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Oct 13, 2024 · The history of California can be divided into the Native American period (about 10,000 years ago until 1542), the European exploration period (1542–1769), the Spanish colonial period (1769–1821), the Mexican Republic period (1823–1848), and United States statehood (September 9, 1850–present).
California was on the fringes of the Spanish empire until 1769, when a "sacred expedition" led by Captain Gaspar de Portolá and Franciscan Father Junípero Serra established outposts at San Diego and Monterey (Mission San Diego de Alcala and San Antonio de Pauda Mission are shown here).
Each section highlights an important part of the history of the colonization of California, any important events, and illustrates the effects on the indigenous tribes of the region. At the bottom is a map that depicts where in California each important event occurred.
- Trade and New Diseases
- Spanish Missions and Colonization
- A New Racial Hierarchy
- A Violent and Fragile New World
Native Californians were accustomed to interacting with an array of outside groups, and they generally welcomed the Spanish as fascinating — if bizarre — trading partners. Spanish sea captains recorded how local native communities greeted arriving ships with gifts of food and other displays of friendship. Driven by curiosity and a desire for Europe...
Spain claimed California but considered it too far north to settle. California remained an uncolonized periphery of the Spanish empire until rumors of British and Russian interest in the region prompted a defensive expansion up the coast. In 1769, a "sacred expedition" (three ships and two overland parties) led by Captain Gaspar de Portolá and Fran...
Spain's empire in the Americas maintained a complex racial classification system that arranged people hierarchically based on the "purity" of their blood. The California frontier — free of imperial bureaucracy and pure-blooded elites — was a place where castas (people of mixed ancestry) could move up the racial hierarchy. Much of the population in ...
As time passed, the lives of Spanish settlers and native peoples became intertwined in a shifting series of uneasy relationships. Spaniards possessed manufactured goods and superior weapons, while natives had far greater numbers and intimate knowledge of the landscape. Motivated by curiosity and self-interest, many native Californians joined Spanis...
1770: First presidio and mission established at Monterey. 1774: Juan Bautista de Anza leads first expedition overland to Monterey from Tubac. 1776: Second Anza expedition brings settlers to northern Alta California. 1777: Pueblo of San José founded – first Spanish town in Alta California.
Colonial America was an income per capita leader: Before the 20th century, the period during which Americans most clearly led Britain in purchasing power per capita was in the colonial era -- when the Americans were British.
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During those years, the English purchased 20,700 of the enslaved to work in the West Indies. Barbados soon became the most profitable colony. Its wealthiest residents were English who commanded large numbers of enslaved Africans to produce sugar.