By: Ciera Molloy History 141 CALIFORNIAA HistoryAuthor: Kevin Star
Ch.1- Queen Califia’s IslandPlace and First People The name California was first mention as a mythical island by Spanish writer Garci Ordonez de Montalvoin his novels. 1533- Spanish explorers sailing west from Mexico landed on what they thought was an Island in the pacific. After 1539 They began to call the place California. 1540- Spanish realize California is a peninsula. California sits on two tectonic plates and was created by the collision of the North American & Pacific Plates. This has created a diverse region of mountains, plains, coastlines, deserts, and vallies. 1,264 miles of Pacific Shoreline created when a large land mass was detached and then reattached back onto the continent. This also created San Diego Harbor, San Francisco Bay, Monterey Bay, and Humbolt Bay. Vast Mountain ranges including Sierra Nevada and Mount Whitney ( 14,496 ft.) the highest mountain in the continental United States. Major Fault Lines: San Andreas, the Hayward, the Garlock, San Jacinto, and Nacimiento. The fault lines criss cross from San Francisco to Mexican Border making earthquakes common. San Francisco Earthquake of April 18,1906 8.3 Magnitude destroyed whole city. Death Valley lowest point on continent 282 ft. below sea level and tempatures as high as 134 degrees Fahrenheit.
Two seasons: wet with rainfall mostly between October to March & Dry which is most of the year. 2/3 of the precipitation falls in Northern Regions of California created rivers . EX. Sacramento River & San Joaquin California is rich with wild life offshore in the waters with Salmon, crab, tuna, halibut, abalone, Dolphins, sea lions, seals, sea otters, sharks, barracudas, and breeding grounds for gray whales. Coastline has estuaries, tidelands, and marshes with Sandpiper birds, pelicans, herons, seagulls, egrets… Large Redwood extended from San Francisco Bay to Oregon border with trees thousands of years old. California also had large condor and elk. The mountainous regions was bear country with black bear, grizzlies, and brown bear. California had distinctive habitat that sustained the lives of many species of animals and plants. Native Americans of the Region came into contact with Europeans in 1492 and 1/3 of Native American population of the United States lived in California. Estimated 300,000 natives in present day boundaries of California. Natives had 22 linguistic families and spoke 135 separate languages
The Native American population lived all through out California in different regions adapting to the land and creating many different Native cultures. There was a large diversity of Native Americans. They lived sustainable lives, were not war like, conflicts were minimal. Did not have much emphasis on hierarchies and had simple effective technologies. Social and Cultural matters were organized, simplistic valued, and morals created. The web of life, the connection and acknowledgement between all livings things, animals, plants, and humans was acknowledged. They told the story when Coyote created the world and all humans and it was a story that was still being created. They were also participating in history, and time was circular. Europeans and the United States invaded their lands wiping out food supply, destroyed their culture, and destroyed their population. After 25 generations of Native American Californians inhabiting the land they faced disease, genocide, and violence that brought them almost to distinction.
Ch. 7 Great ExpectationsCreating the Infrastructure of a Mega State