Geography And Climate Of California
Adjacent to the Pacific Ocean on the west, the southwestern desert in the east and bordering Oregon, Nevada, Arizona and Baja California in Mexico, California spans 160,000 square miles and is the third largest U.S. state in terms of size. Known the world over for its stunning beauty, California, or the Golden State, has the best of each ecological world: stark desert landscape, lush forests, scenic mountain vistas and picture-perfect coasts.
The California Central Valley, which lies in the middle of the state, is the agricultural heartland of the California and provides about one-third of the country’s food supply. In the north, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta functions as a crucial part of the state’s water supply, while the Sierra Nevada is home to the highest peak in the contiguous U.S. states, Mount Whitney. Yosemite Valley’s glacial domes and the massive sequoia trees of Sequoia National Park are located in the Sierra Nevada, along with the largest freshwater lake in the state, Lake Tahoe.
To the southeast, the arid Mojave Desert encompasses Death Valley, the hottest point in the nation. Along the California coastline is where several metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, are located. The San Andres Fault that runs through the state makes it particularly susceptible to earthquakes. The state is also gets floods, droughts, wildfires, landslides and Santa Ana winds.
Due to the varied nature of California’s topography, the climate runs the gamut, although much of the state has a Mediterranean climate with cool, rainy winters and dry summers. The farther inland, the colder the winters and the hotter the summers become. During the winter, mountainous areas of the state experience snowfall and moderate heat in the summer, while Northern California has a higher annual rainfall than the south.
History Of California
California has always been culturally diverse, starting with over 70 unique groups of Native Americans, including the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan, in the area during pre-Columbian North America. Portuguese explorer Joao Rodrigues Cabrillo discovered the coast in 1542 while sailing for Spain, but Sebastian Vizcaino started mapping out the coast for New Spain in 1602. Afterwards, Spanish missionaries began arriving in the area and established 21 missions, towns and presidios.
In 1821, the Mexican war of Independence awarded Mexico with California and cattle ranchers settled throughout the area. After the Mexican-American War in 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo divided the land so that Alta California became U.S. territory, while Baja California remained in Mexican possession.
Although trappers and settlers had been moving from the northwest and Canada to California since the 1820s, gold discovery led to an explosion in the state’s population. In 1850, California was admitted to the Union as a free state. The completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad brought hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens to the west, along with transcontinental highways like Route 66 and the Lincoln Highway. From 1900 to 1965, California’s population grew from less than a million to the most populated state in the U.S.
Demographics Of California
According to 2007 estimates, California has a population of 36,553,215, making it the most populated state in the U.S. There are eight major metropolitan areas in California, while the state’s most populated areas include Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco.
As one of the country’s most culturally diverse states, California has the largest minority population in the U.S. at 57 percent. Over a third of the state’s population is ethnically Hispanic or Latino, while California is home to approximately one-third of the country’s Asian-American population. English, Spanish, Chinese, Filipino, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Korean are just a few of over 200 languages spoken and read in the state. California also has a sizeable Jewish and Muslim population, as well as the home of two of the largest Buddhist temples in the Western Hemisphere.
For more information, read the California Quick Facts at the U.S Census Bureau.
Economy Of California
An economic powerhouse, California’s industries can be regionally divided. Aerospace, engineering, mining and oil drilling occur throughout the state. Agriculture in the Central Valley is the most predominant moneymaking industry, along with technology and software development in Silicon Valley, wine production in Napa and Sonoma Valley and the capital of the entertainment industry in Hollywood and Los Angeles.
The state not only has the highest gross state product (GSP) and is responsible for 13 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), but also has the eighth largest GDP in the world if it were an independent country. California’s per capita income was estimated at $38,956 in 2006.
California Law And Government
California’s capital is Sacramento, where current Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been governor since 2003. The state’s judiciary system is the largest in the U.S. In the California State Legislature, there are 40 members of Senate and 80 members of Assembly, with senators serving four-year terms and Assembly members serving two. There are currently 48 democrats and 32 republicans in Assembly, as well as 25 democrats and 15 republicans in the Senate.
Given its dynamic and diverse culture, California’s political influences are mixed. The state was among the first to legalize abortion and same-sex marriages, but has a strong conservative center in pockets of the state, notably in San Joaquin Valley and Orange County. The coastal cities, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, lean towards liberal values. Generally, California votes Democrat, with U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer both Democrats, despite electing moderately Republican governors such as Schwarzenegger or former President Ronald Reagan.
California Transportation
Known for its car culture, Californians drive through heavy traffic congestion on an extensive system of highways, freeways and expressways. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is responsible for road maintenance and transportation planning. METRO is a commuter and light rail system in Los Angeles, while BART and Caltran are commuter rails in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Traveling by car is so important in California that many of the state’s landmarks are roads. The Golden Gate Bridge helps link the bay area and has become a major tourist attraction and icon of San Francisco. The Pacific Coast Highway is another famous California route, running along much of California’s coastline.
Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport are major hubs for international flights, particularly trans-Pacific and transcontinental ones. Dozens of other commercial and private airports operate in the state. California also has several significant seaports, including the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern California, which handles around a fourth of U.S. cargo traffic, and the Port of Oakland in the bay area, which deals with trade from the Pacific Rim.
Major Cities And Towns Of California
California is divided into 58 counties, with a total of 478 incorporated cities and towns. The state recognizes charter and general law, with most cities formed in the 19th Century governed by city charters.
Many of the cities and towns are located within one of five metropolitan areas, with nearly 70 percent of the population living in either the Greater Los Angeles area, the San Francisco Bay Area or the Riverside-San Bernardino Area, also known as the Inland Empire. San Diego and Sacramento are smaller, but still major metro areas, as well as Fresno, Bakersfield and other coastal cities between Los Angeles and San Francisco such as San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Monterey.
California Educational System
California is home to thousands of school districts, which cover primary and secondary education. Public schools in the state are supported by a constitutional amendment that requires 40 percent of the state’s revenues to go towards education.
Public postsecondary education in California is among some of the best in the nation. The University of California (UC) system, with UC Berkley and UCLA as the biggest jewels in the UC crown, consists of ten research universities and employs more Nobel Prize laureates than any other educational institution in the world.
The California State University (CSU) system is the largest in the U.S. with over 400,000 students in attendance, while the California Community Colleges system is made up of 109 colleges providing lower division courses at a low cost to over 2.9 million students. Stanford University, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the Claremont Colleges and the University of Southern California are just a few of the other notable educational institutions in the state.
Learn more at the California Department of Education.
California Sports Teams And Recreational Activities
Whether you enjoy baseball, basketball, football, ice hockey or soccer, California has at least two of each. There are 19 major professional sports league franchises in the state, with several sports serving each metro area. For example, the San Francisco Bay Area is home to two baseball teams, the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants.
California has also played host to a number of world events, including the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe and the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
Given the number of universities in the state, it is no surprise that fans cheer for some highly respected collegiate sports teams. UCLA, USC, Stanford and UC Berkley are often ranked nationally, and the oldest college bowl game, the Rose Bowl, is played in Pasadena in the Los Angeles area.
The California climate, along with forests, mountains, desert and beach, make the state a veritable recreational playground. From San Onofre to Santa Cruz, surfers have flocked to the California coast to ride the waves. Skiers and snowboarders both trek to Lake Tahoe, Mammoth Lake and Big Bear Lake for excellent lifts and powdered snow during the winter. Rock climbers head to Joshua Tree in the southwestern part of the state for rock climbing, while millions of tourists visit Yosemite National Park every year. There are literally hundreds of thousands of hiking trails all over the state, while biking, kayaking, skating, swimming and boating remain popular recreational activities.
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