History of California

The history of California can be divided into: the Native American period (about 10,000 years ago until
1542), the European exploration period (1542–1769), the Spanish colonial period (1769–1821), the Mexican
period (1821–1848), and United States statehood (September 9, 1850–present). California was one of the most
culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. After contact with Spanish
explorers, most of the Native Americans died out from European diseases.

After the Portolá expedition of 1769–70, Spanish missionaries began setting up 21 California missions on or
near the coast of Alta (Upper) California, beginning with the Mission San Diego de Alcala near the location of
the modern day city of San Diego, California. During the same period, Spanish military forces built several
forts (presidios) and three small towns (pueblos). Two of the pueblos would eventually grow into the cities of
Los Angeles and San Jose. After Mexican Independence was won in 1821, California fell under the
jurisdiction of the First Mexican Empire. Fearing the influence of the Roman Catholic church over their newly
independent nation, the Mexican government closed all of the missions and nationalized the church's property.
They left behind a small "Californio" (white Hispanic) population of several thousand families, with a few
small military garrisons. After the Mexican–American War of 1846–48, Mexico was forced to relinquish any
claim to California to the United States.

The California Gold Rush of 1848–1855 attracted hundreds of thousands of ambitious young people from
around the world. Only a few men struck it rich, and many returned home disappointed. Most appreciated the
other economic opportunities in California, especially in agriculture, and brought their families to join them.
California became the 31st US state in the Compromise of 1850 and played a small role in the American Civil
War. Chinese immigrants increasingly came under attack from nativists; they were forced out of industry and
agriculture and into Chinatowns in the larger cities. As gold petered out, California increasingly became a
highly productive agricultural society. The coming of the railroads in 1869 linked its rich economy with the
rest of the nation, and attracted a steady stream of migrants. In the late 19th century, Southern California,
especially Los Angeles, started to grow rapidly.

Contents
History of California before 1900
Pre-contact period
European exploration
First European contact (1542)
Opening of Spanish–Philippine trading route (1565)
Francis Drake's claim (1579)
Sebastián Vizcaíno's exploration
Spanish colonial period (1769–1821)
Portolá expedition (1769–1770)
Food shortages
Anza explorations (1774–1776)
California Mission network
Mexican period (1821 to 1846)
Trade policy
Mexico and the mission system
 Land grants
American period
Annexation of California (1846–1847)
US capture of coastal ports and towns
Taking of Los Angeles
Reinforcements arrive
Military governor
California Constitutional Convention (1849)
Statehood (1850)
California Gold Rush (1848–1855)
Gold Rush effects
Effects on indigenous population
Maritime history of California
Slavery
California in the American Civil War
Early California transportation
Railroads
History of California, 1900 to present
See also
References
Sources
Further reading
Historiography and teaching
External links

History of California before 1900

Pre-contact period

Different tribes of Native Americans lived in the area that is now California for an estimated 13,000 to 15,000
years. Over 100 tribes and bands inhabited the area.[1] Various estimates of the Native American population in
California during the pre-European period range from 100,000 to 300,000. California's population held about
one-third of all Native Americans in the land now governed by the United States.[2]

The native horticulturalists practiced various forms of forest gardening and fire-stick farming in the forests,
grasslands, mixed woodlands, and wetlands, ensuring that desired food and medicine plants continued to be
available. The natives controlled fire on a regional scale to create a low-intensity fire ecology which prevented
larger, catastrophic fires and sustained a low-density agriculture in loose rotation; a sort of "wild"
permaculture.[3][4][5][6]

European exploration
California was the name given to a mythical island populated only by
beautiful Amazon warriors, as depicted in Greek myths, using gold tools
and weapons in the popular early 16th-century romance novel Las
Sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián) by Spanish author
Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. This popular Spanish fantasy was printed
in several editions with the earliest surviving edition published about
1510. In exploring Baja California the earliest explorers thought the Baja
California Peninsula was an island and applied the name California to
it.[7] Mapmakers started using the name "California" to label the
unexplored territory on the North American west coast.

European explorers flying the flags of Spain and of England explored the
Pacific Coast of California beginning in the mid-16th century. Francisco
de Ulloa explored the west coast of present-day Mexico including the
Gulf of California, proving that Baja California was a peninsula,[8] but in
spite of his discoveries the myth persisted in European circles that Balthazar, Inhabitant of Northern
California was an island. California, painting by Mikhail
Tikhanov.
Rumors of fabulously wealthy cities located somewhere along the
California coast, as well as a possible Northwest
Passage that would provide a much shorter route
to the Indies, provided an incentive to explore
further.

First European contact (1542)

The first Europeans to explore the California

coast were the members of a Spanish sailing
expedition led by Portuguese captain Juan
Rodríguez Cabrillo; they entered San Diego Bay
on September 28, 1542, and reached at least as
far north as San Miguel Island.[9] Cabrillo and
his men found that there was essentially nothing
for the Spanish to easily exploit in California,
located at the extreme limits of exploration and
trade from Spain it would be left essentially
unexplored and unsettled for the next 234 years.

The Cabrillo expedition depicted the Indigenous

populations as living at a subsistence level,
typically located in small rancherias of extended A 1562 map of the Americas, which applied the name
family groups of 100 to 150 people.[10] They had California for the first time.
no apparent agriculture as understood by
Europeans, no domesticated animals except dogs,
no pottery; their tools were made out of wood, leather, woven baskets and netting, stone, and antler. Some
shelters were made of branches and mud; some dwellings were built by digging into the ground two to three
feet and then building a brush shelter on top covered with animal skins, tules and/or mud.[10] The Cabrillo
expedition did not see the far north of California, where on the coast and somewhat inland traditional
architecture consists of rectangular redwood or cedar plank semisubterranean houses.

Opening of Spanish–Philippine 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 base in Manila in the
Philippines.[11][12] The trade with Mexico involved an annual passage of galleons. The Eastbound galleons
first went north to about 40 degrees latitude and then turned east to use the westerly trade winds and currents.
These galleons, after crossing most of the Pacific Ocean, would arrive off the California coast from 60 to over
120 days later somewhere near Cape Mendocino, about 300 miles (480 km) north of San Francisco, at about
40 degrees N. latitude. They could then sail south down the California coast, utilizing the available winds and
the south-flowing California Current, about 1 mi/hr (1.6 km/h). After sailing about 1,500 miles (2,400 km)
south on they eventually reached their home port in Mexico.

The first Asians to set foot on what would be the United States occurred in 1587, when Filipino sailors arrived
in Spanish ships at Morro Bay.[13][14]

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,[15] before exploring and claiming an
undefined portion of the California coast in 1579, landing north
of the future city of San Francisco, perhaps at Point Reyes.[16]
He had friendly relations with the Coast Miwok and claimed
sovereignty of the area for England as Nova Albion, or New
Albion.[17]

National Historic Landmark commemorating

Sebastián Vizcaíno's exploration and honoring Sir Francis Drake, Sebastian
Rodriguez Cermeño, and Coast Miwok
In 1602, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno explored California's people at Point Reyes, California
coastline on behalf of New Spain from San Diego as far north
as Cape Mendocino.[18] He named San Diego Bay, also
putting ashore in Monterey, California, and made glowing reports of the Monterey bay area as a possible
anchorage for ships with land suitable for growing crops. He also provided rudimentary charts of the coastal
waters, which were used for nearly 200 years.

Spanish colonial period (1769–1821)

The Spanish divided California into two parts, Baja California and Alta California, as provinces of New Spain
(Mexico). Baja or lower California consisted of the Baja Peninsula and terminated roughly at San Diego,
California, where Alta California started. The eastern and northern boundaries of Alta California were very
indefinite, as the Spanish, despite a lack of physical presence and settlements, claimed essentially everything in
what is now the western United States.

The first permanent mission in Baja California, Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó, was founded on
October 15, 1697, by Jesuit priest Juan Maria Salvatierra (1648–1717) accompanied by one small boat's crew
and six soldiers. After the establishment of Missions in Alta California after 1769, the Spanish treated Baja
California and Alta California as a single administrative unit, part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, with
Monterey, California, as its capital.

Nearly all the missions in Baja California were established by members of the Jesuit order supported by a few
soldiers. After a power dispute between Charles III of Spain and the Jesuits, the Jesuit colleges were closed
and the Jesuits were expelled from Mexico and South America in 1767 and deported back to Spain. After the
forcible expulsion of the Jesuit order, most of the missions were
taken over by Franciscan and later Dominican friars. Both of
these groups were under much more direct control of the Spanish
monarchy. This reorganization left many missions abandoned in
Sonora Mexico and Baja California.

After the conclusion of the Seven Years' War between Britain

and France and their allies (called the French and Indian War in
the British colonies on the East Coast) (1754–1763), France was
driven out of North America. Spain and Britain were the only
colonial powers left. Britain, as yet, had no Pacific colonies in
North America. The Bourbon King Charles III of Spain
established missions and other outposts in Alta California out of
fear that the territory would be claimed by the British, who not
only had 13 colonies on the East Coast, but also several islands
in the Caribbean, and had recently taken over Canada from the
French.
The Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto
One of Spain's gains from the Seven Years' War was the French
Conchó, Loreto, Baja California Sur, was
Louisiana Territory which was secretly given to Spain. Another founded in 1697.
potential colonial power already established in the Pacific was
Russia, whose maritime fur trade of mostly sea otter and fur seals
was pressing down from Alaska to the Pacific Northwest's lower
reaches. These furs could be traded in China for large profits.

The Spanish settlement of Alta California was the last colonization

project to expand Spain's vastly over-extended empire in North
America, and they tried to do it with minimal cost and support.
Approximately half the cost of settling Alta California was borne by
donations and half by funds from the Spanish crown. Massive Indian
revolts in New Mexico's Pueblo Revolt among the Pueblo Indians of
the Rio Grande valley in the 1680s as well as Pima Indian Revolt in
1751 and the ongoing Seri conflicts in Sonora Mexico provided the
Franciscan friars with arguments to establish missions with fewer
colonial settlers. In particular, the sexual exploitation of Native
American women by Spanish soldiers sparked violent reprisals from
the Native community and the spread of venereal disease.[19]

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 This 1745 map by British
soldiers and friars financed by the Church and State would form the cartographer R.W. Seale
backbone of the proposed settlement of California. misrepresented California as an
island.
Portolá expedition (1769–1770)

In 1769, the Spanish Visitor General, José de Gálvez, planned a five part expedition, consisting of three units
by sea and two by land, to start settling Alta California. Gaspar de Portolà volunteered to command the
expedition. The Catholic Church was represented by Franciscan friar Junípero Serra and his fellow friars. All
five detachments of soldiers, friars and future colonists were to meet on the shores of San Diego Bay. The first
ship, the San Carlos, sailed from La Paz on January 10, 1769, and the San Antonio sailed on February 15. The
San Antonio arrived in San Diego Bay on April 11 and the San Carlos on April 29. The third vessel, the San
José, left New Spain later that spring but was lost at sea with no survivors.

The first land party, led by Fernando Rivera y Moncada, left from the
Franciscan Mission San Fernando Velicata on March 24, 1769. With Rivera was
Juan Crespí,[20] 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.[21]

They took with them about 46 mules, 200 cows and 140 horses—all that could
be spared by the poor Baja Missions. Fernando de Rivera was appointed to
command the lead party that would scout out a land route and blaze a trail to
San Diego.[21] Food was short, and the Indians accompanying them were
expected to forage for most of what they needed. Many Indian neophytes died Spanish colonial coat of
along the way; even more deserted. The two groups traveling from Lower arms for the Californias.
California on foot had to cross about 300 miles (480 km) of the very dry and
rugged Baja Peninsula.

The part of the expedition that took place over land took about 40–51 days to get to San Diego. The
contingent coming by sea encountered the south flowing California Current and strong head winds, and were
still straggling in three months after they set sail. After their arduous journeys, most of the men aboard the
ships were ill, chiefly from scurvy, and many had died. Out of a total of about 219 men who had left Baja
California, little more than 100 survived. The survivors established the Presidio of San Diego on May 14,
1769. Mission San Diego de Alcala was established on July 16, 1769. As the first of the presidios and Spanish
missions in California, they provided the base of operations for the Spanish colonization of Alta California
(present-day California).

On July 14, 1769, an expedition was dispatched from San Diego to find the port of Monterey. Not recognizing
the Monterey Bay from the description written by Sebastián Vizcaíno almost 200 years prior, the expedition
traveled beyond it to what is now the San Francisco, California area. The exploration party, led by Don
Gaspar de Portolà, arrived on November 2, 1769, at San Francisco Bay.,[22] One of the greatest ports on the
west coast of America had finally been discovered by land. The expedition returned to San Diego on January
24, 1770. The Presidio and Mission of San Carlos de Borromeo de Monterey were established on June 3,
1770, by Portola, Serra, and Crespi.[23]

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 men south to the Baja California missions in February to obtain more cattle and a pack-train of
supplies.
Fewer mouths to feed temporarily eased the drain on San Diego's scant provisions, but within weeks, acute
hunger and increased sickness (scurvy) again threatened to force abandonment of the San Diego "Mission".
Portolá finally decided that if no relief ship arrived by March 19, 1770 they would leave to return to the "New
Spain" missions on the Baja Peninsula the next morning "because there were not enough provisions to wait
longer and the men had not come to perish from hunger." At three o'clock in the afternoon on March 19,
1770, as if by a miracle, the sails of the sailing ship San Antonio, loaded with relief supplies, were discernible
on the horizon. The Spanish settlement of Alta California would continue.

Anza explorations (1774–1776)

Juan Bautista de Anza, leading an exploratory expedition on January

8, 1774, with 3 padres, 20 soldiers, 11 servants, 35 mules, 65 cattle,
and 140 horses set forth from Tubac south of present-day Tucson,
Arizona. They went 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 (2-3,000) 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.[24]
Map of the route, Juan Bautista de
After crossing the Colorado to avoid the impassable Algodones Anza travelled in 1775-76 from
Dunes west of Yuma, Arizona, they followed the river about 50 miles Mexico to today's San Francisco via
(80 km) south (to about the Arizona's southwest corner on the the Gila River corridor and the Yuma
Colorado River) before turning northwest to about today's Mexicali, Crossing of the Colorado River.
Mexico and then turning north through today's Imperial Valley and
then northwest again before reaching Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
near the future city of Los Angeles, California. It took Anza about 74
days to do this initial reconnaissance trip to establish a land route into
California. On his return trip he went down the Gila River until hitting
the Santa Cruz River (Arizona) and continuing on to Tubac. The
return trip only took 23 days, and he encountered several peaceful and
populous agricultural tribes with irrigation systems located along the
Gila River.[24]

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, 385 Texas Longhorn bulls and cows with them. The
approximately 200 surviving cattle and an unknown number of horses
(many of each were lost or eaten along the way) started the cattle and
horse raising industry in California. In California the cattle and horses
had few enemies and plentiful grass in all but drought years. They
essentially grew and multiplied as feral animals, doubling roughly
every two years. The party started from Tubac, Arizona, on October
22, 1775 and arrived at San Francisco Bay on March 28, 1776. There
they established the Presidio of San Francisco, followed by a mission,
Mojave and Sonoran deserts block
Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores) --the future city of
easy land travel to California. The
San Francisco.
easiest way across was to use the
Gila River corridor.
In 1780, the Spanish established two combination missions and
pueblos at the Yuma Crossing: Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de
Bicuñer and Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción. Both these
pueblos and missions were on the California side of the Colorado
River but were administered by the Arizona authorities. On July 17–
18, 1781 the Yuma (Quechan) Indians, in a dispute with the Spanish,
destroyed both missions and pueblos—killing 103 soldiers, colonists,
and Friars and capturing about 80 prisoners, mostly women and
children. In four well-supported punitive expeditions in 1782 and
1783 against the Quechans, the Spanish managed to gather their dead
and ransom nearly all the prisoners, but failed to re-open the Anza Typical sand dunes west of Yuma
Trail. The Yuma Crossing was closed for Spanish traffic and it would Arizona
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.[25]

Eventually, 21 California Missions were established along the California coast from San Diego to San
Francisco—about 500 miles (800 km) up the coast. The missions were nearly all located within 30 miles
(48 km) of the coast and almost no exploration or settlements were made in the Central Valley (California) or
the Sierra Nevada (California). The only expeditions anywhere close to the Central Valley and Sierras were
the rare forays by soldiers undertaken to recover runaway Indians who had escaped from the Missions. The
"settled" territory of about 15,000 square miles (40,000 km2 ) was about 10% of California's eventual 156,000
square miles (400,000 km2 ) territory.

In 1786, Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse led a group of scientists and artists who compiled an
account of the Californian mission system, the land, and the people. Traders, whalers, and scientific missions
followed in the next decades.

California Mission network

The California Missions, after they were all established, were located about one day's horseback ride apart for
easier communication and linked by the El Camino Real trail. These Missions were typically manned by two
to three friars and three to ten soldiers. Virtually all the physical work was done by indigenous people
convinced to or coerced into joining the missions. The padres provided instructions for making adobe bricks,
building mission buildings, planting fields, digging irrigation ditches, growing new grains and vegetables,
herding cattle and horses, singing, speaking Spanish, and understanding the Catholic faith—all that was
thought to be necessary to bring the Indians to be able to support themselves and their new church.

The soldiers supervised the construction of the Presidios (forts) and were responsible for keeping order and
preventing and/or capturing runaway Indians that tried to leave the missions. Nearly all of the Indians
adjoining the missions were induced to join the various missions built in California. Once the Indians had
joined the mission, if they tried to leave, soldiers were sent out to retrieve them. In the 1830s, Richard Henry
Dana, Jr. observed that Indians were regarded and treated as slaves by the Spanish-speaking Californios.[26]

The missions eventually claimed about 1/6 of the available land in California or roughly 1,000,000 acres
(4,047 km2 ) of land per mission. The rest of the land was considered the property of the Spanish monarchy.
To encourage settlement of the territory, large land grants were given to retired soldiers and colonists. Most
grants were virtually free and typically went to friends and relatives in the California government. A few
foreign colonists were accepted if they accepted Spanish citizenship and joined the Catholic Faith. The
Mexican Inquisition was still in nearly full force and forbade Protestants living in Mexican controlled territory.
In the Spanish colonial period many of these grants were later turned into Ranchos.
Spain made about 30 of these large grants, nearly all several
square leagues (1 Spanish league = 2.6 miles (4.2 km)) each in
size. The total land granted to settlers in the Spanish colonial era
was about 800,000 acres (3,237 km2 ) or about 35,000 acres
(142 km2 ) each. The few owners of these large ranchos patterned
themselves after the landed gentry in Spain and were devoted to
keeping themselves living in a grand style. The rest of the
population they expected to support them. Their mostly unpaid
workers were nearly all Spanish trained Indians or peons that had
learned how to ride horses and raise some crops. The majority of
the ranch hands were paid with room and board, rough clothing,
The courtyard of Mission San Luis Rey de
rough housing and no salary.
Francia, with California's oldest pepper
tree (Schinus molle), planted in 1830,
The main products of these ranchos were cattle, horses and
visible through the arch.[27]
sheep, most of which lived virtually wild. The cattle were mostly
killed for fresh meat, as well as hides and tallow (fat) which
could be traded or sold for money or goods. As the cattle herds
increased there came a time when nearly everything that could be made of leather was—doors, window
coverings, stools, chaps, leggings, vests lariats (riatas), saddles, boots etc. Since there was no refrigeration
then, often a cow was killed for the day's fresh meat and the hide and tallow salvaged for sale later. After
taking the cattle's hide and tallow their carcasses were left to rot or feed the California grizzly bears which
roamed wild in California at that time, or to feed the packs of dogs that typically lived at each rancho.

A series of four presidios, or "royal forts", each manned by 10 to 100 men, were built by Spain in Alta
California. California installations were established in San Diego (El Presidio Real de San Diego) founded in
1769, in San Francisco (El Presidio Real de San Francisco) founded in 1776, and in Santa Barbara (El
Presidio Real de Santa Bárbara) founded in 1782. After the Spanish colonial era the Presidio of Sonoma in
Sonoma, California was founded in 1834.[28])

To support the presidios and the missions, half a dozen towns (called pueblos) were established in California.
The pueblos of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Villa de Branciforte (later abandoned
before later becoming Santa Cruz, California) and the pueblo of San Jose, California were all established to
support the Missions and presidios in California. These were the only towns (pueblos) in California.

Mexican period (1821 to 1846)

In 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain.

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 40

changes of government, in the 27 years prior to 1848—
an average government duration was 7.9 months. In Alta
California, Mexico inherited a large, sparsely settled,
poor, backwater province paying little or no net tax
revenue to the Mexican state. In addition, Alta California
had a declining Mission system as the Mission Indian
population in Alta California continued to rapidly Mexico in 1824. Alta California is the northwestern-
decrease. most country.
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 country.

Trade policy

Even before Mexico gained control of Alta California the onerous Spanish rules against trading with
foreigners began to break down as the declining Spanish fleet could not enforce their no-trading policies. The
settlers, and their descendants (who became known as Californios), were eager to trade for new commodities,
finished goods, luxury goods, and other merchandise. The Mexican government abolished the no trade with
foreign ships policy and soon regular trading trips were being made.[25]

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.[25]

The main port of entry for trading purposes was Monterey, where custom duties of up to 100% (also called
tariffs) were applied. These high duties gave rise to much bribery and smuggling, as avoiding the tariffs made
more money for the ship owners and made the goods less costly to the customers. Essentially all the cost of the
California government (what little there was) was paid for by these tariffs. In this they were much like the
United States in 1850, where about 89% of the revenue of its federal government came from import tariffs,
although at an average rate of about 20%.[29]

Mexico and 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 Franciscan padres
had performed a combined total of 87,787 baptisms and 24,529 marriages, and recorded 63,789 deaths.[30]

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.[30]

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 missions had existed over 66 years but
the Mission Indians were still not self-sufficient, proficient in Spanish, or wholly Catholic. Taking people from
a hunter-gatherer type existence to an educated, agricultural-based existence was much more difficult than the
missionaries had originally thought. The severe and continuing decline in Mission Indian populations
exacerbated this problem. In 1834 Mexico, in response to demands that the Catholic Church give up much of
the Mission property, started the process of secularizing the Franciscan run missions. Mission San Juan
Capistrano was the very first to feel the effects of this legislation the following year when, on August 9, 1834
Governor Figueroa issued his "Decree of Confiscation."[31]

Nine other missions quickly followed, with six more in 1835; San Buenaventura and San Francisco de Asís
were among the last to succumb, in June and December 1836, respectively.[32] The Franciscans soon
thereafter abandoned most of the missions, taking with them almost everything of value they could, after
which the locals typically plundered the mission buildings for construction materials, furniture, etc. or the
mission buildings were sold off to serve other uses.

In spite of this neglect, the Indian towns at San Juan Capistrano, San Dieguito, and Las Flores did continue on
for some time under a provision in Governor Echeandía's 1826 Proclamation that allowed for the partial
conversion of missions to new pueblos.[33] 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.

Land 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 missions 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 barony. For these few rancho
owners and families, this was California's Golden Age; for the vast majority it was not golden. Much of the
agriculture, vineyards, and orchards established by the Missions were allowed to deteriorate as the rapidly
declining Mission Indian population required less food, and the Missionaries and soldiers supporting the
Missions disappeared. The new Ranchos and slowly increasing Pueblos mostly only grew enough food to eat
and to trade with the occasional trading ship or whaler that put into a California port to trade, get fresh water,
replenish their firewood and obtain fresh vegetables.

The main products of these ranchos were 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 native-born children (who became the
Californios). These Spanish-speakers lived mostly in the southern half of the state from San Diego north to
Santa Barbara. There were also around 1300 American immigrants and 500 European immigrants from a wide
variety of backgrounds. Nearly all of these were adult males and a majority lived in central and northern
California from Monterey north to Sonoma and east to the Sierra Nevada foothills.

A large non-coastal land grant was given to John Sutter who, in 1839, settled a large land grant close to the
future city of Sacramento, California, which he called "New Helvetia" (New Switzerland). There, he built an
extensive fort equipped with much of the armament from Fort Ross—bought from the Russians on credit
when they abandoned that fort. Sutter's Fort was the first non-Native American community in the California
Central Valley. Sutter's Fort, from 1839 to about 1848, was a major agricultural and trade colony in California,
often welcoming and assisting California Trail travelers to California. Most of the settlers at, or near, Sutter's
Fort were new immigrants from the United States.[34][35]

American period

Annexation of California (1846–1847)

Hostilities between the U.S. and Mexico were sparked in part by

territorial disputes between Mexico and the Republic of Texas, and
later by the American annexation of Texas in 1845. Several battles
between U.S. and Mexican troops led the United States Congress to
issue a declaration of war against Mexico on May 13, 1846; the
Mexican–American War had begun. Word of the conflict reached
Alta California about a month later.

The main forces available to the United States in California were the
bluejacket sailors and U.S. Marines on board the ships of the Pacific
Squadron. Speculating that war with Mexico over Texas and other
land was very possible, the U.S. Navy had sent several additional
naval vessels to the Pacific in 1845 to protect U.S. interests there. It
took about 200 days, on average, for ships to travel the greater than
17,000-mile (27,000 km) trip from the East coast around Cape Horn
of South America to California.

Initially as the war with Mexico started there were five vessels in the
U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron near California. In 1846 and 1847 this The USS Cyane taking San Diego
was increased to 13 Navy vessels—over half the U.S. Navy's 1846.
available ships. The only other U.S. military force then in California
was the about 30 military topographers etc. and 30 mountain men,
guides, hunters, etc. in Captain John C. Frémont's United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers
exploratory force. They were exiting California on their way to what is now Oregon when they got word in
early June 1846 that war was imminent and a revolt had already started in Sonoma, California. Hearing rumors
of possible Californio military action against the newly arrived settlers in California (this had already happened
in 1840),[36] 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.[37]

Commodore (Rear Admiral) John D. Sloat and four of his vessels were then at anchor in the harbor of
Mazatlán, Mexico.[38] 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.[39] There were U.S. fears that the British might try to annex California to
satisfy British creditors.[40] The British Pacific Station's squadron of ships off California were stronger in
ships, guns, and men than the American ships.[38] Apparently the British never had any orders on whether to
interfere or not if hostilities broke out between The Californios and the United States and requesting new
orders would have taken from one and a half and two years to get a message to England and back.

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 presidents in the first 24 years of its existence. Most new settlers and Californios were
neutral or actively supported the revolt. An independent group of men called "Los Osos" raised the "Bear
Flag" of the California Republic over Sonoma. The republic was in existence scarcely more than 25 days
before Frémont returned and took over on June 23 from William B. Ide the leader of the Bear Flag Revolt. The
California state flag of today is based on this original Bear Flag and still contains the words "California
Republic."John A. Sutter and his men and supplies at Sutter's Fort joined the revolt.

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 U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy bluejacket sailors available for possible land action on the
Pacific Squadron's ships. Hearing word of the Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma, California, and the arrival of the
large British 2,600-ton, 600-man man-of-war HMS Collingwood flagship under Sir George S. Seymour,
outside Monterey Harbor, Commodore Sloat was finally stirred to action. On July 7, 1846, seven weeks after
war had been declared, Sloat instructed the captains of the ships USS Savannah and sloops Cyane and Levant
of the Pacific Squadron in Monterey Bay to occupy Monterey, California—the Alta California capital. Fifty
American marines and about 100 bluejacket sailors landed and captured the city without incident—the few
Californio troops formerly there having already evacuated the city. They raised the flag of the United States
without firing a shot. The only shots fired were a 21-gun salute to the new U.S. flag fired by each of the U.S.
Navy ships in the harbor.[41] The British ships observed but took no action.

The abandoned Presidio and Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores) at San Francisco, then called
Yerba Buena, were occupied without firing a shot on July 9, 1846, by U.S. marines and U.S. Navy sailors
from the sloop USS Portsmouth. Militia Captain Thomas Fallon led a small force of about 22 men from Santa
Cruz, California, and captured the small town of Pueblo de San Jose without bloodshed on July 11, 1846.
Fallon received an American flag from Commodore John D. Sloat and raised it over the pueblo on July 14. On
July 15, 1846, Commodore (Rear Admiral) Sloat transferred his command of the Pacific Squadron to
Commodore Robert F. Stockton when Stockton's ship, the frigate USS Congress, arrived from the Sandwich
Islands (Hawaii).

Stockton, a much more aggressive leader, asked Fremont to form a joint force of Fremont's soldiers, scouts,
guides, 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 men. These men included Fremont's 30
topographical men and their 30 scouts and hunters, U.S. Marine Lieutenant Archibald H. Gillespie, a U.S.
Navy officer to handle their two cannons, a company of Indians trained by Sutter and many other permanent
California settlers from several different countries as well as American settlers. The California Battalion
members were used mainly to garrison and keep order in the rapidly surrendering California towns.

The Navy went down the coast from San Francisco, occupying ports without resistance as they went. The
small pueblo (town) of San Diego surrendered 29 July 1846 without a shot being fired. The small pueblo
(town) of Santa Barbara surrendered without a shot being fired in August 1846.

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 José María Flores, José Antonio Carrillo and Andrés Pico, organized and
led a campaign of resistance against the American incursion into Los Angeles of the prior month. As a result,
the outnumbered United States troops evacuated the city for the following few months. Over the following
four months, U.S. forces fought minor skirmishes with the Californio Lancers in the Battle of San Pasqual (in
San Diego, California), the Battle of Dominguez Rancho (near Los Angeles), and the Battle of Rio San
Gabriel (near Los Angeles). After the Los Angeles resistance started, the American California Battalion was
expanded to a force of about 400 men.

In early January 1847, a 600-man joint force of U.S. Marine, U.S. Navy bluejacket sailors, General Stephen
W. Kearny's 80 U.S. Army dragoons (cavalrymen), who had arrived over the Gila river trail in December
1846, and about two companies of Fremont's California Battalion re-occupied Los Angeles after some very
minor skirmishes (mostly posturing)—four months after the initial American retreat, the same U.S. flag again
flew over Los Angeles. The minor armed resistance in California ceased when the Californios signed the
Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. About 150 Californios who were worried about possible
punishment from the Americans for not keeping their non-aggression promises rounded up about 300 horses
and retreated into Sonora, Mexico over the Yuma Crossing Gila River trail. The Californios, who had wrested
control of California from Mexico in 1845, now had a new and much more stable government.[42]

After the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed in early 1847, the Pacific Squadron then went on to capture all Baja
California cities and harbors and sink or capture all the Mexican Pacific Navy they could find. Baja California
was returned to Mexico in subsequent Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo negotiations. California was under U.S.
control by January 1847 and formally annexed and paid for by the U.S. in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
signed in 1848.[43]

Reinforcements arrive

After hostilities had ceased with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847, on January 22,
1847 Commodore Stockton's replacement, Commodore William B. Shubrick, showed up in Monterey in the
razee USS Independence with 54 guns and about 500 crew members. On January 27, 1847 the transport
Lexington showed up in Monterey, California with a regular U.S. Army artillery company of 113 men under
Captain Christopher Tompkins.[44]

More reinforcements of about 320 soldiers (and a few women) of the Mormon Battalion arrived at San Diego
on January 28, 1847—after hostilities had ceased. They had been recruited from the Mormon camps on the
Missouri River—about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) away. These troops were recruited with the understanding they
would be discharged in California with their weapons. Most were discharged before July 1847. More
reinforcements in the form of Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson's 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers of about
648 men showed up in March–April 1847—again after hostilities had ceased. After desertions and deaths in
transit, four ships brought Stevenson's 648 men to California. Initially they took over all of the Pacific
Squadron's on-shore military and garrison duties and the Mormon Battalion and California Battalion's garrison
duties.

The New York Volunteer companies were deployed from San Francisco in Alta California to La Paz, Mexico
in Baja California. The ship Isabella sailed from Philadelphia on 16 August 1847, with a detachment of one
hundred soldiers, and arrived in California on 18 February 1848, the following year, at about the same time
that the ship Sweden arrived with another detachment of soldiers. These soldiers were added to the existing
companies of Stevenson's 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers. Stevenson's troops were recruited with the
understanding that they would be discharged in California. When gold was discovered in late January 1848,
many of Stevenson's troops deserted.

The U.S. 1850 California Census asks state of birth of all residents and finds about 7300 residents that were
born in California. The San Francisco, Contra Costa and Santa Clara county U.S. censuses were lost or
burned in one of San Francisco's many fires. Adding the approximate 200 Hispanics in San Francisco (1846
directory) and an unknown (but small as shown in 1852 CA Census recount) number of Hispanics in Contra
Costa and Santa Clara county in 1846 gives less than 8,000 Hispanics 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.

Military governor

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 California Gold Rush.[45] Despite a
major conflict in the U.S. Congress on the number of slave versus non-slave states, the large, rapid and
continuing California population gains and the large amount of gold being exported east gave California
enough clout to choose its own boundaries, select its representatives, write its Constitution, and be admitted to
the Union as a free state in 1850 without going through territorial status as required for most other states.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally ended the Mexican–American War in February 1848. For
$15,000,000, and the assumption of U.S. debt claims against Mexico, the new state of Texas's boundary
claims were settled, and New Mexico, California, and the unsettled territory of several future states of the
American Southwest were added to U.S. control.

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.[46]

General Bennett C. Riley who had fought in the Siege of Veracruz and Chapultepec during the Mexican–
American War and considered an able military commander, was the last military governor of California in
1849–1850. In response to popular demand for a better more representative government, General Riley issued
an official proclamation dated June 3, 1849, calling for a Constitutional Convention and an election of
representatives on August 1, 1849.

California 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.[47] The 48 delegates chosen were mostly pre-1846
American settlers; eight were native born Californios who had to use
interpreters. The new miners in El Dorado County were grossly
under-represented as they had no representatives at the convention
despite then being the most populated county in California. After the
election the California Constitution Convention met in the small town
and former Californio capital of Monterey, California, in September
Colton Hall in Monterey, site of
1849 to write a state constitution.[48] California's 1849 Constitutional
Convention
Like all U.S. states' constitutions, the California Constitution adhered
closely to the format and government roles set up in the original 1789
U.S. Constitution—differing mainly in details. The Constitutional Convention met for 43 days debating and
writing the first California Constitution. The 1849 Constitution[49] copied (with revisions) a lot out of the Ohio
and New York Constitutions but had parts that were originally several different state constitutions as well as
original material.

The 21-article Declaration of Rights in the California Constitution (Article I: Sec.1 to Sec.-21) was broader
than the U.S. Constitution's 10-article Bill of Rights. There were four other significant differences from the
U.S. Constitution. The convention chose the boundaries for the state—unlike most other territories, whose
boundaries were set by Congress (Article XII). Article IX encouraged statewide education and provided for a
system of common schools partially funded by the state and provided for the establishment of a University
(University of California). The California version outlawed slavery, except as punishment (Article I Sec. 18)
and dueling (Article XI Sec.2) and gave women and wives the right to own and control their own property
(Article XI Sec. 14).

The debt limit for the state was set at $300,000 (Article VIII). Like all other states they guaranteed the rights of
citizens to sue in Civil court to uphold the rights of contracts and property (Article I Sec. 16). They created a
court system with a supreme court with judges who had to be confirmed every 12 years.(Article VI) They set
up the states original 29 counties (Article I Sec. 4), created a legislature of two houses, set up polling places to
vote, set up uniform taxation rules. The 1849 Constitution guaranteed the right to vote to "Every citizen of
California, declared a legal voter by this Constitution, and every citizen of the United States, a resident of this
State on the day of election, shall be entitled to vote at the first general election under this Constitution, and on
the question of the adoption thereof (Article XII Sec. 5)".[50]

The California Constitution was ratified by popular vote at an election held on a rainy[51] 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 capitol (Article XI Sec. 1). Soon after the election they set
up a provisional state government that set up the counties, elected a governor, senators, and representatives,
and operated for ten months prior to statehood. As agreed to in the Compromise of 1850, Congress passed the
California Statehood Act on September 9, 1850.[50]

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.[52] Americans and foreigners of many different countries, Map of the states and territories of
statuses, classes, and races rushed to California for gold. Almost all the United States when California
(~96%) were young men. Women in the California Gold Rush were became a state in 1850. California
few and had many opportunities to do new things and take on new was part of the Mexican Cession,
tasks. Argonauts, as they were often called, walked over the and those parts outside of the state
California Trail or came by sea. About 80,000 Argonauts arrived in were organized into the Utah Territory
1849 alone—about 40,000 over the California trail and 40,000 by sea. and New Mexico Territory.

San Francisco was designated the official port of entry for

all California ports where U.S. customs (also called tariffs
and Ad valorem taxes) (averaging about 25%) were
collected by the Collector of Customs from all ships bearing
foreign goods. The first Collector of customs was Edward
H. Harrison, appointed by General Kearny. Shipping
boomed from the average of about 25 vessels from 1825 to
1847[25] to about 793 ships in 1849 and 803 ships in
1850.[53] All ships were inspected for what goods they
carried. Passengers disembarking in San Francisco had one
of the easier accesses to the gold country since they could
take another ship from there to get to Sacramento and
several other towns.

San Francisco shipping boomed, and wharves and piers had

to be developed to handle the onslaught of cargo--Long
Wharf was probably the most prominent. To meet the
demands of the Gold Rush, ships bearing food, liquors of
many types, tools, hardware, clothing, complete houses,
lumber, building materials, etc. as well as farmers,
entrepreneurs, prospective miners, gamblers, entertainers
and prostitutes, etc. from around the world came to San
Francisco. These imports included large numbers of California goldfields in the Sierra Nevada and
Galapagos tortoise and sea turtle imported into Alta northern California
California to feed the Gold miners. [54][55] Initially, the large
supplies of food needed were imported from close ports in
Hawaii, Mexico, Chile, Peru, and the future state of Oregon. The Californios initially prospered, as there was a
sudden increase in the demand for livestock. These food shipments changed mainly to shipments from Oregon
and internal shipments in California as agriculture was developed in both states.

Starting in 1849, many of the ship crews jumped ship and headed for the gold fields when they reached port.
Soon San Francisco Bay had many hundreds of abandoned ships anchored offshore. The better ships were
recrewed and put back in the shipping and passenger business. Others were bought cheap and hauled up on
the mud flats and used as store ships, saloons, temporary stores, floating warehouses, homes, and a number of
other uses. Many of these repurposed ships were partially destroyed in one of San Francisco's many fires and
ended up as landfill to expand the available land. The population of San Francisco exploded from about 200 in
1846 to 36,000 in the 1852 California Census.[56]

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.[57]

Californios who lived in California had finally had

enough of the Mexican government and seized
control of the territory of Alta California in 1846.[42]
At the time gold was discovered in 1848, California
had about 9,000[58] former Californios and about
3,000 United States citizens including members of
Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson's 1st Regiment of
New York Volunteers and discharged members of
the California Battalion and Mormon Battalions.
The Pacific Squadron secured San Francisco Bay
and the coastal cities of California.

The state was formerly under the military governor

Merchant ships fill San Francisco harbor in 1850 or
Colonel Richard Barnes Mason who only had about 1851
600 troops to govern California—many of these
troops deserted to go to the gold fields. Before the
Gold Rush, almost no infrastructure existed in California except a few small Pueblos (towns), secularized and
abandoned Missions and about 500 large (averaging over 18,000 acres (73 km2 )) ranchos owned by the
Californios who had mostly taken over the Missions land and livestock. The largest town in California prior to
the Gold Rush was the Pueblo de Los Angeles with about 3,500 residents.

The sudden massive influx into a remote area overwhelmed the state infrastructure, which in most places didn't
even exist. Miners lived in tents, wood shanties, wagons, or deck cabins removed from abandoned ships.[59]
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.[60] Prices were inflated in
the camps. Miners often paid for food, liquor and other goods in "dust."[61]

Some of the first Argonauts, as they were also known, traveled by the all sea route around Cape Horn. Ships
could take this route year round and the first ships started leaving East Coast ports as early as November 1848.
From the East Coast, a sailing voyage around the southern tip of South America would typically take five to
eight months—averaging about 200 days by standard sailing ship.[62] This trip could easily cover over
18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km) depending on the route chosen—some even went by way of the Sandwich
Islands (Hawaii). When the much faster clipper ships began to be used starting in early 1849, they could
complete this journey in an average of only 120 days; but they typically carried few passengers. They
specialized in high value freight. Nearly all freight to California was carried by regular sailing vessels—they
were slow but the cheapest way to ship cargo. Starting about 1850 many travelers to California took
steamboats to Panama or Nicaragua, crossed the Isthmus of Panama or Nicaragua and caught another
steamboat to California. In California other smaller steamboats hauled miners from San Francisco, California
up the Sacramento River to Stockton, Sacramento. Marysville, California 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 Pacific Mail
Steamship Company to set up regular paddle steamer packet ship, mail, passenger and cargo routes in the
Pacific Ocean. This was to be a regular route from Panama, Nicaragua and Mexico to and from San Francisco
and Oregon. The Atlantic Ocean mail contract from East Coast cities and New Orleans, Louisiana to and from
the Chagres River in Panama was won by the United States Mail Steamship Company whose first steamship,
the SS Falcon (1848') was dispatched on December 1, 1848. The SS California (1848), the first Pacific Mail
Steamship Company steamship, showed up in San Francisco loaded with gold seekers on February 28, 1849
on its first trip from Panama and Mexico after steaming around Cape Horn from New York. Once the
California Gold Rush was confirmed, other paddle steamers soon followed on both the Pacific and Atlantic
routes. By late 1849 paddle steamers like the SS McKim (1848)[63] were carrying miners and business men
over the 125 miles (201 km) trip from San Francisco up the Sacramento River to Sacramento and Marysville,
California. Steam powered tugboats started working in the San Francisco Bay soon after this.

Agriculture expanded throughout the state to meet the food needs of the new settlers. Agriculture was soon
found to be limited by the difficulty of finding enough water in the right places to grow irrigated crops. Winter
wheat planted in the fall and harvested in the spring was one early crop that grew well without irrigation. At
the beginning of the Gold Rush, there was no written law regarding property rights in the goldfields, and a
system of "staking claims" was developed by the miners. The Gold Rush also had negative effects: Native
Americans were pushed off of traditional lands and massacred[64] 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 ounces[65] (370 t) of
gold were removed in the first five years of the Gold Rush. This gold greatly increased the available money in
the United States, which was on the gold standard at that 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 ounces (340 t) of gold (worth approximately US$6.6 billion at November 2006 prices) had been
recovered via "hydraulicking," a style of hydraulic mining that later spread around the world, despite its drastic
environmental consequences. By the late 1890s, dredging technology had become economical,[66] and it is
estimated that more than 20 million ounces (620 t) were recovered by dredging (worth approximately
US$12 billion at November 2006 prices). Both during the Gold Rush and in the decades that followed, hard-
rock mining wound up being the single-largest source of gold produced in the Gold Country.[67]

By 1850, the U.S. Navy started making plans for a west coast navy base at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. The
greatly increased population, along with the new wealth of gold, caused: roads, bridges, farms, mines,
steamship lines, businesses, saloons, gambling houses, boarding houses, churches, schools, towns, mercury
mines, and other components of a rich modern (1850) U.S. culture to be built. The sudden growth in
population caused many more towns to be built throughout Northern, and later Southern, California and the
few existing towns to be greatly expanded. The first cities started showing up as San Francisco and
Sacramento exploded in population.

Effects on indigenous population

Most California Indians are thought to have been located near the coast, the same areas the Spanish Missions
were established. Since California Indians had no agriculture before it was introduced by the Franciscan
padres, they were strictly hunter-gatherer society tribes which could not support large populations—large
populations require agriculture. During the Spanish and Mexican California occupation period nearly all
coastal tribes south of San Francisco were induced to join a mission. So many Mission Indians died from
exposure to harsh conditions at the missions and diseases like measles, diphtheria, smallpox, syphilis, etc. that
at times raids were undertaken to new villages in the interior to supplement the supply of Indian women at the
missions. As reported by Krell, as of December 31, 1832, the mission Franciscan padres from 1800 to 1830
had performed a combined total of 87,787 baptisms and 24,529 marriages, and recorded 63,789 deaths.[30] If
Krell's numbers are to be believed (others have slightly different numbers) the Mission Indian population had
declined from a peak of about 87,000 in about 1800 to about 14,000 in 1832 and continued to decline. The
Missions were becoming ever more strained as the number of Indian converts drastically declined and the
deaths greatly exceeded the births. The ratio of Indian births to deaths is believed to have been less than 0.5
Indian births per death.[30] After the missions were disbanded in 1832 the surviving Indians mostly went to
work on the about 500 newly established ranchos who appropriated the mission's "property" (about 1,000,000
acres (400,000 ha) acres/mission). The Indians typically worked at one of the four Spanish pueblos as servants
or at the newly established ranchos for room and board or attempted to join other tribes in the interior. The new
ranchos occupied nearly all their original tribal territories.

The new wave of immigration that was sparked by the gold rush would continue to have a disastrous impact
on California's native population, which continued to precipitously decline mainly due to Eurasian diseases to
which they had no natural immunity.[68] 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 David Stannard, Benjamin Madley, and Ed Castillo, have described the actions of
the California government as a genocide.[69][70][71] Between 1850 and 1860, the state of California paid
around 1.5 million dollars (some $250,000 of which was reimbursed by the federal government)[72] to hire
militias whose purpose was to "protect" settlers from the indigenous populations. These "private military
forays" were involved in several of the above-mentioned massacres, and sometimes participated in the
"wanton killing" of Native peoples. The first governor of California, Peter Burnett, openly called for the
extermination of the Indian tribes, and in reference to the violence against California's Native population, he
said, "That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race
becomes extinct, must be expected. While we cannot anticipate the result with but painful regret, the inevitable
destiny of the race is beyond the power and wisdom of man to avert."[73] As a result, the rise of modern
California equalled great tragedy and hardship for the native inhabitants.

In subsequent decades after 1850, the native population of more than 100 tribes were gradually placed in a
series of reservations and rancherias, which were often very small and isolated and lacked adequate natural
resources or funding from the government to sustain the populations living on them in the hunter-gathering
style they were used to living.
Maritime history of California

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

Slavery

Tribes in northwest California practiced slavery long before the arrival of Europeans.[74] There were never
black slaves owned by Europeans, and many free men of African ancestry joined the California Gold Rush
(1848–1855). Some returned east with enough gold to purchase their relatives.[75] The California Constitution
of 1849 outlawed any form of slavery in the state, and later the Compromise of 1850 allowed California to be
admitted into the Union, undivided, as a free state. Nevertheless, as per the 1853 Act for the Government and
Protection of Indians, a number of Native Americans were formally enslaved in the state, a practice that
continued until the mid-1860s, when California changed its laws to conform to the 14th
Amendment.[73][76][77]

California in the American Civil War

The possibility of splitting off Southern California as a territory or a state was rejected by the national
government, and the idea was dead by 1861 when patriotic fervor swept California after the attack on Fort
Sumter.

California's involvement in the American Civil War included sending gold east, recruiting or funding a limited
number of combat units, maintaining numerous fortifications and sending troops east, some of whom became
famous. Following the split in the Democratic Party in 1860, Republican supporters of Lincoln took control of
the state in 1861, minimizing the influence of the large southern population. Their great success was in
obtaining a Pacific railroad land grant and authorization to build the Central Pacific as the western half of the
transcontinental railroad.

California was settled primarily by Midwestern and Southern farmers, miners, and businessmen. Though the
southerners and some Californios tended to favor the Confederacy, the state did not have slavery, and they
were generally powerless during the war itself. They were prevented from organizing and their newspapers
were closed down by denying them the use of the mail. Former Sen. William M. Gwin, a Confederate
sympathizer, was arrested and fled to Europe.

Nearly all of the men who volunteered as Union soldiers stayed in the West, within the Department of the
Pacific, to guard forts and other facilities, occupy secessionist regions, and fight Indians in the state and the
western territories. Some 2,350 men in the California Column marched east across Arizona in 1862 to expel
the Confederates from Arizona and New Mexico. The California Column then spent most of the remainder of
the war fighting hostile Indians in the area.

Early California transportation

Even before Mexico gained control of Alta California in 1821, the onerous Spanish rules in effect from 1770
to 1821 against trading with foreigners began to break down as the declining Spanish fleet couldn't enforce
their no trading policies. The Californios, with essentially no industries or manufacturing capabilities, were
eager to trade for new commodities, glass, hinges, nails, finished goods, luxury goods and other merchandise.
The Mexican government abolished the no trade with foreign ships policy and soon regular trading trips were
being made. The main products of these California Ranchos were cow hides (called California greenbacks),
tallow (rendered fat for making candles and soap) and California/Texas longhorn cattle horns[78] that were
traded for other finished goods and merchandise. This hide-and-tallow trade was mainly carried on by Boston-
based ships that traveled for about 200 days in sailing ships about 17,000 miles (27,000 km) to 18,000 miles
(29,000 km) around Cape Horn to bring finished goods and merchandise to trade with the Californio Ranchos
for their hides, tallow and horns. The cattle and horses that provided the hides, tallow and horns essentially
grew wild. The Californios' hides, tallow and horns provided the necessary trade articles for a mutually
beneficial trade. The first United States, English and Russian trading ships began showing up in California
before 1816. The classic book Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. written about 1832
provides a good first hand account of this trade.,[79][80]

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.[25] 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%.[29]

Ships after 1848 provided easy, cheap, links among the coastal towns within California and on routes leading
there. Nearly all cargo to California came by sailing ship until the completion of the first Transcontinental
Railroad in 1869. The sea route was more than 17,000 miles (27,000 km) route from the east coast or Europe
around Cape Horn in South America. This route averaged about 200 days by "standard" sailing ship or about
120 days by Clipper. One of the main problems that occurred during the gold rush was the lack of a paying
cargo for ships leaving California. Food, supplies and passengers were the main cargo coming to California;
but there were only a limited return trade of returning passengers, mail and gold. Many of the sailing ships that
arrived in San Francisco Bay were abandoned there or converted into warehouses or landfill.

The Panama and Nicaragua routes provided a shortcut for getting from the East Coast to California and a brisk
maritime passenger trade developed, featuring fast paddle steamers from cities on the east coast, New Orleans,
Louisiana and Havana Cuba to the Caribbean mouth of the Chagres River in Panama and the mouth of San
Juan River in Nicaragua. After a trip up the Chagres River by native dugouts the last 20 miles (32 km) were
completed to Panama City by mule back. The trip up the San Juan River in Nicaragua was usually done by
small steam launch to Lake Nicaragua, a boat trip on the lake and a final 25 miles (40 km) trip by stage coach
or mule back to San Juan del Sur or other city in the Pacific side of Nicaragua. After 1855 when the Panama
Railroad was completed the Nicaragua route largely shut down.

In 1846 the Oregon boundary dispute was settled with Great Britain and California was under U.S. control in
1847 and annexed and paid for in 1848. The United States was now a Pacific Ocean power. Starting in 1848
the U.S. Congress, after the annexation of California but before the California Gold Rush was confirmed
there, had subsidized the Pacific Mail Steamship Company with $199,999 to set up regular packet ship, mail,
passenger and cargo routes in the Pacific Ocean. This was to be a regular scheduled route from Panama City,
Nicaragua and Mexico to and from San Francisco and Oregon. Panama City was the Pacific terminus of the
Isthmus of Panama trail across Panama. The Atlantic Ocean mail contract from East Coast cities and New
Orleans to and from the mouth of the Chagres River in Isthmus of Panama was won by the United States Mail
Steamship Company whose first paddle wheel steamship, the SS Falcon (1848) was dispatched on 1
December 1848 to the Caribbean (Atlantic) terminus of the Isthmus of Panama trail—the Chagres River.

In 1849 William H. Aspinwall, the man who had won the bid for the building and operating of the Pacific mail
steamships, conceived a plan to construct a railway across the isthmus of Panama; he and his partners created a
company registered in New York, the Panama Railroad Company, raised US$1,000,000 from the sale of
stock, and hired companies to conduct engineering and route studies. Their venture happened to be well-timed,
as the discovery of gold in California in January 1848 created a rush of emigrants wanting to cross the Isthmus
of Panama and go on to California or return home. Cholera, yellow fever, and malaria took a deadly toll on the
Railroad workers, and despite the continual importation of large numbers of new workers, there were times
when the work stalled for simple lack of alive and semi-fit workers. All railroad supplies and nearly all
foodstuffs had to be imported from thousands of miles away, greatly adding to the cost of construction.
Laborers came from the United States, the Caribbean Islands, and as far away as Ireland, India, China, and
Australia.[81] Upon completion in 1855 the road stretched 47 miles (76 km) and had cost over $8,000,000 and
about 5,000 lives. By 1855 this arduous trip across the Isthmus of Panama had been shortened to a one-day
$25.00 excursion on the Panama Railroad.

The first of three Pacific Mail Steamship Company

paddle wheel steamships, the SS California (1848),
contracted for on the Pacific route, left New York City on
6 October 1848. This was before the gold strikes in
California were confirmed and she left with only a partial
passenger load in her 60 saloon (about $300 fare) and
150 steerage (about $150 fare) passenger compartments.
Only a few were going all the way to California.[82] As
word of the gold strikes spread, the SS California picked
up more passengers in Valparaiso Chile and Panama City
Panama and showed up in San Francisco on 28 February
1849. She was loaded with about 400 gold seeking
passengers; twice the number of passengers it had been SS California (1848), Pacific Mail's first ship on the
designed for. In San Francisco all her passengers and Panama City to San Francisco route.
crew except the captain and one man deserted the ship
and it would take the Captain two more months to gather
a much better paid return crew to return to Panama city an establish the route they had been contracted for.
Many more paddle steamers were soon running from the east coast cities to the Chagres River in Panama and
the San Juan River in Nicaragua. By the mid 1850s there were over ten Pacific and ten Atlantic/Caribbean
paddle wheel steamboats shuttling high valued freight like passengers, gold and mail between California and
both the Pacific and Caribbean ports. The trip to the east coast could be executed after about 1850 in as short
as 40 days if all ship connections could be met with a minimum of waiting.

Steamboats plied the Bay Area and the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers that flowed nearer the goldfields,
moving passengers and supplies from San Francisco to Sacramento, Marysville and Stockton, California—the
three main cities supplying the gold fields. The city of Stockton, on the lower San Joaquin, quickly grew from
a sleepy backwater to a thriving trading center, the stopping-off point for miners headed to the gold fields in
the foothills of the Sierra. Rough ways such as the Millerton Road which later became the Stockton - Los
Angeles Road[83] quickly extended the length of the valley and were served by mule teams and covered
wagons.[84] Riverboat navigation quickly became an important transportation link on the San Joaquin River,
and during the "June Rise",[85] as boat operators called the San Joaquin's annual high water levels during
snow melt, on a wet year large craft could make it as far upstream as Fresno. During the peak years of the gold
rush, the river in the Stockton area was reportedly crowded with hundreds of abandoned oceangoing craft,
whose crew had deserted for the gold fields. The multitude of idle ships was such a blockade that at several
occasions they were burned just to clear a way for riverboat traffic.[86][87] Initially, with few roads, pack trains
and wagons brought supplies to the miners. Soon a system of wagon roads, bridges, ferries and toll roads were
set up many of them maintained by tolls collected from the users. Large freight wagons pulled by up to 10
mules replaced pack trains, and toll roads built and kept passable by the tolls made it easier to get to the mining
camps, enabling express companies to deliver firewood, lumber, food, equipment, clothes, mail, packages, etc.
to the miners. Later when communities developed in Nevada some steamboats were even used to haul cargo
up the Colorado River as high as where Lake Mead in Nevada is today.
The Butterfield
Overland Mail Stage
Line [88] was a
stagecoach service
operating from 1857 to
1861 of over 2,800 miles
(4,500 km). It carried
passengers and U.S. Mail
from Memphis,
Tennessee and St. Louis,
Missouri to San
Francisco, California.
The stage routes from a Butterfield Overland Mail Company map.
The Butterfield Overland
Stage Company had
more than 800 people in
its employ, had 139 relay stations, 1800 head of stock and 250 Concord stagecoaches in service at one
time.[89] The routes from each eastern terminus met at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then continued through
Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Texas, and the future states of New Mexico, Arizona along the Gila River trail,
across the Colorado River at the Yuma Crossing, and into California ending in San Francisco.[90]

With the prospects of the civil war looming the Butterfield stage contract was terminated and the stage route to
California rerouted. An Act of Congress, approved March 2, 1861, discontinued this route and service ceased
June 30, 1861. On the same date the central route from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Salt Lake City, Utah, Carson
City, Nevada and on to Placerville, California, went into effect. From the end of Central Overland route in
Carson City, Nevada they followed the Placerville Toll road route over Johnson Pass (now U.S. Highway 50)
to California since it was the fastest and only route that was then kept open in winter across the Sierra Nevada
(U.S.) mountains.[91] The 1800 draft horses and mules, 250 coaches, etc., on the southern Gila River route
Butterfield Stage route were pulled off and moved to the new route between St. Joseph, Missouri and
Placerville, California along the existing Oregon, California Trails to Salt Lake City and then through central
Utah and Nevada. On 30 June 1861 the Central Overland California Route from St. Joseph, Missouri, to
Placerville, California, went into effect. By traveling day and night and using team changes about every 10
miles (16 km) the stages could make the trip in about 28 days. News paper correspondents reported that they
had a preview of "hell" when they took the trip.[91]

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 rancheros' greatest prosperity. The Californio rancho society before 1848 had few resources except large
herds of Longhorn cattle which grew almost wild in California. The Ranchos produced the largest cowhide
(called California Greenbacks) and tallow business in North America by killing and skinning their cattle and
cutting off their fat. The cowhides were staked out to dry and the tallow was put in large cowhide bags. The
rest of the animal was left to rot or feed the California grizzly bears then common in California. The traders
who traded for the hides, tallow and sometimes horns hauled them back to the east coast where the hides were
used to make a large variety of leather products, most of the tallow was used for making candles and the horns
were mostly used for making buttons. A trading trip typically took over two years. The classic book Two Years
Before the Mast (originally published 1840) by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. gives a good first-hand account of a
two-year sailing ship sea trading voyage to California which he took in 1834–5. Dana mentions that they also
took back a large shipment of California longhorn horns. Horns were used to make a large number of items in
this time period. (The eBook of Two Years Before the Mast is available at Gutenberg project.)[92] A large part
of the Californio diet was beef, but since there was no easy way to preserve it most of the time another animal
was killed when fresh meat was needed as when visitors showed up—the hides and tallow could be salvaged
and very little was lost. The market for beef dramatically changed with the onset of the Gold Rush, as
thousands of miners, businessmen and other fortune seekers flooded into northern California. These
newcomers needed meat, and cattle prices soared from the $1.00 to $2.00 per hide to $30.00-$50.00 per cow.
From about 1848 to about 1860 the rancheros enjoyed the "golden" days of Hispanic California. The largely
illiterate ranchero owners lost nearly all their land to a few bad years for cattle in the 1860s and the many
mortgages they had taken out to finance a "prosperous" life style and could no longer pay back.[93] In the
early years of the Gold Rush the demand for beef was so great that there are records of about 60,000
longhorns being herded from Texas to California.[94]

The Pony Express used much of this same route across Nevada and
the Sierras in 1860–1861. These combined stage and Pony Express
stations along the Central Route across Utah and Nevada were joined
by the first transcontinental telegraph stations (completed 24 October
1861). The Pony express terminated soon after the telegraph was
established. This combination wagon-stagecoach-pony express-
telegraph line route is labeled the Pony Express National Historic
Trail on the National Trail Map.[95] 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 Concord stagecoach No. 251 in
became the main line, since the required relay stations, lines and Wells Fargo livery
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 paddle wheel
steamships connecting port cities. Freight wagons still hauled nearly
all cargo. Even when railroads arrived, stages were essential to link
more remote areas to the railheads. Top of the line in quality, with
crowded discomfort, was the nine-passenger Concord stagecoach, but Mud-coach
the cheaper, rougher "mud wagons" were also in general use. The
Wells Fargo company contracted with independent lines to deliver its
express packages and transport gold bullion and coins. Stagecoach travel was usually uncomfortable as
passengers were often crowded together in limited space, dust pouring through open windows from rough
unpaved roads, rough rides, un-bathed fellow passengers and poorly sprung steel tired stagecoaches. Some
drivers were famous for their skill in driving six horses down winding roads at top speed, only rarely
overturning. Rate competition from competing stage lines reduced fares to as little a two cents per mile on
some routes—a $1.00/day was then a common wage. Bandits found robbing coaches a profitable if risky
venture as they may be shot or hanged if caught. U.S. government mail subsidies provided essential base
income for many stage lines, but running a stage line was often a financially unstable business enterprise.

Railroads

California's first railroad was built from Sacramento to Folsom,

California starting in February 1855. This 22 miles (35 km) line was
meant to take advantage of the prosperous gold diggings in
Placerville, California but were completed at about the same time
(February 1856) as the mining near there came to an end. The first
Transcontinental Railroad from Sacramento, California to Omaha,
Nebraska was completed on 9 May 1869. The Central Pacific
Railroad, the Pacific end of the railroad, largely took over nearly all
freight across the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) mountains in Northern
California. By 1870 there were railroad connections to Oakland, Workers drive in the golden spike on
the First Transcontinental Railroad,
California and via a train ferry to San Francisco, California from
1869
Sacramento—effectively connecting all the major cities in California
then to the east coast.

Southern California's first railroad, the Los Angeles & San Pedro
Railroad, was inaugurated in October, 1869 by John G. Downey and
Phineas Banning. It ran 21 miles (34 km) between San Pedro and Los
Angeles.[96] In 1876 California's first railroad linking Los Angeles
with Northern California was completed when the San Joaquin line of
the Southern Pacific Railroad finished the San Fernando Railroad
Tunnel through the Tehachapi mountains,[97] linking Los Angeles to
the Central Pacific Railroad. This route to Los Angeles followed the
A Southern Pacific Train at Arcade
Tehachapi Loop, a 0.73-mile (1.17 km) long 'spiral track', or helix, Depot, Los Angeles, 1891
through Tehachapi Pass in Kern County and connected Bakersfield
and the San Joaquin Valley to Mojave in the Mojave Desert.

Although most of California's railroads started off as short line

railroads the period from 1860 to 1903 saw a series of railroad
mergers and acquisitions that led to the creation of four major
inter-state railroads servicing the state (the Southern Pacific
Railroad, Union Pacific Railroad, Santa Fe Railroad and Western
Pacific Railroad). Each of these railroads controlled one (and
Southern Pacific controlled two) of the transcontinental railroads
which linked California with states farther East. The railroads
moved freight and passengers in large quantities and allowed the
state's economy and population to expand rapidly during the late
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
19th and early 20th centuries.
Railway's combined Super Chief/El
Capitan at the Union Station in Los
By the 1890s the construction of electric railroads had begun in
Angeles, 1966.
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.

The expansion of American railroads peaked in the 1910s and during

the Great Depression many railroads suffered financial difficulties
which led to some railroad bankruptcies. World War II caused a surge
in the use of California's railroads but with the government funded
construction of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s and the
expansion of the U.S. airline industry passenger rail service declined
dramatically.

The 1970s saw the end of private passenger railroads in California,

the creation of a national passenger railroad (Amtrak) and the Bay
An Amtrak Capitol Corridor train
Area's opening of the BART rail-system. In the 1980s and 1990s
passing through Santa Clara Station
commuter railroads where established in the Bay Area (Caltrain and
in 2005.
Altamont Corridor Express), Los Angeles (Metrolink) and San Diego
(Coaster) and light rail networks were built or expanded in most urban
areas.

The early 2000s saw the expansion in usage of passenger rail service and in 2008 voters approved plans for
the construction of a high-speed rail network.

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).[98] Silicon Valley became the world's center for computer innovation.

See also
Outline of California history
Territorial evolution of California
History of California before 1900
History of California 1900 to present
History museums in California
California Dream

History of locations in California

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

References
1. "California Indian History" (https://web.archive.org/web/20081026054357/http://ceres.ca.gov/na
hc/califindian.html). 26 October 2008. Archived from the original (http://ceres.ca.gov/nahc/califin
dian.html) on 26 October 2008. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
2. Starr, Kevin. California: A History, New York, Modern Library (2005), p. 13
3. Neil G. Sugihara; Jan W. Van Wagtendonk; Kevin E. Shaffer; Joann Fites-Kaufman; Andrea E.
Thode, eds. (2006). "17". Fire in California's Ecosystems. University of California Press. p. 417.
ISBN 978-0-520-24605-8.
4. Blackburn, Thomas C. and Kat Anderson, ed. (1993). Before the Wilderness: Environmental
Management by Native Californians. Menlo Park, California: Ballena Press. ISBN 978-
0879191269.
5. Cunningham, Laura (2010). State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=nuYuYGHwCygC&pg=PA135). Berkeley, California: Heyday. pp. 135,
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Sources
Rolle, Andrew (1987). California: A History (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/13333829) (4th ed.).
Arlington Heights, IL: Harlan Davidson. ISBN 0-88295-839-9. OCLC 13333829 (https://www.wo
rldcat.org/oclc/13333829).

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, (https://web.archive.org/web/2012
0102074700/http://www.1st-hand-history.org/Hhb/HHBindex.htm) 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 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385720882)
Burns, John F. and Richard J. Orsi, eds; Taming the Elephant: Politics, Government, and Law in
Pioneer California (2003) online edition (https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105960680)
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 (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_4WdgAQbv13EC)
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 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1405161833)
Ellison, William. A Self-governing Dominion: California, 1849-1860 (1950) full text online free
(https://books.google.com/books?id=T8v4nWGB0T0C)
 Hayes, Derek. Historical Atlas of California: With Original Maps, (2007), 256 pp.
Hittell, Theodore Henry. History of California (4 vol 1898) old. detailed narrative; online edition
(https://books.google.com/books?id=4GFJTXSj8UgC&dq=%22history+of+california%22)
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 (https://
www.amazon.com/dp/0520249984)
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 (https://www.amazo
n.com/dp/1559635800)
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 (https://archive.org/stream/californiaguidet00federich#page/687/mode/1u

p) — "California: Guide to the Golden State;" Federal Writers' Project; 1939.
Scholarly articles in California Historical Society Quarterly: 1922−1971 (https://www.jstor.org/jo
urnal/calihistsociquar)
Scholarly articles in California Historical Quarterly: 1971−77 (https://www.jstor.org/journal/calihi
stquar)
Scholarly articles in California History': 1978−present (https://www.jstor.org/journal/calihist)
Library of Congress: California State Guide (https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/states/california/
index.html)
An Act for the Admission of the State of California into the Union (http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/
ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=009/llsl009.db&recNum=479) — 31st Cong., Sess. I, Ch. 50,
September 9, 1850.

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