From Portuguese Era to United States Era

Portuguese explorer Juan Rodrígues Cabrillo is credited with being the first European to “discover” (in 1542) California, beginning the process of newcomers wrecking the state for the natives (a complaint that remains today, although the self-proclaimed “natives” are people whose residency ranges from a couple of years to two whole generations). Over the next 200 years, dozens of sailors mapped the coast, including British explorer Sir Francis Drake, who sailed his Golden Hind into what is now called Drake’s Bay in 1579, and Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcano, who, in 1602, bestowed most of the place names that survive today, including San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Carmel.
European colonial competition and Catholic missionary zeal prompted Spain to establish settlements along the Alta (upper) California coast and claim the lands as its own. In 1769, teeny (5-foot-nothing) Father Junípero Serra, accompanied by 300 soldiers and clergy, began forging a path from Mexico to Monterey. A small mission and presidio (fort) were established that year at San Diego, and by 1804, a chain of 21 missions, each a day’s walk from the next along a dirt road called Camino Real (Royal Road), stretched all the way to Sonoma. Most of the solidly built missions — Mission Delores, Mission San Juan Bautista, Mission San Diego de Alcala, to name just a few — still remain and offer public tours. The missions are pretty and pious, but their existence resulted in the usual story: Thousands of Native Americans were converted to Christianity and coerced into labor. Many others died from imported diseases. Because not all the natives welcomed their conquerors with open arms, many missions and pueblos (small towns) suffered repeated attacks, leading to the construction of California’s now ubiquitous —and fireproof — red-tile roofs.
Embattled at home as well as abroad, the Spanish relinquished their claim to Mexico and California in 1821. Under Mexican rule, Alta California’s Spanish missionaries fell out of favor and lost much of their land to the increasingly wealthy Californios — Mexican immigrants who had been granted tracts of land.
Beginning in the late 1820s, Americans from the East began to make their way to California via a three-month sail around Cape Horn. Most of them settled in the territorial capital of Monterey and in Northern California. From the 1830s on, Manifest Destiny led many a pioneer to go west, young man — and woman. The first covered-wagon train made the fourmonth crossing in 1844. Over the next few years, several hundred Americans made the trek to California over the Sierra Nevada range via Truckee Pass, just north of Lake Tahoe. A memorial to the Donner Party — the most famous tragedy in the history of westward migration, and the subject of many a culinary joke we won’t repeat — marks the site of the ill-fated travelers.
In 1846, President James Polk offered Mexico $40 million for California and New Mexico, a sum that will barely get you a shack on the beach in Malibu today. The offer might have been accepted, but the two countries got too busy fighting over Texas, instead. The United States won and simply took over the entire West Coast. (This chain of events throws an interesting light on the attitudes toward Mexican immigrants today.)