The United States has such a short history that there is little that can be claimed. As for the things that are authentically American, there is jazz and rodeo; but much else is borrowed from other cultures. Still I think that’s acceptable. The hot dog is, after all, a variation of German sausage and American football is some distant cousins of rugby. These things are a testimony to American's ability to adopt the foreign and make it its own. As such, the history of California is the history of Spanish missions (James 2).
They originally are Spanish, yes, but they are unmistakably Californian. The influence of their legacy remains, even if not always recognized. And perhaps it is in the mission where this different web of culture, stereotypes, geographies, and politics can find common ground and a shared history. If California had to be reduced to one thing, to one identity, I want to argue that it is the historical Franscian mission of Alta California, because that that is where California, as an idea began.
The 21 missions are the geographical backbone of the state of California and gave it its shape. The California mission provides an argument for the state’s cohesion. If the southern mission were found first, and the northern missions were found later, then perhaps a case should be made for the state’s segmentation, but historically this cannot be supported. Loreto was the first mission founded in California (1697), which is why it is the Mother of the Baja and Alta California Missions (McWilliams 11).
This situration reminds us that the national and linguistic ties between Alta California and Baja California are strong if Loreto is historically the mother of 51 California missions. Due to its being the Originated pot of the 51 missions, it fittingly has an extension mission to Loreto, and to get there, one has to drive inland. It can be deduced that because of this, the Spanish created three types of settlement when they first came to Alta California; mission presidios and pueblos.
Although traditional and conservative approaches dominated the writing of California history before 1960, with studies addressed by and for “affluent white men, who apparently remained on the achievement of that group while overlooking the experience of others. Cross concentrated primarily on chronical seizing the narration story workforce and episodes in its history. Women, minorities, and unskilled workers make subjects in the nature work, and the structure of workforce received comparatively little attention.
For all limitations, however, it would be unwise to dismiss the old environmental labor history. Indeed, new labor history has overreacted to the old and the tome ahead come again to bring the union back in. This applies to California. To be certain, the organized labor movement never embraces more than half of the nonagricultural workforce, and in times such as the 1890s and the 1920s, the influence was minimal (Ancestors 12). Moreover, most segments of the employers and those that run the movements did not give any value to women as well as racial differences. They did not care much about what happened to them or the working conditions they provided and were actively hostile. These are crucial factors that remained unsolved.
The land climate is nearly beingalmost as possible the opposite in every respect. During summer and autumn, it is hot and dry. It undergoes various modifications form the configuration of the surface of the earth. Even the mountains, which retain the now till a late period, conducts a high heat in the center of the day; and the presence of some on their summit in June to the high mass which has expanded on them, rather than to cold weather.
A large district territory within the jurisdiction of the two climates and subject to their joint influence. It is composed chiefly of the valley surrounding the bay of San Francisco and penetrating into the interior in every direction. There is no weather in the atmosphere more refreshing than these valleys enjoy, and no territory more productive.
While the ocean prevents the contagious land from being shriveled in summer, it also prevents it from being frozen in wintertime. Hence, ice and snowfall are not familiar with the ocean climate. The difference in temperature and snow are not common in the ocean climate. The difference in temperature is comparatively slight between summer and winter.
Although California cuisines in the recent phenomenon of the rest of the country, it development has been a long time in the making. Californians have always eaten differently. Not only do they have an elaborate assortment of cultural cross-dishes to choose from, but also California agriculture is also the most productive in the worlds (Chan & Olin 23). They grow fifty percent of America’s fresh food; it is true and nuts abound.
The staple diet of the first Californians, the Indians was made up of acorns berries, corn squash beans, and pumpkins, all eaten with whatever wild game or fish could be caught. The first Europeans to arrive the Spanish brought with them to other thing, olives, chili garlic peppers, archives, dates and grapevine cuttings. Eventually, the Indian and Spanish influences evolved together, making a distinctive and exotic style of cooking that included fresh cheeses, olive oils, fruit preserves, grilled meat and fish and spice sets. Within California was deluged with fortune seekers from Europe, China and other parts of the world.
The East Coast states sent their fortune seeks to those in the cause as well, and all these people brought their recipes and longing for the food of their homeland and culture. Today California is the home of some of the finest chefs, restaurants and restaurateurs in the country. People from far and wide to experience this food and continue visiting such places as proof of the quality and heritage of these meals.
Unlike other states, the California Indians were not resettled or pushed west. This time, the Indians had the Pacific at their backs. They had nowhere to go. Hurtado cities murder, starvation, diseases and declining birth reason for the decline in the 1850s. Hurtado quoted California Historian Sherburne as a source (Hurtado 25). Cook, a trained biologist developed a sophisticated model for creating his population estimates.
Apparently, Indians were not counted in whatever census was undertaken by Spanish, Mexican and early American authorities in California area. Hurtado stated that Cook found the Spanish and Mexican treatment of the Indians preferable to what they encountered the Americans because the previous California landlords permitted the Indians to retain their way of life and family structure (Hurtado 255).
Americans broke up the communities and families. Reasons for the change were ascribed to a large number of Indians running away from the mission, the accusation of horses by the Indians, increasing both their mobility and ability to fight, growth in the civilian population, and the increase in Indian raids on private farms that accompanied the class of the two cultures. Brechin in also found that the Indians in the interior were begging actually to fight settlers’ encroachment on their territory. In a series of incidents, settlers had been killed.
The Mexican Government in 1835 wrote about his efforts to limit putative expansions by settlers against the Indians noting that in the last expedition which the people of this town raised to Tulare’s, they committed various atrocities and did not bother to separate the innocent from the guilty ones. Unfortunately, what Breschini termed as mostly a civilian assault on the Indians continued sporadically. He related Cooks, description of an eyewitness report of an incident, which occurred most likely in 1837, where a mixture of soldiers, civilians, and Indians surrounded a group of 200 Indians after the allied Indians purchases all of their weapons.
The Californian Indians did not form large nations but lived in small communities’ machines which formed what Hurtado called triplets. The population of the villages averaged 250 persons but ranged from as few as 30 to as many as a thousand individuals. Several villages would acknowledge a single tribal leader. Hurtado stated that they did not form alliances to fight white incursions. Thus, the California Indians were left relatively defenseless against the gold rush pioneers and the accompanying US army.
California Indians controlled hunting and food gathering areas through family unit. Men hunted for deer and elk and fished for salmon and other fish while women gathered and hunted food from adorn and other natural foods and prepared them for the family.
Works Cited
Chan, S., & Olin, S. C. (Eds.). (1997). Major Problems in California History: Documents and Essays. Wadsworth Publishing Company.
McWilliams, C. (1999). California: The great exception. Univ of California Press.
Ancestors, A. (1968). The First Californians. San Francisco, New York, London: Sierra Club.
James D. Houston. The Place Called California. Major Problems in Califonia, 2 (1951):
Hurtado, Albert L. Indian survival on the California frontier. Vol. 35. Yale University Press, 1988.
