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