Etymology

Main articles: Etymology of California and Island of California

California and its namesake ruler, Queen Calafia, originate in the 1510 epic Las Sergas de
Esplandián, written by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo.
The Spaniards gave the name Las Californias to the peninsula of Baja California and to Alta
California, the latter region becoming the present-day state of California.
The name derived from the mythical island of California in the fictional story of Queen Calafia, as
recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián by Castilian author Garci Rodríguez de
Montalvo.[37] This work was the fifth in a popular Spanish chivalric romance series that began
with Amadís de Gaula.[38][39][40] Queen Calafia's kingdom was said to be a remote land rich in gold
and pearls, inhabited by beautiful Black women who wore gold armor and lived like Amazons, as
well as griffins and other strange beasts.[37][41][42] In the fictional paradise, the ruler Queen Calafia
fought alongside Muslims and her name may have been chosen to echo the Muslim title caliph,
used for Muslim leaders.[37][43]
Know ye that at the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very close to that
part of the Terrestrial Paradise, which was inhabited by black women without a single man among
them, and they lived in the manner of Amazons. They were robust of body with strong passionate
hearts and great virtue. The island itself is one of the wildest in the world on account of the bold
and craggy rocks.

— Chapter CLVII of The Adventures of Esplandián[44]

Official abbreviations of the state's name include CA, Cal., Calif., and US-CA.

History
Main article: History of California
Further information: History of California before 1900

A map of indigenous Californian tribes and languages at the time

of European contact
Indigenous
Main article: Indigenous peoples of California
California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North
America.[45] Historians generally agree that there were at least 300,000 people living in California
prior to European colonization.[46] The indigenous peoples of California included more than 70
distinct ethnic groups, inhabiting environments ranging from mountains and deserts to islands
and redwood forests.[47]
Living in these diverse geographic areas, the indigenous peoples developed complex forms of
ecosystem management, including forest gardening to ensure the regular availability of food
and medicinal plants.[48][49] This was a form of sustainable agriculture.[50] To mitigate destructive
large wildfires from ravaging the natural environment, indigenous peoples developed a practice
of controlled burning.[51] This practice was recognized for its benefits by the California government
in 2022.[36]
These groups were also diverse in their political organization, with bands, tribes, villages, and, on
the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan. Trade,
intermarriage, craft specialists, and military alliances fostered social and economic relationships
between many groups. Although nations would sometimes war, most armed conflicts were
between groups of men for vengeance. Acquiring territory was not usually the purpose of these
small-scale battles.[52]
Men and women generally had different roles in society. Women were often responsible for
weaving, harvesting, processing, and preparing food, while men for hunting and other forms of
physical labor. Most societies also had roles for people whom the Spanish referred to as joyas,
[53]
who they saw as "men who dressed as women".[54] Joyas were responsible for death, burial,
and mourning rituals, and they performed women's social roles.[54] Indigenous societies had terms
such as two-spirit to refer to them. The Chumash referred to them as 'aqi.[54] The early Spanish
settlers detested and sought to eliminate them.[55]

Spanish period
Main articles: Province of Las Californias and Spanish missions in California
Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claiming California for the Spanish Empire in
1542
The first Europeans to explore the coast of California were the members of a Spanish maritime
expedition led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542. Cabrillo was
commissioned by Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain, to lead an expedition up the
Pacific coast in search of trade opportunities; they entered San Diego Bay on September 28,
1542, and reached at least as far north as San Miguel Island.[56] Privateer and explorer Francis
Drake explored and claimed an undefined portion of the California coast in 1579, landing north of
the future city of San Francisco.[57] Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast of
California in 1602 for New Spain, putting ashore in Monterey.[58] Despite the on-the-ground
explorations of California in the 16th century, Rodríguez's idea of California as an
island persisted. Such depictions appeared on many European maps well into the 18th century. [59]
The Portolá expedition of 1769–70 was a pivotal event in the Spanish colonization of California,
resulting in the establishment of numerous missions, presidios, and pueblos. The military and civil
contingent of the expedition was led by Gaspar de Portolá, who traveled over land
from Sonora into California, while the religious component was headed by Junípero Serra, who
came by sea from Baja California. In 1769, Portolá and Serra established Mission San Diego de
Alcalá and the Presidio of San Diego, the first religious and military settlements founded by the
Spanish in California. By the end of the expedition in 1770, they would establish the Presidio of
Monterey and Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo on Monterey Bay.

Junípero Serra conducting the first Mass in Monterey

Bay in 1770
After the Portolà expedition, Spanish missionaries led by Father-President Serra set out to
establish 21 Spanish missions of California along El Camino Real ("The Royal Road") and along
the California coast, 16 sites of which having been chosen during the Portolá expedition.
Numerous major cities in California grew out of missions, including San Francisco (Mission San
Francisco de Asís), San Diego (Mission San Diego de Alcalá), Ventura (Mission San
Buenaventura), or Santa Barbara (Mission Santa Barbara), among others.
Juan Bautista de Anza led a similarly important expedition throughout California in 1775–76,
which would extend deeper into the interior and north of California. The Anza expedition selected
numerous sites for missions, presidios, and pueblos, which subsequently would be established by
settlers. Gabriel Moraga, a member of the expedition, would also christen many of California's
prominent rivers with their names in 1775–1776, such as the Sacramento River and the San
Joaquin River. After the expedition, Gabriel's son, José Joaquín Moraga, would found the pueblo
of San Jose in 1777, making it the first civilian-established