OVERVIEW / REVIEW OF
CALIFORNIA HISTORY
I. Prehistoric Period
A. The first humans to enter North America crossed the Bering Strait land bridge at the end of the Pleistocene Period, or the last Ice Age, approximately 15,000 to 30,000 years ago.
1. They migrated southward from Alaska and populated North and South America.
2. They entered California approximately 15,000 years ago; evidence from the early-man archaeological site at Calico could push the date back to 50,000 years ago.
B. Native Americans of California.
1. General characteristics of California Indians prior to European contact.
a. They spoke a great diversity of dialects.
b. They represented the largest concentration of Indians in North America (estimated at 150,000 to 300,000).
c. They had similar physical traits and features.
d. The groups showed general uniformity in economy, material goods, religious practices, and social organization.
e. They were primarily hunter/gatherer societies.
f. Local subsistence was based almost exclusively on available resources.
g. Dwellings reflected the groups' climatic and geographic locations: frame and plank houses in the north, brush shelters in the southern deserts, and earth houses along the coastal areas.
h. Crafts were limited; basket making was generally universal with distinct local variations (twined in the north, coiled in the south).
i. The groups were not generally warlike, and weapons were not sophisticated (in comparison to those of the Plains Indians). They used the atlatl, bow and arrow, obsidian points, hunting blades, spears, harpoons, clubs, and throwing sticks. Hunting technology was linked to geographic factors.
j. Acorns were extensively used as a food source where oak trees were plentiful. This involved drying, storing, cracking, and leaching.
k. The transportation reflected geographic factors: Balsa and raft-type boats were used in the south, and plank canoes were used in the north.
2. The shared heritage of the various tribes.
a. Lineage was traced~on the paternal side.
b. Native tobacco and jimsonweed were widely used in ceremonial activities.
c. Sweathouses were used (by men only).
d. The people played functional musical instruments and sang and danced.
e. The groups' religions were similar in myths, creation stories, shamanism, and the influence of nature.
f. Ceremonies dealt with birth, death, puberty, marriage, hunting, and so on.
g. Their cultures integrated with and reflected the environment; nature provided for them.
h. Fables dealt with animals and other natural phenomena of the region (coyote, raven, bear, snake, thunder, and so on).
i. Roles were sex differentiated: The men hunted and fished, and the women gathered food and materials and killed small game.
j. The oral story tradition was used by all California Indians.
3. Geographic factors isolated many tribes. Desert and mountain barriers restricted contact.
a. Northern California tribes included the Yurok, Hupa, Modoc, and Pomo.
b. Central California tribes included the Maidu and Miwok.
c. Coastal tribes included the coastal Miwok, Esselen, and Chumash.
d. Desert tribes included the Mojave and Serrano.
e. Sierra Nevada tribes included the Miwok and Mono.
4. Their material belongings were similar.
a. Body garments and dress.
b. Subsistence agricultural implements: mortar and pestle, metate, grinding slab, and digging sticks.
c. Houses (earth, bark, plank, thatch) and ceremonial houses (sweat, dance, menstrual).
d. Weapons and tools: knife, adz, ax, maul, scraper, awl, and drill.
e. Textiles (bags, wallets, beadwork, and other designs).
f. Receptacles: baskets (most famous), pottery, wood, and stone bowls.
g. Musical instruments: drum, rattle, flute, rasp, and bow.
h. Money: clam disks and olivella shells.
II. Spanish Conquest
A. The search for the Seven Cities of Cibola by Cortez in the 1530s resulted in Spanish exploration of the Baja peninsula.
1. Spain was interested in conquest and wealth.
2. Exploration centered on a search for an island inhabited by Amazon-like women who used golden weapons.
B. Cabrillo discovered San Diego Bay, the Santa Barbara Islands, Point Conception, and Point Reyes (1542-43).
1. He searched for a water passage between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
2. Future voyages traveled the entire coast of California.
C. Drake, an English explorer, sailed up the California coast in 1579 and claimed the area for England.
1. The threat from England compelled Spain to colonize California.
2. Spanish explorations discovered safe harbors at Monterey and San Francisco.
3. For the next 100 years, Spanish colonization of California was minimal.
D. Russian excursions along the northern American coast (1800s) resulted in renewed Spanish efforts to colonize
California.
1. Russian fur interests in Alaska pushed southward.
2. Russians established Fort Ross 80 miles north of San Francisco Bay in 1812 as a trading post.
3. The American government also viewed Russian exploration of the California coast as a threat.
a. The Monroe Doctrine (1823) restricted European colonization of the Americas.
b. The Spanish reacted to potential Russian, British, and American presences by establishing presidios (military forts) and pueblos (small settlements) in valleys around San Francisco Bay.
E. The Spanish established the California- missions.
1. Jesuits established five permanent settlements in Baja California in the early 1700s.
2. Franciscan friars established 21 Spanish missions along the California coast from San Diego to Sonoma (one day's journey apart at completion in 1823).
a. The purpose was to convert the Indians to Christianity, establish cultural and agricultural centers, and populate Alta California for Spain. Both the "sword" and the "cross" were used to subdue the Indians.
3. Father Serra is credited with the development of the mission system; his lasting contributions are controversial.
4. Positive aspects of the mission system.
a. It spread Christianity.
b. It colonized California.
c. It spread the cultural and technological advances of Spain.
5. Negative aspects of the mission system.
a. The dehumanization of the Indians.
b. The high infant mortality and suicide rates among the Indians.
c. The forced labor and virtual slave-like conditions.
d. Indian self-sufficiency never developed.
6. In about 1830, the mission system began a secularization process. By 1836, most mission property was privately owned.
III. Mexican Rule in California
A. After Mexican independence from Spain in 1822, California residents exerted increased control in local political matters.
B. The land-grant system and the ranchos fueled independent action.
C. The Mexican government failed in its attempts to dominate California.
D. By 1845, the Californios (provincial Californians) expelled the last of the Mexican governors.
E. American trappers (including Jedediah Smith), explorers (including Kit Carson and Joseph Walker), and a variety of wagon masters opened California to American settlement.
IV. California Independence from Mexico (1846-48)
A. Migrations of American pioneer families in the 1840s swelled the American population in California.
1. American pioneers settled in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys.
2. They increased the demand that California become part of the United States.
B. President Polk indirectly supported the annexation of California.
1. John C. Fremont, possibly acting on presidential orders, raised the U.S. flag near Monterey, then retreated from the area.
2. War was declared on Mexico in 1846 (the Mexican-American War, usually called the Mexican War).
a. The Bear Flag Revolt prematurely captured California (1846).
b. Commander Sloat captured Monterey Bay and claimed the area for the United States.
c. General Stockton captured Los Angeles; Governor Pico and General Castro retook the area for Mexico. d. Stockton and Kearney defeated Pico and raised the American flag over Los Angeles in 1847.
3. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) transferred California from Mexican to American control.
V. Gold Discovered in California
A. The discovery of gold by James W. Marshall in 1848 changed the political, social, and economic history of the state.
1. "Gold fever" became a national phenomenon; the California settler population increased tremendously from 15,000 in 1847 to 92,000 in 1850, and 380,000 in 1860.
2. This population growth led to statehood. (California was the thirty-first state.)
B. The Compromise of 1850 allowed California to be a free state.
1. Slavery was prohibited, which upset the balance of free and slave states.
2. California statehood became a background issue to the Civil War.
VI. California from the Civil War to the Turn of the Century
A. The completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 made the dream of Manifest Destiny come true.
1. The Central Pacific met the Union Pacific at Promontory, Utah. Immigrant labor was used: Chinese on the Central Pacific and Irish on the Union Pacific.
2. The Big Four (Hopkins, Crocker, Huntington, and Stanford) controlled the railroad industry and most of the California political scene.
B. Economic depression hit California in the 1870s; a cycle of boom and bust was begun.
1. The depression was characterized by low wages, high unemployment, railroad abuses (unfair pricing and rebates), and the restriction of water rights by land monopolies.
2. The collapse of the Bank of California in 1875 (and other financial institutions) further weakened the California economy.
C. Open hostility toward the Chinese erupted.
1. They were blamed for most of the economic problems (backlash from the mining and railroad frontier).
2. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress in 1882.
3. By 1877, politicians, newspapers, and citizens urged open agitation against the Chinese in California.
4. The Workingmen's Party was established. It was nativist, anti-Chinese, and anti-big business (1877).
a. It demanded a constitutional convention and populist-type reforms.
b. The California Constitution (1879) codified anti-Chinese legislation.
D. The California land boom of the 1880s swelled the population again.
1. The ensuing bank collapse in 1887 devastated the economy.
2. Hard times and economic retrenchment followed.
VII. Early Twentieth-Century California
A. New immigration (mainly from the Midwest) led to a dramatic population increase.
B. Fears of the "yellow peril" were raised again.
1. Japanese were imported in large numbers to work in agriculture. They displaced Anglo workers and resentment grew.
2. Orientals had been restricted from naturalization at the turn of the century.
3. The San Francisco Board of Education segregated Caucasians and Orientals in 1905. 4. The resentment led to an international "Gentlemen's Agreement" (1907).
a. Japanese immigration to the United States was voluntarily restricted (but the measure was ineffective in reducing tension).
b. Integrated schools were permitted.
c. Agitation against Asians continued.
C. Populist reforms aimed to bring government closer to the people.
1. The Lincoln-Roosevelt League (a coalition party) pushed through reforms and controlled the Republican Party.
2. Hiram Johnson (a progressive) was elected governor, and a reform program was initiated.
a. Twenty-three amendments were added to the California Constitution (1911).
b. The provisions included women's suffrage; initiative, referendum, and recall; workmen's compensation; a new railroad commission; and others.
3. California supported the Bull Moose Party (progressive) in 1912.
4. Anti-Japanese agitation continued.
a. The Japanese were ineligible for citizenship (national law), they could not own land (the California Alien Land Act), and more restrictive federal legislation was passed against them in 1913 and 1924.,
b. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld anti-Japanese legislation.
5. The labor movement lost political power after an anarchist bombing in Los Angeles (1910).
VIII. California from World War I to 1930
A. World War I produced a new economic boom.
1. Wages, production, manufacturing, and commerce expanded rapidly.
2. The Panama Canal was opened in 1914, which extended international links.
3. An influx of immigrants arrived in the 1920s.
a. Economic advances were tied to movie, oil, and agricultural production.
b. A real-estate boom fueled the housing industry.
c. By 1930, the California population had grown to six million, an increase of 65 percent during one decade.
d. It was the sixth most populous state.
B. California politics were characterized as a power struggle between the north and south and between rural and urban areas.
IX. California from 1930 to 1960
A. The economic collapse of 1930 resulted in large-scale unemployment, bank failures, and foreclosures.
B. The economic downturn renewed the call for political reform.
1. Upton Sinclair (a reform candidate) ran unsuccessfully for governor on a platform for political change.
2. The Utopian Society promoted economic and social reform.
3. The Townsend Plan favored pensions for the aged and a graduated income tax.
C. Depression-era California.
1. Dust Bowl migrants added more than 350,000 to the population.
2. Economic and social problems, including homelessness, confronted the state.
D. The U.S. entry into World War II brought economic revitalization to California.
1. California's manufacturing base was greatly increased (airplanes, ships, and other war products).
2. California became the "defense center" of the nation.
E. Japanese-Americans were relocated from coastal areas to inland detention camps (1942).
1. Constitutional and moral questions were raised.
2. The Japanese were forced to sell their homes and businesses on short notice at huge losses.
F. Huge defense contracts following the war fueled economic prosperity.
1. Hundreds of thousands of armed-forces personnel migrated to California.
2. The need for public services increased.
3. Pollution and water became political issues.
X. Recent Developments in California History
A. The California public education system was greatly expanded in the 1960s, including a low-cost college and university system.
B. Regulating water resources became a fundamental political issue.
1. A series of canals, dams, and reservoirs was established.
2. Northern California water was relocated to burgeoning population centers in the south.
C. California became the most populous state in the nation (1964).
D. California cities reflected new urban problems.
1. Minorities were generally left out of the economic prosperity.
2. The Watts Riot (1965) focused national attention on the economic and political status of minorities.
3. African-Americans and Mexican-Americans continued to experience discrimination in the housing and job markets.
a. Reforms in housing, education, and employment provided new opportunities for minorities.
b. Federal affirmative action programs provided a legal basis for changing discrimination in hiring practices.
4. Cesar Chavez organized the first farm workers' union in 1962.
a. The United Farm Workers (UFW) struck the table grape growers in Delano and the San Joaquin Valley (1965).
b. In 1970, the UFW signed a historic contract with the grape growers.
E. Recession in the 1970s followed cutbacks in California defense contracts. The housing and aerospace industries were affected.
F. Californians passed Proposition 13 (1978).
1. Proposition 13 restructured local control over property taxes.
2. It led to cutbacks in property taxes and a decrease in the tax base available to fund social programs.
G. The 1980s were a period of fragile prosperity.
1. Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) led the nation in the computer industry.
2. Defense contracts and the agricultural industries continued to bolster the California economy.
3. Land prices escalated and housing prices soared.
4. The impact of Proposition 13 led to further cutbacks in social services.
5. Economic, political, and social problems threatened prosperity (late 1980s).
a. Immigration (both legal and illegal) from Mexico and Asian countries swelled the population and affected the social service system.
b. Increased crime, gangs, pollution, and other urban problems affected the state.
c. The cost of public higher education escalated dramatically. d. An economic downturn emerged.
H. California in the early 1990s.
1. Urban violence, restricted funding for social welfare programs, high taxes, and a prolonged economic recession affected the state.
2. Unemployment (at approximately 10 percent) exceeded the national average.
3. Severe cutbacks in the California defense industry exacerbated economic problems.
a. This followed the breakup of the Soviet Union.
b. The cutbacks had a ripple effect in the housing, auto, and computer industries, among others.
c. Major industrial plant closings further weakened the economy.
d. The cost of public higher education continued to escalate.
4. The acquittal of police officers in the Rodney King trial led to one of the worst civil disturbances in U.S. history (1992).
a. National attention again was centered on California.
b. Destruction in the Los Angeles area ran into the billions of dollars.
c. The result was new calls for economic and political opportunity for minorities.
XI. California Approaches the Twenty-First Century
A. Guilty verdicts in the federal Rodney King trial (1993) reduced racial tensions.
B. Diversification holds the key to economic growth in the 1990s.
C. Ethnic diversity, minority population growth, and increased minority political presence represent new directions in the state.
D. Economic advantages of California.
1. The gross domestic product (GDP) ranks California number one in the nation.
2. The California GDP ranks it among the top 10 countries in the world.
3. Vast natural resources (oil, timber, minerals, and so on) and abundant fertile land allow for future growth.
4. California leads the nation in manufacturing and agricultural production.
5. The higher education system (junior colleges, state colleges, and universities) is among the finest in the nation.
E. California prosperity in the 1990s led to significant educational advancements.
1. Class size reduction.
2. Mandatory standardized testing (CAT 6, SAT 9).
3. Content standards in all major subject areas.
F. California economic expansion fueled by technology-based companies (mostly in Silicon Valley in Northern California).
G. California faces largest budget deficit in history (2002).
1. National economic downturn affects California.
2. Dot.coms floundered.