How did California's geography affect California's settlement?

Answer 1

First of all we need to see what made California so great that people wanted to come here, before Gold was discovered in 1848.

The Spanish came to California around 1500s and settled the west coast. They came through the south and by ship, which was one of the safewest ways to travel. The ship took them from Spain around South America to California, in later years they departed from their colonial ports in Mexico, and South America.

Because of the early settlement of the coast by Spaniards and claims by the Russians, and british, California quickly became a coastal populated region, especially areas in the north near the main port of San Francisco.

By the 1840s Farmers were trying to head west for the best soil in the world, California's central valley. The valley was not easy to get to, being surrounded by desert on the south and mountains on the north and east. By 1848 another reason came to settle in the valley and wester Sierra foothills, the Gold Rush.

This allowed San Francisco to become a HUGE city, mainly due to its port, but cities like Sacramento, Fresno, and others were growing because of the farming and gold rush community. By 1850, the Union had accepted CA to be a state.

Growth continued slowly through the 1890s-1910, but in 1914, war broke out in Europe and the coast became a major industrial hub for ships, and metal products for the war effort. In 1925, Dust Bowl Farmers from Kansas or Oklahoma, often refered to as "Okies" began pooring into CA where the soil was plentaful and good, over 3 milliion people can to CA in two years. nearly doubling the population of CA.

The cities in CA were the fastest growing until 1906 when the great San Francisco Earthquake hit destroying most of the city. Citizens fled to surrounding Marin, Contra-Costa, Alameda, and Sonoma counties because of the effort surrounding the rebuilding of San Francisco.

IN 1943 the Muholland Aqueduct was completed in SOuthern California, which brought water from the sierras to the souther coast through the California and Mojave Desert, this brought and allowed millions of residents to move to the warm semi tropic south. Cities like Hollywood, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bruno, Pasadena, Santa Barbara sprung up and forced a surge of residents to call the "green and tarmack desert" their home.

Today California is still mostly a coastal populated region, concentrated in the Bay Area, Los Angeles Area, and San Diego Area, other major centers include Sacramento the capital, Fresno, the hub of Farming and along the interstate highways 101, 50, 5, and 80.

California's top ranking cities: Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego, Oakland