I.

Introduction

California, one of the Pacific Coast states of the United States, bordered on the north by Oregon, on the east by Nevada and Arizona, on the south by the Mexican state of Baja California, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The Colorado River forms the southern portion of the state’s eastern border.

California entered the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Agriculture and mining have always been important to the economy of California. Industrial activity expanded rapidly in the 20th century along with a booming population. By the 1990s California had a larger population than any other state and was the leading producer by value of both agricultural and manufactured goods. The name “California” was first given to the Baja California peninsula by the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542 and was applied by other explorers to more northern areas. The word is derived from the name of an imaginary island in a popular Spanish romance of the time. California is also known as the “Golden State”.

II.

Land and Resources

With an area of 411,471 sq km (158,869 sq mi) California is the third-largest state in the United States (after Alaska and Texas). The state most resembles an arc; its extreme dimensions are about 1,052 km (654 mi) from north to south and about 945 km (587 mi) from east to west. California has a great complexity of relief, with elevations from 86 m (282 ft) below sea level in Death Valley (the lowest point on the continent), to 4,418 m (14,494 ft), at the top of Mount Whitney, one of the highest peaks in the United States.

A.

Physical Geography

The topography of California is extremely varied. There are four main regions: Central Valley and its surrounding mountain ranges; the Lower Californian ranges; the eastern basins, valleys, and deserts; and the coastline.

The great Central Valley is a downfolded basin with deep, fertile, alluvial soils, bordered on the east by the Sierra Nevada (a rugged granitic mountain range important both as a source of numerous rivers and for its scenic beauty); on the north by the Cascade Range (a volcanic tableland capped by cones) and the Klamath Mountains; and on the west by the Coast Ranges (low parallel ranges running north to south and interspersed with structural depressions, the best known of which are the Salinas Valley and the lowlands around San Francisco Bay). Major peaks include, in the Sierra Nevada, Mount Whitney (4,418 m/14,494 ft), and in the Cascade Range, the extinct volcano Mount Shasta at 4,317 m (14,162 ft) and the active volcano Lassen Peak (3,187 m/10,457 ft), which protrudes from the core of the ancient Mount Tehama.

The Lower California Ranges, to the south-west, comprise the Transverse Ranges in the north and the Peninsular Ranges to the south—both granitic ranges that differ from the Sierra Nevada in their lower elevations and absence of glacial features.

East of California’s mountain ranges are several arid basins and valleys, the most famous of which are the Great Basin in the north, which includes Death Valley, and the Mojave Desert in the south—which alone occupies approximately one fifth of the state.

The coastline is geologically unstable, with many faults, or fractures, the most prominent of which is the San Andreas Fault.

The longest river in California, the Sacramento, rises near Mount Shasta and flows south into San Francisco Bay. The second-longest is the San Joaquin River, which rises in the Sierra Nevada and flows into the Sacramento River near its mouth. Both rivers lie mostly in the Central Valley and with their numerous tributaries drain the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, and much of the north-east. The principal lakes and other bodies of water include Lake Tahoe (shared with Nevada), Clear Lake, Honey Lake, Mono Lake, Shasta Lake, and Oroville Reservoir.

B.

Climate

The climate in California varies widely, but is essentially subtropical. Maritime influences and summer fog mean that the Pacific coast has mild winters and relatively cool summers. Inland the climate becomes more continental. The highest recorded temperature of 56.7° C (134° F) in Death Valley in 1913 is near the world record. Increasingly cooler climates are found at higher elevations in the mountains. The state’s lowest recorded temperature was -42.8° C (-45° F), recorded in 1937 north of Lake Tahoe.

C.

Plants and Animals

No state approaches the plant variety of California: approximately 40 per cent of species found naturally in the United States are indigenous to California.

Trees include redwoods, the world’s tallest trees, Douglas fir, and ponderosa pine. The world’s oldest known living tree, a Great Basin bristlecone pine, which is more than 4,000 years old, is found in eastern California. Stands of sierra redwood, or giant sequoia—many up to 2,000 years old—are found in the Sierra Nevada. California is also well known for its spring-blooming wildflowers; California poppy and lupine are among the most common. In the coastal areas south of San Francisco Bay, coast sage and grasslands are typical, replaced inland by chaparral, consisting of drought-tolerant evergreen shrubs. Indigo bushes, various species of cacti and shrubs, creosote bushes, and the Joshua tree—a giant lily with white flowers—are found in the south-eastern deserts.

California’s diversity of vegetation provides habitats for many different animals, including coyotes, deer, rattlesnakes, skunks, and foxes. Larger mammals, found principally in the north and in mountainous areas, are bear, elk, and pronghorn antelope.

D.

Resources, Products, and Industries

Despite depletion of reserves of gold, oil, natural gas, and mercury, California remains an important storehouse of minerals. Tungsten, borates, salt, oil, and natural gas are all present in significant quantities.

In 2000 California led all other states in agricultural output with farm sales of US$27.2 billion. Leading crops are grapes, hay, cotton, sugar beet, potatoes, and rice. Livestock and livestock products such as dairy products, beef cattle, eggs, and chickens are also significant. California accounts for about one tenth of the nation’s total production of timber. The state is also a major national producer of fish, supplying about 4 per cent of the value of the national catch.

Goods manufactured in the state include aircraft and other transport equipment, electronics, industrial machinery, scientific instruments, printed items, food, and manufactured metal goods. Several leading software and computer components manufacturing corporations, including Borland International, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Intel Corporation, Netscape Communications, Oracle Corporation, and Sun Microsystems, Inc., have their headquarters in the state. Tourism and the film industry are also significant sources of income; major film studios and production companies based in California include 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Paramount, and Universal. The economy suffered a recession in the early 1990s, fuelled by cutbacks in aerospace and other military-related industries, coupled with a slowdown in housing construction.

III.

Population

The population of California is 36,553,215 (2007 estimate), an increase of 13.8 per cent since 1990. The state’s major cities are Sacramento, the state capital (population, 2006, 453,781); Los Angeles, the largest city (population, 2006, 3,849,378); San Diego (population, 2006, 1,256,951); San Francisco (population, 2006, 1,256,951); San Jose (population, 2006, 929,936); Long Beach (population, 2006, 472,494); and Oakland (population, 2006, 397,067).

California was the most populous state in the United States in 2001, when its average population density was 90 people per sq km (234 per sq mi). A major component of California’s population, especially in the south, is of Latino (mainly Mexican) background.

A.

Education

Although the state constitution of 1849 provided for a state school system, it was not until 1866 that free state schools were actually established in California. State support was extended in 1903 to secondary schools and then in 1917 to junior colleges.

In the late 1990s California had some 383 institutions of higher education, including one of the largest systems of state colleges and universities in the United States. Combined enrolment in all institutions of higher education was about 2,109,000 students. The nine campuses of the University of California alone provided higher education for more than 187,000 students each year; the California State University system has 23 campuses, including the San Francisco State University, and the California Community College system has more than 100. Other important seats of learning in the state include the California Institute of Technology (including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory operated by NASA), Stanford University, and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

B.

Places of Interest

Main attractions, apart from the southern California beaches, are Disneyland, Hollywood, Palm Springs, Lake Tahoe and the vicinity, the wine country of the Napa and Sonoma valleys, and Yosemite and Sequoia national parks. There are also many historical sites commemorating early Spanish settlements and the pioneering, gold rush days. Located in the state are Spanish missions that belong to a system established in the 18th century by Father Junípero Serra; one of the most notable of these, Mission San Carlos Borromeo (1770), is located in Carmel. Other sites of particular interest are Pioneer Village in Bakersfield, El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park in Los Angeles, the Old Customs House in Monterey, and Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento.

California’s support of the arts has made it one of the major cultural centres of the United States. Among the most notable cultural institutions are the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, both in Los Angeles; the J. Paul Getty Museum, also in Los Angeles, which houses an extensive collection of antiquities and European art; its sister institution, the Getty Villa in Malibu, a replica of an ornate Roman villa that on completion of renovation work will showcase other artworks in the Getty collection of antiquities in a thematic way; the Hearst-San Simeon State Historical Monument in San Simeon; and the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, the oldest and largest municipal museum in the West.

Also of note are the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the Griffith Observatory and Planetarium, both in Los Angeles; the Palomar Observatory, 80 km (50 mi) north-east of San Diego; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The Huntington Library in San Marino has an important collection of rare American and English books. The Mount Wilson Observatory and the Lick Observatory are important centres for astronomical research.

C.

Sports and Recreation

California’s diverse landscape and large urban centres provide opportunities for almost every type of indoor and outdoor sport. The long coastline is ideal for swimming, boating, fishing, and surfing, and the state’s mountains draw many hikers, skiers, and hunters. The 1994 association football World Cup final was played at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, on the outskirts of Los Angeles; the stadium is primarily used as a venue for American football matches. California also has a number of hot-spring health spas.

D.

Government and Politics

California is governed under a constitution adopted in 1879. The chief executive is a governor, who is popularly elected to a four-year term and may serve no more than two consecutive terms. The same regulations apply to the lieutenant-governor, who succeeds the governor should the latter resign, die, or be removed from office. Other state elected officials include the secretary of state, attorney-general, treasurer, controller, insurance commissioner, and superintendent of public instruction.

Legislative authority is vested in a bicameral legislature comprising a Senate and an Assembly. The 40 members of the Senate are popularly elected to four-year terms; the 80 members of the Assembly are popularly elected to two-year terms. Californian citizens can pass laws directly or through their power of initiative, or they can prevent a law from going into effect by calling for a referendum. At a national level, California elects two senators and 53 representatives to the US Congress. The state has 55 electoral votes in presidential elections (see electoral college).

Despite a Democratic edge in voter registration, California has traditionally supported the Republican ticket in presidential voting. However, in the presidential elections of 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 California’s electoral college votes went to the Democratic nominees, and it is generally seen as a very liberal state. Democrats have also fared well in contests for the governorship and US Senate.

In the 2006 elections, 34 Democrats and 19 Republicans were returned to represent the state. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats, represent California and face re-election in 2010 and 2012 respectively. In 2002 Democrat Gray Davis was returned to office for a second term as state governor, defeating Republican candidate Bill Davies. Less than a year into his second term, Davis was blamed for the serious statewide economic slump and deepening budgetary crisis. A two-part recall ballot held in October 2003 ruled that he should be removed from office; actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, representing the Republican Party, was subsequently elected as his replacement. Schwarzenegger secured a second term in office in the 2006 mid-term elections, defeating Democrat challenger Phil Angelides.

IV.

History

The original inhabitants of California comprised 105 different Native American peoples who spoke the dialects of six linguistic families. Half of them resided in the central Californian grasslands, where wild nuts, game, and fish were abundant. Along the coast they hunted fish and sea mammals. The Yuma and the Mojave of the Colorado River area were the only tribes to practise farming.

A.

Spanish and Mexican Periods

Hernán Cortés, the 16th-century Spanish conqueror of Mexico, initiated Spanish efforts to colonize California but in 1542 Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza of New Spain ordered Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo to explore farther north, and he became the first European to explore what is now the state of California. Spain’s opulent Pacific trade attracted English and Dutch pirates to the area; the English navigator Francis Drake landed north of present-day San Francisco in 1579, claiming the region as Nova Albion.

The Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno surveyed the entire Californian coast in 1602 and 1603, but it was not until 1769 that an expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá and Father Junípero Serra settled San Diego. San Francisco was founded in 1776. To convert the original inhabitants of California to Christianity, Franciscan priests built a chain of 21 missions. The Spaniards also established four presidios (forts) and three pueblos (towns), maintaining a precarious control over California until 1822, when it became a part of independent Mexico.

The Mexican era (1822-1846) was a transition from Spanish to United States rule. During this time more foreign commerce and immigration were allowed, and incoming foreigners engaged in the trading of furs and sea otter hides and tallow. The Mexican government’s neglect of California, however, caused much political unrest among the settlers. Governmental institutions were then democratized, and between 1835 and 1840 the Franciscans were expelled, and mission land was distributed for private use.

In June 1846 a group of American settlers, resentful of Mexican rule, captured the town of Sonoma. Shortly afterwards the US Navy began its conquest of northern California by occupying Monterey, San Francisco, and Sonoma. In 1848 Mexico ceded California to the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

B.

Gold Rush and Statehood

The discovery of gold by James W. Marshall at Coloma in January 1848 resulted in a local rush to the mines. The Gold Rush of 1849, international in scope, prepared California for immediate statehood. The sectional conflict between the northern and southern states, however, delayed the official admission of California to the Union as the 31st state until September 9, 1850. The state capital was located in several places before it was moved to Sacramento in 1854. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), the state sided with the Union, most Californians being of northern origin. The completion of the transcontinental railway in 1869 ended the state’s isolation and expanded the market for its growing agricultural wealth.

From 1850 to 1870 California profited from its mining and agriculture, and some advances were made in industry. For several decades, however, the lack of capital, raw materials, and adequate markets slowed industrial growth. During the 1870s the state suffered from unemployment and business failures; the Chinese, who had helped build the California railways, were blamed for the depression. Agrarian interests and the Workingmen’s Party of California, led by the labour leader Denis Kearney, then drafted the new constitution of 1879, with provisions for regulating the railways and monopolies and for discouraging Chinese employment and immigration.

The distress of the 1870s was followed by a real estate boom, particularly in southern California, that was stimulated by improved railway facilities. Moreover, an increase in wheat and citrus production furthered the return of prosperity. By 1890 San Francisco was the largest city on the Pacific Coast and a commercial centre on a world scale, trading in the agricultural and mineral products of the area.

C.

Progressive Era and World War I

In Los Angeles the boom peaked in 1887, and by 1889 the city’s economy began to decline; in 1892 that of San Francisco followed suit. The Panic of 1893 led to a serious depression in California, characterized by bank and business failures and labour violence, and corruption existed at all levels of government. The Lincoln-Roosevelt League, organized in 1907 by liberal Republicans, became the spearhead of the Progressives, who elected Hiram W. Johnson as governor in 1910, ushering in an era of significant economic and political reforms. World War I stimulated an expansion of agriculture and industry.

D.

Inter-War Period

Although demobilization initially caused a decline in jobs, California quickly boomed again. In the 1920s, 2 million newcomers poured into the state. By 1924 the population of Los Angeles reached 1 million. With the advent of the motor car, oil became a major industry, and in 1925 more than one fifth of the world’s oil was produced in California. The film industry, centring on Hollywood, prospered, as did the citrus industry of southern California.

Following the 1929 stock market crash, the Great Depression hit California hard as farm income dropped and unemployment spread.

E.

World War II and After

During World War II, prosperity returned to the state as the aircraft plants of southern California and the shipyards of the San Francisco Bay area expanded to meet the production demands of a global war. The steel, oil, machinery, rubber, and electrical equipment industries also advanced, and farm income more than doubled. An influx of war workers caused the state’s population to increase by almost 2 million between 1940 and 1945. For fear of their possible disloyalty, however, some 100,000 residents of Japanese descent were placed in “relocation centres”—actually detention camps—during the war.

When peace came, many war workers and returning veterans remained in the state. The population explosion continued, resulting in temporary shortages in housing and schools. The aerospace and electronics industries provided jobs. Earl Warren, governor from 1943 to 1953, created a “rainy-day fund” from surplus state revenue during the war for a later expansion of motorways and public higher education. By 1962 California was the most populous state.

California’s national economic and political power continued to expand between 1950 and 1990, as the state’s population nearly tripled. In 1966 Ronald Reagan was elected governor, and in his two terms he reduced state funding of such items as higher education and mental health. In 1968, Richard Nixon became the first native-born Californian to win the US presidency. Later, Reagan served two terms as president in the 1980s.

F.

California in the 1990s and Beyond

Many parts of California were buffeted by serious natural disasters in the late 1980s and 1990s. Earthquakes caused major damage in the San Francisco area in 1989 as well as east of Los Angeles in 1992, and again in the Los Angeles area in 1994. Brush fires destroyed more than 1,000 homes in southern California in 1993. By early 1995 winter storms had caused flood damage throughout the state. Extensive flooding and mud slides also resulted from above-average rainfall in the winter of 1998 caused by El Niño, a warming of the atmosphere and oceans that periodically disturbs weather patterns. Further severe fires in the autumn of 2003 laid waste to over 300,000 hectares (750,000 acres) of land and caused over 20 deaths.

Racial tensions also increased in the 1990s. In 1991 white Los Angeles police officers were videotaped while beating a black motorist named Rodney King. When the officers were found not guilty during their criminal trial in 1992, news of the acquittal set off another riot in south-central Los Angeles. Some 58 people were killed and many homes and businesses were destroyed or looted. In April 1993 two of the police officers were convicted by a court for violating Rodney King's civil rights.

Illegal immigration from Mexico became a major political issue in California in the 1990s. In November 1994 Californian voters approved the controversial Proposition 187, which would revoke the rights of illegal immigrants to state education, welfare, and health services. In November 1995 a US District judge overturned major parts of the proposition, but anti-immigration forces continued to push for limitations on the rights of illegal immigrants.

The past few decades have been California's most complicated historical period. The rapid construction of roads, airports, new factories, and new schools symbolized a continuing shift away from an agricultural society and towards an industrial one. As the state moved from a rural to an urban culture, grape vineyards and orange groves gave way to urban sprawl, and much of the quiet grace and beauty of the past seemed to vanish. Nonetheless, California's warm climate and outdoor way of life continue to attract many new residents.

California was the first state to regulate vehicle greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to reduce global warming caused by the increased volume of traffic in the state. The California Clean Air Act was introduced in 1999, stipulating that, by 2003, 10 per cent of all new cars sold in that state must have zero exhaust emissions. The Act, amended in July 2002, requires all manufacturers of new cars and light-duty vehicles to achieve the maximum feasible reductions to carbon dioxide emission levels by 2009.