History of California to 1999
California - The First Republic (1541-1848)
In the early 1520's the Spanish discovered the Pacific Coast of North America, sailing northwest along the coastline they came to a fertile valley and named it the San Fernando Valley. From 1521-23, the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo explored the southern coastline from the tip of the Californian peninsula in the south to what is now Puget Sound in Washington, naming the area California from a fabled island in the romance novel by Garcia Rodríguez Ordones de Montalvo (Madrid, 1510) entitled Las Sergus de Esplandian (The Exploits of the Very Valiant Knight, Esplandian).
After mapping the locations down as they sailed further north. Within years the Spanish had sailed far enough to meet the Russians who controlled the area north of roughly the 54'40°N line, within years the Russians and Spanish had signed treaties and began trading between one another. After returning to California, Cabrillo had ventured inland and discovered verious indigenous peoples living in the area wearing gold jewelry and cut stones. After settling a small mission on the site of present day Santa Barbara, Cabrillo and his men began mining the mountains in and around the San Gabriel Mountains discovering gold, diamonds, and other valuable gems.
By 1533 the Republic of California was one of the largest nations in North America competing with the French to the east and the Spanish in the south, in the year 1535 Spain declared war on California and fought a war for five years trying to capture and annex California in an ill-fated war before signing the Treaty of Hermosillo signed in 1540 in which the Spanish ceded the provinces of Old California (now called Baja California), Sonora & Sinaloa, New Mexico (the territory from which the states of California, Nevada, Utah, part of Colorado, part of Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico were created) and Chihuahua. By the Treaty of Hermosillo the Spanish had to withdraw all of its forces and pay $70 million in war reparations to California, Spain crippled by its defeat in the First Californian-Spanish War and the loss of its northern provinces, withdrew from Californian land and retreated south into New Spain (now Mexico).
On August 19, 1541 California declared its soverignty as a nation establishing its capital as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de Los Ángeles meaning "The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels" (which was later shortened to Los Angeles) near the San Gabriel Mission. Within five years of the Californian-Spanish War, California had become one of the dominant powers on the North American continent with New Spain (Mexico) to its south, French Louisiana and the United States of America to its east, and the Russian Empire to the north. After opening trade routes to Japan, Russia and China the Californian Republic saw an unprecedented period of growth from 1547 to 1670 known by Californians as the Age of Prosperity, by 1671 California was again at war with Spain which lasted for twelve years in what was called the Second Californian-Spanish War. After defeating Spain for a second time in 1683 the Spanish were reluctant to attack California again, securing $147 million in war reparations from Spain which was used to create a military, California was able to achieve seventy-nine peaceful years passed before the Californian Republic was brought to war with Great Britain and France in 1762.
On September 18, 1762 a conflict erupted between California and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and France... Louis XV of France angered that California was 'spilling over' into French Louisiana tried negotiating with the Californian President Russel N. Andrews for the sale of Louisiana to California, President Andrews was not pleased with the deal and rejected the offer. King George III of Great Britain feared Californian expansion into Oregon Country which they had been fighting Russia for control over sporadically offered to split Oregon at the 45°N, negotiations went on for hours before President Andrews lost his patience and walked out on King George III. After having been disrespected by President Andrews, Great Britain declared war on Calfiornia followed shortly by a declaration of war from Louis XV of France. By 1793 the Californian Republic had won the Californian-British & French war and defeated Britain and France with heavy losses to become one of the most powerful and respected countries in the Western Hemisphere.
Again in peacetime California spent four decades rebuilding its economy, military and its pride as a nation-state... As fate would have it California knew that America had shown interest in making California part of the United States and had repeatedly told American ambassadors that the Californian Republic had no interest in becoming part of the United States, the problem was the United States wasn't listening and was intent on making California a state in the United States whether California wanted it or not.
Conquered, Divided and the Long Hard Road to Independence (1848-1999)
Roughly around the fall of 1848 gold was discovered near Coloma, California and a massive influx of immigrants calling themselves the Forty-Eighters mostly from the United States into California began, by the next year immigrants coming in from the United States calling themselves the Forty-Niners settled in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys. When the United States government realized that there was a huge profit they could make by exploiting the gold in California they sent ambassadors over again and tried to negotiate California's admission into the United States of America.
Angered with California's refusal to become part of the United States, the U.S. government sent their military to California to take it by force, on September 9, 1849 the United States sent John C. Fremont into San Francisco Bay with the declaration of war, seriously outgunned and outmanned the Californian Republic fought from September 17, 1849 to June 28, 1850 before California exhausted and incapable of fighting any further accepted defeat and surrendered to U.S. forces on June 30, 1850. Six months later on September 9, 1850 California was admitted to the United States and its territory broken down into what became the states of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Wyoming.
After becoming an American state California's parliament was disbanded and its laws replaced, having ratified the Constitution the United States moved the capital from the citadel-like Los Angeles and placed it in Sacramento. A decade went by in peace as California went through another period of modernization and economic growth until December 20, 1860 when the U.S. Civil War erupted when South Carolina seceded from the United States and fired on Fort Sumter.
California wanting to declare its independence to separate itself from the United States, was kept from making such an attempt to do so with the United States keeping military forces in the area to ensure that California wouldn't try to secede. For the next five years California could do nothing but watch during the Civil War with anticipation that the war would come west so that the Confederates might free California from the United States, when the Confederates lost on April 9, 1865 California resigned itself to staying as a state within the United States without any thought of salvation.
Seventy years passed and California grew to become one of the most populous states within the United States, with its success fueling a great passion for those born in the state in their pride to become an industrial, economic and political power within the United States. In the early 1900's California became one of the leading producers of filmmakers and movies as well as one of the largest oil suppliers in the world. With modern technologies being introduced in the 1930's California saw one of the greatest technological periods with the advent of the zeppelin and the automobile, when the Ford Model T hit production Henry Ford built a manufacturing plant in San Francisco, Los Angeles and in San Diego which later helped create the economic superpower that California was to later become.
When California became the leading producer in the film-making industry it caused such a massive influx of thousands of actors and actresses migrating to California, that the cities of Hollywood, Bel-Air and Beverly Hills were created, which later became suburbs of Los Angeles. As the state grew it became one of the largest business centers in the world making it an Alpha City alongside New York City which was in the lead as the nation's largest city.
It wasn't until the August 29, 1997 when California's state senate was won by the Democratic-Socialists and the course for independence was set, throughout the next two years careful negotiations and secret meetings with the senators and congressmen from others states ranging from Alaska to Texas were held to decide their futures as one country and how to implement their declaration of independence from the United States of America. The decision was made by the group calling itself the Union of Independent American States to elect Californian Senator Sandra Michelle Devnostraeva as its leader on August 29, 1999. Having been elected as the leader she took on her role seriously within the days afterwards when the American Sedition asked her that she be the one to deliver California's declaration of independence from the United States to the U.S. government in Washington D.C. on November 19, 1999.
