California History Flashcards
CAH - Pre-Contact - Landscape and Agriculture in California
California is home to numerous Native American tribes who lived in prosperous, yet small, communities of roughly 100 to 200 people. Due to landscape driven isolation, these tribes belong to a number of different linguistic and cultural groups and few were related to one another. They often survived as hunters and gatherers, practicing some forms of gardening. The region was so rich in resources that California held nearly 13% of the entire native population of the United States.
CAH - Spanish explorer who claimed California for Spain.
In 1533, Hernan Cortes began exploring the northern reaches of New Spain, lured by rumors of a city made of gold. He discovered the Baja California peninsula and claimed it as part of New Spain. For the next 150 years, Spanish explorers would make occasional expeditions north to trade with the Native Americans, but considered the area too isolated to establish permanent settlements.
CAH - Early Spanish Settlement in Southern and Central Parts of California - Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo (born 1497, died January 3, 1543) was a Spanish explorer born in Palma del Rio, Córdoba, Spain, although he is also claimed by tradition as a native of Portugal. Among other things he was a maritime navigator known for exploring the West Coast of North America on behalf of the Spanish Empire. Cabrillo was the first European to navigate the coast of present-day California. He is best known for his exploration of the coast of California in 1542-1543. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo served under the command of Pánfilo de Narváez and aided him in the conquest of Cuba about 1518.
CAH - Early Spanish Settlement in Southern and Central Parts of California - Sebastián Vizcaíno
Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548–1624) was a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him to New Spain, the Philippines, the Baja California peninsula, the California coast, and Japan. In regards to California, he returned to the region over sixty years after Cabrillo. Vizcaíno, like Cabrillo, mapped the region and made note of the native tribes he found to be living there. Unlike his predecessor, he seems to have been the first to notice that the land would be good for agriculture and was bountiful.
CAH - Early Spanish Settlement in Southern and Central Parts of California - The Jesuits
Compared to Cabrillo and Vizcaíno the Jesuits were very influential in the California region. Their objective was to convert the natives into Christians with a number of Missions. The first of these missions was Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó, located in Baja, California and established in 1697. These missions forbade the local native tribes from practicing their traditional beliefs. They also encouraged members of different tribal groups to live together and resettle away from their original tribe. This broke down tribal barriers and loyalties, and forcibly relocated entire groups from their original homes. Unfortunately, many missionaries also carried with them European diseases which killed off many native peoples and further destabilized the traditional tribes.
CAH - Early Russian Settlement in Northern California
Russian explorers, under the command of Vitus Bering, first made contact with many northern Californian tribes, such as the Yurok and Yokut, while sailing south from Russian Alaska. Russia would go so far as to set up a short-lived colony in the region called Fort Ross and began to trade furs with the natives as part of the Fur Trade.
CAH - Early Russian Settlement in Northern California - Fort Ross
Fort Ross, originally Fortress Ross, is a former Russian establishment on the west coast of North America in what is now Sonoma County, California, in the United States. It was the hub of the southernmost Russian settlements in North America from 1812 to 1842. It has been the subject of archaeological investigation and is a California Historical Landmark, a National Historic Landmark, and on the National Register of Historic Places. It is part of California’s Fort Ross State Historic Park.
CAH - Early Russian Settlement in Northern California - Vitus Bering and The Great Northern Expedition (in the Alaskan Arctic region)
The Great Northern Expedition or Second Kamchatka expedition was one of the largest exploration enterprises in history, mapping most of the Arctic coast of Siberia and some parts of the North America coastline, greatly reducing “white areas” on maps. It was conceived by Russian Emperor Peter I the Great, but implemented by Russian Empresses Anna and Elizabeth. The main organiser and leader of the expedition was Vitus Bering, who earlier had been commissioned by Peter I to lead the First Kamchatka expedition (1724-1730). The Second Kamchatka Expedition lasted roughly from 1733–1743 and later was called the Great Northern due to the immense scale of its achievements.
CAH - Early British Exploration in the Northern Californian Region - Captain James Cook
Captain James Cook FRS (1728-1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. In regards to California, he came in contact with many of the same northern Californian tribes as the Russians, such as the Yurok and Yokut, and attempted to engage them in trade on his way to the Oregon territory.
CAH - The Primary Native American Cultural Groups of the Continental United States.
Northeastern, Southeastern, Plains, Plateau, Great Basin, Southwestern, Northwestern Coast, Subarctic, Arctic, and Californian.
CAH - Northeastern Native Americans
The tribes of the Northeast are the tribes that encountered the Pilgrims. The tribes of the Northeast lived in the territory from the Atlantic shores to the Mississippi Valley and from the Great Lakes to as far south as the Cumberland River in Tennessee. The people in this group include the Iroquois and the Algonquian. These tribes relied on each other for a very long time for trade, but also spent a great deal of time as warring enemies. The Northeast tribes cleared forests to plant crops and used the lumber to build homes and make tools. The women of many of these tribes did all of the work with crops, while the men primarily hunted and fished. An interesting note on the Iroquois social structure is that it was matrilineal. This means when a couple married, the man joined the woman’s family. After marriage, the man was no longer considered a part of his birth family. This family structure was not completely unique to the Iroquois, but it certainly would have seemed odd to European settlers.
CAH - The Iroquois League
The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse) are a historically powerful northeast Native American confederacy. They were known during the colonial years to the French as the Iroquois League, and later as the Iroquois Confederacy, and to the English as the Five Nations, comprising the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca. After 1722, they accepted the Tuscarora people from the Southeast into their confederacy and became known as the Six Nations.
CAH - Southeastern Native Americans
The tribes of the Southeast cultural group stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Trinity River in what is today Texas and from the Gulf of Mexico north as far as points in modern-day Missouri, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The tribes in this group included the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole. These are the people who would be referred to by whites as “the Five Civilized Tribes”. They were given this title because many of them decided to adopt customs of the colonists. They are also the people who later were victims of the forced relocation known as the Trail of Tears. The Southeastern tribes settled in river valleys. They were first and foremost farmers with hunting and fishing coming in second as their source of sustenance. They lived in various styles of houses. They included thatched roofs and various styles for the sides.
CAH - Southwestern Native Americans
The Southwest cultural group territory goes from the south of present-day Utah and Colorado down through Arizona and New Mexico. This includes parts of Texas, California, and Oklahoma and continues into Mexico. These tribes all have the dry climate binding them together as a group. Two basic lifestyles developed in the region: farming and nomadic. Agriculture north of Mexico reached its highest level of development in the Southwest. Examples of farming, or agrarian, people include the Hopi, Zuni, and many other tribes. The nomadic groups include tribes such as the Apache, Navajo, and others. Agrarian tribes like the Hopi and Zuni developed desert farming techniques that did not require irrigation. They relied on the little natural moisture the area does provide by using specific planting techniques and getting the crops in as early in the season as possible. They traditionally grew corn, beans, and squash. For meat, they also farmed turkeys and did some hunting. Nomadic groups like the Apache were hunters and gatherers. The men hunted deer, rabbits, and other game. The women gathered berries, nuts, corn, and other fruits and vegetables. Being nomads, they moved from place to place in search of resources. Interestingly, most in these groups did not eat fish, although fish were plentiful. The Navajo were actually a farming people, and they lived in permanent dwellings, but they had two homes, called hogans - one in the mountains and one in the desert. Later their lifestyle included herding sheep. After the arrival of horses, both the Apache and the Navajo lifestyle became closely tied to riding horses.
CAH - Northwestern Coast Native Americans
The Northwestern Coast cultural group followed the West Coast all the way from Northern California all the way up to the southernmost parts of Alaska. Tribes of the Northwest Coast had oceans, rivers, and forests to offer up plenty of fish and game. Even with very little agriculture, the Northwest Coast Native Americans had more than enough food to support a dense population. Because of the readily available food and building materials for their large plank houses and seaworthy boats, the tribes had time to achieve an affluent, highly complex society. Much of this society revolved around the custom of the potlatch, an opulent ceremonial feast at which possessions were given away or destroyed to display wealth or enhance prestige. Chinook and Tillamook are two of the well-known tribes of this region.
CAH - Great Plains Native Americans
The Plains tribes covered much of the middle of what is today the U.S. and Canada. The Plains tribes are greatly tied to horse culture and the hunting of the buffalo, but remember, this lifestyle was not possible until the horse was introduced to the Americas by Europeans. Earlier, many of these tribal groups were hunter-gatherers and farmers who lived in villages or at least semi-permanent settlements. Many groups later moved into the Plains region to partake in the new buffalo-hunting horse culture. From the feathered headdresses to teepees, almost everyone is familiar with some aspect of these groups. The most well-known tribes of the area are the Sioux, Pawnee, Blackfoot, Crow, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. The tribes today generally referred to as Sioux were the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota people. Sioux was a name given to them by their enemies.
CAH - Pre-Columbian Culture and Development - Impressive Works - Inca
Inca (~1200-1572) were able to maintain a truly impressive network of roads throughout their mountainous homeland, as well as construct impressive cities like Machu Picchu (1450-1572).
CAH - Pre-Columbian Culture and Development - Social Organization - Eastern North America
The settlements of Eastern North America featured structures that resembled many Greek city-states with regards to either a king with a very powerful council or the placement of power in the hands of an assembly.
CAH - Pre-Columbian Culture and Development - Social Organization - Aztec and Inca
The larger empires of the Inca and Aztec featured the most complex societies, including many similarities to European societies. Again, a king was paramount; however, a number of ministers surrounded the king, providing constant advice on all subjects. Additionally, a highly-structured system of priests, not at all dissimilar to that used by the Catholic Church, intertwined politics and faith, again, not a foreign concept for Europeans.
CAH - Pre-Columbian Culture and Development - Impressive Works - Cahokia
In the eastern part of North America, a number of large mounds were built around 1050AD to 1350AD, but most impressively, the course of the Mississippi River was changed. The residents of the city of Cahokia, near modern-day St. Louis and perhaps the largest city north of Mexico during its height, changed the course of the Mississippi River, altering its path so that it used a manmade side channel. This allowed them to continue their construction of the city according to its original plan.
CAH - Pre-Columbian Culture and Development - Impressive Works - Aztec
The Aztec were also able to construct pyramids on par with those of ancient Egypt, known as the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacán in central Mexico (~200AD). Later, they also built their capital city, Tenochtitlan (founded in 1325AD), on a series of man-made islands in the middle of a lake.
CAH - Pre-Columbian Culture and Development - Impressive Works - Lower Scale works in the American Southwest and early Andes cultures.
Ancestral Pueblo farming communities in the American Southwest, such as the Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zuni, and Hopi, constructed impressive Pueblo houses in the shadow of large caves between 100AD and 1600AD. Earlier residents of the Andes, the Nazca culture, built the Nazca lines in modern day Peru between 500BC and 500AD, showing a great deal of not only organization with regards to manpower, but also to planning and measurement.
CAH - Pre-Columbian Culture and Development - Eating Habits
While some cultures in the Americas were still hunter-gatherers, especially those in the far north, a shocking number of them were settled and agricultural. In the American East, societies thrived off the produce of fields that included beans, corn, and squash. Further to the south, in Mexico and the American Southwest, even more elaborate societies placed a great emphasis on these same crops, especially corn, while famously in the Andes Mountains, the Inca and others prospered from multiple varieties of potatoes.
CAH - Pre-Columbian Culture and Development - Impressive Works - Hunter-Gatherers on the Great Plains
The Great Plains have rich agricultural soil, yet few forests because the first Americans in this region, who without the benefit of Spanish horses, needed a way to move quickly across the region without trees, and wanted to encourage large populations of the animals they hunted. Their solution was simple: controlled burnings that limited the growth of thick forests.
CAH - New World - First Explorers - Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was the first European to discover the New World in 1492 (with the exception of the Norse ~500 years earlier), although he didn’t realize it at the time. He mistakenly thought the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola were apart of East Asia. Others had possibly been there, but it was Columbus’s expedition that set off the Age of Discovery in the Americas. He would make three further voyages to the New World. It is uncertain if he ever knew he discovered North and South America. Recent scholars have given attention to his role in the extinction of the Taíno people, his promotion of slavery, and allegations of tyranny towards Spanish colonists, which have tarnished his widely venerated immage. Columbus was actually from Genoa, which today is a part of Italy, but he was funded by and sailed under the Spanish flag.
CAH - New World - First Explorers - Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) was also born in Italy, but he eventually became a Spanish citizen. You might notice what his biggest legacy in the new world is - his name. Vespucci first demonstrated in about 1502 that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia’s eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus’ voyages, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass hitherto unknown to people of the Old World. A very well-educated man, he figured out the Earth’s circumference at the equator within about 50 miles of accuracy. It was this information that helped him realize he was far from Asia. In Vespucci’s honor, Martin Waldseemüller named the land mass America when he published a map in his Cosmographiae Introductio in 1507.
CAH - New World - First Explorers - Conquistadors
Conquistadors were soldiers/explorers who sailed for personal profit under the banner of the Spanish crown, known for conquering Mexico and Peru in the 16th century. Conquistadors always had priests with them whose duty it was to bring Christianity to the natives they encountered. Some of the most well known are Francisco Pizarro, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Juan Ponce de Leon, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, and Hernando Cortes.
CAH - New World - First Explorers - Francisco Pizarro
Francisco Pizarro (1471-1541) is most known for his defeat of the Inca in 1535. Pizarro basically took down this great empire with about 150 men. Many factors led to this easy defeat: A mix of deception on Pizarro’s part, arrogance on Atahualpa’s (the Incan leader) part, and the fact that the Inca had just encountered their own civil war.
CAH - New World - First Explorers - Vasco Nunez de Balboa
Vasco Nunez de Balboa (1475-1519) came from a poor Spanish family, but he rose to be famous for being the first European to cross Panama and actually see the Pacific Ocean in 1513. When he climbed a peak alone on the expedition, he saw the great water mass and claimed it for Spain.
CAH - New World - First Explorers - Juan Ponce de Leon
Juan Ponce de Leon (1474-1521) is most famous for searching for and possibly finding the Fountain of Youth. Of course, fame and fact are not the same thing. It was published after his death that this was his reason for exploration. What we know as more dependable information is that he was the first European to step foot in Florida. So, he is the first of the age of discovery in 1513 to step on what is today U.S. soil.
CAH - New World - First Explorers - Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (1510-1554) is another conquistador known for looking for something thought of as a myth. He was looking for El Dorado - the seven cities of gold. El Dorado was quite possibly a deception on the part of natives. They may have been telling the Spanish about it so that they would go off to find it and leave them alone. It is also possible that it just grew out of old stories of the great cities of some of the early American civilizations. Either way, this quest for gold led Coronado to be the first European to explore the American Southwest in what is today Arizona and New Mexico.
CAH - New World - First Explorers - Hernando Cortes
In 1521, Hernando Cortes (1485-1547) defeated the Aztecs. This is what he is most known for. He is remembered for walking in and conquering a great empire, partially by being mistaken for a god. Another important accomplishment for Cortes is that he was the first Spanish conquistador to be granted a hacienda.
CAH - Haciendas vs. Encomiendas
During the colonial era of New Spain during the 1500’s, the Spanish crown granted Haciendas, or land holdings to the conquistadors and other nobles. This land was theirs to farm or to lease to other Spaniards of lesser social status. In comparison, the encomienda system is what provides the labor for the hacienda, where the holder was granted the responsibility for a number of natives.
CAH - Haciendas
A hacienda, in the colonies of the Spanish Empire, is an estate, similar in form to a Roman villa, granted to a conquistador, used mostly as a business enterprise. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or factories. Many haciendas combined these activities. Smaller holdings were termed estancias or ranchos that were owned almost exclusively by Spaniards and criollos (a person from Spanish South or Central America, especially one of pure Spanish descent) and in rare cases by mixed-race individuals. In 1529, Hernando Cortes was granted the first hacienda in the New World. The head of a hacienda was called the patrón. Peasants, or peones, worked land that belonged to the patrón. The campesinos worked small holdings, and owed a portion to the patrón.
CAH - Encomiendas
The encomienda system is what provides the labor for the hacienda. The encomienda was made up of the people who lived on a granted hacienda. These people would work for the hacienda’s patrón, who was granted the hacienda, and the peninsulares, who were in charge of managing the encomienda’s for the patrón. Ferdinand and Isabella mandated that it was the responsibility of the person granted the encomienda to compensate their subjects, protect them, educate them in the Christian faith and make sure the people could live off the land. This, of course, often did not happen. The encomienda systems was divided into casts: At the top were peninsulares, second class below the peninsulares were the criollos, third class was made up of two groups called the mestizos and mulattos, and the lowest group was captured Aztec, Native Indian tribes, and slaves from Africa.
CAH - Encomiendas - Caste System - Peninsulares
Peninsulares were the Spanish in control and at the top of the hierarchy.
CAH - Encomiendas - Caste System - Criollos
Second class below the peninsulares were the Criollos (/krēˈōlō/). They were of pure Spanish blood, but were born in the colonies rather than in Spain. They couldn’t hold the same status as peninsulares, but they could inherit the land of their parents if they were peninsulares.
CAH - Encomiendas - Caste System - Mestizos and Mulattos
Third class was made up of two groups. First, the mestizos were of mixed blood - the children of a peninsular and a Native Indian. Because they had some Spanish blood, they were considered above any native. Mulattos were also of mixed blood - but with African slaves. This third class rarely ever mixed with criollos or peninsulares. They took a slightly higher place in society because they were not purely slave. These were the working class people of the society, mainly in small towns and communities.
CAH - Encomiendas - Caste System - Captured Aztec, Native Indian tribes, and slaves from Africa.
The lowest group was captured Aztec, Native Indian tribes, and slaves from Africa, used for labor with essentially no rights. Under the encomienda system, labor was to be treated fairly, with shelter, food, and living supplies. Spain wanted to reduce any chance of overthrow by rebellious groups.
CAH - Year Spanish defeated and conquered the Aztec Empire.
In 1519-1521, the Spanish, under the command of Hernando Cortes, defeated and conquered the Aztec Empire, which was located in present-day Mexico City, known as Tenochtitlan, over 1000 miles from the present-day California border. The Spanish claimed the area as a colony, or settlement controlled by another country, and named it New Spain.
CAH - Year California became part of the newly independent Mexico.
The Mexican War for Independence ended an approximately 300 year era of Spanish colonization. California became part of the newly independent Mexico in 1821.
CAH - Year possession of California was transferred from Mexico to the U.S. and the name of the treaty.
Possession was transferred to the United States in 1848 as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War.
CAH - Three important types of Spanish institutions that had a lasting impact on California.
Though Spanish rule officially ended in 1821, the Spanish colonial period had a lasting impact on California thanks to the missions, pueblos, and ranchos that Spain established.
CAH - Missions
Missions were religious outposts established by Spanish Catholic orders such as the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Jesuits. Though their mission was primarily to spread Catholicism to the Native Americans, the missions also served an important political role by establishing a Spanish presence to ward off competing European claims and keep the native populations controlled through forced labor and relocation. By 1821, Spain had established 21 missions up and down the California coast. The California Missions Trail is now managed by the California Parks Service and the preserved missions attract thousands of visitors every year. See also: Pueblos and ranchos.
CAH - Pueblos
While the missions were established to administer and often house the Native population, pueblos (Spanish for town) were established for Spanish and Mexican settlers that moved north. Pueblos founded by the Spanish include Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Santa Clara. These pueblos were often heavily defended to protect the Spanish settlers from Native attacks. And up until recently, these cities were often ruled according to strict racial hierarchies, as they were in the Spanish area, with citizens of European descent controlling the cities and people of Native and Mexican descent largely shut out from power. See also: Missions and Ranchos.
