The state of California can be broken up into two perceptual
regions, Southern California and Northern California. They are perceptual regions
because Californians identify these regions to be different for the climate,
landscape, culture, and the big cities that are in the two regions.
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Cities
Southern and Northern California contains a few of the
biggest and well-known cities in the United States. San Francisco, Napa Valley,
Monterrey, and the state capital of Sacramento are in the Northern California
region. Southern California contains the cities of Beverley Hills, Hollywood,
San Diego, and Los Angeles.
The well-known cities of Northern California are San
Francisco and Sacramento. San Francisco is well-known for the Golden State
Bridge, for the LGBT Pride festivals, being a city where the Gold Rush
happened, the famous hills and cable cars in the city. San Francisco is also a
big city in California that contains 837,442 people out of the 38,332,521
people of the whole state of California. The city of Sacramento is the state
capital and contains about 479,686 people.
Southern California contains the famous and
historical cities of Los Angeles and San Diego. Los Angeles is a well-known
city around the world for famous celebrities that reside there, its historical
sites, it is an important city for American culture, actors migrate there for
bigger opportunities and it is close to other famous cities in Southern
California. Los Angeles is close to the famous wealthy city of Beverly Hills
that is known for its’ shopping district. The city of Los Angeles is close to
the historic Hollywood and to Venice Beach and Santa Monica Beach. Los Angeles
population is 10,017,068, it is one of the biggest cities of California. San
Diego is known for the beaches it contains, it is where many surfers around the
world travel to surf the waves. San Diego is a city close to the United States
and Mexico border which is a factor that contributes to its population. San
Diego contains about 3,211,252 people.
Landscape
Los Angeles topography includes
hills, and coastal areas as well, like San Francisco. It consists more of an
urban and metropolis area than San Francisco. Most of Los Angeles landscape is
covered with buildings. It is surrounded by valleys, such as the San Fernando
Valley and Pomona Valley, and surrounded by mountains, the Santa Monica
Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains and the Santa Susana Mountains. The mountains
formed due to the close proximity of the San Andreas Fault that is located in
Southern California. The are rivers as well, like the Los Angeles River. Los
Angeles is covered with buildings and surrounded by beaches, Venice and Santa
Monica.
Climate
Los Angeles has a Mediterranean
climate as well. The summers are often warm and dry, and the winters are cool.
During the winter, the average temperature is 57 degrees and in the summer it
is on average about 73 degrees, about the same as San Francisco’s climate. The
hottest month is August and the coldest month is January. Unlike San Francisco,
there is not as much fog, the sky is mostly clear.
Culture
There is a historic Chinatown in Los
Angeles, that is known as "Old Chinatown". In 1852, the first Chinese migrated to Los Angeles which began
the formation of Chinatown. In Chinatown there are Chinese businesses such as restaurants,
shops, markets, and church. In the 19th century there was profound discrimination
but the Chinese community continued to be prevalent for the businesses it had. Los
Angeles has a large Hispanic community and Spanish historical sites. There is
Olvera Street, where the first Spanish explorers found Los Angeles. Olvera
Street contains museums, shops, and restaurants that are flourished by Mexican
culture. In Olvera Street, there are celebrations such as Dia de Los Muertos,
the discovery of the Virgen de Guadalupe, and Mexico’s Independence Day.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Chapter 3: Historical Settlement of North America- The Historical Settlement of San Francisco, California
San Francisco
has developed into a city full of culture and different ethnicities. It began
with the settlement of Spanish Explorers and it continues with migration of
Asian people.
Spanish Settlement
San Francisco
was first settled by the Ohlone Tribe, their territory included counties such
as: San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, parts of Napa, Santa Cruz, Solano,
Alameda, and San Joaquin. These counties consist of a large portion of present-day Northern
California. Between 1776 and 1836, the Ohlone fell under the control of the Catholic
Church, with the arrivals of Spanish settlers.
In November 2, 1769, Spanish Exploration
Party led by Don Gaspar Portolá landed in San Francisco. This Spanish
Exploration settled in San Francisco and seven years later created the mission
of San Francisco de Asís, also known as Mission Dolores. Then the Catholic
Church began to establish missions in San Francisco and brought different
tribal groups to the mission. The population of San Francisco and the Ohlone Tribes began to grow.
Russian Settlement
In
1770 to 1841, Russians settled in present-day south of Alaska to Sonoma County,
California, which includes the region of San Francisco. Russian settlers began
their fur trade in this area, and thus this is where the neighborhood, Russian
Hill, of San Francisco originated from. The Russians did not become as prominent settlers as the Spanish settlers where in San Francisco.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
San Francisco
gained independence from Spain in 1821, and became part of the country of
Mexico. In the mid 1800’s, western countries such as Britain and the United
States wanted to gain the Bay Area as a portion of their land but only U.S. gained the territory. The end of the
U.S.-Mexico War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in February 2,
1848. The United States gained more than 500,000 square miles of Mexican
territory, San Francisco was part of the territory, with the Treaty of Hidalgo.
Gold Rush of California
The
California Gold Rush lasted for a whole decade from 1848 to 1858. James W,
Marshall had his first encounter with a nugget of gold in the American River.
His encounter with the golden nugget created an influx of immigrants from around
the world and the United States. According to Harvard University Library, the
Gold Rush increased San Francisco’s population in 1848 it had about 1,000
inhabitants and in 1850 the population grew to 20,000.
The Gold Rush brought immigrants
from all around the world, including many Chinese. In 1850, California ratified
the Foreign Miners Tax which taxed foreign miners $20 a month. The tax law did not stop the influx of Chinese
immigrants because in 1882, the United States ratified the Chinese Exclusion
Act. This stopped the immigration of Chinese into California for about a
decade. The Gold Rush was the beginning of immigrants from different ethnic
backgrounds, in which shapes the culture of San Francisco today.
Angel Island
Angel Island
was a port of entry in San Francisco in the 1900’s for Chinese and Japanese immigrants
but the majority were Chinese. About a million immigrants landed in Angel Island
which housed the immigrants. Thw United States put limitations to the influx of
Chinese immigrants by ratifying the Chinese Exclusion Act, which limited the type of Chinese
immigrants such as Chinese diplomats, teachers, merchants and students that were
allowed to migrate to Angel Island.
In 1906, there was an earthquake in
San Francisco in which many documents were lost and some Chinese claimed to be
American citizens, thus allowed the Chinese to migrate their children to the United States.
In 1943, the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed; allowing Chinese to become
U.S. Citizens but there was still a limitation of 105 Chinese immigrants per
year until 1965. The immigration of Chinese in the 1900’s began the
establishment of Chinatown in San Francisco.
Immigration of San Francisco
In 1860, ½ of
San Francisco’s population were immigrants because of the Catholic missions
that brought different tribal groups around the Americas. In the 1900’s,
Chinese immigrants migrated to San Francisco but was put to a halt by the
Chinese Exclusion Act until the 1960’s. San Francisco is a city in California in were the majority of its population does not consist of Mexican ethnicity. The
majority of immigrants of San Francisco come from China which is 28% of the population. A little over half (54%) of the
population has an immigrant part of the family.
In the 2013 census, there are about 837,442 people inhabiting the city of San Francisco. Amongst these 837,442 inhabitants, 48.5% of them are white, 33.3% are Asian, and 15.1% are Latino. Asian and Whites are the largest race of people that live in San Francisco. Asians are still a large portion of the population in San Francisco.
Sources: http://www.muwekma.org/home.html
In the 2013 census, there are about 837,442 people inhabiting the city of San Francisco. Amongst these 837,442 inhabitants, 48.5% of them are white, 33.3% are Asian, and 15.1% are Latino. Asian and Whites are the largest race of people that live in San Francisco. Asians are still a large portion of the population in San Francisco.
Sources: http://www.muwekma.org/home.html
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