chinese arrived in Los Angeles in 1850. The great majority came from Guangdong Province in southeastern China, seeking a fortune in Gum Saan, ("Gold Mountain") the Chinese name for America. Instead of finding fortunes, they were exploited for their labor in the gold mines and in building the first railroad into California. Henry Huntington came to value their expertise as engineers. He later said he would not have been able to build his portion of the transcontinental railroad without them.[44] After the transcontinental railroad was completed, the Chinese sought jobs in the burgeoning California cities, where they faced massive discrimination on the part of organized labor. As a result, they filled in where there was less competition, running laundries, restaurants, and vegetable stands.

In a time of great exploitation and monopoly by the railroad barons, the unions blamed Chinese for lowering the wages and living standards of Anglo workers. The newspapers of both Los Angeles and San Francisco were filled with anti-Chinese propaganda.[44] The thriving Chinatown, on the eastern edge of the Plaza, was the site of terrible violence on October 24, 1871. A gunfight between rival Chinese factions over the abduction of a woman resulted in the accidental death of a white man. This enraged the bystanders, and a mob of about 500 Anglos and Latinos descended on Chinatown. They randomly lynched 19 Chinese men and boys, only one of whom may have been involved in the original killing. Homes and businesses were looted. Only ten rioters were tried. Eight were convicted of manslaughter, but their convictions were overturned the following year on a legal technicality. This was later referred to as the Chinese Massacre of 1871. The massacre was the first time that Los Angeles was reported on the front pages of newspapers all over the world, even crowding out reports of the terrible Chicago fire that had taken place two weeks earlier. While the racist Los Angeles Star went so far to call the massacre "a glorious victory", others fretted about the city's racist and violent image. With the coming economic opportunities of the railroads, city fathers set themselves to wipe out mob violence.[8] Their efforts, however, led to more restrictive measures against the Chinese. In 187879, the City Council passed several measures adversely affecting Chinese vegetable merchants. The merchants went on strike. Los Angeles went without vegetables for several weeks, finally bringing the city to the bargaining table. Historian William Estrada wrote: "This little-known event may have helped the Chinese to better understand their role in the community as well as the power of organization as a means for community self-defense. The strike was a sign that Los Angeles was undergoing dramatic social, economic, and technological change and that the Chinese were a part of that change."[8]

Railroads[edit]
Historian Blake Gumprecht wrote, "The completion of a transcontinental railroad to Los Angeles in 1876 changed Southern California forever."[17] The first railroad, San Pedro Railroad, was inaugurated in October, 1869 by John G. Downey and Phineas Banning. It ran 21 miles (34 km) between San Pedro and Los Angeles. The town continued to grow at a moderate pace until its connection with the Central Pacific and San Francisco in 1876, and more directly with the East by the Santa Fe system (through its subsidiary California Southern Railroad) in 1885. The Central Pacific Railroad had a significant impact in the immediate growth of the City of Los Angeles. The Central Pacific Railroad owners could have chosen San Diego over Los Angeles to be their final freight destination but the owners and the City of San Francisco feared that San Diego would become a rival importing power with its large natural bay. Instead, Central Pacific picked Los Angeles to be their southern hub and prompted the rapid expansion of the city's economic growth

and expansion. The completion of the latter line precipitated one of the most extraordinary of American railway wars and land booms, which resulted in giving southern California a great stimulus. Phineas Banning excavated a channel out of the mud flats of San Pedro Bay leading to Wilmington in 1871. Banning had already laid track and shipped in locomotives to connect the port to the city. Harrison Gray Otis, founder and owner of the Los Angeles Times, and a number of business colleagues embarked on reshaping southern California by expanding that into a harbor at San Pedro using federal dollars. This put them at loggerheads with Collis P. Huntington, president of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and one of California's "Big Four" investors in the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific. (The "Big Four" are sometimes numbered among the "robber barons" of the Gilded Age). The line reached Los Angeles in 1876 and Huntington directed it to a port at Santa Monica, where theLong Wharf was built. April 1872, John G. Downey went to San Francisco and was successful in representing Los Angeles in discussions with Collis Huntington concerning Los Angeles's efforts to bring the Southern Pacific Railroad through Los Angeles. The San Pedro forces eventually prevailed (though it required Banning and Downey to turn their railroad over to the Southern Pacific). Work on the San Pedro breakwater began in 1899 and was finished in 1910. Otis Chandler and his allies secured a change in state law in 1909 that allowed Los Angeles to absorb San Pedro and Wilmington, using a long, narrow corridor of land to connect them with the rest of the city. The debacle of the future Los Angeles harbor was termed the Free Harbor Fight.[45] In 1898, Henry Huntington and a San Francisco syndicate led by Isaias W. Hellman purchased five trolley lines, consolidated them into the Los Angeles Railway (the 'yellow cars') and two years later founded the Pacific Electric Railway (the 'red cars'). Los Angeles Railway served the city and the Pacific Electric Railway served the rest of the county. At its peak, the Pacific Electric was the largest electrically operated interurban railway in the world. Over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of tracks connected Los Angeles with Hollywood, Pasadena, San Pedro, Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Pomona, San Bernardino, Long Beach, Santa Ana, Huntington Beach, and other points and was recognized as best public transportation system in the world.

Oil discovery[edit]
Oil was discovered by Edward L. Doheny in 1892, near the present location of Dodger Stadium. The Los Angeles City Oil Field was the first of many fields in the basin to be exploited, and in 1900 and 1902, respectively, the Beverly Hills Oil Field and Salt Lake Oil Field were discovered just a few miles west of the original find.[46] Los Angeles became a center of oil production in the early 20th century, and by 1923 the region was producing one-quarter of the world's total supply; it is still a

significant producer, with the Wilmington Oil Field having the fourth-largest reserves of any field in California.[46]

Activists on the left[edit]

The immigrants arriving in the city to find jobs sometimes brought the revolutionary zeal and idealism of their homelands. These included anarchists such as Russian Emma Goldman and Ricardo Flores Magn and his brother Enrique of the Partido Liberal Mexicano. They were later joined by the socialist candidate for mayor Job Harriman, Chinese revolutionaries, the novelist Upton Sinclair, "Wobblies" (members of the Industrial Workers of the World, the IWW), and Socialist and Communist labor organizers such as the Japanese-American Karl Yoneda and the Russian-born New Yorker Meyer Baylin. The Socialists were the first to set up a soapbox in the Plaza, which would serve as the location of union rallies and protests and riots as the police attempted to break up meetings.[8]

Class conflict[edit]
At the same time that the L.A. Times was whipping up enthusiasm for the expansion of Los Angeles it was also trying to turn it into a union-free or open shop town. Fruit growers and local merchants who had opposed the Pullman strike in 1894 subsequently formed the Merchants and Manufacturers Association (M & M) to support the L.A. Times anti-union campaign. The California labor movement, with its strength concentrated in San Francisco, had largely ignored Los Angeles for years. It changed, in 1907, however, when the American Federation of Labordecided to challenge the open shop of "Otis Town." In 1909, the city fathers placed a ban on free speech from public streets and private property except for the Plaza. Locals had claimed that it had been an Open Forum forever. The area was of particular concern to the owners of the L.A. Times, Harrison Grey Otis and his son-in-law Harry Chandler. Around the start of the 20th century, Otis and Chandler as part of a syndicate had acquired thousands of acres of farmland in Baja California that stretched across the border into Imperial County. It was called the California-Mexican Land and Cattle Company, or the C-M Ranch. In exchange for favorable reports about the presidency of Porfirio Daz in Mexico, Otis and his associates enjoyed unfettered business freedom in Baja California. Under Diaz, American capitalists bought millions of acres of Mexican land, mines, factories, banks, oil rights (Doheny), public utilities, and most of the nation's railroads. The Diaz regime was marked with increasing poverty, violent political repression, and the support of President Wilson. The Otis-Chandler plans for both their Mexican holdings and the city required a steady supply of cheap labor and keeping the unions from succeeding as they had done in San Francisco. [47] In 1910, the century's first full-scale revolution took place in Baja California, led by two factions, wealthy landowner Francisco Madero and the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM). The PLM was based in the L.A. Plaza and led by anarchist Ricardo Flores Magn, a talented journalist and charismatic

speaker who occupies a special place in the story of Los Angeles. He is the prototype of the 20thcentury Mexican-American political and social activist.[48] Publishing the popular bi-lingual Regeneracion newspaper in Los Angeles, Magon's movement posed a direct challenge to Otis and Chandler's hold on the border region. The paper not only reported on the revolution in Mexico, but also social and political conditions in the U.S. It examined the U.S. penal system, the plight of agricultural workers, child labor, Margaret Sanger's crusade for women, and most of all the battle against the open shop in Los Angeles. The paper also connected readers with the social services and cultural happenings available in the expanding Plaza area. Magon wrote: "We do not struggle for abstractions, but for materialities. We want land for all, bread for all. Inevitably blood must run, so that conquests obtain benefits for all and not for a specific social class."[49] The insurgents of the Baja Revolution consisted of no more than 200 anarchists, socialists, and Wobblies. Their basic goal was the redistribution back to Mexican peasants of Baja California land, of which 78 percent was owned by foreign interests.[49] The owners of the Times drew the conclusion that the Mexican rebels and union organizers in L.A. were connected. This conflict came to a head with the bombing of the Times in 1910, which killed 10 people, and injured 17. Two months later, the Llewellyin Iron Works near the plaza was bombed. A meeting was hastily called of the Chamber of Commerce and Manufacturers Association. The L.A. Times wrote: "radical and practical matters (were) considered, and steps taken for the adaption of such as are adequate to cope with a situation tardily recognized as the gravest that Los Angeles has ever been called upon to face."[50] The authorities indicted John and James McNamara, both associated with the Iron Workers Union, for the bombing; Clarence Darrow, who had successfully defended Big Bill Haywood, Moyer and Pettibone in Idaho, represented them. At the same time the McNamara brothers were awaiting trial, Los Angeles was preparing for a city election. Job Harriman, running on the socialist ticket, was challenging the establishment's candidate. Harriman's campaign, however, was tied to the asserted innocence of the McNamaras. But the defense was in trouble: the prosecution not only had evidence of the McNamaras' complicity, but had trapped Darrow in a clumsy attempt to bribe one of the jurors. On December 1, 1911, four days before the final election, the McNamaras entered a plea of guilty in return for prison terms. TheL.A. Times accompanied its report of the guilty plea with a faked photograph of Samuel Gompers trampling an American flag. Harriman lost badly. The Otis-Chandler interests were further challenged when Madero became President of Mexico in 1911. Commercial interests in L.A. felt radical measures had to be taken. Mexican and labor organizers were scapegoated.

In June 1911, the police raided the offices of Regeneracion. Magon and his younger brother Enrique were arrested with two others and charged with conspiracy to lead an armed expedition against a "friendly nation." The trial was a great media event and drew great crowds. Among those who showed up to speak on behalf of the brothers were socialist labor organizer Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, American anarchist Emma Goldman, and Eugene V. Debs. The four were convicted and sentenced to 23 months at the federal prison in McNeil Island, Washington.[49] On Christmas Day, 1913, police attempted to break up an IWW rally of 500 taking place in the Plaza. Encountering resistance, the police waded into the crowd attacking them with their clubs. One citizen was killed. In the aftermath, the authorities attempted to impose martial law in the wake of growing protests. Seventy-three people were arrested in connection with the riots. The City Council introduced new measures to control public speaking. The Times scapegoated all foreign elements even calling onlookers and taco venders as "cultural subversives."[51] In 1916, the Magn brothers were arrested on charges of defamation and sending indecent materials through the mail. Ricardo was able to get released on bail. He gave a rousing speech at Italian Hall to 700 of the International Workers Defense League. He called Mexican President Carranza a "lackey of President Wilson" and Wilson "the bandit of Wall Street." The speech was given wide circulation in the press throughout the Southwest and in Mexico. Ricardo was convicted and sent to Leavenworth. In 1922, he died in his cell, maybe murdered by a guard. His body was returned by train to Mexico City, where he was given a hero's welcome by a crowd of thousands consisting of workers, labor organizers, and government officials singing La Marsellaise and the Internationale.[52] The open shop campaign continued from strength to strength, although not without meeting opposition from workers. By 1923, the Industrial Workers of the World had made considerable progress in organizing the longshoremen in San Pedro and led approximately 3,000 men to walk off the job. With the support of the L.A. Times, a special "Red Squad" was formed within the Los Angeles Police Department and arrested so many strikers that the city's jails were soon filled. Some 1,200 dock workers were corralled in a special stockade in Griffith Park. The L.A. Times wrote approvingly that "stockades and forced labor were a good remedy for IWW terrorism." Public meetings were outlawed in San Pedro, Upton Sinclair was arrested at Liberty Hill in San Pedro for reading the United States Bill of Rights on the private property of a strike supporter (the arresting officer told him "we'll have none of 'that Constitution stuff'") and blanket arrests were made at union gatherings. The strike ended after members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Legion raided the IWW Hall and attacked the men, women and children meeting there. The strike was defeated. Los Angeles developed another industry in the early 20th century when movie producers from the East Coast relocated there. These new employers were likewise afraid of unions and other social

movements: during Upton Sinclair's campaign for Governor of California under the banner of his "End Poverty In California" (EPIC) movement, Louis B. Mayer turned MGM's Culver City studio into the unofficial headquarters of the organized campaign against EPIC. MGM produced fake newsreel interviews with whiskered actors with Russian accents voicing their enthusiasm for EPIC, along with footage focusing on central casting hobos huddled on the borders of California waiting to enter and live off the bounty of its taxpayers once Sinclair was elected. Sinclair lost. Los Angeles also acquired another industry in the years just before World War II: the garment industry. At first devoted to regional merchandise such as sportswear, the industry eventually grew to be the second largest center of garment production in the United States. Unions began to make progress in organizing these workers as the New Deal arrived in the 1930s. An influential strike was the Los Angeles Garment Workers Strike of 1933, one of the first strikes in which Mexican immigrant workers played a prominent role for union recognition. The unions made even greater gains in the war years, as Los Angeles grew further.[53] Today, the ethnic makeup of the city and the politically progressive views of surrounding West Hollywood and Hollywood have made Los Angeles a strong union town. However, many garment workers in central LA, most of whom are Mexican immigrants, still work in sweat shop conditions.

Battle of the Los Angeles River[edit]

The Los Angeles River flowed clear and fresh all year, supporting 45 Gabrielino villages in the area. The source of the river was the aquifer under the San Fernando Valley, supplied with water from the surrounding mountains. The rising of the underground bedrock at the Glendale Narrows (near today's Griffith Park) squeezed the water to the surface at that point. Then, through much of the year, the river emerged from the valley to flow across the floodplain 20 miles (32 km) to the sea. The area also provided other streams, lakes, and artesian wells.[17] Early settlers were more than a little discouraged by the region's diverse and unpredictable weather. They watched helplessly as long droughts weakened and starved their livestock, only to be drowned and carried off by ferocious storms. During the years of little rain, people would build too close to the riverbed, only to see their homes and barns later swept out to sea during a flood. The location of the Los Angeles Plaza had to be moved twice because of previously having been built too close to the riverbed.[8] Worse, floods would change the river's course. When the settlers arrived, the river joined Ballona Creek to discharge in Santa Monica Bay. A fierce storm in 1835 diverted its course to Long Beach, where it stays today. Early citizens could not even maintain a footbridge over the river from one side of the city to the other. After the American takeover, the city council authorized spending of $20,000 for a contractor to build a substantial wooden bridge across the river. The first storm to come along dislodged the

bridge, used it as a battering ram to break through the embankment, and scattered its timbers all the way to the sea.[17] Some of the most concentrated rainfall in the history of the United States has occurred in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles and Orange Counties. On April 5, 1926, a rain gauge in the San Gabriels collected one inch in one minute. In January, 1969, more water fell on the San Gabriels in nine days than New York City sees in a year. In February 1978, almost a foot of rain fell in 24 hours, and, in one blast, an inch and a half in five minutes. This storm caused massive debris flows throughout the region, one of them unearthing the corpses in the Verdugo Hills Cemetery and depositing them in the town below. Another wiped out the small town of Hidden Springs in a tributary of the Big Tujunga River, killing 13 people.[54] The greatest daily rainfall recorded in California was 26.12 inches on January 23, 1943 at Hoegees near Mt. Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains. Fifteen other stations reported over 20 inches in two days from the same storm. Forty-five others reported 70 percent of the average annual rainfall in two days.[55] Quibbling between city and county governments delayed any response to the flooding until a massive storm in 1938 flooded Los Angeles and Orange Counties. The federal government stepped in. To transfer floodwater to the sea as quickly as possible, the Army Corps of Engineers paved the beds of the river and its tributaries. The Corps also built several dams and catchment basins in the canyons along the San Gabriel Mountains to reduce the debris flows. It was an enormous project, taking years to complete.[54] Today, the Los Angeles River functions mainly as a flood control. A drop of rain falling in the San Gabriel Mountains will reach the sea faster than an auto can drive. During today's rainstorms, the volume of the Los Angeles River at Long Beach can be as large as the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The drilling of wells and pumping of water from the San Fernando Valley aquifer dried up the river by the 1920s. By 1980, the aquifer was supplying drinking water for 800,000 people. In that year, it was discovered that the aquifer had been contaminated. Many wells were shut down, as the area qualified as a Superfund site

Water from a distance[edit]

For its first 120 years, the Los Angeles River supplied the town with ample water for homes and farms. It was estimated that the annual flow could have support a town of 250,000 people if the water had been managed right. But Angelinos were among the most profligate users of water in the world. In the semi-arid climate, they were forever watering their lawns, gardens, orchards, and vineyards. Later on, they would need more to support the growth of commerce and manufacturing. By the beginning of the 20th century, the town realized it would quickly outgrow its river and need new sources of water.[17]

Legitimate concerns about water supply were exploited to gain backing for a huge engineering and legal effort to bring more water to the city and allow more development. The city fathers had their eyes on the Owens River, about 250 miles (400 km) northeast of Los Angeles in Inyo County, near the Nevada state line. It was a permanent stream of fresh water fed by the melted snows of the eastern Sierra Nevada. It flowed through the Owens River Valley before emptying into the shallow, saline Owens Lake, where it evaporated.

Photograph of Bunker Hill in 1900, looking north from today's Pershing Square

Sometime between 1899 and 1903, Harrison Gray Otis and his son-in-law successor, Harry Chandler, engaged in successful efforts at buying up cheap land on the northern outskirts of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. At the same time, they enlisted the help ofWilliam Mulholland, chief engineer of the Los Angeles Water Department (later the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power or LADWP), and J.B. Lippencott, of the United States Reclamation Service. Lippencott performed water surveys in the Owens Valley for the Service while secretly receiving a salary from the City of Los Angeles. He succeeded in persuading Owens Valley farmers and mutual water companies to pool their interests and surrender the water rights to 200,000 acres (800 km) of land to Fred Eaton, Lippencott's agent and a former mayor of Los Angeles. Lippencott then resigned from the Reclamation Service, took a job with the Los Angeles Water Department as assistant to Mulholland, and turned over the Reclamation Service maps, field surveys and stream measurements to the city. Those studies served as the basis for designing the longest aqueductin the world. By July 1905, the Times began to warn the voters of Los Angeles that the county would soon dry up unless they voted bonds for building the aqueduct. Artificial drought conditions were created when water was run into the sewers to decrease the supply in the reservoirs and residents were forbidden to water their lawns and gardens.[citation needed] On election day, the people of Los Angeles voted for $22.5 million worth of bonds to build an aqueduct from the Owens River and to defray other expenses of the project. With this money, and with a special Act of Congress allowing cities to own property outside their boundaries, the City

acquired the land that Eaton had acquired from the Owens Valley farmers and started to build the aqueduct. On the occasion of the opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct on November 5, 1913 Mullholland's entire speech was five words: "There it is. Take it."

Boom town, 19131941[edit]

Wilson Block, Spring & First Streets, 1920

Notable events[edit]
Swimming pool desegregation An end to racial segregation in municipal swimming pools was ordered in summer 1931 by Superior Court Judge Walter S. Gates after Ethel Prioleau, the widow of an Army major, sued the city, complaining that she, a Negro living at 1311 W. 35th Street, [56] was not allowed to use the swimming pool in nearby Exposition Park because of her race but had to travel 3.6 miles to the "negro swimming pool" at 1357 East 22nd street. Other city pools were opened to Negroes but closed to whites one day a week. The City Council, by a vote of 6 to 6 on one occasion and 8 to 6 a week later refused to have the city attorney appeal the case.[57] [58] Summer Olympics Los Angeles hosted the 1932 Summer Olympics. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which had opened in May, 1932 with aseating capacity of 76,000, was enlarged to accommodate over 100,000 spectators for Olympic events. It is still in use by the USC Trojans football team. Olympic Boulevard, a major thoroughfare, honors the occasion. Griffith Park fire A devastating brush fire on October 3, 1933, killed 29 and injured another 150 workers who were clearing brush in Griffith Park.

Annexations and consolidations[edit]

Christmas in Los Angeles, 1928

Walkway and front faade of Los Angeles Public Library's Central Library, circa 1935

The City of Los Angeles mostly remained within its original 28 square-mile (73 km) landgrant until the 1890s. The original city limits are visible even today in the layout of streets that changes from a north-south pattern outside of the original land grant to a pattern that is shifted roughly 15 degrees east of the longitude in and closely around the area now known as Downtown. The first large additions to the city were the districts of Highland Parkand Garvanza to the north, and the South Los Angeles area. In 1906, the approval of the Port of Los Angeles and a change in state law allowed the city to annex the Shoestring, or Harbor Gateway, a narrow and crooked strip of land leading from Los Angeles south towards the port. The port cities of San Pedro and Wilmington were added in 1909 and the city of Hollywood was added in 1910, bringing the city up to 90 square miles (233 km) and giving it a vertical "barbell" shape. Also added that year was Colegrove, a suburb west northwest of the city near Hollywood; Cahuenga, a township northwest of the former city limits; and a part of Los Feliz were annexed to the city. The opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct provided the city with four times as much water as it required, and the offer of water service became a powerful lure for neighboring communities. The city, saddled with a large bond and excess water, locked in customers through annexation by refusing to supply other communities. Harry Chandler, a major investor in San Fernando Valley real estate, used his Los Angeles Times to promote development near the aqueduct's outlet. By referendum of the residents, 170 square miles (440 km) of the San Fernando Valley, along with the Palms district, were added to the city in 1915, almost tripling its area, mostly towards the northwest. Over the next seventeen years dozens of additional annexations brought the city's area to 450 square miles (1,165 km) in 1932. (Numerous small annexations brought the total area of the city up to 469 square miles (1,215 km) as of 2004.) Most of the annexed communities were unincorporated towns but ten incorporated cities were consolidated into Los Angeles: Wilmington (1909), San Pedro (1909), Hollywood (1910), Sawtelle (1922), Hyde Park (1923), Eagle Rock (1923), Venice (1925), Watts (1926), Barnes City (1927), and Tujunga(1932).

Annexation references: Municipal Secession Fiscal Analysis Scoping Study www.valleyvote.net, Annexation and Detachment Map (PDF)lacity.org.

Olvera Street[edit]
In 1926, socialite Christine Sterling became alarmed when the City Council posted a condemn sign on the old Francisco Avila Adobe near the Los Angeles Plaza. She became very dedicated to the preservation of the area and developed the idea of creating a tourist site with a romantic theme of Old Mexico. Her efforts finally won the attention of Harry Chandler of the Los Angeles Times who staged a $1000a-plate luncheon on her behalf. Chandler also set up a for-profit business, the Plaza de Los Angeles Corporation, with himself and Sterling in charge. Chandler's interest in developing the idealized Mexican marketplace was twofold: 1. It would give him a way to control the level of free-speech activities on the Plaza and 2. it would present an image of "good Mexicans" who did not include union organizers and angry workers protesting their exploitation. Ceramic figures of a Mexican sleeping at the foot of a cactus with a sombrero over his head would symbolize the stereotype Chandler wanted to project. Sterling and Chandler's efforts finally paid off with the opening of Olvera Street in 1930. Sterling spent the rest of her life managing the tourist attraction as a profitable business.[8]

Civic corruption and police brutality[edit]

The downtown business interests, always eager to attract business and investment to Los Angeles, were also eager to distance their town from the criminal underworld that defined the stories of Chicago and New York. In spite of their concerns, massive corruption in City Hall and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD)and the fight against itwere dominant themes in the city's story from early 20th-century to the 1950s.[59] In the 1920s, for example, it was common practice for the city's mayor, councilmen, and attorneys to take contributions from madams, bootleggers, and gamblers. The top aide of the mayor was involved with a protection racket. Thugs with eastern-Mafia connections were involved in often violent conflicts over bootlegging and horse-racing turf. The mayor's brother was selling jobs in the LAPD. In 1933, the new mayor Frank Shaw started giving out contracts without competitive bids and paying city employees to favor crony contractors. The city's Vice Squad functioned city-wide as the enforcer and collector of the city's organized crime, with revenues going to the pockets of city officials right up to the mayor. In 1937, the owner of downtown's Clifton's Cafeteria, Clifford Clinton led a citizen's campaign to clean up city hall. He and other reformers served on a Grand Jury investigating the charges of corruption. In a minority report, the reformers wrote:

A portion of the underworld profits have been used in financing campaigns [of] ... city and county officials in vital positions ... [While] the district attorney's office, sheriff's office, and Los Angeles Police Department work in complete harmony and never interfere with ... important figures in the underworld.[60] The police Intelligence Squad spied on anyone even suspected of criticizing the police. They included journalist Carey McWilliams, the district attorney, Judge Bowron, and two of the County Supervisors. The persistent courage of Clinton, Superior Court Judge, later Mayor, Fletcher Bowron, and former L.A.P.D. detective Harry Raymond turned the tide. The police became so nervous that the Intelligence Squad blew up Raymond's car and nearly killed him. The public was so enraged by the bombing that it quickly voted Shaw out of office, one of the first big-city recalls in the country's history. The head of the intelligence squad was convicted and sentenced to two years to life. Police Chief James Davis and 23 other officers were forced to resign.[60] Fletcher Bowron replaced Shaw as mayor in 1938 to preside over one of the most dynamic periods in the history of the city. His 'Los Angeles Urban Reform Revival would bring major changes to the government of Los Angeles. In 1950, he appointed William H. Parker was sworn in as Chief of Police. Parker pushed for more independence from political pressures that would enable him to create a more professionalized police force. The public supported him and voted in charter changes that isolated the police department from the rest of government.[61] Through the 1960s, the LAPD was promoted as one of the most efficient departments in the world. But Parker's administration would be increasingly charged with police brutalityresulting from his recruiting of officers from the South with strong anti-black and anti-Mexican attitudes. Reaction to police brutality resulted in the Watts riots of 1965 and again, after the Rodney King beating, in the Los Angeles riots of 1992. Charges of police brutality dogged the Department through the end of the 20th century. In the late 1990s, as a result of the Rampart scandal involving misconduct of 70 officers, the federal government was forced to intervene and assumed jurisdiction of the Department with a consent decree. Police reform has since been a major issue confronted by L.A.'s recent mayors. Social critic Mike Davis has recently argued that attempts to "revitalize" downtown Los Angeles decreases public space and further alienates poor and minority populations. This enforced geographical separation of diverse populations goes back to the city's earliest days.[62]

World War II and after, 19411950[edit]

Listening post and air raid lights, Pershing Square, 1941

"Fifty years ago this house at 201 N. Flower St. was offered for rental at $20 a month. Today [1946] its four apartments are bringing in $70 monthly. LA Times, 5-7-46 This house no longer stands, and is in the approximate location of the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

During World War II, Los Angeles grew as a center for production of aircraft, war supplies and ammunitions. Thousands of people, both blacks and whites, from the South and the Midwest migrated to the West to fill factory jobs. By 1950, Los Angeles was an industrial and financial giant created by war production and migration. Los Angeles assembled more cars than any city other than Detroit, made more tires than any city but Akron, made more furniture than Grand Rapids, and stitched more clothes than any city except New York. In addition, it was the national capital for the production of motion pictures, radio programs and, within a few years, television shows. Construction boomed as tract houses were built in ever expanding suburban communities financed by the largess of the Federal Housing Administration. Los Angeles continued to spread out, particularly with the development of the San Fernando Valley and the building of the freeways launched in the 1940s. When the local street car system went out of

business, Los Angeles became a city built around the automobile, with all the social, health and political problems that this dependence produces. The famed urban sprawl of Los Angeles became a notable feature of the town, and the pace of the growth accelerated in the first decades of the 20th century. The San Fernando Valley, sometimes called "America's Suburb", became a favorite site of developers, and the city began growing past its roots downtown toward the ocean and towards the east. This is also the time when General Motors persuaded most urban regions in North America to shut down their light rail street car systems and replace them for more flexible, but polluting and inefficient, bus systems. This drastically changed growth and travel patterns in the city in subsequent years[citation needed] and contributed to the severe air pollution events that Los Angeles became famous for.

19502000[edit]
Beginning November 6, 1961, Los Angeles suffered three days of destructive bush fires. The BelAirBrentwood and Santa Ynez fires destroyed 484 expensive homes and 21 other buildings along with 15,810 acres (64 km) of brush in the Bel-Air, Brentwood, and Topanga Canyon neighborhoods. Most of the homes destroyed had wooden shake roofs, which not only led to their own loss but also sent firebrands up to three miles (5 km) away. Despite this, few changes were made to the building codes to prevent future losses. The repeal of a law limiting building height and the controversial redevelopment of Bunker Hill, which destroyed a picturesque though decrepit neighborhood, ushered in the construction of a new generation of skyscrapers. Bunker Hill's 62-floor First Interstate Building (later named Aon Center) was the highest in Los Angeles when it was completed in 1973. It was surpassed by the Library Tower (now called the U.S. Bank Tower) a few blocks to the north in 1990, a 310 m (1,018 ft) building that is the tallest west of the Mississippi. Outside of Downtown, the Wilshire Corridor is lined with tall buildings, particularly near Westwood. Century City, developed on the former 20th Century Fox back lot, has become another center of high-rise construction on the Westside. During the latter decades of the 20th century, the city saw a massive increase of street gangs. At the same time, crack cocaine became widely available and dominated by gangs in the 1980s. Although gangs were disproportionately confined to lower-income inner-city sections, fear knew no boundaries citywide. Since the early 1990s, the city saw a decrease in crime and gang violence with rising prices in housing, revitalization, urban development, and heavy police vigilance in many parts of the city. With its reputation, it had led to Los Angeles being referred as "The Gang Capital of America". A subway system, developed and built through the 1980s as a major goal of mayor Tom Bradley, stretches from North Hollywood to Union Station and connects to light rail lines that extend to the neighboring cities of Long Beach, Norwalk, and Pasadena, among others. Also, a commuter rail system, Metrolink, has been added that stretches from nearby Ventura and Simi Valley to San

Bernardino, Orange County, and Riverside. The funding of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority project is funded by a half cent tax increase added in the mid-1980s, which yields $400 million every month. Although the regional transit system is growing, subway expansion was halted in the 1990s over methane gas concerns, political conflict, and construction and financing problems during Red Line Subway project, which culminated in a massive sinkhole on Hollywood Boulevard. As a result, the original subway plans have been delayed for decades as light rail systems, dedicated busways, and limited-stop "Rapid" bus routes have become the preferred means of mass transit in LA's expanding series of gridlocked, congested corridors. The 1995 murder of Stephanie Kuhen in Los Angeles led to condemnation from President Bill Clinton and a crackdown on Los Angeles-area gangs.[63][64]

Proposition 14[edit]
Since its beginning, the city was geographically divided by ethnicity. In the 1920s, Los Angeles was the location of the first restrictive covenants in real estate. By the Second World War, 95 percent of Los Angeles housing was off-limits to blacks and Asians. Minorities who had served in World War II or worked in L.A.'s defense industries returned to face increasing patterns ofdiscrimination in housing. More and more, they found themselves excluded from the suburbs and restricted to housing in East or South Los Angeles, Watts, and Compton. Such real-estate practices severely restricted educational and economic opportunities. Historian Peter Radkowski wrote: By the 1960s, the fair housing conflict of California would evolve into a collision of legislative action, racial backlash, and judicial ruling: the Rumford Act on the floors of the state capitol; Proposition 14 at the ballot box; Mulkey v. Reitman before the Supreme Court of California, and Reitman v. Mulkey before the Supreme Court of the United States. These events explicitly shaped a gubernatorial election in California, and arguably set in motion a sea change in political allegiances and presidential elections.[65] In 1955, William Byron Rumford, the first black from Northern California to serve in the California State Legislature, introduced a fair-housing bill. In 1959, the California Legislature passed theCalifornia Fair Employment Practices Act sponsored by Augustus F. Hawkins of Los Angeles. That same year, the state's Unruh Civil Rights Act addressed fair housing but did not have any teeth. The aggrieved party had to sue to get compensation. In 1963, California Legislature passed and Governor Pat Brown signed the Rumford Fair Housing Act which outlawed restrictive covenants and the refusal to rent or sell housing on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, or physical disability. In reaction to the Rumford Act, a well-funded coalition of realtors and landlords immediately began to campaign for a referendum that would amend the state Constitution to protect property owners'

ability to deny minorities equal access to housing. Known as Proposition 14, it caused a storm of deep and bitter controversy across the state. Radkowski wrote: The debate over Proposition 14 cultivated a whirlwind of information and misunderstanding, marked by angry exchanges on the merits, and running through the entire debate a plague of bitterness, ill feelings, and slurs. On any given day, the effort to overturn the Rumford Act might involve highbrow jurisprudence, righteous indignation, or racial epithet. In many ways, the Rumford Act played as bawdy and violent as the land and mineral grabs of the original California Gold Rush: Rumford received an invitation to a stag dinner partycomplete with one hour of "entertainment"that was sponsored by the Associated Home Builders of the Greater East Bay; while across the state, pamphlets and pickets revealed the ugly fascist undercurrents of support for Proposition 14. [65] While conservatives such as Cardinal McIntyre of Los Angeles argued that blacks are "better off in Los Angeles than anywhere else", blacks knew that they were kept out of participating in the city's prosperity. On May 26, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. told a crowd of 35,000 at Wrigley Field, "We want to be free whether we're in Birmingham or in Los Angeles." In November, 1964, California voters passed Proposition 14 by a wide margin. In August, 1965, the Watts Riots broke out. Lasting six days, it left 32 dead, 1,032 injured, 3,952 arrested, $40 million in damage, and 1,000 buildings damaged or destroyed. According to later reports, the riot was a reaction to a long record of police brutality by the LAPD and other injustices suffered by blacks, including discrimination in jobs, housing, and education.[66] In 1966, the California State Supreme Court, in Mulkey v. Reitman, ruled that Proposition 14 violated the State Constitution's provisions for equal protection and due process. In 1967, in Reitman v. Mulkey, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed the decision of the California Supreme Court and ruled that Proposition 14 had violated the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution.[65] The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964[67] also addressed the issue, but made few provisions for enforcement. The U.S. Fair Housing Act (Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968) introduced meaningful federal enforcement mechanisms.[68] [69][70]

Economic changes[edit]
The last of the automobile factories shut down in the 1990s; the tire factories and steel mills left earlier. Most of the agricultural and dairy operations that were still prospering in the 1950s have moved to outlying counties while the furniture industry has relocated to Mexico and other low-wage nations. Aerospace production has dropped significantly since the end of the Cold War or moved to states with better tax conditions, and the entertainment industry has found cheaper areas to produce films, television programs and commercials elsewhere in the United States and Canada. However,

many studios still operate in Los Angeles, such as CBS Television City at the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Beverly Boulevard and 20th Century Fox in Century City. Those macroeconomic changes have brought major social changes with them. While unemployment dropped in Los Angeles in the 1990s, the newly created jobs tended to be low-wage jobs filled by recent immigrants and other exploitable populations; by one calculation, the number of poor families increased from 36% to 43% of the population of Los Angeles County during this time. At the same time, the number of immigrants from Mexico, Central America and Latin America has made Los Angeles a "majority minority" city that will soon be majority Latino. The unemployment rate dropped from 6.9% to 6.8% in 2002, and is around 11.6% currently. The desire for residential housing in the downtown area has been noticed, and several historical buildings have been renovated as condos (while maintaining the original outside design), and many new apartment and condominium towers and complexes are being built. Since the 1980s, there's been an increasing gap between the rich and the poor, making Los Angeles the most socioeconomically divided city in the United States.[71] On November 10, 2004, the Los Angeles Daily News reported plans to turn the northeast San Fernando Valley into an industrial powerhouse, which would provide new and more jobs.

Demographic changes[edit]
Many communities in Los Angeles have changed their ethnic character over time. For many decades, the population was predominantly white and mostly American-born until the late 20th Century.[72][73][74] South L.A. was mostly white until the 1950s, but then became predominantly black until the 1990s, and is now mainly Latino. While the Latino community within the City of Los Angeles was once centered on the Eastside, it now extends throughout the city. The San Fernando Valley, which represented a bastion of white flight in the 1960s and provided the votes that allowed Sam Yorty to defeat the first election run by Tom Bradley, is now as ethnically diverse as the rest of the city on the other side of the Hollywood Hills. By the end of the 20th century, some of the annexed areas began to feel cut off from the political process of the megalopolis, leading to a particularly strong secession movement in the San Fernando Valley and weaker ones in San Pedro and Hollywood. The referendums to split the city were rejected by voters in November 2002.

Population growth[edit]
The population of Los Angeles reached more than 100,000 with the 1900 census (Los Angeles Evening Express, October 1, 1900), more than a million in 1930, more than two million in 1960, and more than 3 million in 1990.

Year Population

1790 131

1800 315

1810 365

1820 650

1830 1,300

1840 2,240

1850 1,610

1860 4,385

1870 5,730

1880 11,200

1890 50,400

1900 102,500

1910 319,200

1920 576,700

1930 1,238,048

1940 1,504,277

1950 1,970,358

1960 2,479,015

1970 2,816,061

1980 2,966,850

1990 3,485,398

2000 3,694,820

2010 3,792,621

Sources: Historical Population Data of California; Historical Resident Population of Los Angeles during the Spanish & Mexican Period, 1781 to 1840

Ethnicity[edit]
African-Americans[edit]
Despite the fact that Los Angeles is one of the few U.S. major cities founded by settlers who were predominantly of African descent, the city had only 2,100 Black Americans in 1900, according to census figures. By 1920 this grew to approximately 15,000. In 1910, the city had the highest percentage of black home ownership in the nation, with more than 36 percent of the city's AfricanAmerican residents owning their own homes. Black leader W. E. B. Du Bois described L.A. in 1913 as a "wonderful place" since they were less subjected to racial discrimination due to their population being small and the ongoing tensions between Anglos and Mexicans. That changed in the 1920s when restrictive covenants that enforced segregation became widespread. Blacks were mostly confined along the South Central corridor, Watts, and small enclaves in Venice and Pacoima, which received far fewer services than other areas of the city.[72][75] After World War II, the city's black population grew from 63,774 in 1940 to 170,000 a decade later as many continued to flee from the South for better opportunities. By 1960, Los Angeles had the fifth largest black population in the United States, larger than any city in the South. Still, they remained in segregated enclaves. The Supreme Court banned the legal enforcement of race-oriented restrictive covenants in the Shelley v. Kraemer case (1948), yet black homeownership declined severely [75] during this period. Decades of police mistreatment and other racial injustices eventually lead to the Watts riots of 1965, after a minor traffic incident resulted in four days of rioting. Thirty-four people were killed and 1,034

injured at a cost of $40 million in property damage and looting. So many businesses burned on 103rd Street that it became known as "Charcoal Alley." The City strove to improve social services for the black community, but with many of the high-paying industrial jobs gone black unemployment remained high. The growth of street gangs and drugs in minority communities exacerbated the problems.[72][76] By 1990, the LAPD, which had followed a para-militaristic model since Chief Parker's regime in the 1950s, became more alienated from minority communities following accusations of racial profiling.[73] In 1992, a jury in suburban Simi Valley acquitted white Los Angeles police officers involved in the beating of a black motorist, Rodney King, the year before. After four days of rioting, more than fifty deaths, and billions of dollars of property losses, mostly in the Central City, the National Guard and the police finally regained control. Since the 1980s, more middle-class black families have left the central core of Los Angeles to settle in other California municipalities or out of state.[72] In 1970, blacks made up 18 percent of the city's population. That percentage has dropped to 10 percent in 2010 as many continue to leave to settle elsewhere. Los Angeles still has the largest black population of any city in the Western United States.

Latinos[edit]
The anti-union, open-shop heritage of the Chandlers and the Los Angeles Times continued to assure Los Angeles of a steady supply of cheap labor from Mexico and Central America throughout the 20th century. This was met by the increasing opposition of anti-immigration forces throughout the country. A steady migration of Mexicans to California from 1910 to 1930 expanded the Mexican and Latino population in Los Angeles to 97,116 or 7.8%. In 1930, a large repatriation of 400500,000 Mexican immigrants and their children began after the onset of the Depression, massive unempoyment, encouragement by the government of Mexico, the threat of deportation and welfare agencies willing to pay for the tickets of those leaving (some 2 million European immigrants left as well).[77] At the same time, the city celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1931 with a grand "fiesta de Los Angeles" featuring a blond "reina" in historic ranchera costume. By 1940 the Latino population dropped to 7.1%, but remained at sightly over 100,000.[72] During World War II, hostility toward Mexican-Americans took a different form, as local newspapers portrayed Chicano youths, who sometimes called themselves "pachucos", as barely civilized gangsters. Anglo servicemen attacked young Chicanos dressed in the pachuco uniform of the day: long coats with wide shoulders and pleated, high-waisted, pegged pants, or zoot suits. In 1943, twenty-two young Chicanos were convicted of a murder of another youth at a party held at a swimming hole southeast of Los Angeles known as the "sleepy lagoon" on a warm night in August 1942; they were eventually freed after an appeal that demonstrated both their innocence and the racism of the judge conducting the trial. Today, the event is known as the Zoot Suit Riots.

In the 1990s, redistricting led to the election of Latino members of the City Council and the first Latino members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors since its inception. In 1994, California Voters passed Proposition 187, which denied undocumented immigrants and their families in California welfare, health benefits, and education. With the growth of the Latino community, primarily immigration from Mexico, but also from Central America and South America, it is now the largest ethnic bloc in Los Angeles. By 1998, Latinos outnumbered Anglos in the city by over a million and account for 50 percent of the County's population. City Council member Antonio Villaraigosa was elected mayor in 2005, the first Latino elected to that office since the 1872.[78] In 2006 anti-immigration forces supported the federal Border Protection, Anti-terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (H.R. 4437). The act would make "unlawful presence" an "aggravated felony." On 25 March, a million Latinos staged La Gran Marcha on City Hall to protest the bill. It was the largest demonstration in California history. Similar protests in other cities across the country made this a turning point in the debate on immigration reform.[8]

Asians[edit]
Less than a century after the founding of Los Angeles, Chinatown was a thriving community near the downtown railroad depot. Thousands of Chinese came to northern California in the 1850s, initially to join the Gold Rush and then taking construction jobs with the railroads. They began moving south as the transcontinental railroad linked Los Angeles with the rest of the nation. The town's continuous Chinese presence dates from 1850, when two house servants, Ah Luce and Ah Fon, appeared in the census. The Chinese population increased to 16 in 1860 and 178 in 1870. Eighty percent of the Chinese residents then were male, and most worked as launderers, cooks and fruit and vegetable growers and sellers.[79] Later, Chinese workers who helped to build the aqueduct to the Owens River and worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley spent their winters in a segregated ethnic enclave in Los Angeles. In 1871, eleven years before the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a violent anti-Chinese demonstration swept through Los Angeles' Chinatown, killing Chinese residents and plundering their dry good stores, laundries and restaurants.[citation needed] The labor vacuum created by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was filled by Japanese workers and, by 1910, the settlement now known as "Little Tokyo" had risen next to Chinatown.[citation needed] During the years between the two world wars, Los Angeles' Asian American community also included small clusters of Korean Americans and Filipinos, the latter filling the void which followed the exclusion of the Japanese in 1924.[citation needed]

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States government authorized the evacuation and incarceration in concentration camps of all Japanese living in California irrespective of citizenship.[citation needed] Since World War II, immigration from Asia and the Pacific has increased dramatically. The influx of immigrants from the Philippines, Korea, Taiwan, the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia has led to the development of identifiable enclaves such as Koreatown in the central city and Samoans in Wilmington and a Thai neighborhood in Hollywood.[citation needed]