- The great seal is the fourth version of a design adopted in 1849, the year before California became …
More people live in California than in any other state of the Union. In 2000, the population was about one eighth of the nation's entire population. If California were an independent country it would have more residents than about half of the world's nations. The state's name is believed to have come from a 16th-century Spanish novel entitled The Exploits of Esplandián. The book described a fabled place called California. The nickname of the Golden State comes from the golden poppies that grow in California and from the gold that was found there in the mid-19th century. GeographyCalifornia's land and inland water covers 158,706 square miles (411,049 square kilometers) in the western United States; only Alaska and Texas are bigger in size. California is bordered by Nevada and Arizona on the east, Oregon on the north, Mexico on the south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Mount Whitney, at 14,494 feet (4,418 meters), is the highest point on the United States mainland. Death Valley, at 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level, is the mainland's lowest point. California contains all sorts of land surfaces: mountains, valleys, forests, farms, seacoasts, and deserts. The Klamath Mountains are in the state's northwest corner. To their east is the southern part of the Cascade Range. The Sierra Nevada is a wall of mountains in the east-central part of the state. The great Central Valley, between the Sierra Nevada on the east and the highlands of the Pacific Coast Ranges on the west, runs 450 miles (724 kilometers) north to south. Most of eastern California is desert. The largest desert in the state, the Mojave, is in the southeast. The southern coast is dry as well. The state's climate differs by location. The north coast around San Francisco has cool summers and mild winters. In the southern part of the state, including Los Angeles, the weather is normally mild throughout the year. The mountain ranges have cold winters and short summers, while the valleys have hot summers and mild winters. Precipitation likewise depends upon where one is within the state. In general, rain falls only in the winter. About 110 inches (280 centimeters) of rain and snow fall in the far northeast corner of the state each year, but there are less than 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain each year in Death Valley. Water problemsWater must be brought in from far away to supply California's farms and crowded coastal cities. A dam on the Tuolumne River stores water for San Francisco. Water from the Owens River in the southern Sierras is brought into Los Angeles through a 233-mile (375-kilometer) aqueduct (channel for water). Another aqueduct brings water to southern California from Lake Havasu (on the Colorado River) at the Arizona border. EarthquakesCalifornia has suffered some terrible earthquakes. The huge earthquake that hit San Francisco in 1906 is thought of as one of the worst natural disasters in the nation's history. Another large earthquake in the San Francisco Bay area in 1989 happened during the evening rush hour, stranding thousands of people coming home from work and causing billions of dollars worth of damage. Plant and animal lifeThe gigantic California redwood is the official state tree. Some large sequoia trees have been growing for more than 2,000 years. Deer, rabbits, coyotes, foxes, and bobcats are found in the forests and mountains. The California valley quail is the state bird. The largest bird in the region is the California condor; efforts have been made to try to keep this bird from becoming extinct. PeopleNative Americans of the Shasta, Pomo, Miwok, and Chumash peoples lived along the coast long before Europeans arrived. The Mojave lived in the southeast and the Yokut in the Central Valley. The first Europeans in California were Spaniards. By 1848, when the United States obtained California from Mexico, there were about 15,000 Spanish-speaking residents. The Gold Rush brought new settlers, from the eastern United States and from all over the world. Large numbers of Chinese and Japanese arrived between 1860 and 1940. California in the 21st century remains a great mixture of backgrounds. Whites, African Americans, and Hispanics (mainly Mexicans) continue to settle in the state along with lesser numbers of people from other heritages. The largest clusters of people are in the south, around Los Angeles and San Diego, and the San Francisco Bay area. Los Angeles County alone has about 10 million residents. CitiesCalifornia has many big cities. Los Angeles, a coastal city in the south, is the largest. Other major cities include San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose in the Bay Area, and San Diego. The capital of California is Sacramento. RecreationMany people visit California because there are so many things there to see and do. The state has more than a dozen national parks plus millions of acres of national forests. Resorts, many along beaches or by mountains, feature a variety of activities. Skiing is a great attraction at Lake Tahoe, golfing is a popular pastime in Palm Springs, and sailing brings people to Catalina Island. Many tourists enjoy visiting movie and television sets in Hollywood, the longtime center of the entertainment industry. Others head to the amusement park attractions of Disneyland in Anaheim. Many families visit the San Diego Zoo, which has one of the nation's greatest animal collections. California has more professional sports teams than any other state. Pasadena is the site of college football's annual Rose Bowl Game and the spectacular Tournament of Roses Parade. The Winter Olympics were held in Squaw Valley in 1960, and the Summer Olympics took place in Los Angeles in 1932 and 1984. EducationFree public schooling began in San Francisco in the 1850s. In the following decade, a statewide system of public education was organized. State-supported higher education is organized into two groups: schools belonging to the University of California System and schools belonging to the California State University System. Both have campuses throughout the state. Some of the state's best-known private schools are Stanford University (in Stanford), California Institute of Technology (in Pasadena), and the University of Southern California (in Los Angeles). EconomyAgriculture and fishingCalifornia has one of the country's most powerful economies. The land, especially in the well-irrigated Central Valley, has more valuable farms than anywhere else in the United States. Some of the dozens of crops grown include grapes for eating and winemaking, oranges and other citrus fruits, peaches, tomatoes, strawberries, and lettuce. Beef and dairy cattle are also raised. Fish caught include tuna, salmon, crabs, and sardines. IndustryThe state manufactures automobiles, aircraft, ships, military supplies, electrical equipment, and chemicals. California also has many food processing plants and publishing and printing industries. A region known as Silicon Valley, in the San Francisco Bay area, is home to much of the nation's computer industry. The entertainment industry is likewise important. MiningPetroleum and natural gas are two of California's main natural resources. Platinum, boron, magnesium, and other minerals are also mined and add to the state's economy. HistoryNative Americans lived in the area that became California for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo claimed the land for Spain in 1542. In 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno explored the coast and gave many places their present names. MissionsIn 1769 two Spanish priests founded a mission called San Diego de Alcalá. During the next 50 years, 20 more missions were established along the coast. The last and northernmost was San Francisco de Solano, begun in 1823. Around the missions grew pueblos (towns) and large ranches with herds of cattle and sheep. Mexican War and statehoodBetween the 1820s and the 1840s, California had two competing influences: Mexico and the United States. Mexico, which had won its independence from Spain in 1821, owned the territory and refused to sell it to the United States. American fur traders and sea captains often did business in California, and residents began to be influenced by them. Russia also had a stake in the territory. They built Fort Ross near the Russian River north of San Francisco. There they collected supplies for their Alaskan settlement until 1841, when the fort was sold to a resourceful American pioneer, Capt. John A. Sutter. In 1846 the people around Sonoma rebelled against Mexican rule. They raised a flag with a bear (a symbol of strength) on it as the banner of the California republic. They then joined the United States in fighting the Mexican War. The peace treaty created upon the war's end in 1848 gave the United States claim to California and other territory. In 1850, California became the 31st state of the Union. Gold RushIn 1848 gold was discovered at a sawmill near Coloma. This event started the Gold Rush. The arrival of gold-hunting people called Forty-niners (because many of them arrived in 1849) changed California. San Francisco's population soared from 800 in 1848 to 25,000 in 1850. Thousands of additional people came after railroad service from the eastern United States began in 1869. California in the 20th and 21st centuriesDuring the Great Depression of the 1930s, thousands of homeless farm families went to California hoping to earn a living. California's industry greatly expanded during World War II (1939–45) as aircraft plants and shipyards hired thousands of new employees. At the same time, however, California was the site of camps set up to house Japanese Americans, who were feared as still being loyal to Japan (an enemy of the United States during the war). The 1960s saw race riots in the Watts ghetto of Los Angeles. In the early 21st century the state continued to attract large numbers of new residents each year, including many workers and families from Mexico. Issues such as affordable housing and how to educate people from so many different backgrounds remained important. A serious energy crisis forced state and national officials to look for ways to supply the state with more electrical power. Population (2000 census), 33,871,648. |