Imperial Russia explored the California coast and established a trading post at
Fort Ross. Its early 19th-century coastal settlements north of
San Francisco Bay constituted the southernmost Russian colony in North America and were spread over an area stretching from
Point Arena to
Tomales Bay.
[33]
In 1821, the
Mexican War of Independence gave
Mexico (including California) independence from Spain; for the next 25 years,
Alta California remained a remote northern province of the nation of Mexico.
Cattle ranches, or
ranchos,
emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. After
Mexican independence from Spain, the chain of missions became the
property of the Mexican government and were
secularized by 1834.
[34] The ranchos developed under ownership by
Californios (Spanish-speaking Californians) who had received land grants, and traded cowhides and tallow with Boston merchants.
From the 1820s, trappers and settlers from the United States and the
future Canada arrived in Northern California. These new arrivals used
the
Siskiyou Trail,
California Trail,
Oregon Trail and
Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts in and surrounding California.
Between 1831 and 1836, California experienced a series of revolts against Mexico;
[35] this culminated in the
1836 California revolt led by
Juan Bautista Alvarado, which ended after Mexico appointed him governor of the department.
[36] The revolt, which had momentarily declared California an independent state, was successful with the assistance of
American and
British residents of California,
[37] including
Isaac Graham;
[38] after 1840, 100 of those residents who did not have passports were arrested, leading to the
Graham affair in 1840.
[37]
One of the largest ranchers in California was
John Marsh.
After failing to obtain justice against squatters on his land from the
Mexican courts, he determined that California should become part of the
United States. Marsh conducted a letter-writing campaign espousing the
California climate, soil and other reasons to settle there, as well as
the best route to follow, which became known as "Marsh's route." His
letters were read, reread, passed around, and printed in newspapers
throughout the country, and started the first wagon trains rolling to
California.
[39] He invited immigrants to stay on his ranch until they could get settled, and assisted in their obtaining passports.
[40]
After ushering in the period of organized emigration to California,
Marsh helped end the rule of the last Mexican governor of California,
thereby paving the way to California's ultimate acquisition by the
United States.
[41]
In 1846, settlers rebelled against Mexican rule during the
Bear Flag Revolt. Afterwards, rebels raised the
Bear Flag (featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe and the words "California Republic") at Sonoma. The Republic's only president was
William B. Ide,
[42] who played a pivotal role during the Bear Flag Revolt.
The California Republic was short lived;
[43] the same year marked the outbreak of the
Mexican–American War (1846–48).
[44] When Commodore
John D. Sloat of the
United States Navy sailed into
Monterey Bay
and began the military occupation of California by the United States,
Northern California capitulated in less than a month to the United
States forces.
[45] After a series of defensive battles in
Southern California, the
Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the
Californios on January 13, 1847, securing American control in California.
[46]
Following the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the war, the western territory of Alta California, became the United States state of California, and
Arizona,
Nevada,
Colorado and
Utah
became United States Territories. The lightly populated lower region of
California, the Baja Peninsula, remained in the possession of
Mexico.
In 1846, the non-native population of California was estimated to be
no more than 8,000, plus about 100,000 Native Americans down from about
300,000 before Hispanic settlement in 1769.
[47]
After gold was discovered in 1848, the population burgeoned with United
States citizens, Europeans, Chinese and other immigrants during the
great
California Gold Rush. By 1854 over 300,000 settlers had come.
[48] Between 1847 and 1870, the population of
San Francisco increased from 500 to 150,000.
[49] On September 9, 1850, as part of the
Compromise of 1850, California was admitted to the United States undivided as a
free state, denying the expansion of
slavery to the Pacific Coast.
California's native population precipitously declined, above all, from Eurasian diseases to which they had no natural immunity.
[50]
As in other states, the native inhabitants were forcibly removed from
their lands by incoming miners, ranchers, and farmers. And although
California entered the union as a free state, the "loitering or orphaned
Indians" were de facto enslaved by Mexican and Anglo-American masters
under the 1853
Act for the Government and Protection of Indians.
[51]
There were massacres in which hundreds of indigenous people were
killed. Between 1850 and 1860, California paid around 1.5 million
dollars (some 250,000 of which was reimbursed by the federal government)
[52]
to hire militias whose purpose was to protect settlers from the
indigenous populations. In later decades, the native population was
placed in reservations and rancherias, which were often small and
isolated and without enough natural resources or funding from the
government to sustain the populations living on them.
[51]
As a result, the rise of California was a calamity for the native
inhabitants. Several scholars and Native American activists, including
Benjamin Madley and
Ed Castillo, have described the actions of the California government as a genocide.
[53]
The seat of government for California under Spanish and later Mexican rule was located at
Monterey from 1777 until 1845.
[34] Pio Pico, last Mexican governor of Alta California, moved the capital to Los Angeles in 1845. The United States
consulate was also located in Monterey, under consul
Thomas O. Larkin.
In 1849, the Constitutional Convention was first held in Monterey.
Among the tasks was a decision on a location for the new state capital.
The first legislative sessions were held in
San Jose (1850–1851). Subsequent locations included
Vallejo (1852–1853), and nearby
Benicia (1853–1854); these locations eventually proved to be inadequate as well. The capital has been located in
Sacramento since 1854
[54] with only a short break in 1862 when legislative sessions were held in San Francisco due to
flooding in Sacramento.
Initially, travel between California and the rest of the continental
United States was time consuming and dangerous. A more direct connection
came in 1869 with the completion of the
First Transcontinental Railroad through
Donner Pass
in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Once completed, hundreds of thousands
of United States citizens came west, where new Californians were
discovering that land in the state, if irrigated during the dry summer
months, was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture
in general. Vast expanses of wheat, other cereal crops, vegetable crops,
cotton, and nut and fruit trees were grown (including oranges in
Southern California), and the foundation was laid for the state's
prodigious agricultural production in the Central Valley and elsewhere.
20th century
Hollywood film studios, 1922
Migration to California accelerated during the early 20th century
with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the
Lincoln Highway and
Route 66.
In the period from 1900 to 1965, the population grew from fewer than
one million to become the most populous state in the Union. In 1940, the
Census Bureau reported California's population as 6.0% Hispanic, 2.4%
Asian, and 89.5% non-Hispanic white.
[55]
To meet the population's needs, major engineering feats like the
California and
Los Angeles Aqueducts; the
Oroville and
Shasta Dams; and the
Bay and
Golden Gate Bridges were built across the state. The state government also adopted the
California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960 to develop a highly efficient system of public education.
Meanwhile, attracted to the mild Mediterranean climate, cheap land,
and the state's wide variety of geography, filmmakers established the
studio system in Hollywood in the 1920s. California manufactured 8.7 percent of total United States military armaments produced during
World War II, ranking third (behind
New York and
Michigan) among the 48 states.
[56] After World War II, California's economy greatly expanded due to strong
aerospace and
defense industries,
[57] whose size decreased following the end of the
Cold War.
[57][58] Stanford University and its Dean of Engineering
Frederick Terman
began encouraging faculty and graduates to stay in California instead
of leaving the state, and develop a high-tech region in the area now
known as
Silicon Valley.
[59]
As a result of these efforts, California is regarded as a world center
of the entertainment and music industries, of technology, engineering,
and the aerospace industry, and as the United States center of
agricultural production. Just before the
"Dot Com Bust" California had the 5th largest economy in the world among nations.
[61] Yet since 1991, and starting in the late 1980s in
Southern California, California has seen a net loss of domestic migrants most years. This is often referred to by the media as the
California exodus.
[62]
However, during the 20th century, two great disasters happened in California. The
1906 San Francisco earthquake and 1928
St. Francis Dam flood remain the deadliest in U.S history.
[63]
