The most widely accepted description of the Pacific Coast is primarily political: it includes the United States of California, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, which previously comprised the old Oregon Country. Hawaii is often included in the “Pacific” states of America. However, it is a cluster of coral and Polynesian volcanic islands located more than two thousand miles off the Pacific Coast of the U.S. It has little geological similarity with the mainland states. Hence, this paper will discuss the five most significant events and forces on the pacific coast and mainly in California.
California is claimed for England by Sir Francis Drake
During his global circumnavigation, English sailor Francis Drake bases in a bay north of California and declares the region for the first English Queen (History.com Editors). Drake stayed on the Pacific coast for a month, naming the territory “Nova Albion,” to restore his boat, the Golden Hind, and make preparations to cross the Pacific Ocean.
Drake left England in 1577 with five sailing vessels on a mission to invade Spanish assets of the New World on the Pacific coast. Drake deserted two of his vessels in South America upon traversing the Atlantic and then voyaged into the Treacherous waters of Magellan with the three ships that remained. His expedition was besieged by a series of disastrous storms in the straits, destroying one vessel and pressuring another to revert to England. The only ship that made it to the Pacific was the Golden Hind. Still, Drake undauntedly persisted up South America’s western coast, capturing a wealthy Spanish treasure ship and raiding Spanish settlements.
Drake then proceeded up North America’s western coast in search of a possible northeast route reverting to the Atlantic. Drake stopped over around the bay of San Francisco Bay in 1579 to rebuild his vessel and organize for a voyage through the Pacific and reached as far as modern-day Washington before retreating (History.com Editors). In July, his journey set sail to transverse the Pacific, reaching various islands before winding the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and going back Atlantic ocean. The Golden Hind went back to Plymouth, England, in September 1580, bearing essential details about the world’s premier oceans and its wealthy captured treasure. During a visit to Drake’s ship in 1581, Queen Elizabeth the 1st knighted him.
The Mexican American War
In 1846, the United States of America pronounced war against Mexico, and during the conflict, U.s military forces captured California. The battle was partly motivated by emotions of Expansionism, a renowned perception in the United States that saw the country’s expansion as an unavoidable necessity (California History Online, p.8). The arrival of John C. Frémont, a loose cannon, in Mexican California sparked a resistance movement by the Anglo-Americans in the region. A “loose cannon” is a person whose actions are frequently impulsive and unrestrained. Lieutenant John C. Frémont of the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers perfectly fits the bill. In 1846, Frémont entered Mexican California with sixty militarized men, all of whom were expert marksmen. Their uprising was dubbed the Bear Flag Revolt, although the image on their emblem was more of a pig in resemblance than a bear.
The United States military forces quickly arrived at the coast and proceeded to the interior. The Californians fought well enough against the American forces, winning at San Pascual with their long spears. However, the Mexican troops were ultimately defeated in far more significant battles elsewhere. The war ended in 1848 with the signing of the Guadalupe Hidalgo agreement, resulting in the surrender of vast territories from Mexico to the U.S. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signaled the culmination of Mexican self-governance in California.
The Gold Rush
The Gold Rush in California between 1848 and 1855 was a gold rush commenced in January 1884 when gold was uncovered in California by James W. Marshall (Rice et al., p.169). The discovery of gold drew an estimated three hundred thousand people from abroad and other U.S regions to California. In the Compromise of 1850, the abrupt emergence of gold into the monetary supply rekindled the U.S economy, and the rapid population increase enabled California to shift to statehood quickly.
The Gold Rush had a devastating impact on Native Californians, hastening the decline of the Native American population due to the California Genocide, starvation, and disease. By the end of the gold rush, California had progressed from a sparsely populated ex-Mexican region to having one of its pioneer Senators, John C. Frémont, chosen in 1856 as the first presidential nominee of the new Republican Party. The Gold Rush had a significant impact. The gold-seekers, known as “forty-niners,” attacked and drove entire indigenous societies off their lands. Outside of California, the first arrivals were from Oregon, and in late 1848 came the Latin Americans. Nearly half of the estimated three hundred thousand persons who came to California throughout the Gold Rush entered by sea, with the other half navigating the Gila River trail and overland on the California Trail; forty-niners frequently faced significant hardships on the journey. While most newcomers were U.S citizens, the gold rush drew thousands from Australia, China, Latin America, and Europe.
Ranching and agriculture intensified throughout the province to satisfy the necessities of the settlers. San Francisco evolved from a tiny settlement of approximately two hundred people in 1846 to a frontier town of roughly thirty-six thousand residents by 1852. Throughout California, schools, roads, churches, and other urban areas were constructed. A new state constitution was drafted in 1849. The constitution was approved by referendum vote, and the interim first governor and legislature for the future state were appointed. California became a state in September 1850.
The San Francisco earthquake
In April 1906, an earthquake struck San Francisco, California, with numerous buildings collapsing and nealy three thousand people killed. The earthquake was triggered by a tumble of the Fault of San Andreas along a two hundred and seventy-five-mile segment, with shock waves being felt from the south of Oregon to Los Angeles (History.com Editors).
The wooden Victorian structures and brick buildings of San Francisco were particularly damaged. Fires erupted immediately, and firestorms erupted across the city due to ruined water mains, deterring firefighters from putting them out. The U.S Armed forces confirmed the incident, and the Mayor to San Francisco authorized military personnel to shoot down anyone caught looting and declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew (History.com Editors). Meanwhile, U.S troops and firefighters fought valiantly to regulate the raging inferno amid severe aftershocks, dynamiting entire city blocks to build firewalls. In April, the USS Chicago evacuated twenty thousand refugees caught up by the enormous fire at the base of Van Ness.
Most of the fires had been quenched, and authorities had begun the task of reconstructing the devastated city by April 23rd. It was approximated that three thousand people lost their lives due to the renowned San Francisco Earthquake and the catastrophic fires. Almost thirty thousand structures were wrecked, including nearly the entire central business district and most of the town’s residences.
Women’s Integrity
In July 1848, women organized and fought for suffrage on a national scale for the first time. In Seneca Falls, New York, suffragists like Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton convened over three hundred people. Women lobbied, marched, protested, and even went to jail in the decades that followed (Gullett, p.74). By the 1870s, females were putting pressure on Congress to pass an amendment recognizing their suffrage rights. This Amendment, renowned as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment was adopted as the nineteenth Amendment.
Lots of women in California devoted their efforts to introducing suffrage laws in the U.S congress. The California legislature enacted a bill acknowledging women’s suffrage liberties in 1893. However, the governor vetoed the bill, and women were still denied the right to vote (Gullett p. 79). California voted in a referendum on women’s suffrage three years later. Some voters were concerned that if women in California voted, they would pass a bill prohibiting alcoholic beverages. It was a mainstream political issue at the time, renowned as temperance.
Women increased their efforts in the early 1900s to persuade the state to approve legislation acknowledging their liberty to vote. Elizabeth, like many other women, stressed the importance of organizing to attain the freedom to vote. Women organized rallies, delivered speeches, and registered voters. In 1911, the Californian people narrowly voted to embrace a woman’s liberty to vote in another referendum. Women began to run for political office after gaining the right to vote. Irene Burns, an instructor who devoted her life to educating disabled children, was one such woman. Burns vied for superintendent of schools and was appointed as the first woman in Placer County to hold this position.
Women in California could now vote. They utilized their newfound political power to promote women’s suffrage throughout the nation. The U.S. Congress finally approved the 19th Amendment in June 1919. After Congress approved the Amendment, it needed to be approved by at least thirty-six states to become law through ratification. California ratified the nineteenth Amendment in November 1919. California and thirty-five other states had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment before August 1920, guaranteeing that the voting right could not be deprived based on gender.
In conclusion, California has undergone a series of victories and hardships that have molded it into a contemporary city. There were a series of important historical events in the history of California, which included the resolving of California where Captain Francis drake inspected the California coast in 1579. The Mexican-American war was another key event in the history of California as the Californians defeated the American troops. Still, the Mexican forces had to surrender to the conquest in other vast territories. As a result, the war concluded with Mexico submitting vast territories to the U.S. The Goldrush was the most significant event in the 19th century that shaped the history of America. Additionally, the earthquake of San Francisco and subsequent fires struck and wrecked the city in 1906 and was marked as one of the most devastating disasters in the history of America. Lastly, the struggle for women’s integrity is a significant force that championed the voting liberty of women, which archived the Nineteenth Amendment of the U.S constitution.
Works Cited
California History Online. The First Californians. p. 8, http://www.csun.edu/~sg4002/courses/417/readings/mexican.pdf. Accessed May 30th, 2021.
Gullett, Gayle. “Women Progressives and the Politics of Americanization in California, 1915-1920.” Pacific Historical Review 64.1 (1995): 71-94.
History.com Editors. “Sir Francis Drake Claims California For England.” HISTORY, 2010, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/drake-claims-california-for-england. Accessed May 30th, 2021.
History.com Editors. “The Great San Francisco Earthquake Topples Buildings, Killing Hundreds.” HISTORY, 2009, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-great-san-francisco-earthquake. Accessed May 30th, 2021.
Rice, Richard B., et al. The Elusive Eden: A New History of California. Waveland Press, 2017.
