State Overview - California

State Number: 31st

Date of Admission: September 9, 1850

Capital: Sacramento (Established as capital in 1854)

Former Capitals: San Jose (1849-1851), Vallejo (1852), Benicia (1853-1854)

Largest city: Los Angeles

Number of Counties: 58

Largest County (Population): Los Angeles

State Nickname: The Golden State

State Motto: Eureka

Size: 163,700 mi2 (3rd largest)

State Government

State Governor: Gavin Newsom (D)

Senators: Alex Padilla (D) and Adam Schiff (D)

US House Delegation: 9 Republicans, 43 Democrats, 0 Others

All research was conducted through Wikipedia (Page was last edited on December 30, 2025)

Historians believe that there were at least 300,000 people living in California before Europeans went to California. These people lived in a diverse range of landscapes from the Redwood Forests to Mountains. The people learned many new ways of agriculture such as forest gardening. These indigenous peoples had also conducted controlled burnings as a way to mitigate large, destructive wildfires.

Many of the wars fought between these tribes were usually men out for vengence. Acquiring territory was not usually a Native American thing. These tribes also had social roles for men and women. Women weaved, harvesting, processing, and preparing food while men usually hunted and did physical labor.

The first Europeans to step foot on the shoreline of California were members of a Spanish maritime expedition in 1542 that was led by a Portuguese captain. The expedition reached as far north as San Miguel Island and had visited the San Diego Bay in modern day San Diego. The English privateer Francis Drake had also explored and claimed a portion of California landing a little north of San Francisco. During the same time period, Filipino sailors arrived at California in a Spanish vessel, landing at Morro Bay. Descendants of the Muslim Caliph Hasan ibn Ali, who had been living in Manila, transited through California while they were travelling to Guerrero in Mexico. These descendants converted to Christianity and later played a role with Mexico's independence from Spain.

While California had been mapped in 1602, there was an idea of California as an island. These claims kept finding their ways on maps until well into the 18th century. While the Spanish where exploring California, they established many missions, presidios, and pueblos. The missions later grew into big cities such as San Francisco, San Diego, and Ventura. San Jose was founded in 1777 as a pueblo.

The Russian Empire had also explored California, or at least the northern part of California. Russia wanted the area to create a supply for Alaska. California had a very interesting Spanish History to say the least.

In 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain. Their land included a lot of Central America and the US Southwest, which included California. During their Mexican history, California was known as Alta California. California contained large cattle ranches, although, beef did not become important until the California Gold Rush which brought many American prospectors looking to get rich quick. During the 1820s, people from the US and Canada began moving to Northern California.

Mexico contained of a weak government in their early years. This weak government caused armed disputes and political tension between California and Mexico. In 1846, California created the short lived "Bear Flag Republic" which was annexed by the United States. During the same time California declared independence from Mexico, war broke out between the United States and Mexico. The United States won the war, brutally beating Mexico back to Mexico City, and California was acquired by the US.

California had a population of 8,000 people in 1846 with a Native American population of around 100,000 people, about a third of the Native population before Hispanic settlement. One week before the official American annexation of California, gold was discovered in the area. This discovery of gold began a huge migration of people to California in 1848. When California applied for statehood in 1850, the population of California went from 8,000 to 100,000. Cities such as San Francisco saw a huge growth of people from hundreds to over a hundred thousand people.

When the US Civil War broke out in 1861, California shipped gold to D.C. in favor of the Union. There was a pro-southern population which prevented California from being any actual help to the Union, however, there was still small regiments of Union troops who were mainly composed of Californians.

During the early 20th century, California was bombarded by thousands of Japanese immigrants. During WWII, many Japanese civilians were kept in concentration camps, California apologized in 2020. Film makers were attracted to California due to its Mediterranean-like climate. These film makers established Hollywood in the 1920s. For much of the 20th and 21st centuries, California has always had some sort of natural disaster from fires to earthquakes.

- Hollywood was originally called Hollywoodland

- The contiguous United States' highest and lowest points are both located in California

- Los Angeles and San Francisco will eventually touch each other (it will take hundreds of millions of years tho)

- Fortune Cookies were invented in Los Angeles

- California holds the record for tallest tree

- Alcatraz Island was the site of a prison where prisoners were sent for life. Nobody has escaped successfully with many dying to escape