California: An OverviewBy: Blake Smedley

Queen Calafia’s Island - Geography

• Drastically diverse landscapes, created by multiple large forces of nature.

• Coast line spanning 1,264 miles.• 158,693 square miles in the state.• Has the highest mountain peak, and lowest

elevation in the U.S.• Located between 32 and 42 degrees latitude.• 2/3 of rain falls in the upper 1/3 of the state.• Coast was made by the collision of the

North American and Pacific plates.• Collision point of several different plates.• Very diverse plant life.• Huge amount of fish life off shore.• Has largest and oldest trees on the planet.• Biodiversity lead to inhabitation.

Queen Calafia’s Island- Natives • Native Americans thrived for over 25 generations

before European contact in 1492.• Somewhere around 1/3 of the entire Native U.S.

Population lived in California alone, and some scholars believe it to be even more than that.

• The native American population was so diverse that they had 22 different linguistic families, and among these categories there was somewhere around 135 languages.

• Different tribes had wide ranging diets due to California’s diverse biological life.

• Due to such a wide range of plant and animal life to choose from, wars among tribes were nearly heard of because they did not have to compete with each other for food.

Queen Calafia’s Island- Culture

• Tribes fixed a place for themselves in the world by having creation myths and the companionable presence of spirits.

• They had a communal life centered around sweat lodges that they heated by pouring water on hot rocks.

• The Women created an art form with the intricate weavings of baskets that were used in everyday life.

• The plethora of different tribe lifestyles is due largely to the difference in terrain throughout the state.

• They shared a continuum of beliefs that everything was cyclical, and that contributed to why they had such few contentions amongst each other.

Ecumenopolis- Racial Diversity

• California has one of the most diverse populations in the U.S and the world in general.

• By the early 1900’s San Francisco had a higher proportion of foreign born residents relative to its population than any other city in the U.S. including New York.

• Due to the gold rush, California became the most diversified community because every portion of the planet sent people there to get a hand in the loot.

• The 1920’s was the second influx of Mexican immigrants into the fields for work.

• In the 1930’s nearly half a million Anglo-Americans flocked to California from the dust bowl.

Ecumenopolis- Racial Disputes

• There have always been racial disputes ever since Europeans arrived in California.

• In 1871 the lynching of Chinese people happened multiple times during the “Chinese Must Go!” Crusade.

• On August 11, 1965 the Watts riots broke out due purely to racial tension among black and white citizens, and 34 were killed.

• After the Rodney king beating an even worse riot of 5 days broke out and left 45 people dead.

• A jury of predominately black jurors acquitted OJ Simpson of murder, and a predominately black and Latino crowd cheered outside for the victory of a black person in court.

Ecumenopolis- Racial Laws

• A series of bills and props have been continuously proposed since the mid 1900’s to isolate or exclude a certain race.

• In 1963 an African American Assemblyman put together a law banning real estate discrimination. It was overturned the following year, and then the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it again 3 years later.

• In 1992, presidential primary Pat Buchanan advocated the digging of an impassible trench along the border.

• Prop 187 called for the withdrawal of all public support to all undocumented Californians.

• Proposition 209 in 1996 passed in favor of outlawing affirmative action

Arnold- Scandals

• In any society there exist a number ofscandals, and California is no exceptionto such scandals.

• In 1950 Caryl Chessman, author of “Cell 2455, Death Row” was executed and sparked riots because many believed he was railroaded into a death sentence by by a hostile L.A. court.

• The Water and Power service of L.A. county had several highly controversial activities that they did for the good of L.A., but without regard for others or the environment.

• The Independent System Operator turned into a huge catastrophe, in particular with the Enron crisis, which caused the state electric bill to rise by 10.9 billion dollars in one summer.

Arnold- Movements

• The free speech and hippie movements in the San Francisco area are extremely well known portions of history.

• The hippie movement basically burnt itself out due to the high amount of drug use and overdose, and the mass suicide in Beverley Hills led by Charles Manson permanently put a negative image of them.

• San Francisco became a lavender friendly place for gays, and became the capital of gay culture, and after the assassination of Milk Provoked mass outrage, ultimately leading to a push for gay rights.

• After tragedies like Owens valley and the Hetch-Hetchy valley, the environmental movement started, and was able to save places like lake Mono and establish the Sierra Club.

Arnold- Disasters

• Natural and man made disasters proved to be more devastating to the government than anything else.

• The Earthquake in San Francisco in 1989 that measured 7.1 and raised a section of the I-880, and killing 66 people and causing 7 billion dollars in damage.

• In October of 1991 an incredibly destructive inferno broke out in Oakland, killing 25, injuring 150, and destroying 1,700 structures.

• Man made disasters like riots and the failure of the dot.com industry also plagued California recurrently for decades.

• El Nino was another devastating event that ended up causing 500 million in damages and a couple dozen deaths in 1998.

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