Editing California (section)

== History ==
Before the arrival of Europeans, the region was inhabited by numerous Amerindians, who settled in the prairies of central California and along the banks of the Colorado River.

The first attempts to colonize the area were made by the Spaniard Hernán Cortés, but the first European to explore the territory was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542, on the orders of Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of New Spain. Spanish trade attracted Dutch and English navigators, including Francis Drake, who reached the northern coast of California in 1579, claiming it as "Nova Albion." The Spanish explorer [[Sebastián Vizcaíno]] traveled the entire coast in 1602 and 1603, but it was not until 1769 that the colonization of the region began, led by a group led by Gaspar de Portolá and Father Junípero Serra. After the founding of [[San Francisco]], in 1776, numerous Franciscan and Jesuit missions were established with the aim of converting the local populations to Christianity. The Spanish maintained control of the region, albeit precariously, until 1822.

Under the rule of independent Mexico, California quickly rebelled: in June 1846, a group of American settlers took possession of the city of Sonoma, requesting intervention from the United States. The ensuing conflict ended in 1848, when Mexico was forced to cede California to the United States under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In January of the same year, the discovery of significant gold deposits sparked the so-called [[Gold Rush]], which enabled rapid economic development and led to California's entry into the Union on September 9, 1850. During the [[American Civil War|American Civil War]] (1861–1865), the state championed the Northern cause.

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[[Category:US States]]
[[Category:California|*]]