California p.1

CALIFORNIA: A HISTORY PART. 1By: Twyla Gollery

CHAPTER 4: STRIKING IT RICH

February 2, 1848, Mexico and the United States signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

After this treaty was signed more citizens were integrated into the alcalde system, a system used by the Spanish

This era shows a fusion between Mexico and the U.S.

It also represented a fuse in between a 'Yankee-Latino culture'

Many White immigrants married into local Latino families


On January 24, 1848 a carpenter, James Wilson Marshall, discovered gold in California

People abandoned their jobs and began to purchase gold mining equipment in hopes of becoming prosperous

By late spring of that same year the Gold Rush was already under way

The Gold Rush was a defining moment of development for the U.S.


Due to the Gold Rush there was a mass migration to California from all around the world

People even traveled from China and Australia in hopes that they might strike it rich

For some, traveling to California involved a five to eight month voyage, or a five to eight month overland trek, each trail had it's own risks and dangers

CHAPTER 8: MAKING IT HAPPEN

Because of California's diverse economy the Great Depression did not effect people as intensely and did not happen till about the 1930's

California's economy involved the agricultural, industrial, entertainment, tourist, and service sectors fields.

The agricultural workforce became structurally unstable


The Great Depression caused a lot of people from the Great Plains and the Southeast of move to California in hopes of finding work

California was flooded with more than three hundred thousand agricultural workers

By the middle of 1934 for every 142 agricultural workers there were only 100 jobs, thus wages went down 50%


Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU), was founded by the Trade Union Unity League

The CAWIU organized strike in favor of the workers

Some of this unions leaders were Communists

In 1933 the CAWIU played a role in organizing twenty-four agricultural strikes

The CAWIU also organized a cotton pickers strike, the largest agricultural strike in the nation

CHAPTER 10: O BRAVE NEW WORLD

California was able to make a name for itself through science and technology

By the 1930's Californian scientists were taking the lead in discovering ways to smash atoms

California has always lead the United States in biotechnology

By the 1950's California was also on the cutting edge of using a semiconductor digital images


In 1852, a great valley in the Sierra Nevada was beginning to be known as Yosemite

Yosemite Valley began to be one of Californians recognizable symbols

Camping trips to Yosemite became a common thing for Californians to do, it was a way for them to define themselves

Many books and magazine articles were written about the adventure in Yosemite at the time


California also showed much interest in space through astronomy

In 1879, George Davidson built the first astronomical observatory on the West Coast

Many other observatories were built over time to see better into space

This included the Lick Observatory which influenced the founding of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

California p.1

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