Early%20California%20History

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Early California History
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Pre-European California

• 400,000 Native Americans
• small bands, linguistically diverse
• mostly peaceful
• technologically and politically primitive

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Europeans Arrive--1500s

• The legend of Queen Califia
• Cabrillo and Drake explore the coast

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Spanish settlement of Alta California--1770-1821

• Junipero Serras Franciscans found 21 missions
  and the military establish 4 presidios to
  strengthen Spains claim against, Britain, US,
  and Russia.

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Mexican Period 1821-48

• Mexican independence from Spain
• Discontinuing support for missions
• Establishing a nobility based on land grant
  ranchos
• 1846 Bear Flag rebellion

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From Mexico to US

• Mexican-American War breaks out in 1846 over
  annexation of Texas
• Mexico forced to cede California and much of the
  West for about 15,000,000.

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Mexican perspective los ninos heroes de
Chapultepec
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Gold Rush 1849

• population booms 30 fold in 6 years and becomes
  80 Euro-American

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Statehood

• Military governor of CA initiates a
  constitutional convention in 1849
• Leading Californios continue to play major
  political role
• New Constitution recognizes their land grants,
  and recognizes both English and Spanish as
  official languages
• Accepted into the Union as a free state--1850

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Transcontinental railroad completed 1877

• Opens CA to the East
• Rise of Southern Pacific Railroad as dominant
  force in politics and economy

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The Big Four--Stanford, Huntington, Crocker, and
Hopkins

• Stanford served as Governor, then Senator, but
  all four partners ran CA in the late 19th
  century

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Resentment

• Great Railroad Strike of 1877
• SF had a tradition of powerful working class
• Denis Kearney leads the Workingmens Party
  against SPRs power and abuses
• But also against the 1000s of Chinese workers
  brought over to work in mines and then the
  railroad for a fraction of what was paid whites
• riot of 1877--launderies burned, etc.

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Kearney and Workingmens Party
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Anti-Asian sentiment

• New constitution of 1879 gave all local
  governments the power to exclude or restrict
  where Chinese lived and forbade their employment
• Federal Exclusion Act of 1882
• restricting immigration of Chinese laborers
  (later all Chinese)
• similar restrictions for Japanese and eventually
  Filippinos

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Great Depression 1930-40

• 100,000s of dustbowl refugees migrate here
• "California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to
  live in or see But believe it or not, you
  won't find it so hot
  If you ain't got the do re mi."
• Okie culture

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1934 Governors race

• Former socialist and author of The Jungle, Upton
  Sinclair, runs for office as a Democrat and New
  Dealer on EPIC platform
• Is smeared in first professional media campaign

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Growing Radicalism of the Depression era

• unions organize and strike--previously the
  Wobblies, now the Communist Party among others
• Over 50 strikes of farm workers in 1933

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Salinas strike of 1934-36

• Growers brought over Filipinos to work in fields
  after WWI and exclusion of Chinese and Japanese
• Growers split striking Filipino lettuce pickers
  from white shed workers

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San Francisco General Strike 1934

• Strike shuts down shipping on West Coast
• Entire Bay Area is shut down for 3 day General
  Strike after police force picketing longshoremen
  to allow in scabs

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Again, economic downturn leads to greater
xenophobia

• 100,000s of Mexicans are pushed out or deported
• anti-Filipino riots break out, and they are
  invited to leave under the Filipino
  Repatriation Act of 1935