California

State of California

Flag of California Seal of California
State nickname: The Golden State
Official languages	English
Capital	Sacramento
Largest city	Los Angeles
Governor	Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)
Senators	Dianne Feinstein (D) Barbara Boxer (D)
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 3rd 410,000 km² 4.7
Population  - Total (2000)  - Density	Ranked 1st 33,871,648 83.78/km² (12th)
Admission into Union	September 9, 1850 (31st)
Time Zone	Pacific: UTC-8/-7
Coordinates  - Latitude  - Longitude  - Width  - Length	32°30'N to 42°N 114°8'W to 124°24'W 402.5 km 1,240 km
Elevation  - Highest point  - Mean  - Lowest point	4,421 m 884 m -86 m
Abbreviations  - USPS  - ISO 3166-2	CA US-CA
Web site	www.ca.gov

California is a state located on the west coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous state in the U.S., as well as the most physically diverse, with the highest and the lowest points in the lower 48 states located within 150 miles of each other. If California were an independent nation, it would have the sixth largest economy in the world (after the rest of the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain and France; see economy of California). The state's official nickname is "The Golden State" in reference to California's 1849 Gold Rush. ^[1] California's U.S. postal abbreviation is CA, and its Associated Press abbreviation is Calif.

As one of the most demographically diverse states in the nation, California is a dominant force in American culture as well as the nation's economy. It has some of the nation's largest cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco, and is responsible for many legal and technological innovations.

The entire region originally known as California was composed of the Mexican peninsula now known as Baja California and much of the land in the current states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming, known as Alta California. In these early times, the boundaries of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific coast were only partially explored and California was shown on early maps as an island. The name comes from Las sergas de Esplandián (Adventures of Splandian), a 16th century novel, by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, where there is an island paradise called California. (For further discussion, see: Origin of the name California.)

History

Main articles: History of California, History of California (20th century)

The first European to explore parts of the coast was the Portuguese João Rodrigues Cabrilho in 1542. The first to explore the entire coast and claim possession of it was Francis Drake in 1579. Beginning in the late 1700s, Spanish missionaries set up tiny settlements on enormous grants of land in the vast territory north of Baja California. The missions played a dominant role in the decimation of California's indigenous population. Upon Mexican independence from Spain, the chain of missions became the property of the Mexican government, and they were quickly dissolved and abandoned.

In 1846, at the outset of the Mexican-American War, the California Republic was founded and the Bear Flag was flown, which featured a golden bear and a star. The Republic came to a sudden end, however, when Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into San Francisco Bay and claimed California for the United States. Following the war, the region was divided between Mexico and the United States. The Mexican portion, Baja (lower) California was later divided into the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. The western part of the U.S. portion, Alta (upper) California, was to become the state of California.

In 1848, the Spanish-speaking population of distant upper California numbered around 4,000. But after gold was discovered, the population burgeoned with Americans and a few Europeans in the great California gold rush. In 1850, the state was admitted to the Union of the USA.

During the American Civil War, popular support in California was divided 70% for the South and 30% for the North, and although California officially entered on the side of the North, many troops went east to fight for the Confederacy CSA.

At first, travel between the far Pacific West to the eastern population centers was time-consuming and dangerous, requiring either long ocean voyages, or difficult transcontinental passages. A more direct connection came in 1869 with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. After this rail link was established, hundreds of thousands of Americans came west, where new Californians were discovering that land in the state, if irrigated during the dry summer months, was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Citrus, oranges in particular, was widely grown, and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production of today.

During the early 20th century, migration to California accelerated with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965 the population grew from fewer than one million to become the most populous state in the Union. From 1965 to the present, the population demographic changed radically and became one of the most diverse in the world. The state is generally liberal-leaning, technologically and culturally savvy, and a world center of engineering businesses, the film and television industry and, as mentioned above, American agricultural production.

Law and government

Main article: California government and politics

California is governed as a republic, with three branches of government, the executive branch consisting of the Governor of California and the other independently elected constitutional officers, the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and Senate, and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. The state also allows direct participation of the electorate by referendum, recall, and ratification.

The Governor of California and the other state constitutional officers serve four-year terms and may be re-elected only once. The California State Legislature consists of a 40 member Senate and 80 member Assembly. Senators serve four year terms and Assembly members two. The terms of the Senators are staggered so that half the membership is elected every two years. The Senators representing the odd-numbered districts are elected in years evenly divisible by four, i.e., presidential election years. The Senators from the even-numbered districts are elected in the intervening even-numbered years, in the gubernatorial election cycle. California's legislature is organized in such a way that the party caucus leaders wield great power and can usually speak on behalf of their caucuses. Many important legislative decisions are thus not made on the floor of the legislature but in back-room deals by the "Big Five", which comprises the governor and the Democratic and Republican leaders of each chamber.

For the 2005–2006 session, there are 48 Democrats and 32 Republicans in the Assembly. In the Senate, there are 25 Democrats and 15 Republicans. The current Governor is the Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose current term lasts through January 2007. Schwarzenegger was only the second person in the history of the United States to be put into office by a recall of a sitting governor (the first was the 1921 recall of North Dakota Governor Lynn J. Frazier). Schwarzenegger replaced Governor Gray Davis (1999–2003), who was removed from office by the October 2003 California recall election.

The state's capital is Sacramento. During California's early history under European control, the capital was successively located in Monterey (1775–1849), San Jose (1849–1851), Vallejo (1852–1853), Benicia (1853–1854), and San Francisco (1862). The capital moved to Sacramento temporarily in 1852 when construction on a State House could not be completed in time in Vallejo. The capital's final move to Sacramento was on February 25, 1854 where it has been permanently, except for a four-month temporary move in 1862 to San Francisco, due to severe flooding in Sacramento.

California's giant judiciary is the largest in the United States (with a total of 1,600 judges, while the federal system has only about 840). It is supervised by the seven Justices of the Supreme Court of California. Justices of the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal are appointed by the Governor, but are subject to retention by the electorate every 12 years. Judges of the trial courts, the Superior Courts in each county, may be appointed by the Governor or elected directly by the voters, depending on when the vacancy occurs. Superior Court judges serve six-year terms, after which they may run for re-election. Unlike the retention elections for Supreme Court and Court of Appeal justices, Superior Court judges run for re-election in open races, in which other qualified candidates may run as challengers.

California's legal system is explicitly based on English common law but carries a few features from Spanish civil law. Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment and the state has the largest "Death Row" population in the country.

At the national level, California is represented by two senators and 53 representatives, as of 2005. It has 55 electoral votes in the U.S. Electoral College. (As California is the most populous state in the Union, its counts of Congressmen and Presidential Electors are, of course, also the largest.) The two U.S. Senators from California are Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. 33 Democrats and 20 Republicans represent the state in the U.S. House of Representatives.

While California is among the most Democratic and liberal states in the nation because of the large concentration of voters in populous areas, much of California is politically very conservative, notably the Central Valley, the Inland Empire, Orange and San Diego counties, and most inland, eastern, and rural areas. Democratic bastions are mostly coastal and include the entire San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Salinas, Santa Barbara, and Imperial County. The state has supported Democrats in the last four presidential elections. In 2004, Republican President George W. Bush received a majority of votes in more than half the state's 58 counties, but still lost California's 55 electoral votes to John Kerry, who won 54.3% of the popular vote, by a margin of 10 percentage points.

See also: List of California Governors, U.S. Congressional Delegations from California, List of California counties, List of California ballot propositions

Geography

Main article: Geography of California

Map of California - PDF

California borders the Pacific Ocean, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and the Mexican state of Baja California. The state has strikingly beautiful natural features, including an expansive central valley, tall mountains, hot deserts, and hundreds of miles of scenic coastline. With an area of 411,000 km² it is the third largest state in the U.S and larger than Germany in size. Most major cities cling to the cool seacoast along the Pacific, notably Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana/Orange County, and San Diego. However, the capital, Sacramento is in the Central Valley.

California has extremely varied geography. In the center of the state lies the Central Valley, a huge, fertile valley bounded by the coastal mountain ranges in the west, the granite Sierra Nevada to the east, the volcanic Cascade Range in the north and the Tehachapi Mountains in the south. Mountain-fed rivers, dams, and canals provide water to irrigate the Central Valley. With dredging, several of these rivers have become sufficiently large and deep that several inland cities, notably Stockton, California, are seaports. The hot, fertile Central Valley is California's agricultural heartland and grows a large portion of America's food, yet near freezing temperatures are not uncommon during winter which sometimes wipe out portions of crops. The bottom part of the valley, which is part desert, is known as the San Joaquin Valley while the upper half is known as the Sacramento Valley.

In the center and east of the state are the Sierra Nevada (meaning Snowy Range in Spanish), containing the highest peak in the contiguous lower 48 states, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4421 m). Also located in the Sierra are the world famous Yosemite National Park and a deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe, the largest lake in the state by volume. To the east of the Sierra are Owens Valley and Mono Lake, an essential seabird habitat. To the west is Clear Lake, California's largest freshwater lake by area. The Sierra Nevada receives arctic temperatures in the winter and holds several dozen small glaciers, including the most southern glacier in the United States (Palisade Glacier).

California has about 35% of its total surface area covered by forests. California's diversity of pine species is unmatched by any other state. Though other states have a higher percentage of their land area covered by forests, in terms of total area, California contains more forestland than any other state except Alaska. Most of the forest is found in 2 places. First, in the northwestern part of the state and along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. Smaller forests, mainly consisting of oaks, can be found along the coast ranges of California closer to the coast, and also in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Smaller areas of pine forests can be found in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains of Southern California and also in the mountain areas of Central San Diego Country.

Deserts in California make up about 25% of the total surface area. In the south lie the Transverse Ranges and a large salt lake, the Salton Sea. The south-central desert is called the Mojave. To the northeast of the Mojave lies Death Valley, which contains the lowest, hottest point in North America. The lowest point of Death Valley and the peak of Mount Whitney are less than 200 miles apart. The hiking trek between the two points has been attempted, several times, most notably by Lee Bergthold. Indeed, almost all of southeastern California is arid, hot desert, with the Coachella Valley routinely experiencing extreme high temperatures during the summer.

Finally, along the densely-populated but long California coast lie a number of major metropolitan areas, including San Francisco Bay, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Climates near the Pacific Ocean are remarkably moderate compared with inland climates. Winter temperatures never reach freezing (snow is unheard of) and summer temperatures rarely reach above the high 80's Fahrenheit (27 °C).

California is famous for its earthquakes, due partly to the presence of the San Andreas Fault. While more powerful earthquakes in the United States have occurred in Alaska and along the Mississippi River, California earthquakes are notable in their frequency and location in highly populated areas. Some people believe, eventually, a huge earthquake will result in the splitting of coastal California from the continent, either to sink into the ocean or form a new landmass. The fact that this scenario is completely implausible from a geologic standpoint does not lessen its acceptance in public conventional wisdom, or its exploitation by the producers of science fiction and fantasy media. Notable movies in which the possible destruction of much of California by an earthquake includes the titles Earthquake, A View to a Kill, Escape from L.A. and Superman.

California is also home to several volcanoes, some active such as