Adsactly Education - California
Adsactly Education: California
California
The Golden State
Capital: Sacramento
Largest City: Los Angeles
155,959 sq. mi. 403,934 sq. Km
3rd Largest State
Admitted to US: 1850 (31st)
Population: 39,000,000 (1st)
Highest Point: 14,505 ft (4421 m)
Lowest Point: -279 ft (-85 m)
State Bird: California Quail
State Flower: Golden Poppy
Motto: Eureka
Bordered By: Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Baja California Nortre (Mexico) and the Pacific Ocean.
California
California takes it’s name from a Caliphate in a fictional land from a series of books written by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo in the 15th Century. The fictional California was said to be rich in Gold and Jewels.
California was settled by humans early, the climate and food sources were enticing to the early inhabitants. There is (disputed) evidence that possibly indicates humans there as much as 40,000 years ago. Certainly people were there 12,000 years ago and some of them are the ancestors of the current natives.
First European contact probably came from the Spanish sailor Francisco de Ulloa who explored the west coast of North America. De Ulloa thought Baja California and California were part of a huge Island and maps of the time show it that way. The idea persisted in some circles until as late as the 18th Century.
California was originally claimed by Spain as part of the ‘New Spain’ empire and was known as Alta California which included current California plus parts of Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Arizona. It became part of Mexico when they won their independence in 1821 but a revolt by American Settlers led to the area being declared an independent Republic in 1846 and led to the American invasion at the start of the Mexican War in 1846. Mexico officially ceded California to the US as a part of the settlement of the Mexican War in 1848. California was quickly organized as a territory (Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848) and was admitted to the Union as the 31st state in 1850.
California was by it’s own constitution (in negotiation with the US Congress) a free state (no slavery) and a part of the Union war effort during the American Civil War. Due to the high numbers of Southern sympathizers in the state it sent no organized units to the War but did contribute gold to the Union Cause.
Between 1850 and 1860 California hired several militias to “protect” the settlers from the local native population. By 1860 the natives had been herded into reservations that were too small and didn’t have enough resources to support the population. Many modern day historians have labeled this enforced relocation as ‘genocide’.
In 1869 the Transcontinental Railroad was completed which reduced the time needed to travel from St. Louis to Sacramento from 6 months to 6 days. The state was set for explosive population growth.
20th Century California
Early in the 20th Century roads were completed that connected California to the newly popular automobile and the industry around it. The Lincoln Highway and Route 66 made travel from the rest of the country relatively easy and the population simply exploded. From fewer than one million residents in 1900 to the most populous state in the Union by 1940 sort of explosion.
The population explosion drove a massive amount of infrastructure projects in the state such as dams and canals and water diversion projects and agriculture and highways and bridges. Private industry exploded during the same time frame.
The motion picture industry had established Los Angeles as it’s global headquarters as early as the 1920s. It would continue to grow and prosper there and would become California’s first billion dollar industry after gold extraction.
WWII saw the huge rise of manufacturing in the state. California produced the third largest amount of military equipment used in the war. Shipbuilding and cargo handling became major components of the state’s economy and identity. Hundreds of thousands of workers were needed there and in the newly formed aerospace industry. The state’s lush valleys and climate saw California advance to feed a significant portion of the American public. Most anything will grow in California given the proper amount of water.
Suburbs were formed and grew into cities in their own rights. Mammoth highway projects were built and added to and rebuilt and tweaked just to get workers to and from their place of employment. It was all driven by the engine that is the California economy.
California in the mid to late 20th Century brought innovation after innovation to the American public. Some good, some not so much. Disneyland was opened in 1955. The happiest place on earth was in California. The movie studios kept generating money at a rate that almost defies description. A new concept, the fad, had it’s genesis in post war California. If it became ‘had to have’ in California it was immediately ‘had to have’ all over the US.
People young and old dreamed of being a part of the revolution that became California and a stunning number moved there. The population and economy grew at simply unprecedented rates. Not just in the US but in the history of the world.
Which brought about the first signs of a civilization out of control. Pollution of the land, sea and air became a huge problem. Not everybody that moved to California hit it big, a significant fraction didn’t hit at all which led to problems with crime and gangs. The inner cities became a breeding ground for all sorts of ‘antisocial behavior’.
The thing that nobody seemed to realize was that California was not it’s own island in these areas, it was just the first of the states to realize that there were/are problems with explosive growth and rampant business expansion. Per the norm for the last 100 years California is also at the leading edge of solving or remediating them.
We are going to break this post on California here, and proceed with actual causes and conditions in the next installment. There is no possible way to understate the importance of California in today’s US. It is simply the leader of the pack.
Special Laws
California prison workers will no longer be allowed to have sex with inmates
I hope you enjoyed this opening synopsis of California. The words and ideas are mine but I used Wikipedia California as the source for the information.
All images in this post are properly licensed and used.
This is part of a series on the various states. California will continue in the next installment, I hope you will return.
Authored by: @bigtom13
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I find it curious that fantastic or imaginary character that has the origin of the name of California, which would announce its destiny linked to cinema (perhaps the most imaginary of the arts) with Hollywood and also with the headquarters of Disneyland. I also liked that he introduced that consideration of how California's explosive growth in demographics as well as industrial and commercial generated problems of social and environmental sustainability. I was delighted to learn that the poppy is the flower of the state and that the delicate quails are relevant to its fauna. Pending continuation. As always very grateful for his serious and formal information, @bigtom13, also to #adsactly for its diffusion.
I was amazed at where the name came from, too. I never knew the story until I started doing research for this article. You are correct, it does fit the character of the place.
I have been fascinated by Quail since I was a child. That small fact warmed my heart, too.
Thanks for being a steadfast reader and for leaving wonderful comments.
If there's one state I know, or think I know, it's California. I have read, heard and seen so much of California that I feel I have lived there. Perhaps for being one of the most touristic states in the United States, but also for being one of the cradles of the Hispanic community and for being one of the states where the spectacle is. Beyond good things and glamour, I hear about hurricanes and storms. Bad place to live in California. I'll wait for the second part! Thank you for sharing, @bigtom13!
There is no doubt that California is the best known of the states world wide. It's big and bright and flashy and frankly an amazing place.
With that said, I am happy to live in Arizona. I go to California regularly (It's only 20 miles) but prefer to live here.
It sort of surprises me that you would pick California as the cradle of the Hispanic community. The 2020 census will probably show that Hispanics are the majority in Arizona. It seems to me (and this is solely my opinion) that we just live together in Arizona with out all the headlines. Most of the time.
Thanks for a wonderful comment Nancy. Always appreciated!
Actually, Kalifornia's lowest point was when they re-elected Brown as Governor.
Too bad the memory of most Kalifornians was too short to remember, "If its Brown, flush it down".
Currently Kalifornia is inundated with fires that have a desire to burn houses that are in the way of where Brown want to put a high speed train.
It is also amazing how Kalifornia had a water shortage under Brown, which was all but forgotten until Brown got re-elected. Although there is a severe shortage of water, any discussion about building a desalination plant is quickly squashed.
Although silicon valley is turning into rust-belt 2.0
The fires are clearing out an area for where the secret space program is going to start manufacturing their space tech for the consumer market.
Now that's funny. I was frankly dumbfounded that Brown was nominated let alone elected. I remember Governor Moonbeam from the past.
The lowest point in California used to be Salton City before the leak in the Colorado River in the early 20th Century that created the Salton Sea. That is a really classic Rift Valley.
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