History of California
History of California |
---|
Periods |
Topics |
Cities |
Regions |
Bibliographies |
California portal |
The history of
After the
The
History of California before 1900
Pre-contact period
Different tribes of
Over 100 tribes and bands inhabited the area.[4] Various estimates of the Native American population in California during the pre-European period range from 100,000 to 300,000. California's population held about one-third of all Native Americans in the land now governed by the United States.[5]
The native
European exploration
European explorers from Spain and England explored the Pacific Coast of California beginning in the mid-16th century. Francisco de Ulloa explored the west coast of present-day Mexico including the Gulf of California, proving that Baja California was a peninsula,[12] 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
First European contact (1542)
The first Europeans to explore the
The Cabrillo expedition depicted the Indigenous populations as living at a subsistence level, typically located in small
Opening of Spanish East Indies trading route (1565)
In 1565 the Spanish developed a trading route where they took gold and silver from the Americas and traded it for goods and spices from China and other Asian areas. The Spanish set up their main Asian base in
The first modern Asians to set foot on what would be the United States occurred in 1587, when
Subsequently, mixed Christian-Muslim families from the newly Hispanicized Philippines residing in the Americas took a stance against slavery, diverging from their Spanish counterparts who supported it. Unlike their
Francis Drake's claim (1579)
After successfully sacking Spanish towns and plundering Spanish ships along their Pacific coast colonies in the Americas, English explorer and circumnavigator Francis Drake landed in Oregon,[23] before exploring and claiming an undefined portion of the California coast in 1579. This is believed to have taken place north of the future city of San Francisco, perhaps around Point Reyes or the nearby Drake's Cove.[19][24] Drake established friendly relations with the Coast Miwok and claimed the area for the English Crown as Nova Albion, or New Albion.[25]
Sebastián Vizcaíno's exploration
In 1602, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno explored California's coastline on behalf of New Spain from San Diego. He named San Diego Bay, also putting ashore in Monterey, California, and made glowing reports of the Monterey bay area[26] 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)
The Spanish divided California into two parts, Baja California and
The first permanent
Nearly all the missions in Baja California were established by members of the
Concerns about the intrusions of British and Russian merchants into Spain's colonies in California prompted the extension of Franciscan missions to Alta California, as well as presidios.[27][28][29][30]
One of Spain's gains from the Seven Years' War was the French Louisiana Territory which was given to Spain in the 1763 Treaty of Paris. Another potential colonial power already established in the Pacific was Russia, whose maritime fur trade of mostly sea otter and fur seals was pressing down from Alaska to the Pacific Northwest's lower reaches. These furs could be traded in China for large profits.
The Spanish settlement of Alta California was the last colonization project to expand Spain's vastly over-extended empire in North America, and they tried to do it with minimal cost and support. Approximately half the cost of settling Alta California was borne by donations and half by funds from the Spanish crown.
Massive Indian revolts in
The remoteness and isolation of California, the lack of large organized tribes, the lack of agricultural traditions, the absence of any domesticated animals larger than a dog, and a food supply consisting primarily of acorns (unpalatable to most Europeans) meant the missions in California would be very difficult to establish and sustain and made the area unattractive to most potential colonists. A few soldiers and friars financed by the Church and State would form the backbone of the proposed settlement of California.
Portolá expedition (1769–1770)
In 1769, the Spanish Visitor General,
The first land party, led by Fernando Rivera y Moncada, left from the Franciscan Misión San Fernando Velicatá on March 24, 1769. With Rivera was Juan Crespí,[32] famed diarist of the entire expedition. That group arrived in San Diego on May 4. A later expedition led by Portolà, which included Junípero Serra, the President of the Missions, along with a combination of missionaries, settlers, and leather-jacket soldiers including José Raimundo Carrillo, left Velicata on May 15, 1769, and arrived in San Diego on June 29.[33]
They took with them about 46 mules, 200 cows and 140 horses—all that could be spared by the poor Baja Missions.
The part of the expedition that took place over land took about 40–51 days to get to San Diego. The contingent coming by sea encountered the south flowing
On July 14, 1769, an expedition was dispatched from San Diego to find the port of Monterey. Not recognizing the
Food shortages
Without any agricultural crops or experience gathering, preparing and eating the ground acorns and grass seeds the Indians subsisted on for much of the year, the shortage of food at San Diego became extremely critical during the first few months of 1770. They subsisted by eating some of their cattle, wild geese, fish, and other food exchanged with the Indians for clothing, but the ravages of scurvy continued because there was then no understanding of the cause or cure of scurvy (a deficiency of vitamin C in fresh food). A small quantity of corn they had planted grew well, only to be eaten by birds. Portolá sent Captain Rivera and a small detachment of about 40 soldiers south to the Baja California missions in February to obtain more cattle and a pack-train of supplies.
Fewer mouths to feed temporarily eased the drain on San Diego's scant provisions, but within weeks, acute hunger and increased sickness (scurvy) again threatened to force abandonment of the San Diego "Mission". Portolá finally decided that if no relief ship arrived by March 19, 1770, they would leave to return to the Novohispanic 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.
Anza Expeditions (1774–1776)
Juan Bautista de Anza, leading an exploratory expedition on January 8, 1774, with 3 chaplains, 20 soldiers, 11 servants, 35 mules, 65 cattle, and 140 horses set forth from Tubac south of present-day Tucson, Arizona. They went across the Sonoran desert to California from Mexico by swinging south of the Gila River to avoid Apache attacks until they hit the Colorado River at the Yuma Crossing—about the only way across the Colorado River. The friendly Quechan (Yuma) Indians (2,000–3,000) he encountered there were growing most of their food, using irrigation systems, and had already imported pottery, horses, wheat and a few other crops from New Mexico.[36]
After crossing the Colorado to avoid the impassable
In Anza's second trip (1775–1776) he returned to California with 240 friars, soldiers and colonists with their families. They took 695 horses and mules and 385
The expedition started from Tubac, Arizona, on October 22, 1775, and arrived at
In 1776, the Domínguez–Escalante expedition concurrently was launched by Franciscan missionaries to find an overland route between New Mexico and California. However, after reaching as west as modern-day Arizona by 1777, the missionaries could no longer continue and decided to return to Santa Fe.
Further expeditions
In 1780, the Spanish established two combination missions and pueblos at the Yuma Crossing:
The Yuma Crossing was closed for Spanish traffic and it would stay closed until about 1846. California was nearly isolated again from land based travel. About the only way into California from Mexico would now be a 40 to 60-day voyage by sea. The average of 2.5 ships per year from 1769 to 1824 meant that additional colonists coming to Alta California were few and far between.[37]
Eventually, 21
In 1786,
California Mission system
The
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,
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
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
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
A series of four presidios, or Royal Forts, each manned by 10 to 100 men, were built in Alta California by the Spanish crown through New Spain. California installations were established in
To support the presidios and the missions, half a dozen towns (called pueblos) were established in California. The pueblos of
In 1804, the Province of Las Californias was divided into two territorial administrations following the precedent of Francisco Palóu's division between the Dominican missions of Baja California and Franciscan missions of Alta California, governing all Californian lands North of Misión San Miguel Arcángel de la Frontera (including the Tijuana River Valley and modern-day Mexicali) with Monterey as the capital of the new territory.[40]
Mexican period (1821 to 1848)
In 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain, first as the First Mexican Empire, then as the Mexican Republic. Alta California became a territory rather than a full state. The territorial capital remained in Monterey, California, with a governor as executive official.
Mexico, after independence, was unstable with about
The number of Alta California settlers, always a 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 ship. California continued to be a sparsely populated and isolated territory.
Trade policy
Even before Mexico gained control of
In addition, a number of Europeans and Americans became naturalized Mexican citizens and settled in early California. Some of those became rancheros and traders during the Mexican period, such as Abel Stearns.
Cattle hides and tallow, along with marine mammal fur and other goods, provided the necessary trade articles for mutually beneficial trade. The first American, English, and Russian trading ships first appeared in California a few years before 1820. 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 year—a large increase from the average of 2.5 ships per year from 1769 to 1824.[37]
The main
Secularization of the mission system
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
If Krell's numbers are to be believed (others have very 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.[42]
The missions, as originally envisioned, were to last only about ten years before being converted to regular parishes. When the California missions were abolished in 1834, some
Nine other missions quickly followed, with six more in 1835;
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 Echeandía's 1826 Proclamation that allowed for the partial conversion of missions to new pueblos.[46] 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.
Rancho grants
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 Presidio soldiers and government officials and a few friends and family of the Alta California Governors, some of whom were grandchildren of the original 1775 Anza expedition settlers. 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 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 Mission Indians. In practice, nearly all mission property and livestock were taken over by the about 455 large ranchos granted by the governors—mostly 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 tax—the 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
The main products of these ranchos were cattle 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 California-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.[
A large non-coastal land grant was given to
Conquest of California (1846–1847)
Hostilities between the U.S. and Mexico were sparked in part by territorial disputes between Mexico and the
The main forces available to the United States in California were the bluejacket sailors and U.S. Marines on board the ships of the
As the war with Mexico began there were five vessels in the U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron near California. In 1846 and 1847 this was increased to 13 Navy vessels—over 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
Hearing rumors of possible Californio military action against the newly arrived settlers in California (this had already happened in 1840),[49] some settlers decided to neutralize the small Californio garrison at Sonoma, California. On June 15, 1846, some thirty settlers, mostly American citizens, staged a revolt and seized the small Californio garrison, in Sonoma, without firing a shot and declared the new California Republic government. On hearing of this revolt, Fremont and his exploratory force returned to California. The "republic" never exercised any real authority and only lasted 26 days before accepting U.S. government control.
The former fleet surgeon William M. Wood and John Parrot, the American Consul of Mazatlán, arrived in Guadalajara, Mexico on May 10, 1846. There they heard word of the ongoing hostilities between the U.S. and Mexico forces and sent a message by special courier back to Commodore (Rear Admiral) John D. Sloat, commander of the Pacific Squadron then visiting Mazatlán Mexico. On May 17, 1846, this courier's messages informed Commodore Sloat that hostilities between the U.S. and Mexico had commenced.[50]
Commodore (Rear Admiral) John D. Sloat and four of his vessels were then at anchor in the harbor of Mazatlán, Mexico.[51] On hearing the news, Commodore Sloat dispatched his flagship, the frigate Savannah, and the sloop Levant (1837) to Monterey harbor, where they arrived on July 2, 1846. They joined the sloop Cyane which was already there.[52] There were fears from Americans that the British might try to annex California to satisfy creditors back home.[53] The British Pacific Station's squadron of ships off California were stronger in ships, guns, and soldiers than the American ships.[51] Apparently the British never had any orders on whether to intervene or not if hostilities broke out between the Californios and the United States and requesting new orders would have taken from eighteen to twenty-four months to get a message to England and back. Ultimately, the British watched from the coast as the United States annexed the region.[51]
Initially there was little resistance from anyone in California as they replaced the dysfunctional and ineffective Mexican government which had already been replaced by the Californios. The Mexican government by 1846 had already had 40
US capture of coastal ports and towns
In 1846, the U.S. Navy was under orders to take over all California ports in the event of war. There were about 400 to 500
The abandoned
Stockton, a much more aggressive leader, asked Fremont to form a joint force of Fremont's soldiers, scouts, guides, and others, and a volunteer militia—many 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, Frémont's newly formed "California Battalion" swelled to about 160 troops. These troops 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
Taking of Los Angeles
On August 13, 1846, a joint force of U.S. Marines, bluejacket sailors and parts of Frémont'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, Frémont'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 California—Los Angeles. The Californio government officials had already fled Alta California.
In September 1846 the Californios
In early January 1847, a 600-man joint force of U.S. Marine, U.S. Navy bluejacket sailors, General
Post-treaty of Cahuenga
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, after the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga, and formally annexed and paid for by the U.S. in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed in 1848.[56][57]
After hostilities had ceased with the signing of the
More reinforcements of about 320 soldiers (and a few women) of the
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 August 16, 1847, with a detachment of one hundred soldiers, and arrived in California on February 18, 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 7,300 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 statewide 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.
American period
Interim governments (1846–1850)
After 1847, California was controlled (with much difficulty due to desertions) by a U.S. Army-appointed military governor and an inadequate force of a little over 600 troops. By 1850, California had grown to have a non-Indian and non-Californio population of over 100,000 due to the
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally ended the Mexican–American War in February 1848. For $15,000,000, and the assumption of U.S. debt claims against Mexico, the boundary claims of the new state of Texas were settled, and New Mexico, California, and the unsettled territory of several future states of the American Southwest were added to U.S. control.
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 done—the issue was the number of free states vs. slave states.[60]
Monterey Constitutional Convention (1849)
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.
Like all U.S. states' constitutions, the California Constitution adhered closely to the format and government roles set up in the original 1789
The 21-article Declaration of Rights in the
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, ... at the first general election under this Constitution, and on the question of the adoption thereof" (Article XII Sec. 5).[65]
The California Constitution was ratified by popular vote at an election held on a rainy[66] November 13, 1849 (as specified in Article XII Sec. 8). 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.
Statehood (1850)
The Pueblo de San Jose was chosen as the first state capital (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 prior to statehood. As agreed to in the Compromise of 1850, Congress passed the California Statehood Act on September 9, 1850.[65]
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 (1850–1851), Vallejo (1852–1853), and Benicia (1853–1854) until Sacramento was finally selected in 1854.
California Gold Rush (1848–1855)
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.[67] Americans and foreigners of many different countries, statuses, classes, and races rushed to California for gold. Almost all (c. 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 alone—about 40,000 over the California trail and 40,000 by sea.
San Francisco was designated the official
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, entrepreneurs, prospective miners, gamblers, entertainers and
Starting in 1849, many of the ship crews jumped ship and headed for the gold fields when they reached port. Soon
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.[72]
The state was formerly under the military governor
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.[75] Wherever gold was discovered, hundreds of miners would collaborate to establish what a mining claim could be, 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.[citation needed] Prices were inflated in the camps. Miners often paid for food, liquor and other goods in "dust".[76]
Some of the first Argonauts, as they were also known, traveled by the all sea route around
etc. This trip could be done in 40–60 days—depending on connections. Returning miners and/or their gold nearly all reversed this route to return to the East Coast.Those who took the California Trail usually left Missouri River towns in early April and arrived in California 150–170 days later—late August or early September. Mostly, farmers etc. who lived in the Mid-west and already had wagons and teams took the California trail. Some winter wagon traffic came over the Gila River (De Anza Trail) and routes that included parts of the Old Spanish Trail. About half the Argonauts to California came by wagon on one of these routes.
Gold Rush effects
Starting in 1848 before gold in California was even confirmed, Congress had contracted with the
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 massacred[79] 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 sluice alongside 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 troy ounces (370 t)[80] 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 time—the 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 troy ounces (340 t) of gold (worth approximately US$6.6 billion at November 2006 prices[citation needed]) 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,[81] and it is estimated that more than 20 million troy ounces (620 t) were recovered by dredging (worth approximately US$12 billion at November 2006 prices[citation needed]). 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.[82]
By 1850, the
California Genocide
Since the Spanish Missions were established along the coast, these areas were affected by colonization first. California Indians had no agriculture before it was introduced by the
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.[83] For example, 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 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.
Several scholars, including
In subsequent decades after 1850, some of the remaining native populations 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
Slavery
Tribes in northwest California practiced slavery long before the arrival of Europeans.
Maritime history of California
The Maritime history of California includes Native American dugouts, tule canoes, and sewn canoes (
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 soldiers 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.
Early California transportation
Even before Mexico gained control of
From 1825 to 1848 the average number of ships traveling to California increased to about 25 ships per year—a large increase from the average of 2.5 ships per year from 1769 to 1824.[37] 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%.[41]
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
In 1846 the
The first of three
Steamboats plied the Bay Area and the
The
With the prospects of the civil war looming the Butterfield stage contract was terminated and the stage route to California rerouted. An
Once cargo was moved off the ocean and rivers it nearly always transported by horse or ox drawn wagons—still true till about 1920. When there was not a wagon trail the cargo was shifted to mule pack trains or carried on the backs of the miners. Lumber to build new homes, sluice boxes, etc. was a crying need and food to feed the miners was needed even more. However, California has a lot of native timber and even as early as 1850 there were saw mills set up to turn some of this timber into lumber. Food was initially imported from any and all west coast ports from Hawaii, Oregon or Mexico where it could be obtained. The lumber and food were transported by ships that had initially carried gold rush passengers and in many cases abandoned in the bay and could usually be bought cheap. The many goods the gold miners needed for a "modest" 1850s lifestyle were nearly always hauled by horse, mule or ox drawn wagons. Wheat and timber were early products from Oregon and the Columbia River area that could be economically imported. Soon it was found that some types of spring wheat could be planted in the fall in California and the mild winter with its rains would allow good crops to be harvested in the spring without irrigation. Later. much of this wheat was exported to ports around the world, California finally had a return cargo for its many incoming ships. California in the 1890s became the foremost wheat producer in the U.S. but could not really compete on the east coast with the burgeoning wheat lands being brought into production in the midwest were much closer to their markets. Other crops in California were usually found to be much more profitable and California joined the rest of the nation in importing most of its wheat from farms in the midwest.
The year 1848 saw the close of Mexican control over Alta California; this period also marked the beginning of the
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 October 24, 1861). The Pony Express terminated soon after the telegraph was established. This combination wagon-stagecoach-pony express-telegraph line route is labeled the Pony Express National Historic Trail on the National Trail Map.[107] 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 passenger and mail transportation between inland towns that were not connected to a railroad, with sailing ships and
Railroads
California's first railroad was built from Sacramento to Folsom, California starting in February 1855. This 22-mile (35 km) line was meant to take advantage of the prosperous gold diggings in
Southern California's first railroad, the
.Although most of California's railroads started off as
By the 1890s the construction of electric railroads had begun in California and by the early 20th century several systems existed to serve California's largest cities. The state's electric railroad systems included the San Diego Electric Railway, Los Angeles' Pacific Electric system, the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad, East Bay Electric Lines and the San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose Railway and Interurban rail systems such as the Sacramento Northern Railway were also constructed. By the 1920s, Los Angeles' Pacific Electric system was the largest electric railroad in the world.
History of California, 1900 to present
After 1900, California continued to grow rapidly and soon became an agricultural and industrial power. The economy was widely based on specialty agriculture, oil, tourism, shipping, film, and after 1940 advanced technology such as aerospace and electronics industries – along with a significant military presence. The films and stars of Hollywood helped make 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 (1900–2010).[110] Silicon Valley became the world's center for computer innovation.
See also
- Outline of California history
- Bibliography of California history
- Territorial evolution of California
- History museums in California
- California Dream
- Women's suffrage in California
- History of Mexico
- History of New Spain
- History of Mexican Americans
- Hispanics and Latinos in California
Specific locations
- History of Chico, California
- History of Los Angeles, California
- History of Piedmont, California
- History of Riverside, California
- History of Sacramento, California
- History of San Bernardino, California
- History of San Diego, California
- History of San Francisco, California
- History of San Jose, California
- History of Santa Ana, California
- History of Santa Barbara, California
- History of Santa Monica, California
- History of the San Fernando Valley to 1915
- Timeline of the San Francisco Bay Area
Notes
- Chagres [Panama]."[74]
References
- ^ Castillo, Edward D. "California Indian History". nahc.ca.gov. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
- ^ a b Jones, T.L., R.T. Fitzgerald, D.J. Kennett, C. Micsicek, J. Fagan, J. Sharp, & J.M. Erlandson *2002 The Cross Creek Site (CA-SLO-1797) and its Implications for New World Colonization. American Antiquity 67:213–230.
- ^ Erlandson, Jon M. et al. (2007) “The Kelp Highway Hypothesis: Marine Ecology, the Coastal Migration Theory, and the Peopling of the Americas” Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology Vol. 2 Issue 2: 161–174
- ^ "California Indian History". October 26, 2008. Archived from the original on October 26, 2008. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- ^ Starr, Kevin. California: A History, New York, Modern Library (2005), p. 13
- ISBN 1-55963-888-5.
- ISBN 978-0-520-24605-8.
- ISBN 978-0879191269.
- ISBN 978-1597141369.
- ISBN 978-0520248519.
- ^ Chapman, Charles. A History of California: The Spanish Period, Macmillan Company 1939, pp. 57–69
- ISBN 0-520-21273-8, p. 81–82
- ^ Rolle 1998, pp. 20–21.
- ^ a b "California Indian Cultures". Four Directions Institute. Archived from the original on February 19, 2002. Retrieved January 6, 2014.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ISBN 978-1-137-01045-2. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-1734-2. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
- ISBN 978-1-135-12843-2.
- ISBN 978-0-8135-4867-8.
- ^ a b Rolle 1998, p. 24.
- ^ [Jews and New Christians in the Atlantic Slave Trade https://academic.oup.com/nyu-press-scholarship-online/book/18113/chapter-abstract/176023000?redirectedFrom=fulltext]
- ^ Lozano, Gerardo (October 6, 2021). "A Filipino figured in Mexico's 200th year of independence". BusinessMirror. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
- ^ "Filipinos in Nueva España: Filipino-Mexican Relations, Mestizaje, and Identity in Colonial and Contemporary Mexico. (Page 414; Citation 56: "According to Ricardo Pinzon, these two Filipino soldiers—Francisco Mongoy and Isidoro Montes de Oca—were so distinguished in battle that they are regarded as folk heroes in Mexico. General Vicente Guerrero later became the first president of Mexico of African ancestry. See Floro L. Mercene, "Central America: Filipinos in Mexican History," (Ezilon Infobase, January 28, 2005"))". April 2005. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
- ^ Von der Porten, Edward (January 1975). "Drake's First Landfall". Pacific Discovery, California Academy of Sciences. 28 (1): 28–30.
- ^ Nolte, Carl (2016). "Point Reyes declared Drake landing site". SFGate.com. SFGate. Archived from the original on February 4, 2018. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-844-13762-6.
- ^ Rolle 1998, p. 26.
- ^ Weber, David J. The Spanish Frontier in North America. New Haven: Yale University Press 1992
- ISBN 978-0-8061-2317-2.
- ^ Gerald, Rex E. (1968). Spanish Presidios of the Late Eighteenth Century in Northern New Spain. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press.
- ISBN 978-0-300-10059-4
- ^ Starr, Kevin (2005). California: A History. New York Modern Library. Chapter 2.
- ISBN 978-1-879691-64-3.
- ^ a b "Rivera's explorations". Pages.sbcglobal.net. Retrieved November 7, 2017.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Visitors: San Francisco Historical Information". City and County of San Francisco. n.d. Archived from the original on March 31, 2008. Retrieved June 10, 2008.
- ^ "The Founding of Monterey". Monterey County Historical Society. Retrieved November 12, 2012.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-59714-026-3.
- ^ a b c d e "San Francisco History – Seventy-five Years in San Francisco, Appendix N. Record of Ships Arriving at California Ports from 1774 to 1847". SFgenealogy. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
- ^ Dana, Richard Henry (1842). Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea. New York: Harper & Brothers. pp. 93, 97, 209–210.
- ISBN 978-0-87919-137-5.
- ^ "Historia - Baja California". www.inafed.gob.mx. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2022.
- ^ a b "US Government Revenue, Deficit and Debt - Numbers Charts Analysis History". usgovernmentrevenue.com. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- ^ ISBN 0-376-05172-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-0300181364. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
- ^ Engelhardt, Zephyrin (1922). San Juan Capistrano Mission. Los Angeles, California: Standard Printing Co. p. 114.
- ISBN 1-59223-319-8.
- ^ Robinson, W. W. (1948). Land in California. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. p. 42.
- ^ "John Sutter, Sutters Fort". Archived from the original on May 8, 1999.
- ^ California, California State Parks, State of. "Sutter's Fort SHP". CA State Parks. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Cleland, Robert Glass (1922). A History of California. Macmillan. p. 191.
- ^ Bancroft, Hubert H. (1882). History of California. Vol. XXII: 1846–1848. San Francisco: The History Company. p. 201.
- ^ a b c d Bancroft, Hubert H. (1882). History of California. Vol. XXII: 1846–1848. San Francisco: The History Company. p. 199.
- ^ Cleland, Robert Glass (1922). The History of California. New York: Macmillan. p. 205.
- ^ Cleland, Robert Glass (1922). The History of California. New York: Macmillan. p. 180.
- ^ Bancroft, Hubert H. (1882). History of California. Vol. XXII: 1846–1848. San Francisco: The History Company. p. 252.
- ^ a b "History of California including the Indians, Spanish, Californio, Bear Flag Republic, United States, and their flags". Calrepublic.tripod.com. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- ^ "History". COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES. December 2, 2016. Archived from the original on October 11, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
- ^ "The United States and California | Early California History: An Overview | Articles and Essays | California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900 | Digital Collections | Library of Congress". Library of Congress. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-520-06605-2.
- ^ The U.S. 1850 California Census counts 92,597 residents but omits the residents of San Francisco (estimated at about 21,000) whose census records were destroyed by fire. Contra Costa County (estimated at about 2,000 residents) and Santa Clara County (estimated at about 4,000 residents) 1850 records were "lost" and also not included. The total non-Indian (Indians were not counted) population was over 120,000. See: "Historical Statistical Abstracts - U.S. Census Bureau"; [www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/statab.html][full citation needed]
- ^ California and New Mexico: Message from the President of the United States. By United States. President (1849–1850 : Taylor), United States. War Dept (Ex. Doc 17 page 1) Google eBook
- ^ "Statistical Abstracts". December 29, 2004. Archived from the original on December 29, 2004. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- ^ Report of the debates in the Convention of California on the formation of By California. Constitutional Convention, John Ross Browne; Google eBook
- ^ "Constitution of the State of California". Archived from the original on January 28, 2010. Retrieved April 9, 2011.
- ^ "How an Early Santa Barbara Scion Protected Women's Rights to Property in the California Constitution | Essay". October 17, 2018.
- ^ a b Rice, Richard B.; et al. (1988). The Elusive Eden. pp. 191–195.
- ^ Sanchez, Loretta (1999). Congressional Record. Washington DC: Congress. p. 26010.
- ISBN 0-520-22496-5.
- ^ "1849. Ship and Passenger Arrivals, San Francisco, California, The Maritime Heritage Project. Sea Captains, Ships, Merchants, Merchandise, Immigration and Passengers". Maritimeheritage.org. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- .
- S2CID 143269035.
- ^ San Francisco Population 1794–2000 "San Francisco History : Population". SFgenealogy. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
- ^ "Early History of the San Francisco Fire Department". Sfmuseum.org. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- ^ The 1850 U.S. Census of California found 7,600 people who claimed they were born in California (Californios). To this must be added the few Californios of San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Contra Costa Counties whose Censuses were lost and not included – about 9,000 total state wide. "Historical Statistics of the United States, 1789–1945". Archived from the original on December 29, 2004. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
- ISBN 978-1-4994-3511-5.
- ^ Holliday, J. S. (1999), p. 126.
- ^ "Haun Collection Archive". Archived from the original on May 20, 2017. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
- ^ Brands, H. W. (2003). The age of gold: the California Gold Rush and the new American dream (reprint ed.). New York: Anchor. pp. 103–121.
- ^ "Page moved. Automatic redirect". Maritimeheritage.org. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- ^ "California's state-sanctioned genocide of Native Americans". Newsweek. August 17, 2016. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- ^ The Troy weight system is traditionally used to measure precious metals, not the more familiar avoirdupois weight system. The term "ounces" of gold typically refers to troy ounces. There are some historical uses where, because of the age of the use, the intention is ambiguous.
- ^ Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (1999), p. 199.
- U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved February 26, 2008.
- California Secretary of State. Archived from the originalon December 7, 2011. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
- ISBN 978-0195085570. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
- ISBN 978-0826317537. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
- ^ "California Militia and Expeditions Against the Indians, 1850 - 1859". Militarymuseum.org. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- ^ a b "INDIANS of CALIFORNIA - American Period". Cabrillo.edu. Archived from the original on May 11, 2012. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- ^ Ruby, Robert H.; Brown, John Arthur (1993). "Chapter 7: The Northwest California Slave". Indian slavery in the Pacific Northwest.
- ^ Johnson, Jason B. (January 27, 2007). "SAN FRANCISCO / Slavery in Gold Rush days / New discoveries prompt exhibition, re-examination of state's involvement". SFGate. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- ^ "An Act for the Government and Protection of Indians". Compiled laws of the State of California: containing all the acts of the Legislature of a public and general nature, now in force, passed at the sessions of 1850-51-52-53, Benicia, S. Garfeilde, 1853. pp. 822–825
- ISBN 0803272626.
- ^ Michael Casey. "California Longhorns Vs. Texas Longhorns of Yesteryear and Today – A Comparative Study". Fairlea Longhorns. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
- ISBN 978-1-4564-7282-5. Retrieved February 9, 2012 – via Google Books.
- ^ "The Maritime Heritage Project Passenger Lists". Archived from the original on April 24, 1999.
- ^ Hoover and Kyle, p. 376
- ^ Coate, Bill (March 16, 2003). "Last blast from steamers on the San Joaquin". Madera Tribune. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011.
- ^ Rose, p. 54
- ^ Rose, p. 27
- ^ Nolte, Carl (May 23, 2010). "When great steamboats plied our rivers and bay". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved March 19, 2011.
- ^ Also known as the Oxbow Route, the Butterfield Overland Stage, or the Butterfield Stage
- ^ "John Butterfield Father of the Butterfield Overland Mail". DesertUSA. Retrieved February 6, 2011.
- ^ Waterman L. Ormsby, Lyle H. Wright, Josephine M. Bynum, The Butterfield Overland Mail: Only Through Passenger on the First Westbound Stage. Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, 2007. pp. viii, 167, 173.
- ^ a b Root, The Overland Stage to California, p. 42.
- ^ Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana. July 2003. Retrieved November 7, 2017 – via Project Gutenberg.
- ^ "The California Cattle Boom, 1849–1862". Monterey County Historical Society Museum. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- ASIN B000OV4LMS.
- ^ "Pony Express Trail map" (PDF). US Forest Service. Retrieved January 28, 2009.
- ^ Nathan Masters (January 17, 2013). "Lost Train Depots of Los Angeles". Socal Focus. KCET. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
- ^ "Newhall-Downtown – 1876: Southern Pacific Tunnels Through". Scvhistory.com. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
- ISBN 9780307426420.
Sources
- Rolle, Andrew (1998) [1963]. California: A History (5th ed.). Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson. ISBN 0-88295-938-7.
Further reading
- Aron, Stephen. "Convergence, California and the Newest Western History", California History Volume: 86#4 September 2009. pp 4+ historiography.
- Bakken, Gordon Morris. California History: A Topical Approach (2003), college textbook
- Hubert Howe Bancroft. The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol 18–24, History of California to 1890; complete text online; famous, highly detailed narrative written in 1880s
- Brands, H.W. The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream (2003) excerpt and text search
- Burns, John F. and Richard J. Orsi, eds; Taming the Elephant: Politics, Government, and Law in Pioneer California (2003) online edition Archived May 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- Cherny, Robert W., Richard Griswold del Castillo, and Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo. Competing Visions: A History Of California (2005), college textbook
- Cleland, Robert Glass. A History of California: The American Period (1922) 512 pp. online edition
- Deverell, William. Railroad Crossing: Californians and the Railroad, 1850-1910. (1994). 278 pp.
- Deverell, William, and David Igler, eds. A Companion to California History (2008), long essays by scholars excerpt and text search
- Ellison, William. A Self-governing Dominion: California, 1849-1860 (1950) full text online free
- Hayes, Derek. Historical Atlas of California: With Original Maps, (2007), 256 pp.
- Higgins, Andrew Stone. Higher Education for All: Racial Inequality, Cold War Liberalism, and the California Master Plan. University of North Carolina Press, 2023.
- Hittell, Theodore Henry. History of California (4 vol 1898) old. detailed narrative; online edition
- Hoover, Mildred B., Rensch, Hero E. and Rensch, Ethel G. Historic Spots in California, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA. (3rd Ed. 1966) 642 pp.
- Hutchinson, Alan. Frontier Settlements in Mexican California: The Hijar Padres Colony and Its Origins, 1769-1835. New Haven: Yale University Press 1969.
- Isenberg, Andrew C. Mining California: An Ecological History. (2005). 242 pp.
- Jackson, Robert H. Missions and the Frontiers of Spanish America: A Comparative Study of the Impact of Environmental, Economic, Political, and Socio-Cultural Variations on the Missions in the Rio de la Plata Region and on the Northern Frontier of New Spain. Scottsdale, Ariz.: Pentacle, 2005. 592 pp.
- Jelinek, Lawrence. Harvest Empire: A History of California Agriculture (1982)
- Lavender, David. California: A History. also California: A Bicentennial History. New York: Norton, 1976. Short and popular
- Lightfoot, Kent G. Indians, Missionaries, and Merchants: The Legacy of Colonial Encounters on the California Frontiers. U. of California Press, 1980. 355 pp. excerpt and online search
- Pitt, Leonard. The Decline of the Californios: A Social History of the Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846-1890 (2nd ed. 1999)
- Rawls, James and Walton Bean. California: An Interpretive History (8th ed 2003), college textbook; the latest version of Bean's solid 1968 text
- Rice, Richard B., William A. Bullough, and Richard J. Orsi. Elusive Eden: A New History of California 3rd ed (2001), college textbook
- Sackman, Douglas Cazaux. Orange Empire: California and the Fruits of Eden. (2005). 386 pp.
- Starr, Kevin. California: A History (2005), a synthesis in 370 pp. of his 8-volume scholarly history
- Starr, Kevin. Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915 (1973)
- Starr, Kevin and Richard J. Orsi eds. Rooted in Barbarous Soil: People, Culture, and Community in Gold Rush California (2001)
- Street, Richard Steven. Beasts of the Field: A Narrative History of California Farmworkers, 1769-1913. (2004). 904 pp.
Historiography and teaching
- Hartig, Anthea M. "Powered by Primary Sources, Sustained by Scholarship: Teaching California," California History (2018) 95#4: 2-7 DOI: 10.1525/ch.2018.95.4.2
- Merchant, Carolyn ed. Green Versus Gold: Sources In California's Environmental History (1998) readings in primary and secondary sources excerpt and text search
- Rawls, James J. ed. New Directions In California History: A Book of Readings (1988)
- "Round Table California History at the College Level" California History (2018) 95#4: 8-21; DOI: 10.1525/ch.2018.95.4.8
- Sucheng, Chan, and Spencer C. Olin, eds. Major Problems in California History (1996), readings in primary and secondary sources
External links
Media related to
History of California at Wikimedia Commons
- Timeline of California — "California: Guide to the Golden State;" Federal Writers' Project; 1939.
- Scholarly articles in California Historical Society Quarterly: 1922−1971
- Scholarly articles in California Historical Quarterly: 1971−77
- Scholarly articles in California History: 1978−present
- Library of Congress: California State Guide
- An Act for the Admission of the State of California into the Union — 31st Cong., Sess. I, Ch. 50, September 9, 1850.