The region now known as California has been populated for at least 10,000 years, and possibly far longer. Estimates of the prehistoric Indian population have varied widely, but it is clear that California was one of the most densely populated areas north of Mexico. On the eve of European discovery, at least 300,000 Indians lived there. This large population was divided into no fewer than 105 separate tribes or nations speaking at least 100 different languages and dialects, about 70% of which were as mutually unintelligible as English and Chinese. No area of comparable size in North America, and perhaps the world, contained a greater variety of native languages and cultures than did aboriginal California.
In general, the California tribes depended for their subsistence on hunting, fishing, and gathering the abundant natural food resources. Only in a few instances, notably along the Colorado River, did the Indians engage in agriculture. Reflecting the mild climate of the area, their housing and dress were often minimal. The basic unit of political organization was the village community, consisting of several small villages, or the family unit. For the most part, these Indians were sedentary people: they occupied village sites for generations, and only rarely warred with their neighbors.
European contact with California began early in the Age of Discovery, and was a product of the two great overseas enterprises of 16th-century Europe: the search for a western passage to the East and the drive to control the riches of the New World. In 1533, Hernán Cortés, Spanish conqueror of the Aztecs, sent a naval expedition northward along the western coast of Mexico in search of new wealth. The expedition led to the discovery of Baja California (now part of Mexico), mistakenly described by the pilot of the voyage, Fortún Jiménez, as an island. Two years later, Cortés established a settlement on the peninsula at present-day La Paz, but because Baja California seemed barren of any wealth, the project was soon abandoned. The only remaining interest in California was the search for the western mouth of the transcontinental canal—a mythical waterway the Spanish called the Strait of Anian. In 1542, Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo led a voyage of exploration up the western coast in a futile search for the strait. On 28 September, Cabrillo landed at the bay now known as San Diego, thus becoming the first European discoverer of Alta (or Upper) California.
European interest in the Californias waned in the succeeding decades, and California remained for generations beyond the periphery of European activity in the New World. Subsequent contact was limited to occasional landfalls by Manila galleons, such as those of Pedro de Unamuno (1587) and Sebastián Cermeno (1595), and the tentative explorations of Sebastián Vizcaino in 1602–3.
Spanish interest in California revived during the late 18th century, largely because Spain's imperial rivals were becoming increasingly aggressive. For strategic and defensive reasons, Spain decided to establish permanent settlements in the north. In 1769, José de Gálvez, visitor-general in New Spain, selected the president of the Franciscan missions in Baja California, Father Junípero Serra, to lead a group of missionaries on an expedition to Alta California. Accompanying Serra was a Spanish military force under Gaspar de Portolá. This Portolá-Serra expedition marks the beginning of permanent European settlement in California. Over the next half-century, the 21 missions established by the Franciscans along the Pacific coast from San Diego to San Francisco formed the core of Hispanic California. Among the prominent missions were San Diego de Alcalá (founded in 1769), San Francisco de Asis (1776), Santa Barbara (1786), and San José (1797). During most of the Spanish period, Mission San Carlos Borromeo (1770), at Carmel, was the ecclesiastical headquarters of the province, serving as the residence of the president-general of the Alta California missions.
These missions were more than just religious institutions. The principal concern of the missionaries was to convert the Indians to Christianity—a successful enterprise, if the nearly 88,000 baptisms performed during the mission period are any measure. The Franciscans also sought to bring about a rapid and thorough cultural transformation. The Indians were taught to perform a wide variety of new tasks: making bricks, tiles, pottery, shoes, saddles, wine, candles, and soap; herding horses, cattle, sheep, and goats; and planting, irrigating, and harvesting. In addition to transforming the way of life of the California Indians, the missions also reduced their number by at least 35,000. About 60% of this decline was due to the introduction of new diseases, especially those of the nonepidemic and venereal type.
Spain also established several military and civilian settlements in California. The four military outposts, or presidios, at San Diego (1769), Monterey (1770), San Francisco (1776), and Santa Barbara (1783) served to discourage foreign influence in the region and to contain Indian resistance. The presidio at Monterey also served as the political capital, headquarters for the provincial governors appointed in Mexico City. The first civilian settlement, or pueblo, was established at San José de Guadalupe in 1777, with 14 families from the Monterey and San Francisco presidios. The pueblo settlers, granted supplies and land by the government, were expected to provide the nearby presidios with their surplus agricultural products. The second pueblo was founded at Los Angeles (1781), and a third, Branciforte, was established near present-day Santa Cruz in 1797.
During the 40 years following the establishment of the Los Angeles pueblo, Spain did little to strengthen its outposts in Alta California. The province remained sparsely populated and isolated from other centers of Hispanic civilization. During these years, the Spanish-speaking population of 600 grew nearly fivefold, but this expansion was almost entirely due to natural increase rather than immigration.
Spanish control of California ended with the successful conclusion of the Mexican Revolution in 1821. For the next quarter-century, California was a province of the independent nation of Mexico. Although California gained a measure of self-rule with the establishment of a provincial legislature, the real authority still remained with the governor appointed in Mexico City. The most important issues in Mexican California were the secularization of the missions, the replacement of the Franciscans with parish or "secular" clergy, and the redistribution of the vast lands and herds the missions controlled. Following the secularization proclamation of Governor José Figueroa in 1834, the Mexican government authorized more than 600 rancho grants in California to Mexican citizens. The legal limit of an individual grant was 11 square leagues (about 76 sq mi, 197 sq km), but many large landholding families managed to obtain multiple grants.
The rancho economy, like that of the missions, was based on the cultivation of grain and the raising of huge herds of cattle. The rancheros traded hides and tallow for manufactured goods from foreign traders along the coast. As at the missions, herding, slaughtering, hide tanning, tallow rendering, and all the manual tasks were performed by Indian laborers. By 1845, on the eve of American acquisition, the non-Indian population of the region stood at about 7,000.
During the Mexican period, California attracted a considerable minority of immigrants from the US. Americans first came to California in the late 18th century in pursuit of the sea otter, a marine mammal whose luxurious pelts were gathered in California waters and shipped to China for sale. Later, the hide and tallow trade attracted Yankee entrepreneurs, many of whom became resident agents for American commercial firms. Beginning in 1826, with the arrival overland of Jedediah Strong Smith's party of beaver trappers, the interior of California also began to attract a growing number of Americans. The first organized group to cross the continent for the purpose of settlement in California was the Bidwell-Bartleson party of 1841. Subsequent groups of overland pioneers included the ill-fated Donner party of 1846, whose members, stranded by a snowstorm near the Sierra Nevada summit, resorted to cannibalism so that 47 of the 87 travelers could survive.
Official American efforts to acquire California began during the presidency of Andrew Jackson in the 1830s, but it was not until the administration of James K. Polk that such efforts were successful. Following the American declaration of war against Mexico on 13 May 1846, US naval forces, under command of Commodores John D. Sloat and Robert F. Stockton, launched an assault along the Pacific coast, while a troop of soldiers under Stephen W. Kearny crossed overland. On 13 January 1847, the Mexican forces in California surrendered. More than a year later, after protracted fighting in central Mexico, a treaty of peace was signed at Guadalupe-Hidalgo on 2 February 1848. Under the terms of the treaty, Mexico ceded California and other territories to the US in exchange for $15 million and the assumption by the US of some $3 million in claims by Mexican citizens.
Just nine days before the treaty was signed, James Wilson Marshall discovered gold along the American River in California. The news of the gold discovery, on 24 January 1848, soon spread around the globe, and a massive rush of people poured into the region. By the end of 1848, about 6,000 miners had obtained $10 million worth of gold. During 1849, production was two or three times as large, but the proceeds were spread among more than 40,000 miners. In 1852, the peak year of production, about $80 million in gold was mined in the state, and during the century following its discovery, the total output of California gold amounted to nearly $2 billion.
California's census population quadrupled during the 1850s, reaching nearly 380,000 by 1860, and continued to grow at a rate twice that of the nation as a whole in the 1860s and 1870s. The new population of California was remarkably diverse. The 1850 census found that nearly a quarter of all Californians were foreign-born, while only a tenth of the national population had been born abroad. In succeeding decades, the percentage of foreign-born Californians increased, rising to just under 40% during the 1860s.
One of the most serious problems facing California in the early years of the gold rush was the absence of adequate government. Miners organized more than 500 "mining districts" to regulate their affairs; in San Francisco and other cities, "vigilance committees" were formed to combat widespread robbery and arson. The US Congress, deadlocked over the slavery controversy, failed to provide any form of legal government for California from the end of the Mexican War until its admission as a state in the fall of 1850. Taking matters into their own hands, 48 delegates gathered at a constitutional convention in Monterey in September 1849 to draft a fundamental law for the state. The completed constitution contained several unique features, but most of its provisions were based on the constitutions of Iowa and New York. To the surprise of many, the convention decided by unanimous vote to exclude slavery from the state. After considerable debate, the delegates also established the present boundaries of California. Adopted on 10 October, the constitution was ratified by the voters on 13 November 1849; at the same time, Californians elected their first state officials. California soon petitioned Congress for admission as a state, having bypassed the preliminary territorial stage, and was admitted after southern objections to the creation of another free state were overcome by adoption of the stringent new Fugitive Slave Law. On 9 September 1850, President Millard Fillmore signed the admission bill, and California became the 31st state to enter the union.
The early years of statehood were marked by racial discrimination and considerable ethnic conflict. Indian and white hostilities were intense; the Indian population declined from an estimated 150,000 in 1845 to less than 30,000 by 1870. In 1850, the state legislature enacted a foreign miners' license tax, aimed at eliminating competition from Mexican and other Latin American miners. The Chinese, who replaced the Mexicans as the state's largest foreign minority, soon became the target of a new round of discrimination. By 1852, 25,000 Chinese were in California, representing about a tenth of the state's population. The legislature enacted new taxes aimed at Chinese miners, and passed an immigration tax (soon declared unconstitutional) on Chinese immigrants.
Controversy also centered on the status of the Mexican ranchos, those vast estates created by the Mexican government that totaled more than 13 million acres (5 million hectares) by 1850. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo had promised that property belonging to Mexicans in the ceded territories would be "inviolably protected." Nevertheless, in the early years of statehood, thousands of squatters took up residence on the rancho lands. Ultimately, about three-fourths of the original Mexican grants were confirmed by federal commissions and courts; however, the average length of time required for confirmation was 17 years. During the lengthy legal process, many of the grantees either sold parts of their grants to speculators or assigned portions to their attorneys for legal fees. By the time title was confirmed, the original grantees were often bankrupt and benefited little from the decision.
Despite the population boom during the gold rush, California remained isolated from the rest of the country until completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. Under terms of the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, the Central Pacific was authorized by Congress to receive long-term federal loans and grants of land, about 12,500 acres per mi (3,100 hectares per km) of track, to build the western link of the road. The directors of the California corporation—Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins, who became known as the Big Four—exercised enormous power in the affairs of the state. Following completion of the Central Pacific, the Big Four constructed additional lines within California, as well as a second transcontinental line, the Southern Pacific, providing service from southern California to New Orleans.
To a degree unmatched anywhere in the nation, the Big Four established a monopoly of transportation in California and the Far West. Eventually the Southern Pacific, as the entire system came to be known after 1884, received from the federal government a total of 11,588,000 acres (4,690,000 hectares), making it the largest private landowner in the state. Opponents of the railroad charged that it had established not only a transportation monopoly but also a corrupt political machine and a "land monopoly" in California. Farmers in the San Joaquin Valley became involved in a protracted land dispute with the Southern Pacific, a controversy that culminated in a bloody episode in 1880, known as the Battle of Mussel Slough, in which seven men were killed. This incident, later dramatized by novelist Frank Norris in The Octopus (1901), threw into sharp relief the hostility between many Californians and the state's largest corporation.
In the late 19th century, California's economy became more diversified. The early dependence on gold and silver mining was overcome through the development of large-scale irrigation projects and the expansion of commercial agriculture. Southern California soon was producing more than two-thirds of the nation's orange crop, and more than 90% of its lemons. The population of southern California boomed in the 1880s, fueled by the success of the new citrus industry, an influx of invalids seeking a warmer climate, and a railroad rate war between the Southern Pacific and the newly completed Santa Fe. For a time, the tariff from Kansas City to Los Angeles fell to a dollar a ticket. Real estate sales in Los Angeles County alone exceeded $200 million in 1887.
During the early 20th century, California's population growth became increasingly urban. Between 1900 and 1920, the population of the San Francisco Bay area doubled, while residents of metropolitan Los Angeles increased fivefold. On 18 April 1906, San Francisco's progress was interrupted by the most devastating earthquake ever to strike California. The quake and the fires that raged for three days killed at least 452 people, razed the city's business section, and destroyed some 28,000 buildings. The survivors immediately set to work to rebuild the city, and completed about 20,000 new buildings within three years.
By 1920, the populations of the two urban areas were roughly equal, about 1 million each. As their population grew, the need for additional water supplies became critical, and both cities became involved in bitter "water fights" with other state interests. Around 1900, San Francisco proposed the damming of the Tuolumne River at the Hetch Hetchy Valley to form a reservoir for the city's water system. Conservationist John Muir and the Sierra Club objected strongly to the proposal, arguing that the Hetch Hetchy was as important a natural landmark as neighboring Yosemite Valley. The conservationists lost the battle, and the valley was flooded. (The dam there is named for Michael O'Shaughnessy, San Francisco's city engineer from 1912 to 1932 and the builder of many of California's water systems.) When Los Angeles began its search for new water supplies, it soon became embroiled in a long controversy over access to the waters of the Owens River. The city constructed a 250-mi (400-km) aqueduct that eventually siphoned off nearly the entire flow of the river, thus jeopardizing the agricultural development of Owens Valley. Residents of the valley dramatized their objection to the project by dynamiting sections of the completed aqueduct.
Important movements for political reform began simultaneously in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the early 20th century. Corruption in the administration of San Francisco Mayor Eugene Schmitz led to a wide-ranging public investigation and to a series of trials of political and business leaders. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, a coalition of reformers persuaded the city to adopt a new charter with progressive features such as initiative, referendum, and recall. Progressive Republican Hiram Johnson won the governorship in 1910, and reformers gained control of both houses of the state legislature in 1911. Subsequent reform legislation established effective regulation of the railroads and other public utilities, greater governmental efficiency, female suffrage, closer regulation of public morality, and workers' compensation.
During the first half of the 20th century, California's population growth far outpaced that of the nation as a whole. The state's climate, natural beauty, and romantic reputation continued to attract many, but new economic opportunities were probably most important. In the early 1920s, major discoveries of oil were made in the Los Angeles Basin, and for several years during the decade, California ranked 1st among the states in production of crude oil. The population of Los Angeles County more than doubled during the decade, rising to 2,208,492 by 1930. Spurred by the availability and low price of petroleum products and by an ever expanding system of public roadways, Los Angeles also became the most thoroughly motorized and automobile-conscious city in the world. By 1925, Los Angeles had one automobile for every three persons—more than twice the national average.
Even during the 1930s, when California shared in the nationwide economic depression, hundreds of thousands of refugees streamed into the state from the dust bowl of the southern Great Plains. The film industry, which offered at least the illusion of prosperity to millions of Americans, continued to prosper during the depression. By 1940 there were more movie theaters in the US than banks, and the films they showed were almost all California products.
Politics in the Golden State in the 1930s spawned splinter movements like the Townsend Plan and the "Ham'n' Eggs" Plan, both of which advocated cash payments for the elderly. In 1934, Socialist author Upton Sinclair won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination with a plan called End Poverty In California (EPIC), but he lost the general election to the Republican incumbent, Frank Merriam.
During World War II, the enormous expansion of military installations, shipyards, and aircraft plants attracted millions of new residents to California. The war years also saw an increase in the size and importance of ethnic minorities. By 1942, only Mexico City had a larger urban Mexican population than Los Angeles. During the war, more than 93,000 Japanese-Americans in California—most of whom were US citizens and American-born—were interned in "relocation centers" throughout the Far West.
California continued to grow rapidly during the postwar period, as agricultural, aerospace, and service industries provided new economic opportunities. Politics in the state were influenced by international tensions, and the California legislature expanded the activities of its Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities. The University of California became embroiled in a loyalty-oath controversy, culminating in the dismissal in 1950 of 32 professors who refused to sign an anti-communist pledge. Blacklisting became common in the film industry. The early 1950s saw the rise to the US vice presidency of Richard Nixon, whose early campaigns capitalized on fears of communist subversion.
In 1958 Congress decided that some Native American tribes could no longer be considered as such; the move denied these groups, 38 of them in California, federal benefits. More than 40 years later, one group, the Miwok, sought to regain official status. Calling themselves the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria, the 360 remaining members aimed to restore their culture and heritage. Promising a no-gambling policy, the federation was recognized in 1999 by the US House of Representatives, which said it was righting a wrong. If the bill were approved by the Senate, the tribe was to receive health, education, and economic benefits. They could also reclaim tribal lands in northern California, as long as there were no adverse claims to the property.
At the beginning of 1963, California (according to census estimates) became the nation's most populous state; its population continued to increase at a rate of 1,000 net migrants a day through the middle of the decade. By 1970, however, California's growth rate had slowed considerably. During the 1960s, the state was beset by a number of serious problems that apparently discouraged would-be immigrants. Economic opportunity gave way to recessions and high unemployment. Such rapid-growth industries as aerospace experienced a rapid decline in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Pollution of air and water called into question the quality of the California environment. The traditional romantic image of California was overshadowed by reports of mass murders, bizarre religious cults, extremist social and political movements, and racial and campus unrest. Nevertheless, the state's population has continued to grow. According to government figures, California had a population of 31.6 million in 1995, making it the most populous state in the nation. By 2000 its population was estimated at 33.8 million, and officials believed the state would retain its status of most populated through the year 2025.
The political importance of California's preeminence in population can be measured in the size of its congressional delegation and electoral votes. Defeated in his quest for the presidency in 1960, former vice president Nixon in 1968 became the first native Californian to win election to the nation's highest office. Both Ronald Reagan, governor of the state from 1967 to 1975, and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., elected governor in 1974 and reelected in 1978, were active candidates for the US presidency in 1980. Reagan was the Republican presidential winner that year and in 1984.
Assisted by the Reagan administration's military build-up, which invested billions of dollars into California manufacturers of bombers, missiles, and spacecraft as well as into its military bases, the California economy rebounded in the early and mid-1980s, bringing increases in total output, personal income, and employment which surpassed the national average. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, a recession and cuts in military spending, combined with existing burdens of expensive commercial and residential real estate, strict environmental regulations, and the effects of a savings and loan scandal, produced a dramatic economic decline. In 1992, the state's unemployment rate climbed to 10.1%. Jobs in the California aerospace and manufacturing sector dropped by 24%. For the first time in the state's history, substantial numbers of Californians migrated—over a million left between 1991 and 1994. Although such factors as air pollution, traffic congestion, and earthquakes were cited as reasons for this exodus, research has shown that most left in search of better job opportunities.
California's economic woes were matched by civil disorders. In 1991, an onlooker released a seven-minute videotape showing a group of police officers beating Rodney King, a black motorist, with nightsticks. The driver had pulled over after giving chase. In a jury trial which took place in a mostly white suburb northwest of Los Angeles, four police officers who had been charged with unnecessary brutality were acquitted. The verdict set off riots in South Central Los Angeles, killing 60 people and causing an estimated one billion dollars in property damage.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s California was also hit by two severe earthquakes. The first, which struck the San Francisco area in 1989, measured 7.1 on the Richter scale. The quake caused the collapse of buildings, bridges, and roadways, including the upper level of Interstate Highway 880 in Oakland and a 30-ft section of the Bay Bridge. As many as 270 people were killed and 100,000 houses were damaged. The quake caused $5–7 billion worth of property damage. In 1994, an earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale occurred 20 mi northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Three major overpasses ruptured and 680,000 people were left without electricity. The quake produced $13–20 million in property damage.
In 1994, anger over illegal immigration led to passage of Proposition 187, which would bar illegal aliens from welfare, education, and nonemergency health services. The measure was approved by a 59% to 41% margin. Passage of the measure prompted immediate challenges in the courts by the opposition. The following year, Governor Pete Wilson signed an executive order limiting the application of affirmative action in hiring and contracting by the state. He also approved the elimination of affirmative action in university admissions, a policy implemented by the Board of Regents and effective as of January 1997. After most of Proposition 187 was ruled unconstitutional in US district court, in 1999 Governor Gray Davis agreed to end the legal battle over the controversial measure. The only part that survived was a provision strengthening the penalties for manufacture and use of false documents to conceal illegal immigrant status. While the governor said he was reluctant to go against the will of the majority of voters, civil rights groups had successfully challenged most of the language in the proposition. Further, by the time Davis agreed to stop defending the measure, federal laws had accomplished much of the intent of Proposition 187. All states were by then required to deny welfare benefits and all health benefits (except emergency care) to anyone who could not verify their presence in the US was legal.
In November 1996, the California Civil Rights Initiative (Proposition 209) passed with 55% of the vote, banning the use of racial and sex-based preferences in state-run affirmative action programs. Three weeks later, a federal judge blocked the enforcement of the initiative, claiming that it might be unconstitutional. In April 1997, however, a federal appeals court upheld the constitutionality of Proposition 209.
In mid-2000 Governor Gray Davis signed the state's $99.4-billion budget, which included a $1.35-billion education reform program. The state's goals for its school system included recruiting 300,000 new teachers by 2010, retaining and rewarding good teachers, placing computers and Internet connections in classrooms, and raising student achievement by awarding state-funded college scholarships to top students. The package was considered one of the most comprehensive education reform plans in the nation.
Some observers believed California's biggest struggle in the 21st century would be over water. In 2000, California and six other states were on the verge of a historic agreement that would give Southern California a 15-year deadline to cut its use of the Colorado River. Municipalities began discussing ways to turn waste water into drinking water. In June Governor Gray Davis, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, and Senator Dianne Feinstein announced the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, calling it an "unprecedented effort" between state and federal governments, local agencies, the public, and private businesses to build a framework for managing water. Highlights of the plan included multimillion dollar investments in ecosystem restoration projects, projects to increase water storage capacity, loan and grant programs for agricultural and urban water use efficiency, water recycling capitol improvement projects, and improving water supply reliability through integration of storage, conveyance, water use efficiency, water quality, and water transfer programs.
Beginning in 2000, California experienced an energy crisis that saw electricity prices spike to their highest levels in 2001. Prices went from $12 per megawatt hour in 1998 to $200 in December 2000 and $250 in January 2001, and at times a megawatt hour cost $1000. A series of rolling blackouts in various areas occurred during 2001. California subsequently signed $40 billion in long-term power contracts, which were seen as assuring the state's power supply at reasonable rates, but after the crisis, when electricity rates fell, they proved to be very costly. Governor Davis pledged to fight the energy companies accused of profiting from the crisis, including the Enron Corporation, and in March 2003, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a ruling that companies would have to pay $3.3 billion in refunds for gaming the state's energy markets. California claimed it was owed $9 billion in refunds.
Gray Davis was reelected governor in 2002, but by 2003, his popularity ratings had dropped dramatically, due in part to the state's $38 billion budget deficit and the 2000–01 energy crisis, and a gubernatorial recall election was approved for 7 October 2003. Voters were to be asked if they wanted to oust Governor Davis or not, and if so, who his successor would be. One hundred thirty-five candidates were certified as candidates in the election, including Hollywood movie star and political novice Arnold Schwarzenegger. Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, although indicating Davis should stay in office, was running in the election in order to give voters the choice of voting for a strong Democratic candidate. To remain in office, Davis needed to secure at least 50% of the vote. If Davis were to be recalled, the candidate with the most votes would replace him.