7/10 NOTE on California: Journeys of the Adventurers

·         California was once inhabited by many tribes who lived their life by hunting, fishing, and gathering.

·         Spanish believed California was an island because of the peninsula shape.

·         “California” was named after the imaginary island described in a popular adventurous story written by a Spanish novelist of the 16^th century.

·         Ten years after the discovery of the Baja California peninsula, A Portuguese adventurer working for Spain was the first European sailing to Northern California coast.

·         In 1542, the Spanish, Cabrillo, entered San Diego Bay and claimed Alta California.

·         One hundred and fifty years later, the Spanish decided to accelerate the process of colonizing the territory after Russian and British boats appeared at the California coast. Spain established the 21 Missions in California.

·         The Spanish had been in Mexico for a long time and the first Presidio was in Baja California. The Spanish planned to settle its colony in Mexico and there were 3 vital ingredients: Mission, Presidio, and Pueblo.

·         In the 18th century, Russian and English by Captain Cook came across the Pacific. The land was interesting for many Europeans.

·         Spanish went north and left Mexico and celebrated 21 Missions in California.

·         In 1769 Father Serra headed up a holy expedition and found the first Mission in San Diego.

·         Each Mission connected each other with the road called “Camino Real”.

·         Several people came from Baja California to teach Christianity to native people. They had no idea whether the native people would be friendly or not. So they planned on 4 Presidios in San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterrey, and San Francisco which there were many soldiers (20-30 soldiers at each Presidio). If the Mission was in trouble, they would have the soldiers from the nearest Presidio to help.

·         Anytime Spain colonized, they built the stations in a one day walking distance. That is the way the 21 Missions were built.

·         Fifty years after founding the first Mission, the Mexican colony rose up against the Spanish. In 1821, Mexico became an Independent Republic. The Spanish abandoned the Mission and went back to Spain.

·         The Young Mexican State secularized the Mission network to prevent losing Alta California.

·         To date, the architecture and cuisine remained as the historical heritage in California.

·         California proclaimed their territory and became the Bear Republic.

·         Wanting to appropriate the wealth of the California territory for itself, the United States used the frontier incident in Texas in 1846 to declare war on Mexico. Two years after that Washington and Mexico signed the treaty to end the war.

·         In September 1850, the Bear republic passed to American hand and became the 31^st state.

·         After Abraham Lincoln became the US president, he gave the 21 California Missions back to the Catholic church and rebuilt the Missions on the original foundations just as they were at the begin.

·         California formed the social pyramid with 3 groups of citizens being together: the Native Indian, the Spanish, and the American.

By Fon and Ethan