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Before the appearance of European explorers and settlers, many Native American groups lived in what is now California. They specialized by environment. No tribe developed agriculture or writing. California was a major source of trading beads, wampum, which were produced from mussel shells using stone tools.
The history of California properly begins in 1579, when Sir Francis Drake landed somewhere above Spain's most northerly claim at Point Loma, made by the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542. In 1577 Drake left England on his commission by Queen Elizabeth the Great boldly to circumnavigate the world. In 1579, he purposely sailed north above the Spanish claims to locate a base whence future privateers — such as himself — could relieve the hated Spanish "Papists" of their gold and silver. Before this time, the Caribbean was easy prey to daring English sailors, but the Pacific was out of reach.
Drake found an excellent port, landed, repaired and restocked his vessels, stayed for a time and kept friendly relations with the aboriginal natives. It is usually held that Drake's port was somewhere near the northern Bay Area, anywhere from Bodega to San Pablo Bay. A bronze plaque, fitting a description in Drake's own account, was discovered in Marin County, and where it was found was then named Drake's Bay. The plaque was later declared a fraud. No one knows where Drake's port truly was, for its precise location was carefully guarded to keep it secret from the Spaniards. Drake's brother had earlier endured a long period of torture at the hands of Spaniards in South America. It is unlikely the riddle of Drake's port will ever be unraveled, for Whitehall Palace burned in London and records were forever lost.
It is said that Drake left behind many of his men as a small colony, but there was no return voyage. The land Drake claimed in the name of the Holy Trinity for the English Crown was Nova Albion — that is, in Latin, "New England."
Drake's voyage to the west coast of North America is important for a number of reasons. When Drake landed, his chaplain held Holy Communion, for in the words of Thomas Cranmer, "it was very meet and right and [his] bounden duty so to do." This was the first Protestant church service in all the New World. And this was seen as a chink in the armor of the feared Papal world order.
What is certain of the extent of Drake's claims and territorial challenge to Papacy and the Spanish crown is that his port was founded somewhere north of the modern city of San Diego — which was yet to be founded — that all contemporary maps label all lands above the Kingdoms of New Spain and New Mexico "Nova Albion," and that all colonial claims made from the East Coast in the 1600's were "From Sea to Sea." These claims were made when full knowledge of Drake's deeds was still unburnt and these new claims were still valid and known to the Spanish when these colonies declared independence from British mercantile capitalism in 1776 under the Grand Union flag.
Less than two hundred years after Drake claimed nearly all of North America for England, in 1769, a Spanish military force under Gaspar de Portolá, fearing English designs on the west coast of New Spain, and believing English claims so far from the east coast to be impossible to defend, marched north out of California proper. He passed Point Loma. He went up the Pacific coast, further north than the terminus of the Gulf of California, and reached Monterey in 1770, where he set up a military camp. His route would later become the famous dirt trail El Camino Real, the "King's Highway," which is now marked by bell-shaped street lights, where they have not been stolen.
Portolá became the first European to view San Francisco Bay, discovering it from the land. Several years later , the mission at San Francisco, the town of Yerba Buena and a military base at the entrance to the bay, the Presidio of San Francisco, were founded to protect and colonize the bay.
In the 1600s, Spain explored and settled had the coastal areas of New Spain and eventually some scattered frontier outposts were set up in California proper — now known as Baja California. To maintain communication, they wore the coastal trail, El Camino Real that connected a series of tiny religious settlements called missions, that were used to subjugate the aboriginal natives and convert them to Roman Christianity. These missions were spaced one day's travel apart, and stretched as far north as San Francisco. Most missions remain or have been rebuilt in the original style, and many have congregations established since 1900. El Camino Real is the route of a major highway, U.S. 101.
In the early 1800s, the Russian Empire, which had already claimed Alaska, briefly explored the west coast, and set up trading posts as far south as Fort Ross. They hunted for seal pelts as far south as the Channel Islands across from modern Santa Barbara. A prominent marriage between a leading californio family and an imperial noble almost caused Russian trade to advance into Southern California. The scion from Russia died of disease while crossing Siberia to get a dispensation to marry a Catholic from the Eastern Orthodox Elders. His would-be bride entered a convent after his death.
The Spanish encouraged settlement with large land-grants that largely remained empty of people. These were used for ranches with cattle and sheep. Hides for leather were the primary export of California until the mid-19th century. The owners and laborers of these ranchos were called rancheros.
Spanish California had a short sleepy history until Mexico declared its independence in 1821. California, with so few people and so little development became part for the first time part of Mexico. American sailing companies maintained trade with Indians and gathered pelts, and in 1840 young Richard Henry Dana wrote of his own experiences aboard ship off California in the 1830's. Mexico paid little attention to its far-flung northern possession until July 7, 1846 when Commodore John Drake Sloat, acting on instructions from Washington, DC, ordered his naval troops to occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena which began the United States annexation of California.
In 1848, gold was discovered in the Sierra foothills, at Sutter's Mill, about 40 miles east of Sacramento. This started a gold rush of emigrants, mostly from the U.S. The merchants to support the mining settled in the nearest deep-water seaport, San Francisco Bay. Gold is still found in many watersheds, in amounts near 3/4 oz./ton, an amount that would be economical to mine, except for California's pollution laws, and a Federal court's prohibition on hydraulic mining.
IN 1849, Mexican-owned California was a Spanish-speaking province of 4,000 — the population of a small village along the 850-mile coastline. In the 1840s, after a series of revolutions in Mexico upset settlers, California briefly declared its independence as the California Republic. It's Bear Flag was said to be designed by a nephew of the sitting American President, and it show the unique gold-colored Californian grizzly atop a single broad red stripe over a white field — like half the flag of England
A number of battles were fought in south-central California between Mexican troops and California Volunteers. Slightly later, the Republic applied to the U.S. for protection from Mexico, and the U.S. purchased California and large portions of Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico from Mexico under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
After the U.S. purchase, the Southern American states declared independence from the North, and the U.S. Civil War ensued. California was split between the Union and Confederate (Southern) sides, but its isolation kept participation down to a minimum. Officially on the Union side, the State of California sent several thousand volunteer troops and a large amount of gold to help fund the Union war effort. A large number also fought with the South. At this time, the U.S. established a number of military bases to keep California out of Confededrate hands — notably the coastal defenses of San Diego and San Francisco Bays, and Ft. Tejon, where the El Camino Real passes through Tejon Pass into the central valley.
With the Trancontinental Railway and the Suez Canal creating more permanent links to the east coast of the United States, and the Spanish-American War establishing that the United States, forsaking their most cherished principles that they for against British mercantilism, launched its career as an international capitalist power. Military bases were established to help protect the new U.S. possessions in the Philippines.
Some major developments in California history are the building of Hoover Dam (which is in Nevada, but provides power and water to Southern California), Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, and the California Aqueduct.
An important development in this era was that a series of lawyers successfully overturned Spanish land grants and acquired the land for themselves and their business allies under U.S. law. The most famous resulting development was the city of Anaheim. A number of other Spanish land-grants were successfully protected for the Californios, notably Tejon Ranch, north of Los Angeles, and Irvine Ranch to the south.
This era also saw the rise of the studio system. MGM, Universal and Warner Brothers all acquired land in Hollywood, which was then a small town on the desert side of Los Angeles. The attraction was a mild climate, cheap land, and a wide selection of topography within a short drive by truck. Many westerns of this era were shot in the Owens Valley, east of the Sierras. Desert movies were shot in the Mojave or in Death Valley. Pirate movies were shot in Carmel. Winter movies were shot in the San Bernardino Mountains. Movies set in the Mediterranean or the eastern U.S. were shot on outdoor sets on studio land, often with simulated rain or snow.
During World War II, California's mild climate became a major resource for the war effort. Numerous air-training bases were established in Southern California, and most aircraft manufacturers expanded or established factories. Major naval shipyards were established or expanded in San Diego, Long Beach and San Francisco Bay. San Francisco was the home of the liberty ships.
After the war, hundreds of land developers bought land, subdivided it, built on it, and got rich. In 1954, Disneyland opened in Anaheim. The population of California expanded dramatically, from 3 million, to nearly 20 million by 1970. This was the coming-of-age of the baby boom.
In the late 1960s the baby-boom generation got to draft age, and many opposed the war in Vietnam. There were numerous demonstrations and strikes, especially on the Berkeley campus of the University of California, across the bay from San Francisco. In 1968, race riots shut down Los Angeles. Some comentators predicted revolution. Then the federal government promised to withdraw from the Vietnam War. The radical political movements, having achieved a large part of their aim, lost members and funding.
The high populations of this era caused tremendous problems with traffic, pollution, and crime. Solutions to these problems were hampered because U.S. law is theoretically opposed to combining or annexing local government by higher government. For this reason, regional solutions were not possible, and developed areas of California became, and remain, crazy-quilts of streets and laws.
In the 1970s, the wars in Asia inspired a new wave of immigrants, many of whom settled in California. Most were enterprising and became valuable citizens.
In this period, high technology companies in Northern California began a spectacular growth that continued for the next thirty years. The major products included personal computers, video games, and network systems. The majority of these companies settled along a highway stretching from Santa Clara to San Jose, the so-called "Silicon Valley," named after the material used to produce the integrated circuits of the era.
The air and pollution problems became less acute because of strict laws. However, pollution from storm water drains began to kill organisms near the inhabited seacoast, inspiring numerous conservation organzations.
In the 1980s, power problems were again predicted, as several nuclear power plants were proposed to cope with projected summer power shortfalls. In California at the time, a large amount of power was provided by hydroelectricity, which is less available near the end of the summer, the dry season in which air-conditioning is used. An innovative deregulated power-market was invented to make alternative energy sources viable. The result in summer of 2000 was chaotic real-time manipulation of the electricity market by commercial power companies, an issue which is not resolved as of 2002.
In the 1990s, a deadly (to grapevines, at least) phylloxera epidemic swept through California vineyards, devastating wine grapes, and causing billions of dollars of damage. Most Californians failed to notice.
In the 2002 gubernatorial campaign, Democratic incumbent Gray Davis defeated challenger Bill Simon with a plurality of 47.4%. Days after the election, it was discovered Davis had hid a record $34.6 billion budget deficit. Davis' approval rating dropped to 24%, the lowest ever in the history of the California Field Poll. Nearly two million Californians signed petitions calling for a recall election against Davis. The effort against Davis marked the first time since the 1911 inclusion of a recall clause into the State Constitution that a California governor faced a recall election. There had been 31 attempts in that time.
There were two parts to the recall ballot. The first part asked whether or not Davs should be recalled. The second part asked, if the recall occurred, which candidate besides Davis should be the new governor. 135 candidates ran to replace Davis.
On October 7, 2003, Davis was successfully recalled, with 55.4% of the voters supporting the recall (see results of the 2003 California recall). With a plurality of 48.6% of the vote, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was chosen as the new governor. Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante received 31.5% of the vote, and Republican State Senator Tom McClintock received 13.5% of the vote.
See also: Los Angeles, California#History, San Francisco, California#History21st Century Politics
