1.
Monterey, California
–
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, in the Northern Portion of Californias Central Coast. It stands at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level, the 2010 census recorded a population of 27,810. Monterey was the capital of Alta California under both Spain and Mexico and it was the only port of entry for taxable goods in California. In 1846 the U. S. flag was raised over the Customs House, the city had Californias first theater, public building, public library, publicly funded school, printing press, and newspaper. The city and surrounding area have attracted artists since the late 19th century, until the 1950s, there was an abundant fishery. Among Montereys notable present-day attractions are the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Cannery Row, Fishermans Wharf, long before the arrival of Spanish explorers, the Rumsen Ohlone tribe, one of seven linguistically distinct Ohlone groups in California, inhabited the area now known as Monterey. They subsisted by hunting, fishing and gathering food on and around the biologically rich Monterey Peninsula, researchers have found a number of shell middens in the area and, based on the archaeological evidence, concluded the Ohlones primary marine food consisted at various times of mussels and abalone. A number of sites have been located along about 12 miles of rocky coast on the Monterey Peninsula from the current site of Fishermans Wharf in Monterey to Carmel. In 1602, Spanish maritime explorer Sebastian Vizcaino recorded the name Bahía de Monterrey, Vizcaino landed at the southern end of the bay and described a great port, suitable for use as an anchorage by southbound Manila galleons. Vizcaino also noted and named the Point of Pines, all other uses of the name Monterey derive from Vizcainos name for the bay. Variants of the name are recorded as Monte Rey and Montery. In 1769, the first European land exploration of Alta California, for some reason, the explorers failed to recognize the place when they came to it on October 1,1769. The party continued north as far as San Francisco Bay before turning back, on the return journey, they camped near one of Montereys lagoons on November 27, still not convinced they had found the place Vizcaino had described. Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí noted in his diary, We halted in sight of the Point of Pines and camped near a lagoon which has rather muddy water. Portolá returned by land to Monterey the next year, having concluded that he must have been at Vizcainos Port of Monterey after all, the land party was met at Monterey by Junípero Serra who traveled by sea. Portolá erected the Presidio of Monterey to defend the port and, on June 3,1770, Portolá returned to Mexico, replaced in Monterey by Captain Pedro Fages, who had been third in command on the exploratory expeditions. Fages became the governor of Alta California, serving from 1770 to 1774. Serras missionary aims soon came into conflict with Fages and the soldiers, the existing wood and adobe building became the chapel for the Presidio
Monterey, California
–
Fisherman's Wharf and downtown rooftops, seen from
Monterey Bay
Monterey, California
–
Construction on the
Custom House began in 1814 under Spanish rule. This photo dates from 1936.
Monterey, California
–
Birds along a rock sea wall near the Coast Guard Station, which borders the
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Monterey, California
–
Monterey Wharf and Harbor area
2.
Sonoma, California
–
Sonoma is a city in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, United States, surrounding its historic town plaza, a remnant of the towns Mexican colonial past. Today, Sonoma is a center of the wine industry for the Sonoma Valley AVA Appellation. Sonomas population was 10,648 as of the 2010 census, the area around what is now the City of Sonoma, California was not empty when the first Europeans arrived. It is near the northeast corner of the territory claimed by the Coast Miwok, with Southern Pomo to the northwest, Wappo to the northeast, Suisunes, Mission San Francisco Solano was the predecessor of the Pueblo of Sonoma. The Mission, established in 1823 by Father José Altimira of the Franciscan Order was the 21st, last and northernmost mission built in Alta California and it was the only mission built in Alta California after Mexico gained independence from the Spanish Empire. In 1833 the Mexican Congress decided to all of the missions in Alta California. The Spanish missionaries were to be replaced by parish priests, the commander of the Company of the National Presidio at San Francisco, Lieutenant Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo was appointed administrator to oversee the closing of Mission San Francisco Solano. Governor José Figueroas naming of Lieutenant Vallejo as the administrator to secularize the Mission was part of a larger plan, an immediate concern was the further eastward movement of the Russian America Company from their settlements at Fort Ross and Bodega Bay on the California coast. The Sonoma Barracks were built to house the soldiers, until the building was habitable, the troops were housed in the buildings of the old Mission. Yount, the first Euro-American permanent settler in the Napa Valley, was employed as a carpenter by General Vallejo, the Governor granted Lieutenant Vallejo the initial lands of Rancho Petaluma immediately west of Sonoma. Vallejo was also named Director or Colonization which meant that he could initiate land grants for other colonists, Vallejo had also been instructed by Governor Figueroa to establish a pueblo at the site of the old Mission. Although Sonoma had been founded as a pueblo in 1835, it remained under military control, in 1843, Lieutenant Colonel Vallejo wrote to the Governor recommending that a civil government be organized for Sonoma. A town council was established in 1844 and Jacob P. Leese was named first alcalde, before dawn on Sunday, June 14,1846, thirty-three Americans, already in rebellion against the Alta California government, arrived in Sonoma. Some of the group had traveled from the camp of U. S. Army Brevet Captain John C, Frémont who had entered California in late 1845 with his exploration and mapping expedition. Others had joined along the way, Mexican officials were concerned about the coming war with the United States coupled with the growing influx of American immigrants into California. The insurgents next determined to seize the weapons and materiel stored in the Sonoma Barracks, meeting no resistance, they approached Comandante Vallejos home and pounded on his door. After a few minutes Vallejo opened the door dressed in his Mexican Army uniform, Vallejo invited the filibusters leaders into his home to negotiate terms. However, when the agreement was presented to those outside they refused to endorse it, rather than releasing the Mexican officers under parole they insisted they be held as hostages
Sonoma, California
–
City hall in 2005
Sonoma, California
–
Stylized portrayal of the Mission
Sonoma, California
–
Mariano Vallejo as a Young Man
Sonoma, California
–
John C. Frémont
3.
Californio
–
The Californio era was from the first Spanish presence established by the Portolá expedition in 1769 until the regions cession to the United States of America in 1848. Non-Spanish-speaking immigrants who 1) became naturalized Mexican citizens, 2) married Californios, such residents, by these actions, became eligible to own land and receive rancho grants from the Mexican government. Most such grants occurred after mission secularization in the 1830s, an even looser definition may include descendants of Californios, especially those who married other Californio descendants. The much larger population of non-Spanish-speaking indigenous peoples of California who lived in the prior to. Many Californios, however, were the California-born children of non-Spanish speakers who married Spanish speakers, such spouses usually also converted to the Catholic faith and, after Mexico became independent of Spain in 1821, often became naturalized Mexican citizens. The military, religious and civil components of pre-1848 Californio society were embodied in the presidios, missions. After secularization, the Mexican authorities divided most of the lands into new ranchos. The Spanish colonial and later Mexican national governments encouraged settlers from the northern and western provinces of Mexico, People from other parts of Latin America did settle in California. However, only a few official colonization efforts were ever undertaken—notably the second expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza, children of those few early settlers and retired soldiers became the first Californios. Sporadic colonization efforts continued under Mexican rule, including the Hijar-Padres group of 1834, One genealogist estimated that, by 2004, between 300,000 and 500,000 Californians were descendants of Californios. Alta California was nominally controlled by a national-government appointed governor, the governors of California were at first appointed by the Viceroy, and after 1821 by the approximate 40 Mexican Presidents from 1821 to 1846. The costs of the minimum Alta California government were paid by means of a roughly 40–100% import tariff collected at the entry port of Monterey. The other center of Spanish power in Alta California was the Franciscan friars who, as heads of the 21 missions, none of the Franciscan friars were Californios, however, and their influence rapidly waned after the secularization of the missions in the 1830s. Governors had little support from far-away Mexico to deal with Alta Californians. Mexico-born governor Manuel Victoria was forced to flee in 1831, after losing a fight against an uprising at the Battle of Cahuenga Pass. As Californios matured to adulthood and increasingly assumed positions of power in the Alta California government, several times, Californio leaders attempted to break away from Mexico, most notably Juan Bautista Alvarado in 1836. Southern regional leaders, led by Pio Pico, made attempts to relocate the capital from Monterey to the more populated Los Angeles. Alvarado recruited a company of Tennessean riflemen, many of them former trappers who had settled in the Monterey Bay area, the company was led by another American, Isaac Graham, the Americans refused to fight against fellow Americans
Californio
–
José Antonio Estudillo
Californio
–
USS Cyane taking San Diego 1846
Californio
–
Juan Bautista Alvarado
Californio
–
The
California state flag flying at
San Francisco City Hall
4.
Republic of Mexico
–
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
Republic of Mexico
–
Image of
Mexico-Tenochtitlan from the
Codex Mendoza
Republic of Mexico
–
Flag
Republic of Mexico
–
Chichen Itza
Republic of Mexico
–
Cuauhxicalli in the shape of an eagle, from the
Templo Mayor
5.
Alta California
–
Alta California, founded in 1769 by Gaspar de Portolà, was a polity of New Spain and after the Mexican War of Independence in 1822, a territory of Mexico. The region included all of the states of California, Nevada, and Utah. Large areas east of the Sierra Nevada and San Gabriel Mountains were claimed to be part of Alta California, to the southeast, beyond the deserts and the Colorado River, lay the Spanish settlements in Arizona. The areas formerly comprising Alta California were ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican–American War in 1848, two years later, California joined the union as the 31st state. Other parts of Alta California became all or part of the later U. S. states of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. The Spanish explored the area of Alta California by sea beginning in the 16th century. During the following two centuries there were plans to settle the area, none of which were effectively carried out. Ultimately, New Spain did not have the resources nor population to settle such a far northern outpost. To ascertain the Russian threat a number of Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest were launched, the Spanish Crown funded the construction and subsidized the operation of the missions, with the goal that the relocation, conversion and enforced labor of Native people would bolster Spanish rule. The first Alta California mission and presidio were established by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra, the following year,1770, the second mission and presidio were founded in Monterey. In 1773 a boundary between the Baja California missions and the Franciscan missions of Alta California was set by Francisco Palóu, the missionary effort coincided with the construction of presidios and pueblos, which were to be manned and populated by Hispanic people. The first pueblo founded was San José in 1777, followed by Los Ángeles in 1781, by law, mission land and property were to pass to the indigenous population after a period of about ten years, when the natives would become Spanish subjects. In the interim period, the Franciscans were to act as mission administrators who held the land in trust for the Native residents, the transfer of property never occurred under the Franciscans. As the number of Spanish settlers grew in Alta California, the boundaries, conflicts between the Crown and the Church and between Natives and settlers arose. State and ecclesiastical bureaucrats debated over authority of the missions and they advocated that the Natives owned property and had the right to defend it. Governor Diego de Borica is credited with defining Alta and Baja Californias official borders, Mexico won independence in 1822, and Alta California became a territory of Mexico. The Spanish and later Mexican governments rewarded retired soldados de cuera with large grants, known as ranchos, for the raising of cattle. Hides and tallow from the livestock were the primary exports of California until the mid-19th century, the construction, ranching and domestic work on these vast estates was primarily done by Native Americans, who had learned to speak Spanish and ride horses
Alta California
–
Map of N. America showing California when it was part of New Spain. Map dated 1789 from
Dobson's Encyclopedia.
Alta California
–
Mexico in 1838. From Britannica 7th edition
Alta California
–
Map of Mexico. S. Augustus Mitchell, Philadelphia, 1847. New California is depicted with a north-eastern border at the meridian leading north of the
Rio Grande headwaters.
6.
U. S. state
–
A U. S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States of America. There are 50 states, which are together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a geographic territory. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders. States range in population from just under 600,000 to over 39 million, four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, State governments are allocated power by the people through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in principles, and each provides for a government. States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a debate over states rights, which concerns the extent and nature of the states powers and sovereignty in relation to the federal government. States and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a legislature consisting of the Senate. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, and is guaranteed at least one Representative in the House, members of the House are elected from single-member districts. Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census, the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50, alaska and Hawaii are the most recent states admitted, both in 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of states have the power to secede from the Union. Shortly after the Civil War, the U. S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, as a result, while the governments of the various states share many similar features, they often vary greatly with regard to form and substance
U. S. state
–
U.S. states
7.
California
–
California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
California
–
A forest of redwood trees in
Redwood National Park
California
–
Flag
California
–
Mount Shasta
California
–
Aerial view of the
California Central Valley
8.
California State Senate
–
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. The legislative body consists of 40 members, with each member representing approximately 931,000 people, due to the states large population and relatively small legislature, the State Senate has the largest population per representative ratio of any state legislative house. Each member roughly represents a population equivalent to the state of Delaware, the State Senate convenes at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. In the current session, Democrats control 27 seats, comprising a two-thirds supermajority of the chamber, prior to 1968, state senate districts were drawn so that each county had at most one state senator. This led to the situation of a populous county such as Los Angeles County being accorded the same number of senators as less populous counties such as Humboldt County. In Reynolds v. Sims, the United States Supreme Court compelled all states to draw up districts with equal population, as such, boundaries were changed to provide more equitable representation. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate, the President pro tempore is elected by the majority party caucus, followed by confirmation of the full senate. Other leaders, such as the majority and minority leaders, are elected by their party caucuses according to each partys strength in the chamber. The current president pro tem is Democrat Kevin de León, the minority leader is Republican Jean Fuller. The red tones of the California State Senate Chamber are based on the British House of Lords, the dais rests along a wall shaped like an E, with its central projection housing the rostrum. Along the cornice appears a portrait of George Washington and the Latin quotation, almost every decorating element is identical to the Assembly Chamber. The Secretary, the Sergeant-at-Arms, and the Chaplain are not members of the Legislature
California State Senate
California State Senate
–
California State Senate
9.
Vallejo, California
–
Vallejo is a waterfront port city in Solano County, California, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 115,942 at the 2010 census and it is the tenth most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the largest in Solano County. Vallejo sits on the shore of San Pablo Bay,30 miles north of San Francisco. Vallejo is home to the Six Flags Discovery Kingdom theme park, the now-defunct Mare Island Naval Shipyard, the colleges and universities in Vallejo are California Maritime Academy, the Vallejo Center campus of Solano Community College, and Touro University California. Ferry service runs from a terminal on Mare Island Strait to San Francisco, Vallejo has twice served as the capital of the state of California, once in 1852 and again in 1853, both periods being brief. The State Capitol building burned to the ground in the 1880s, as there were no bridges at that time, the Mare Island Fire Department had to be ferried across the Napa River, arriving to find only the foundation remaining. This was the first recorded mutual aid response in the state of California, some of the first Europeans drawn to the Vallejo area were attracted by the sulfur springs, in the year 1902 the area was named Blue Rock Springs. It was also known as White Sulfur Springs and that was the name of the leading to it from town. Vallejo is best known for the Zodiac Killer and being the hometown of Bay Area rappers E-40, according to United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 49.5 square miles. Land area is 30.7 square miles, and 18.9 square miles is water, the Napa River flows until it changes into the Mare Island Strait in Vallejo which then flows into the San Pablo Bay. Vallejo is located on the edge of Solano County, California in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. Vallejo is accessible by Interstate 80 between San Francisco and Sacramento, and is the location for the half of the Carquinez Bridge. It is also accessible by Interstate 780 from neighboring Benicia to the east, Route 29 begins in the city near the Carquinez Bridge and travels north through the heart of the city and beyond into Napa County, entering neighboring American Canyon and eventually Napa. Several faults have been mapped in the vicinity of Vallejo, the San Andreas Fault and Hayward Faults are the most active faults, although the San Andreas is at some distance. Locally, the Sulphur Springs Valley Thrust Fault and Southampton Fault are found, no quaternary seismic activity along these minor faults has been observed with the possible exception of a slight offset revealed by trenching. The Sulphur Mountain and Green Valley faults have been associated with the Concord Fault to the south, the Concord Fault is considered active. Historically there have been local cinnabar mines in the Vallejo area, the Hastings Mine and St. Johns Mine contribute ongoing water contamination for mercury, furthermore, mine shaft development has depleted much of this areas spring water. Both Rindler Creek and Blue Rock Springs Creek have been affected, the city of Vallejo is located 24 miles northeast of San Francisco,20 miles north of Oakland,56 miles north of San Jose and 52 miles south of Sacramento
Vallejo, California
–
former Vallejo City Hall and County Building
Vallejo, California
–
Mariano Vallejo, ca. 1880-85, founder and city namesake
Vallejo, California
–
Bodies of water
10.
Benicia, California
–
Benicia is a waterside city in Solano County, California, United States. It served as the capital for nearly thirteen months from 1853 to 1854. The population was 26,997 at the 2010 census, the city is located in the San Francisco Bay Area along the north bank of the Carquinez Strait. Benicia is just east of Vallejo and across the strait from Martinez, elizabeth Patterson has served as Mayor of Benicia since 2007. The town is divided into four areas, the East Side, the West Side, Southampton, most of the towns older homes are on the east and west sides. Southampton contains primarily single-family housing developments and condominiums, most of which were built between 1970 and 2000. The East Side includes the Benicia Arsenal, a former United States Army armory, the Arsenal is home to several historic landmark buildings such as The Clock Tower, the Camel Barn, and the Jefferson Street Mansion. The industrial park lies to the northeast of the areas of the city. The Benicia State Recreation Area is on the far west edge of the city, the main retail area in Benicia is First Street, which attracts out-of-town antique and boutique shoppers and those seeking small-town, historic charm. In 1987 Benicia was selected to participate in the California Main Street Program, connections to Benicia include Interstate 680 from Martinez to the south and Cordelia Junction to the north, and Interstate 780, Columbus Parkway, and other local roads from Vallejo to the west. Amtrak also runs past the city north towards Sacramento, but the nearest train station lies in Martinez across the Carquinez Strait, Railroad tracks carrying Amtrak and Union Pacific Railroad lines cross the strait alongside the Benicia–Martinez Bridge. The City of Benicia was founded on May 19,1847, by Dr. Robert Semple, Thomas O. Larkin and it was named for the Generals wife, Francisca Benicia Carillo de Vallejo. The General intended that the city be named Francisca after his wife, vallejos second given name was used instead. In his memoirs, William Tecumseh Sherman contended that Benicia was the best natural site for a city in the region. Benicia was the site selected to serve as the California state capital. Soon after the legislature was moved to the courthouse in Sacramento, the restored capitol is part of the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park, and is the only building remaining of the states early capitols, which were in San Jose and Vallejo. Benicia was also the county seat of Solano County until 1858, the original campus of Mills College was founded in Benicia in 1852 as the Young Ladies Seminary, and was the first womens college west of the Rockies. Before moving to Oakland in 1871, it was located on West I Street, on June 5,1889, the legendary prize fight between James J. Corbett and Joe Choynski was held on a barge off the coast of Benicia
Benicia, California
–
California's
third capitol at Benicia. The
Senate chambers on first floor, and the
Assembly chambers above.
Benicia, California
–
Location in
Solano County and the state of
California
Benicia, California
–
Railroad connections to Benicia in 1885
Benicia, California
–
1902 SPRR rail ferry depot in Benicia
11.
Santa Barbara Mission
–
Mission Santa Barbara, also known as Santa Barbara Mission, is a Spanish mission founded by the Franciscan order near present-day Santa Barbara, California. The mission is the namesake of the city of Santa Barbara as well as of Santa Barbara County, Mission Santa Barbara is the only mission to remain under the leadership of the Franciscan Friars since its founding, and today is a parish church of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Mission Santa Barbaras name comes from the legend of Saint Barbara, the early missionaries built three different chapels during the first few years, each larger than the previous one. It was only after the Santa Barbara earthquake on December 21,1812, which destroyed the existing buildings and it was completed and then dedicated in 1820. The towers were damaged in the June 29,1925 earthquake. The appearance of the inside of the church has not been altered significantly since 1820, many elements of the Missions extensive water treatment system, all built by Chumash Indians labor under the direction of the Franciscans remain to this day. The larger reservoir, which was built in 1806 by the expedient of damming a canyon, had been a component of the Citys water system until 1993. The original fountain and lavadero are also intact near the entrance to the Mission, a dam constructed in 1807 is situated in the current Santa Barbara Botanic Garden up Mission Canyon. The Missions tanning vats, pottery kiln, and guard house are all in ruins to this day, in 1818, two Argentine ships under the command of the French privateer Hipólito Bouchard approached the coast and threatened the young town of Santa Barbara. The padres armed and trained 150 of the neophytes to prepare for attack, with their help, the Presidio soldiers confronted Bouchard, who sailed out of the harbor without attacking. Some Franciscans serve on the Board of Trustees along with scholars and community members and it is the oldest library in the State of California that still remains in the hands of its founders, the Franciscans. Beginning with the writings of Hubert Howe Bancroft, the library has served as a center for study of the missions for more than a century. The collections of the Santa Barbara Mission-Archive Library had their inception in the 1760s with Fray Junipero Serras plans for missions in Alta California, the collections include named sections, the Junipero Serra Collection, the California Mission Documents, and the Apostolic College collection. The archive-library also has a collection of early California writings, maps. In 1840, Alta California Territory and Baja California Territory were removed from the Diocese of Sonora to form the Diocese of Both Californias. Bishop Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno, OFM, established his cathedra at Mission Santa Barbara, making the chapel the pro-cathedral of the diocese until 1849. Under Bishop Thaddeus Amat y Brusi, C. M. the chapel served as a pro-cathedral, for the Diocese of Monterey and then the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles. It is for this reason that of all the California missions, at that time, that particular architectural feature was restricted to a cathedral church
Santa Barbara Mission
–
The capilla (chapel) at Mission Santa Barbara.
Santa Barbara Mission
–
The Mission in 1876, photograph by
Carleton Watkins
Santa Barbara Mission
–
Frontal view of the Santa Barbara mission.
Santa Barbara Mission
–
Interior garden of the Santa Barbara mission.
12.
Presidio of Monterey
–
The Presidio of Monterey, located in Monterey, California, is an active US Army installation with historic ties to the Spanish colonial era. Currently it is the home of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center and it is the last Presidio in California to have an active military installation. The Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno visited, named and charted Monterey Bay in 1602, in his official report, Vizcaíno recommended the natural harbor he found as an appropriate site for a seaport, military fortification and colonization. It would be over 150 years, until news of Pacific Coast moves by Spains European rivals brought the area back to the attention of the leaders of New Spain. In 1768, José de Gálvez, special deputy of king Carlos III in New Spain, received this order, Occupy and fortify San Diego and Monterey for God and the King of Spain. Gálvez organized a series of land and sea expeditions from Baja California to establish a military post, Spains rulers had long feared that other European powers would encroach from the north on American territories Spain claimed along the Pacific coast. Gálvez himself spread rumors of schemes by the British and Dutch rulers to add California to their own empires, King Carlos gave Gálvez the go-ahead. Spain moved to occupy regions along the Pacific coast of North America that its sailors and soldiers had only seen and claimed from previous maritime explorations. From March through June 1769, Gaspar de Portolá, appointed governor of the Californias and they reached Monterey Bay on October 1, but failed to recognize it as the port described by Vizcaíno 167 years earlier — and continued north, eventually reaching San Francisco Bay. On their return trek to San Diego, they planted two large crosses on the coast of Monterey, whose identity they could not yet confirm. In April 1770, Portolá gathered a new and smaller party for another overland journey from San Diego to Monterey and this party included Pedro Fages with twelve Catalonian volunteers, seven leather-jacket soldiers, two muleteers, five Christian Indians from Baja California, and friar Juan Crespí. They arrived at Monterey Bay on May 24 and that afternoon, Portolá and Crespí revisited the large wooden cross their party had planted five months earlier on a hill just south of Point Pinos near the northern tip of the Monterey peninsula. This is the port of Monterey without the slightest doubt, wrote Crespí in his diary, miguel Costansó selected the site of the presidio and drew the first plans and maps. Pedro Fages, left in command of the Monterey soldiers after Portolá sailed back to Mexico and he set the work they had to do in a certain time, harshly punishing soldiers caught resting or rolling a cigarette. Heavy rains punctuated the spring and winter of 1770-1, but Fages permitted no let-up in the work and his soldiers had to trudge through mud to the forest to chop wood, then drag their mules out of the mud and head home. They had no chance to wash or mend their clothes during the work week. In late June 1771, Fages wrote to viceroy Carlos de Croix in Mexico to inform him that the Monterey presidio had been built, Monterey became one of a series of presidios, or royal forts, built by Spain in what is now the western United States. In 1783, it had a company of 56 men, other California-based installations were founded in San Diego in 1769, in San Francisco in 1776, and in Santa Barbara in 1782
Presidio of Monterey
–
"The Presidio of Monterrey". Volume II, plate V from: "A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World" by Captain
George Vancouver
Presidio of Monterey
–
Monterey in 1968. Presidio of Monterey in the right of the photo.
Presidio of Monterey
–
Presidio of Monterey in 2005.
13.
San Jose, California
–
San Jose, officially the City of San José, is the economic, cultural, and political center of Silicon Valley and the largest city in Northern California. With an estimated 2015 population of 1,026,908, it is the third most populous city in California and the tenth most populous in United States. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley, on the shore of San Francisco Bay. San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County, the most affluent county in California. San Jose is the largest city in both the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area, which contain 7.7 million and 8.7 million people respectively. Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area around San Jose was inhabited by the Ohlone people, San Jose was founded on November 29,1777, as the Pueblo of San José de Guadalupe, the first civilian town founded in Spanish Alta California. When California gained statehood in 1850, San Jose became the states first capital, following World War II, San Jose experienced an economic boom, with a rapid population growth and aggressive annexation of nearby cities and communities carried out in the 1950s and 60s. The rapid growth of the high-technology and electronics industries further accelerated the transition from a center to an urbanized metropolitan area. Results of the 1990 U. S. Census indicated that San Jose had officially surpassed San Francisco as the most populous city in Northern California, by the 1990s, San Jose and the rest of Silicon Valley had become the global center for the high tech and internet industries. San Jose is considered to be a city, notable for its affluence. San Joses location within the high tech industry, as a cultural, political. San Jose is one of the wealthiest major cities in the United States and the world, and has the third highest GDP per capita in the world, according to the Brookings Institute. Major global tech companies including Cisco Systems, eBay, Adobe Systems, PayPal, Brocade, Samsung, Acer, Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by several groups of Ohlone Native Americans. The first lasting European presence began with a series of Franciscan missions established from 1769 by Junípero Serra, San Jose came under Mexican rule in 1821 after Mexico broke with the Spanish crown. It then became part of the United States, after it capitulated in 1846, on March 27,1850, San Jose became the second incorporated city in the state, with Josiah Belden its first mayor. San Jose was Californias first state capital, and hosted the first, today the Circle of Palms Plaza in downtown is the historical marker for the first state capital. The city was a station on the Butterfield Overland Mail route, in the period 1900 through 1910, San Jose served as a center for pioneering invention, innovation, and impact in both lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air flight. These activities were led principally by John Montgomery and his peers, the City of San Jose has established Montgomery Park, a Monument at San Felipe and Yerba Buena Roads, and John J. Montgomery Elementary School in his honor
San Jose, California
–
Images, from top down, left to right:
Downtown San Jose,
Hotel De Anza, East San Jose suburbs,
Lick Observatory,
Plaza de César Chávez
San Jose, California
–
South First Street in the 1940s
San Jose, California
–
Overhead panorama of
downtown San Jose.
San Jose, California
–
Looking west over northern San Jose (downtown is at far left) and other parts of Silicon Valley. See an up-to-the-minute view of San Jose from the Mount Hamilton web camera
14.
Juan Bautista Alvarado
–
Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo was a Californio and Governor of Alta California from 1836 to 1842. He was governor during the Revolution of 1836, when the territorial Diputación declared free and sovereign independence from Mexico and forced the Mexican commander, Alvarado also oversaw Californias brief rejoining with Mexico as a state. Alvarado was born in Monterey, Alta California, to Jose Francisco Alvarado and his grandfather Juan Bautista Alvarado accompanied Gaspar de Portolà as an enlisted man in the Spanish Army in 1769. His father died a few months after his birth and his mother remarried three years later, leaving Juan Bautista in the care of his grandparents, the Vallejo family and he and Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo grew up together in the Vallejo household. They were both taught by William Edward Petty Hartnell, an English merchant living in Monterey, in 1827 the eighteen-year-old Alvarado was hired as secretary to the territorial legislature. In 1829 he was arrested along with Vallejo and another friend, José Castro. In 1831 he built a house in Monterey for his mistress, Juliana Francisca Ramona y Castillo, over the years, the pair had a total of at least two illegitimate daughters whom he recognized and perhaps several more he did not recognize, but he never married their mother. During this period Alvarado began drinking heavily, one of his daughters claimed that Raymunda had refused to marry Alvarado because of his excessive drinking. Alvarado supported secularization of the Spanish missions in California and he was appointed by José María de Echeandía to oversee the turn over of Mission San Miguel, even though Echeandía was no longer governor. The new governor Manuel Victoria rescinded the order and sought to have Alvarado, the pair fled and were hidden by their old friend Vallejo, who had become adjutant at the Presidio of San Francisco. However, Victoria was unpopular and Echeandía overthrew his rule and replaced him with Pío de Jesús Pico} near the end of 1831, secularization of the missions resumed in 1833. In 1834 Alvarado was elected to the legislature as a delegate, Governor José Figueroa granted Rancho El Sur, the vast wilderness south of Monterey, to Alvarado on October 30,1834. After Figueroas death in September 1835, Nicolás Gutiérrez was appointed as governor in January 1836. He was replaced by Mariano Chico in April, but Chico was very unpopular, thinking a revolt was coming, Chico went to Mexico to gather troops, but was reprimanded for leaving his post. Gutierrez, the commandant, re-assumed the governorship, but he too was unpopular. The Americans wanted California independence, but Alvarado instead preferred staying a part of Mexico, Alvarados rebellion adopted a new flag - a single red star on a white background. The flag never became a flag of Alta California, and was not used after Alvarado made peace with the central government. Alvarado, at age 27, was appointed governor
Juan Bautista Alvarado
–
Juan Bautista Alvarado
15.
William Edward Petty Hartnell
–
Don Guillermo Arnel was a prominent early immigrant to Alta California who played a vital role in the history of Monterey County, California as well as the history of California. William Hartnell was born to a family in Backbarrow, near Ulverston, Lancashire, England in 1798. He went to Chile in 1819 to work in the Santiago branch of John Begg & Co. a firm where his uncle, while in Lima, he met Hugh McCulloch, a Scottish merchant, who persuaded him to become partners in a rawhide and tallow trade in California. They established a new trading company in 1822 called McCulloch and Hartnell and it was at this time that he adopted the named Arnel, as it was easier for the Spanish-speaking residents to pronounce. The pair arrived in Monterey in 1822 and, with funding from the company, proceeded to contract with the missions, Hartnell was personable and successfully persuaded Governor Pablo Vicente de Solá to permit the British subjects to do business and live in Alta California. Governor Luis Antonio Argüello granted them the right to do business in any port in Alta California, whereas other foreigners were restricted to Monterey and their business did well, but McCulloch soon returned to South America, leaving Hartnell in charge. During this time, he served as a tutor to prominent families in the area, with Juan Bautista Alvarado. A Catholic priest, Father Luis Martinez, helped him through these times and he was baptized on October 13,1824, and at the same time he added his uncles name to his own. On April 30,1825, Hartnell married 16-year-old Maria Teresa de la Guerra and she was the daughter of Don José de la Guerra y Noriega, the richest and most influential man in the Santa Barbara area at the time. They moved to Monterey in June, during twenty-five years of marriage the Hartnells had 19 children and adopted five additional children. The hide and tallow business continued to prosper, despite Governor José María de Echeandías revoking of his port usage rights and he was able to do this and save his business thanks to his father-in-law. In 1830 Hartnell became a Mexican citizen and was now able to own land, by May 1833, his hide and tallow business had gone under and he was looking for a new venture. He entered into partnership with Feliciano and Mariano Soberanes, taking control of Rancho El Alisal in December,1833, the adobe house he built was said to be the first house in the area to have glass windows. There was also a mine on Hartnells property which was the first mine discovered in California. He was moderately successful at ranching, but he preferred to do something else, on December 10,1833, he announced he was opening a school named El Seminario del Patrocinio de San Jose or Colegio de San Jose, hoping to make a living as a schoolmaster. This school was supported by the Governor of Alta California. The focus of the school was to prepare students for university study, classes were initially held in Hartnells house, but later moved to other buildings on Rancho El Alisal. Following this, Hartnell was appointed to several county posts by his former pupil-turned-governor Alvarado, including tax collector, treasurer, and customs administrator
William Edward Petty Hartnell
–
William Edward Petty Hartnell
16.
Latin language
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
Latin language
–
Latin inscription, in the
Colosseum
Latin language
–
Julius Caesar 's
Commentarii de Bello Gallico is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this
patrician general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the floruit of the
Roman republic.
Latin language
–
A multi-volume Latin dictionary in the
University Library of Graz
Latin language
–
Latin and Ancient Greek Language - Culture - Linguistics at
Duke University in 2014.
17.
Mexican War of Independence
–
The Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict, and the culmination of a political and social process which ended the rule of Spain in 1821 in the territory of New Spain. September 16 is celebrated as Mexican Independence Day, the movement for independence was inspired by the Age of Enlightenment and the liberal revolutions of the last part of the 18th century. By that time the elite of New Spain had begun to reflect on the relations between Spain and its colonial kingdoms. Changes in the social and political structure occasioned by Bourbon Reforms, political events in Europe had a decisive effect on events in most of Spanish America. In 1808, King Charles IV and Ferdinand VII abdicated in favor of French leader Napoleon Bonaparte, the same year, the ayuntamiento of Mexico City, supported by viceroy José de Iturrigaray, claimed sovereignty in the absence of the legitimate king. That led to a coup against the viceroy, when it was suppressed, despite the defeat in Mexico City, small groups of conspirators met in other cities of New Spain to raise movements against colonial rule. From 1810 the independence movement went through stages, as leaders were imprisoned or executed by forces loyal to Spain. Secular priest José María Morelos called the separatist provinces to form the Congress of Chilpancingo, after the defeat of Morelos, the movement survived as a guerrilla war under the leadership of Vicente Guerrero. By 1820, the few rebel groups survived most notably in the Sierra Madre del Sur, the reinstatement of the liberal Constitution of Cadiz in 1820 caused a change of mind among the elite groups who had supported Spanish rule. Monarchist Creoles affected by the constitution decided to support the independence of New Spain, agustín de Iturbide led the military arm of the conspirators and in early 1821 he met Vicente Guerrero. Both proclaimed the Plan of Iguala, which called for the union of all insurgent factions and was supported by both the aristocracy and clergy of New Spain and it called for monarchy in an independent Mexico. Finally, the independence of Mexico was achieved on September 27,1821, after that, the mainland of New Spain was organized as the Mexican Empire. This ephemeral Catholic monarchy changed to a republic in 1823, due to internal conflicts. After some Spanish reconquest attempts, including the expedition of Isidro Barradas in 1829, after the suppression of that mid-16th-century conspiracy, elites raised no substantial challenge to royal rule until the Hidalgo revolt of 1810. Elites in Mexico City in the century did force the removal of a reformist viceroy. The crowd was reported to shout, Long live the King, the attack was against Gelves as a bad representative of the crown and not against the monarchy or colonial rule itself. There was also a conspiracy in the mid-seventeenth century to unite creole elites, blacks. The man pushing this notion called himself Don Guillén Lampart y Guzmán, lamports conspiracy was discovered, and he was arrested by the Inquisition in 1642, and executed fifteen years later for sedition
Mexican War of Independence
–
Clockwise from top left:
Miguel Hidalgo,
José María Morelos, Embrace of Acatempan between
Iturbide and
Guerrero,
Trigarante Army in
Mexico City, Mural of independence by
O'Gorman
Mexican War of Independence
–
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, by
José Clemente Orozco, Jalisco Governmental Palace, Guadalajara.
Mexican War of Independence
–
Father
José María Morelos
18.
Cadet
–
The Harwell CADET was the first fully transistorized computer in Europe, and may have been the first fully transistorized computer in the world. By 1953, it was evident that this did not meet AEREs computing needs, E. H. Cooke-Yarborough based the design around a 64-kilobyte magnetic drum memory store with multiple moving heads that had been designed at the National Physical Laboratory, UK. By 1953 his team had transistor circuits operating to read and write on a magnetic drum from the Royal Radar Establishment. The machine used a low speed of only 58 kHz to avoid having to use any valves to generate the clock waveforms. This slow speed was offset by the ability to add together eight numbers concurrently. The resulting machine was called CADET and it first ran a simple test program in February 1955. CADET was built from a few standardised designs of circuit boards which never got mounted into the planned desktop unit, from August 1956 CADET was offering a regular computing service, during which it often executed continuous computing runs of 80 hours or more. Cooke-Yarborough described CADET as being probably the second fully transistorised computer in the world to put to use, in 1958, Mercury number 4 became operational at AERE to accompany the CADET for another two years before the CADET was retired after four years operation. History of computing hardware, Second generation, transistors The Harwell CADET Computer
Cadet
–
Harwell CADET Computer
Cadet
19.
Corporal
–
Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. Within NATO, each member nations corresponding military rank of corporal is combined under the NATO-standard rank scale code OR-4, however, there are often differences in how each nation employs Corporals. Some militaries dont have Corporals, but may instead have a Junior Sergeant, in some militaries, the rank of corporal nominally corresponds to commanding a section or squad of soldiers. The lateral promotion is used to make the soldier a non-commissioned officer without changing the soldiers pay, as the Table of Organization & Equipment rank of a fire team leader is sergeant and that of squad leader is staff sergeant. In most countries that derive their military structure from the British military system, the word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase capo corporale. It may also be derived from an appointment as an officers bodyguard, all three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic use two or three ranks of corporal, or cabo. Corporals in the Argentine military are considered suboficiales subalternos, superior only to all ranks of Volunteers, in the Argentine Army, there are two ranks of corporal, junior and senior, Cabo and cabo primero. While the Argentine Navy has three ranks, from junior to senior, Cabo segundo, Cabo primero and cabo principal. The Air Force has the number of corporal ranks as the navy. The rank is used by the Argentine National Gendarmerie and the Argentine Federal Police. Corporal is the second lowest of the officer ranks in the Australian Army. A corporal is usually appointed as a commander, and is in charge of 7-14 soldiers of private rank. They are assisted by a second-in-command, usually a lance-corporal or senior private, a Corporal within Artillery is known as a bombardier. Corporal is also a rank of the Royal Australian Air Force, with the exception Belgian Naval Component, the branches of the Belgian Armed Forces use three ranks of corporal, corporal, master corporal and 1st master corporal. Corporal is equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-3, whereas master corporal, the rank immediately below corporal is 1st private and the rank directly above 1st master corporal is sergeant. The equivalent of these ranks in the Naval Component are quartermaster, chief quartermaster, Corporal is the first NCO rank of the Army, Navy, Air Force and states military polices. Soldiers who successfully complete the course may be promoted to the rank of corporal should they excel in the course. A corporal in the Brazilian Army will lead the smallest fractions of units as machine gun squads, mortar, Corporal is an Army and Air Force non-commissioned member rank of the Canadian Forces
Corporal
–
An Australian Army cadet corporal's uniform.
Corporal
–
Shoulder strap SS-Unterscharführer (SS-Junker)
20.
Legislature
–
A legislature is a deliberative assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. Legislatures form important parts of most governments, in the separation of model, they are often contrasted with the executive. Laws enacted by legislatures are known as legislation, legislatures observe and steer governing actions and usually have exclusive authority to amend the budget or budgets involved in the process. The members of a legislature are called legislators, each chamber of legislature consists of a number of legislators who use some form of parliamentary procedure to debate political issues and vote on proposed legislation. There must be a number of legislators present to carry out these activities. Some of the responsibilities of a legislature, such as giving first consideration to newly proposed legislation, are delegated to committees made up of small selections of the legislators. The members of a legislature usually represent different political parties, the members from each party generally meet as a caucus to organize their internal affairs, the internal organization of a legislature is also shaped by the informal norms that are shared by its members. Legislatures vary widely in the amount of power they wield, compared to other political players such as judiciaries, militaries. In 2009, political scientists M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig constructed a Parliamentary Powers Index in an attempt to quantify the different degrees of power among national legislatures, such a system renders the legislature more powerful. Legislatures will sometime delegate their legislative power to administrative or executive agencies, legislatures are made up of individual members, known as legislators, who vote on proposed laws. For example, a legislature that has 100 seats has 100 members, by extension, an electoral district that elects a single legislator can also be described as a seat, as, for, example, in the phrases safe seat and marginal seat. In parliamentary systems of government, the executive is responsible to the legislature which may remove it with a vote of no confidence, names for national legislatures include parliament, congress, diet and assembly. A legislature which operates as a unit is unicameral, one divided into two chambers is bicameral, and one divided into three chambers is tricameral. In bicameral legislatures, one chamber is considered the upper house. In federations, the upper house typically represents the component states. This is a case with the legislature of the European Union. Tricameral legislatures are rare, the Massachusetts Governors Council still exists, tetracameral legislatures no longer exist, but they were previously used in Scandinavia. Legislatures vary widely in their size, among national legislatures, Chinas National Peoples Congress is the largest with 2987 members, while Vatican Citys Pontifical Commission is the smallest with 7
Legislature
–
The
Congress of the Republic of Peru, the country's national legislature, meets in the
Legislative Palace in 2010.
21.
Miwok
–
The Miwok are members of four linguistically related Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok languages in the Utian family. The word Miwok means people in their native language, anthropologists commonly divide the Miwok into four geographically and culturally diverse ethnic subgroups. These distinctions were unknown among the Miwok before European contact, plains and Sierra Miwok, from the western slope and foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Coast Miwok, from present day location of Marin County and southern Sonoma County, Lake Miwok, from Clear Lake basin of Lake County. Bay Miwok, from location of Contra Costa County. The United States Bureau of Indian Affairs officially recognizes eleven tribes of Miwok descent in California, the Miwok lived in small bands without centralized political authority before contact with European Americans in 1769. They had domesticated dogs and cultivated tobacco, but were otherwise hunter-gatherers, the Sierra Miwok harvested acorns from the California Black Oak. In fact, the extent of the California Black Oak forests in some areas of Yosemite National Park is partially due to cultivation by Miwok tribes. They burned understory vegetation to reduce the fraction of Ponderosa Pine, nearly every other kind of edible vegetable matter was used as a food source, including bulbs, seeds, and fungi. Animals were hunted with arrows, clubs or snares, depending on the species, grasshoppers were a highly prized food source, as were mussels for those groups adjacent to the Stanislaus River. The Miwok ate meals according to rather than at regular times. They stored food for consumption, primarily in flat-bottomed baskets. Miwok mythology and narratives tend to be similar to those of other natives of Northern California, Miwok had totem animals, identified with one of two moieties, which were in turn associated respectively with land and water. These totem animals were not thought of as literal ancestors of humans, Miwok people played athletic games on a 110-yard playing field called poscoi a we’a. A unique game was played with men and women. Similarly to soccer, the object was to put an elk hide ball through the goalpost, the girls were allowed to do anything, including kicking the ball and picking it up and running with it. The boys were allowed to use their feet, but if a girl was holding it he could pick her up. The 1910 Census reported only 671 Miwok total, and the 1930 Census,491, see history of each Miwok group for more information
Miwok
–
Miwok
Miwok
–
Painting of Sierra Miwok at the Mariposa Indian Encampment,
Yosemite Valley by
Albert Bierstadt
Miwok
–
Benjamin Barry (Miwok),
World War II veteran and fire chief in parade dress
22.
Estanislao
–
Estanislao was an indigenous alcalde of Mission San José and a member and leader of the Lakisamni tribe of the Yokut people of northern California. He was notorious for leading bands of armed Native Americans in revolt against the Mexican government, Estanislao was born with the Yokut name Cucunuchi circa 1793 on the banks of the Río de Laquisimes. His younger brother Canocee had already visited the mission in 1820, Cucunuchi and his family journeyed to the mission on September 24,1821, but his father did not go. He was soon baptized with the name Estanislao after his arrival at Mission San José, Estanislao was the alcalde of the community before he left the mission with about 400 followers in 1827. Juan Bojorques describes Estanislao in his Recuerdos sobre la historia de California as about six feet tall, his skin was more white than bronze, the group began raiding the Missions San José, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz and Mexican settlers in the area around the Laquisimas River. Estanislao was joined by Chumash Indians led by Pacomio and by other Yokuts until at one time his army had 4,000 men, Estanislao educated his men in battle techniques he had learned from Spanish and Mexican soldiers. His raids were characterized as sudden, usually involving a trap, and ending with no loss of life, the Franciscan friars and Mexican settlers pleaded for help from the Mexican army. Finally, the Governor called the army into action, three expeditions from the Presidio of San Francisco and the Presidio of Monterey failed to subdue the band. A fourth, larger force led by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo finally ousted Estanislao, both Vallejo and Estanislao were accused of brutality and atrocities by their forces in the battle. Estanislao returned briefly to the Mission San Jose on May 31,1829 to ask Father Narciso Duran for forgiveness for his men, Father Duran successfully petitioned Governor José María de Echeandía to pardon Estanislao. The pardon was granted for Estanislao and his men on October 7,1829, Estanislao returned to the Laquisimas River to lead his people. Yoscolo, a Yokut Indian from the Mission Santa Clara, joined Estanislaos group in 1831, yoscolo brought several hundred Indians with him from the Mission Santa Clara. Yoscolo and Estanislao led many raids against Mexican settlers, yoscolo was different from Estanislao and did not mind killing Mexican settlers if he had to. Yoscolo sometimes wore a mask during his raids, during the spring of 1833, malaria was introduced into the San Joaquin Valley by Canadian beaver trappers from the Hudsons Bay Company. More than 20,000 California natives died from malaria that spring, including Yokuts, Chumash, Miwok, on August 24,1834, Estanislao returned to the Mission San Jose and prospered there while teaching others the Yokuts language and culture. He remained at the Mission until his death, possibly from smallpox, the Stanislaus River, Stanislaus County, and the failed Mormon settlement Stanislaus City were named in his honor. Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, General Vallejo and the advent of the Americans. The Stanislaus Indian Wars the Last of the California Northern Yokuts, a Sunset Book The California Missions a Pictorial History
Estanislao
–
Present-day Stanislaus River was the home of many Native-American tribes. During the Mexican-era, it was known as "Río de los Laquisimes"
23.
Presidio of San Francisco
–
It had been a fortified location since September 17,1776, when New Spain established it to gain a foothold on Alta California and the San Francisco Bay. It passed to Mexico, which in turn passed it to the United States in 1848. As part of a 1989 military reduction program under the Base Realignment, on October 1,1994, it was transferred to the National Park Service, ending 219 years of military use and beginning its next phase of mixed commercial and public use. In 1996, the United States Congress created the Presidio Trust to oversee and manage the interior 80% of the parks lands, with the National Park Service managing the coastal 20%. In a first-of-its-kind structure, Congress mandated that the Presidio Trust make the Presidio financially self-sufficient by 2013, the park is characterized by many wooded areas, hills, and scenic vistas overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. It was recognized as a California Historical Landmark in 1933 and as a National Historic Landmark in 1962, battery Chamberlin, seacoast defense museum and artillery display at Baker Beach built in 1904. Fort Point,1861 brick and granite fortification located under the Golden Gate Bridge, the visitor center, open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, offers video orientations, guided tours, self-guiding materials, exhibits, and a bookstore. Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center, This center offers hands-on marine-life exhibits, the building was used by the Coast Guard from 1890 to 1990. Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion, opened May 2012 for the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge and it is located just east of the southern end of the bridge. Crissy Field Center is an environmental education center with programs for schools, public workshops, after-school programs, summer camps. The Center is operated by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the facilities include interactive environmental exhibits, a media lab, resource library, arts workshop, science lab, gathering room, teaching kitchen, café and bookstore. The landscape of Crissy Field was designed by George Hargreaves, the project restored a naturally functioning and sustaining tidal wetland as a habitat for flora and fauna, which were previously not in evidence on the site. It also restored a historic grass airfield that functioned as a significant military airfield between 1919 and 1936. The park at Crissy Field expanded and widened the recreational opportunities of the existing 1 1⁄2-mile San Francisco shore to a number of Presidio residents. 1776, Spanish Captain Juan Bautista de Anza led 193 soldiers, women,1794, Castillo de San Joaquin, an artillery emplacement was built above present-day Fort Point, San Francisco, complete with iron or bronze cannon. Six cannons may be seen in the Presidio today, 1776–1821, The Presidio was a simple fort made of adobe, brush and wood. It often was damaged by earthquakes or heavy rains, in 1783, its company was only 33 men. Presidio soldiers duties were to support Mission Dolores by controlling Indian workers in the Mission, and also farming, ranching, support from Spanish authorities in Mexico was very limited
Presidio of San Francisco
–
A map of the Presidio
Presidio of San Francisco
–
Welcome sign
Presidio of San Francisco
–
California Historical Landmark marker for the Presidio
Presidio of San Francisco
–
The Presidio in 1817
24.
Mexican secularization act of 1833
–
The Mexican secularization act of 1833 was passed twelve years after Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821. Mexico feared Spain would continue to have influence and power in California because most of the Spanish missions in California remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church in Spain, as the new Mexican republic matured, calls for the secularization of the missions increased. The missions were part of the first major effort by Europeans to colonize the Pacific Coast region, the settlers introduced European fruits, vegetables, cattle, horses, ranching and technology into the Alta California region and to the Mission Indians. The El Camino Real road connected the missions from San Diego to Mission San Francisco Solano, in Sonoma, between 1683 and 1834, Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries established a series of religious outposts from todays Baja California and Baja California Sur into present-day California. José María de Echeandía, the first Mexican-born elected Governor of Alta California issued a Proclamation of Emancipation on July 25,1826. All Indians within the districts of San Diego, Santa Barbara. Those who wished to remain under mission tutelage were exempted from most forms of corporal punishment. In 1831, the number of Indians under missionary control in all of Upper-Alta California was about 18,683 and about 4,342 of garrison soldiers, free settlers, to that end, he appointed a number of comisionados to oversee the emancipation of the Indians. The Mexican government passed legislation on December 20,1827 that mandated the expulsion of all Spaniards younger than sixty years of age from Mexican territories, Spaniards could pose a threat to Mexico because Spain did not recognize Mexican independence and attempted to regain control over its former colony. Governor Echeandía nevertheless intervened on behalf of some Franciscans in order to prevent their deportation once the law took effect in California, in response, Father-Presidente Narciso Durán transferred the headquarters of the Alta California Mission System to Mission Santa Bárbara, where it remained until 1846. Governor Figueroa issued a regulation on August 9,1834 outlining the requirements for the distribution of property to each mission’s neophytes, among the provisions were that 5. To each head of a family and to all over 20 years old, plus 6. pro rata. one-half of the livestock and 7. Half or less of the chattels, tools, and seed. The ranchos made of former mission lands were divided into large land grants. This meant that the missions would hold only to the worship chapel, the residences of the priests. In some missions all of the buildings were lost and some mission buildings were divided. As the four to six soldiers assigned to guard each Mission were dismissed, Mission San Juan Capistrano was the very first to have land taken way, on August 9,1834 Governor Figueroa issued his Decree of Confiscation. Nine other settlements followed, with six more in 1835, San Buenaventura and Mission San Francisco de Asís were among the last to have land taken way, in June and December 1836
Mexican secularization act of 1833
–
A map produced in 1920 shows the route of "El Camino Real" (not accurate in all segments), along with the 21
Alta California Franciscan missions.
Mexican secularization act of 1833
–
The ruins of Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad circa 1900.
Mexican secularization act of 1833
–
The original Mission San Francisco de Asís adobe structure is the smaller building at left, while the larger structure is a basilica completed in 1918 (the architectural style was influenced by designs exhibited at San Diego's
Panama-California Exposition in 1915).
Mexican secularization act of 1833
–
Mission San Juan Capistrano
25.
Mission San Francisco Solano
–
Mission San Francisco Solano was the 21st, last and northernmost mission in Alta California. It was the only built in Alta California after Mexico gained independence from Spain. The difficulty of its beginning demonstrates the confusion resulting from change in governance. The California Governor wanted a robust Mexican presence on the Pacific coast from moving further inland, a young Franciscan friar from Mission San Francisco de Asis wanted to move to a location with a better climate and access to a larger number of potential converts. The Mission was successful given its short eleven year life but was smaller in number of converts, the mission building is now part of the Sonoma State Historic Park and is located in the city of Sonoma, California. José Altimira age 33, arrived from Barcelona, Spain to serve at Mission San Francisco de Asís in 1820, the mission was not thriving because of its climate and had established a medical asistencia in San Rafael to help the mission’s ill neophytes recover their health. California Governor Luis Argüello was interested in blocking the Russians at Bodega Bay, the legislature approved but the church authorities did not respond. Under the old Spanish regime, founding a new mission required the approval of both New Spains Bishop and the King’s Viceroy, beginning in 1823, while waiting for a response from the church authorities, Fr. Altimira, with escorts, began exploring north of the Bay for a suitable mission site. On July 4,1823 the soldiers placed a large cross on the place in the Sonoma Valley where they expected the ‘new’ Mission San Francisco de Asis to be established. Then they celebrated Mass to consecrate the location and they then returned south to begin gathering men and materials to begin construction. The area around the site was not empty. It was near the northeast corner of the territory of the Coast Miwok, Southern Pomo to the northwest, Wappo to the northeast, Suisunes, a detachment of soldiers from the Presidio of San Francisco would be provided to protect the Mission and guard the neophytes. Altimira with soldiers and neophytes primarily from Mission San Francisco de Asís returned to the Sonoma area near the end of August, Altimira decided there was a better place to build on the other side of the valley. Just after starting he received a letter from Father-President Sarria who refused Altimira permission to continue building, Altimira obeyed and the month of September saw continuing negotiations between California’s civil and religious leaders. On September 30 an agreement was reached, a new mission could be built, Altimira would be its minister but Mission San Francisco de Asís would not be closed and the San Rafael asistencia had already been designated as a full mission. Altimira had the opportunity to build his new mission at the location he chose, Altimira chose San Francisco Solano, a 17th-century Franciscan missionary to South America. His company of soldiers and neophytes set about building all the facilities needed in a California mission and his annual report for 1823 listed no baptisms, one marriage, one funeral, a population of 482 Indians and 1341 animals
Mission San Francisco Solano
–
Mission San Francisco Solano circa 1910
Mission San Francisco Solano
–
The Mission today
Mission San Francisco Solano
–
Stylized portrayal of the Mission
Mission San Francisco Solano
–
Fanega Measure
26.
Northern California
–
Northern California, often abbreviated NorCal, is the northern portion of the U. S. state of California. The 48-county definition is not used for the Northern California Megaregion, the megaregions area is instead defined from Metropolitan Fresno north to Greater Sacramento, and from the Bay Area east across Nevada state line to encompass the entire Lake Tahoe-Reno area. The arrival of European explorers from the early 16th to the mid-18th centuries, in 1770, the Spanish mission at Monterey was the first European settlement in the area, followed by other missions along the coast—eventually extending as far north as Sonoma County. Northern California is not a geographic designation. Californias north-south midway division is around 37° latitude, near the level of San Francisco, popularly, though, Northern California usually refers to the states northernmost 48 counties. This definition coincides with the county lines at 35° 47′ 28″ north latitude, the term is also applied to the area north of Point Conception and the Tehachapi Mountains. Because of Californias large size and diverse geography, the state can be subdivided in other ways as well, the state is often considered as having an additional division north of the urban areas of the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento metropolitan areas. The coastal area north of the Bay Area is referred to as the North Coast while the region north of Sacramento is referred by locals as the Northstate. Since the events of the California Gold Rush, Northern California has been a leader on the economic, scientific. In science, advances range from being the first to isolate and name fourteen transuranic chemical elements, other examples of innovation across diverse fields range from Genentech to CrossFit as a pioneer in extreme human fitness and training. It is also Home to one of the largest Air Force Bases on the West Coast, Northern Californias largest metropolitan area is the San Francisco Bay Area which includes the cities of San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and their many suburbs. In recent years the Bay Area has drawn more commuters from as far as Central Valley cities such as Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Turlock and Modesto. The 2010 U. S. Census showed that the Bay Area grew at a faster rate than the Greater Los Angeles Area while Greater Sacramento had the largest growth rate of any area in California. The states larger cities are considered part of Northern California in cases when the state is divided into two parts. The first European to explore the coast was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, sailing for the Spanish Crown, in 1542, beginning in 1565, the Spanish Manila galleons crossed the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to the Spanish Philippines, with silver and gemstones from Mexico. The Manila galleons returned across the northern Pacific, and reached North America usually off the coast of northern California, in 1579, northern California was visited by the English explorer Sir Francis Drake who landed north of todays San Francisco and claimed the area for England. In 1602, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno explored Californias coast as far north as Monterey Bay, other Spanish explorers sailed along the coast of northern California for the next 150 years, but no settlements were established. The first European inhabitants were Spanish missionaries, who built missions along the California coast, the mission at Monterey was first established in 1770, and at San Francisco in 1776
Northern California
–
Clockwise:
California State Capitol in
Sacramento,
Golden Gate Bridge,
San Francisco skyline,
San Jose skyline,
Muir Woods National Monument, the northern California coast as seen from
Muir Beach Overlook, view of the California side of
Lake Tahoe and
Natural Bridges State Beach in
Santa Cruz.
Northern California
–
Northern California counties in red
Northern California
–
Yosemite Valley in the Sierra Nevada.
Northern California
–
Map of northern California counties.
27.
Presidio of Sonoma
–
The Sonoma Barracks is a two-story, wide-balconied, adobe building facing the central plaza of the City of Sonoma, California. It was built by order of Lieutenant Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo to house the Mexican soldiers that had transferred from the Presidio of San Francisco in 1835. The Presidio Company and their commander, Lieutenant Vallejo, were responsible for controlling the Native Americans living on the northern border of Mexican California. On June 14,1846 the Pueblo of Sonoma was taken over by a group of American immigrants seeking to establish their own California Republic, the Barracks became the headquarters this short-lived insurrection later known as the Bear Flag Revolt. Believing that war with Mexico had been declared, ships of the U. S, pacific Squadron took over Monterey on July 7 and Yerba Buena on July 9,1846. The U. S. flag was raised at the Barracks that same day - ending the California Republic, after that, the Barracks was used by a succession U. S. forces until 1852. Throughout the Mexican–American War and the subsequent California Gold Rush these forces continued to confront Native Americans hostile to invaders occupying their lands, when the military left, the building was used for a number of civilian purposes until being acquired by the State of California in 1957. The Sonoma Barracks is now part of Sonoma State Historic Park, soldiers of the Company of the National Presidio at San Francisco moved to the site of the recently secularized Mission San Francisco Solano in 1835. An immediate concern was further eastward movement of the Russian America Company from their settlements on the California coast. Construction of the Barracks was episodic, digging the foundation began in 1837, construction of the walls in 1839. Until the building was habitable the troops were housed in the buildings of the old Mission, while the barracks was built to house troops, most of the space was used as a headquarters and for supply, equipment and weapons storage. Vallejos approach to controlling the region combined direct military action, treaties with native groups. While based in Sonoma, the Company participated in over 100 activities to control over the areas Native peoples. Bancroft opines that “…Vallejo’s Indian policy must be regarded as excellent and effective when compared to any other policy ever followed in California. ”The Company did receive support in money and materiel from the Mexican and California governments but Vallejo absorbed the deficits out of his own funds. All the other companies in Alta California had been replaced by civilian militias by the time the San Francisco Company moved to Sonoma. Lieutenant Colonel Vallejo disbanded the Presidial Company on November 28,1844 with the plea that he could not longer afford paying for them, among his other reasons may have been avoiding being drawn into a rebellion against Governor Micheltorena by his nephew Juan Alvarado and childhood friend José Castro. After releasing the soldiers, Vallejo retained the weapons and military supplies stored in the Barracks for the use of the civilian militia and they next determined to seize the Pueblo of Sonoma to deny the Californians a rallying point north of San Francisco Bay. Capturing the arms and military materiel and Lieutenant Colonel Vallejo would delay any military response from the Californians, before dawn on Sunday, June 14,1846 thirty-three of the American rebels arrived in Sonoma
Presidio of Sonoma
–
Mariano Vallejo as a Young Man
Presidio of Sonoma
–
The Sonoma Barracks Today
Presidio of Sonoma
–
Interpretation of the Barracks interior during the Mexican Period
Presidio of Sonoma
–
In July 2014, the Barracks was used as the location for a play.
28.
Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
Russia
–
Kievan Rus' in the 11th century
Russia
–
Flag
Russia
–
The
Baptism of Kievans, by
Klavdy Lebedev
Russia
–
Sergius of Radonezh blessing
Dmitry Donskoy in
Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the
Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by
Ernst Lissner
29.
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 and 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 Californias Fort Ross State Historic Park, beginning with Columbus in 1492, the Spanish presence in the Western hemisphere, traveled west across the Atlantic Ocean, then around or across the Americas to reach the Pacific Ocean. The Russian expansion, however, moved east across Siberia and the northern Pacific, in the early nineteenth century, Spanish and Russian expansion met along the coast of Spanish Alta California, with Russia pushing south and Spain pushing north. By that time, British and American fur trade companies had established a coastal presence, in the Pacific Northwest. Mexico ceded Alta California to the United States of America following the Mexican-American War, the history of the Russian Fort Ross settlement began during Spanish rule and ended under Mexico. Russian personnel from the Alaskan colonies initially arrived in California aboard American ships, while guests of the Spanish, Rezanovs captain, Lt. Khvostov, explored and charted the coast north of San Francisco Bay and found it completely unoccupied by other European powers. Upon his return to New Archangel, Rezanov recommended to Baranov, and Emperor Aleksandr I, Fort Ross was established by Commerce Counselor Ivan Kuskov of the Russian-American Company. In 1808 Baranov sent two ships, the Kadyak and the Sv, Nikolai, on an expedition south to establish settlements for the RAC with instructions to bury secret signs. He also named the Russian River the Slav, on his return, Kuskov found American otter hunting ships and otter now scarce in Bodega Bay. After exploring the area ended up selecting a place 15 miles north that the native Kashaya Pomo people called Mad shui nui or Metini. Metini, the home of the native Kashaya Pomo people, had a modest anchorage and abundant natural resources. The present name of Fort Ross appears first on a French chart published in 1842 by Eugene Duflot de Mofras, the name of the fort is said to derive from the Russian word rus or ros, the same root as the word Russia and not from Scottish Ross. According to William Bright, Ross is a name for a Russian in the Russian language. Fort Ross was established as a base from which the northern settlements could be supplied with food. Yet during its ten years of operations the post provided the company with nothing. Fort Ross itself was the hub of a number of smaller Russian settlements comprising what was called Fortress Ross on official documents and charts produced by the Company itself, colony Ross referred to the entire area where Russians had settled. These settlements constituted the southernmost Russian colony in North America and were spread over an area stretching from Point Arena to Tomales Bay, Fort Ross was the site of Californias first windmills and shipbuilding
Fort Ross
–
Fort Ross
Fort Ross
–
A view of Fort Ross in 1828 by A. B. Duhaut-Cilly. From the archives of the Fort Ross Historical Society
Fort Ross
–
"Settlement Ross, 1841" by Ilya Gavrilovich Voznesenskii
Fort Ross
–
Southwest blockhouse, with the well in the foreground
30.
Adobe
–
Adobe is a building material made from earth and often organic material. Adobe is among the earliest building materials, and is used throughout the world, modern methods of construction allow the pouring of whole adobe walls that are reinforced with steel. In dry climates, adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for some of the oldest existing buildings in the world. Adobe buildings offer significant advantages due to their greater thermal mass, cases where adobe structures were widely damaged during earthquakes include the 1976 Guatemala earthquake, the 2003 Bam earthquake and the 2010 Chile earthquake. Puebloan peoples built their structures with handfuls or basketfuls of adobe. Adobe bricks were used in Spain from the Late Bronze and Iron Ages and its wide use can be attributed to its simplicity of design and manufacture, and economics. A distinction is made between the smaller adobes, which are about the size of ordinary baked bricks, and the larger adobines. The word adobe /əˈdoʊbiː/ has existed for around 4000 years with little change in either pronunciation or meaning. The word can be traced from the Middle Egyptian word ɟbt mudbrick, Middle Egyptian evolved into Late Egyptian, Demotic or pre-Coptic, and finally to Coptic, where it appeared as τωωβε tōʾpə. This was borrowed into Arabic as الطوب aṭ-ṭawbu or aṭ-ṭūbu, with the definite article al- attached, tuba, English borrowed the word from Spanish in the early 18th century. In more modern English usage, the adobe has come to include a style of architecture popular in the desert climates of North America. An adobe brick is a material made of earth mixed with water. The soil composition typically contains sand, silt and clay, straw is useful in binding the brick together and allowing the brick to dry evenly, thereby preventing cracking due to uneven shrinkage rates through the brick. The most desirable soil texture for producing the mud of adobe is 15% clay, 10–30% silt, another source quotes 15–25% clay and the remainder sand and coarser particles up to cobbles 50 to 250 mm with no deleterious effect. Modern adobe is stabilized with either emulsified asphalt or Portland cement up to 10% by weight, no more than half the clay content should be expansive clays with the remainder non-expansive illite or kaolinite. Too much expansive clay results in uneven drying through the resulting in cracking. Typically the soils of the Southwest United States, where construction is in use, are an adequate composition. Adobe walls are bearing, i. e. they carry their own weight into the foundation rather than by another structure
Adobe
–
Renewal of the surface
coating of an adobe wall in
Chamisal,
New Mexico
Adobe
–
Church at
San Pedro de Atacama,
Chile
Adobe
–
Adobe style in
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Adobe
–
Cliff dwellings of poured or puddled adobe (cob) at
Cuarenta Casas in Mexico.
31.
Juan Alvarado
–
Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo was a Californio and Governor of Alta California from 1836 to 1842. He was governor during the Revolution of 1836, when the territorial Diputación declared free and sovereign independence from Mexico and forced the Mexican commander, Alvarado also oversaw Californias brief rejoining with Mexico as a state. Alvarado was born in Monterey, Alta California, to Jose Francisco Alvarado and his grandfather Juan Bautista Alvarado accompanied Gaspar de Portolà as an enlisted man in the Spanish Army in 1769. His father died a few months after his birth and his mother remarried three years later, leaving Juan Bautista in the care of his grandparents, the Vallejo family and he and Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo grew up together in the Vallejo household. They were both taught by William Edward Petty Hartnell, an English merchant living in Monterey, in 1827 the eighteen-year-old Alvarado was hired as secretary to the territorial legislature. In 1829 he was arrested along with Vallejo and another friend, José Castro. In 1831 he built a house in Monterey for his mistress, Juliana Francisca Ramona y Castillo, over the years, the pair had a total of at least two illegitimate daughters whom he recognized and perhaps several more he did not recognize, but he never married their mother. During this period Alvarado began drinking heavily, one of his daughters claimed that Raymunda had refused to marry Alvarado because of his excessive drinking. Alvarado supported secularization of the Spanish missions in California and he was appointed by José María de Echeandía to oversee the turn over of Mission San Miguel, even though Echeandía was no longer governor. The new governor Manuel Victoria rescinded the order and sought to have Alvarado, the pair fled and were hidden by their old friend Vallejo, who had become adjutant at the Presidio of San Francisco. However, Victoria was unpopular and Echeandía overthrew his rule and replaced him with Pío de Jesús Pico} near the end of 1831, secularization of the missions resumed in 1833. In 1834 Alvarado was elected to the legislature as a delegate, Governor José Figueroa granted Rancho El Sur, the vast wilderness south of Monterey, to Alvarado on October 30,1834. After Figueroas death in September 1835, Nicolás Gutiérrez was appointed as governor in January 1836. He was replaced by Mariano Chico in April, but Chico was very unpopular, thinking a revolt was coming, Chico went to Mexico to gather troops, but was reprimanded for leaving his post. Gutierrez, the commandant, re-assumed the governorship, but he too was unpopular. The Americans wanted California independence, but Alvarado instead preferred staying a part of Mexico, Alvarados rebellion adopted a new flag - a single red star on a white background. The flag never became a flag of Alta California, and was not used after Alvarado made peace with the central government. Alvarado, at age 27, was appointed governor
Juan Alvarado
–
Juan Bautista Alvarado
32.
Colonel
–
Colonel is a senior military officer rank below the general officer ranks. However, in small military forces, such as those of Iceland or the Vatican. It is also used in police forces and paramilitary organizations. Historically, in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of a regiment in an army, the rank of colonel is typically above the rank of lieutenant colonel. The rank above colonel is typically called brigadier, brigade general or brigadier general, equivalent naval ranks may be called captain or ship-of-the-line captain. In the Commonwealth air force rank system, the equivalent rank is group captain, the word colonel derives from the same root as the word column and means of a column, and, by implication, commander of a column. The word colonel is therefore linked to the column in a similar way that brigadier is linked to brigade. By the end of the medieval period, a group of companies was referred to as a column of an army. Since the word is believed to derive from sixteenth-century Italian, it was presumably first used by Italian city states in that century. The first use of colonel as a rank in an army was in the French National Legions created by King Francis I by his decree of 1534. Building on the reforms of Louis XIIs decree of 1509. Each colonel commanded a legion with a strength of six thousand men. With the shift from primarily mercenary to primarily national armies in the course of the seventeenth century, the Spanish equivalent rank of coronel was used by the Spanish tercios in the 16th and 17th centuries. Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, nicknamed the Great Captain, divided his armies in coronelías or colonelcies, however, the Spanish word probably derives from a different origin, in that it appears to designate an officer of the crown, rather than an officer of the column. This makes the Spanish word coronel probably cognate with the English word coroner and this regiment, or governance, was to some extent embodied in a contract and set of written rules, also referred to as the colonels regiment or standing regulation. By extension, the group of companies subject to a colonels regiment came to be referred to as his regiment as well, the position, however, was primarily contractual and it became progressively more of a functionless sinecure. By the late 19th century, colonel was a military rank though still held typically by an officer in command of a regiment or equivalent unit. As European military influence expanded throughout the world, the rank of colonel became adopted by every nation
Colonel
–
Philippines (Koronel) (1897)
Colonel
–
Belgium
Colonel
–
Taiwan (
Shang Xiao)
Colonel
–
Portugal (Coronel)
33.
Texas Revolution
–
The Texas Revolution began when colonists in the Mexican province of Texas rebelled against the increasingly centralized Mexican government. After a decade of political and cultural clashes between the Mexican government and the large population of American settlers in Texas, hostilities erupted in October 1835. Texians disagreed on whether the goal was independence or a return to the Mexican Constitution of 1824. While delegates at the Consultation debated the wars motives, Texians, the Consultation declined to declare independence and installed an interim government, whose infighting led to political paralysis and a dearth of effective governance in Texas. An ill-conceived proposal to invade Matamoros siphoned much-needed volunteers and provisions from the fledgling Texas army, in March 1836, a second political convention declared independence and appointed leadership for the new Republic of Texas. Determined to avenge Mexicos honor, President Antonio López de Santa Anna vowed to personally retake Texas and his Army of Operations entered Texas in mid-February 1836 and found the Texians completely unprepared. Mexican General José de Urrea led a contingent of troops on the Goliad Campaign up the Texas coast, defeating all Texian troops in his path and executing most of those who surrendered. Santa Anna led a force to San Antonio de Béxar. On March 31, Houston paused his men at Groces Landing on the Brazos River, becoming complacent and underestimating the strength of his foes, Santa Anna further subdivided his troops. On April 21, Houstons army staged an assault on Santa Anna. The Mexican troops were routed, and vengeful Texians executed many who tried to surrender. Santa Anna was taken hostage, in exchange for his life, Mexico refused to recognize the Republic of Texas, and intermittent conflicts between the two countries continued into the 1840s. The annexation of Texas as the 28th state of the United States, in 1845, after a failed attempt by France to colonize Texas in the late 17th century, Spain developed a plan to settle the region. On its southern edge, along the Medina and Nueces Rivers, on the east, Texas bordered Louisiana. Following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States also claimed the land west of the Sabine River, following the Mexican War of Independence, Texas became part of Mexico. Under the Constitution of 1824, which defined the country as a federal republic, Texas was granted only a single seat in the state legislature, which met in Saltillo, hundreds of miles away. Texas was very sparsely populated, with fewer than 3,500 residents, and only about 200 soldiers, in the hopes that an influx of settlers could control the Indian raids, the bankrupt Mexican government liberalized immigration policies for the region. Finally able to settle legally in Texas, Anglos from the United States soon vastly outnumbered the Tejanos, most of the immigrants came from the southern United States
Texas Revolution
–
The campaigns of the Texas Revolution
Texas Revolution
–
A reproduction of the original
Come and take it flag, which flew during the
battle of Gonzales
Texas Revolution
–
General
Martín Perfecto de Cos
Texas Revolution
–
Antonio López de Santa Anna
34.
San Blas, Nayarit
–
San Blas is both a municipality and municipal seat located on the Pacific coast of Mexico in the state of Nayarit. San Blas is a port and a popular tourist destination, located about 160 kilometres north of Puerto Vallarta, the town has a population of 8,707. The total municipality had a population of 37,478 in 2005, the Islas Marías, site of an infamous prison colony, are part of the municipality. San Blas was the port from which the Spanish priest Junípero Serra, Father President of the California Missions and he left on March 12,1768 from the nearby Las Islitas beach on Matanchen Bay, in the locally built barque Purísima Concepción. In May 1768, San Blas was designated as a new base for the Spanish Navy. At first, only two ships were assigned to the port, the packet boat San Carlos, commanded by Juan Pérez, and El Principe, commanded by Vicente Vila. Gálvez ordered four new vessels to be built, one of which was the schooner Sonora, on March 16,1775, the San Carlos was set to depart San Blas, Mexico, for San Francisco Bay, stopping in Monterey to unload supplies for the mission there. The vessel was a product of the shipyard established on the Santiago River and her length was 58 feet, the officers and men numbered 30. The voyage was delayed 3 days, until the first officer, 30-year-old Juan Manuel de Ayala, subdued the commander, the captain had been threatening the crew with loaded firearms and without proper safeguards. Officer Ayala shot himself in the foot while securing the weapons. They reached Monterey Bay on June 25, after a month there, she sailed, and arrived off the yet unexplored Golden Gate. A land party had seen the bay having traveled overland from Monterey. A first mate named Jose de Canizares entered in a long boat, from its founding, the naval base provided logistical support for the Franciscan missions of Alta California. As the number of missions grew, San Blas was required to send supply voyages more frequently, taxing the naval bases small fleet, San Blas also became the base for Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest. From 1789 to 1795, San Blas was responsible for establishing and maintaining the Spanish post at Nootka Sound, in many ways, San Blas was a poor choice for a deep sea harbor and settlement. The harbor was so small that it could never hold more than four ships at a time, silting caused by the nearby Río Grande de Santiago resulted in the need for the harbor to be regularly dredged. A variety of sicknesses were endemic, including dysentery, typhoid fever, malaria, Naval officers and workers regularly complained about the climate. San Blass location was useful and logical, however, because it minimized travel time from Guadalajara, also, the area around San Blas had a plentiful supply of hardwoods useful for ship building and repair
San Blas, Nayarit
–
San Blas
35.
Anastasio Bustamante
–
Anastasio Bustamante y Oseguera was president of Mexico three times, from 1830 to 1832, from 1837 to 1839 and from 1839 to 1841. He first came to power by leading a coup against president Vicente Guerrero, Bustamante was deposed twice and exiled to Europe each time. Anastasio Bustamantes father, José María, worked hauling snow from the volcanoes of Colima to Guadalajara, at 15, the younger Bustamante entered the Seminary of Guadalajara. When he finished, he went to Mexico City to study medicine and he passed his medical examinations and then went to San Luis Potosí as director of San Juan de Dios Hospital. In 1808, he entered the army as a cavalry officer under the command of Félix María Calleja. In 1810, General Calleja mobilized the army to fight the rebels under Miguel Hidalgo, during the War of Independence, he rose to the rank of general. He supported royalist-turned-insurgent Agustín de Iturbide and the Plan of Iguala, on 19 March 1821, in support of Agustín de Iturbide, Bustamante proclaimed the independence of Mexico from Spain at Pantoja, Guanajuato. A few days later, he removed the remains of the 1811 insurgent leaders from the Alhóndiga de Granaditas in Guanajuato and had buried in San Sebastián cemetery. Iturbide named him commander of the cavalry, second in command of the Army of the Center, the Regency named him field marshal and captain general of the Provincias Internas de Oriente y Occidente, effective 28 September 1821. He fought and defeated a Spanish expeditionary force at Xichú, in December 1828, under the Plan de Perote, Congress named him vice-president of the Republic under President Vicente Guerrero. He took possession of this office on 1 April 1829 but soon was at odds with Guerrero, on 4 December 1829, in accord with the Plan de Jalapa, he rose against Guerrero, driving him from the capital. On 1 January 1830, he assumed the presidency on an interim basis, Congress declared Guerrero incapable of governing. In office, Bustamante removed employees not having the confidence of public opinion and he instituted a secret police force and took steps to suppress the press. He exiled some of his competitors and expelled U. S and he was involved in the kidnapping and execution of his predecessor, Guerrero. He supported industry and the clergy and these and other policies stimulated opposition, especially in the states of Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Texas. In 1832, a revolt broke out in Veracruz, the rebels asked Antonio López de Santa Anna to take command. When their immediate demands were met, they demanded the presidents ouster. They intended to replace him with Manuel Gómez Pedraza, whose 1828 election had been annulled, Bustamante turned over the presidency to Melchor Múzquiz on 14 August 1832 and left the capital to fight the rebels
Anastasio Bustamante
–
Anastasio Bustamante y Oseguera
Anastasio Bustamante
36.
Thomas J. Farnham
–
Thomas Jefferson Farnham was an explorer and author of the American West in the first half of the 19th century. His travels included interaction with missionary Jason Lee, and he led a wagon train on the Oregon Trail. In 1804 Thomas Farnham was born in New England, in either Vermont or what would become the state of Maine and he would then receive an education at Phillips Academy, Andover and moved to Peoria, Illinois, where he became a lawyer. Farnham was married in 1836 to Eliza Woodson Burhams, and they would have three children, in 1839 he heard a lecture by Jason Lee on Oregon where Lee had set up a mission to preach to the Native Americans in the Willamette Valley. At the time Lee was recruiting people for the mission. After this lecture Farnham joined the Peoria Party that was headed for Oregon, the Peoria men called themselves the Oregon Dragoons and carried with them a flag, a gift from Mrs. Farnham, emblazoned with their motto OREGON or the GRAVE. Captain Farnham and the Oregon Dragoons traveled the Oregon Trail and arrived at Fort Vancouver along the Columbia River with only five people of the 19 that began the journey, the other members of the party deserted the group along the way. Farnham wrote a petition for the American settlers while in the region and this document was signed by many of the U. S. pioneers, and called on the federal government to extend its jurisdiction over the area in order to protect Americans and their interests. At the time, the region was uncontrolled by any country, Thomas Farnham then left the settlements of the Willamette Valley and sailed for the Sandwich Islands. Returning to the mainland, he landed at Monterey, capital of Alta California, during the Graham Affair, Farnham traveled to San Blas, arriving on May 16,1840, then went on to Tepic to meet with the prisoners. Following the prisoners release, Farnham continued across Mexico to New Orleans, in 1841, he moved on to New York City, then to Wisconsin for a brief time. Farnham later moved to Alton, Illinois, before moving back to California in 1846 and he died in San Francisco, California on September 13,1848. Farnhams widow Eliza moved to Santa Cruz, California and went on to become a leading abolitionist, novelist and early feminist
Thomas J. Farnham
–
Travels in California, and Scenes in the Pacific (1844)
37.
John Sutter
–
Although famous throughout California for his association with the Gold Rush, Sutter saw his business ventures fail while those of his elder son, John Augustus Sutter, Jr. were more successful. John Augustus Sutter was born Johann August Suter on February 15,1803 in Kandern, Baden, Germany, Johann went to school in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. At age 21, Johann married the daughter of a rich widow and he operated a store but he was more interested in spending money than making it. Because of family and mounting debts, Johann faced charges that would have him placed in jail, so he decided to dodge trial and ventured to America, he styled his name to Captain John Augustus Sutter. In North America, John Augustus Sutter undertook extensive travels, before he went to the U. S. he had learned Spanish and English in addition to Swiss French. Together with 35 Germans he moved from the St. Louis area to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a province of Mexico, then moved to the town of Westport, Oregon Territory. On April 1,1838, he joined a group of missionaries, led by the fur trapper Andrew Drips, and traveled the Oregon Trail to Fort Vancouver in Oregon Territory, which they reached in October. Sutter originally planned to cross the Siskiyou Mountains during the winter, Sutter was charged £21 by Douglas to arrange transportation on the British bark Columbia for himself and his eight followers. The Columbia departed Fort Vancouver on 11 November and sailed to the Kingdom of Hawaii, Sutter had missed the only ship inbound for the Alta California, and had to remain in the Kingdom for four months. The brig Clementine was eventually hired by Sutter to take provisions and general merchandise for New Archangel. Joining the crew as unpaid supercargo, Sutter,10 Native Hawaiians laborers, staying at New Archangel for a month, Sutter joined several balls hosted by Governor Kupreyanov, who likely gave help in determining the course of the Sacramento River. The Clementine then sailed for Alta California, reaching Yerba Buena on July 1,1839, which at that time was only a small seaport town. At the time of Sutters arrival in California, Alta California was a province of Mexico, and had a population of only about 1,000 Europeans and an estimated 100, 000-700,000 Native Americans. Sutter had to go to the capital at Monterey to obtain permission from the governor, Juan Bautista Alvarado, Alvarado saw Sutters plan of establishing a colony in Central Valley as useful in buttressing the frontier which he was trying to maintain against Indians, Russians, Americans and British. The governor stipulated however that for Sutter to qualify for land ownership, he had to reside in the territory for a year and become a Mexican citizen, which he did on August 29,1840. Construction was begun in August 1839 on a settlement which Sutter named New Helvetia, or New Switzerland, after his homeland. Sutter often began to identify himself as Captain Sutter of the Swiss Guard, when the settlement was completed in 1841, on 18 June, he received title to 48,827 acres on the Sacramento River. The site is now part of the California state capital of Sacramento, Sutter at first supported the establishment of an independent California Republic but when United States troops under John C
John Sutter
–
John Sutter, c. 1850
John Sutter
–
The birthplace of John Sutter in
Kandern,
Baden, Germany.
John Sutter
–
John Sutter, 1866
John Sutter
–
Contemporaneous illustration of Sutter's Fort
38.
John Bidwell
–
John Bidwell was known throughout California and across the nation as an important pioneer, farmer, soldier, statesman, politician, prohibitionist and philanthropist. He is famous for leading one of the first emigrant parties, known as the Bartleson–Bidwell Party, along the California Trail and he also traveled to Washington DC to ask Abraham Lincoln to sign documents to incorporate California as a state of the United States. Bidwell was born in Chautauqua County, New York, the Bidwell family was originally from England and came to America in the colonial era. The Bidwell family moved to Erie, Pennsylvania in 1829, and then to Ashtabula County, at age 17, he attended and shortly thereafter became Principal of Kingsville Academy. In 1841 Bidwell became one of the first emigrants on the California Trail, John Sutter employed Bidwell as his business manager shortly after Bidwells arrival in California. Shortly after the James W. Marshalls discovery at Sutters Mill, Bidwell also discovered gold on the Feather River establishing a claim at Bidwell Bar in advance of the California Gold Rush. Bidwell obtained the rank of major fighting in the Mexican–American War. He served in the California Senate in 1849, supervised the census of California in 1850 and he was a delegate to the 1860 national convention of the Democratic Party. He was appointed general of the California Militia in 1863. He was a delegate to the convention of the Republican Party in 1864 and was a Republican member of Congress from 1865 to 1867. In 1865, General Bidwell backed a petition from settlers at Red Bluff, the fort was built amid escalating fighting with the Snake Indians of eastern Oregon and southern Idaho. It was a base for operations in the Snake War that lasted until 1868, although traffic dwindled on the Red Bluff route once the Central Pacific Railroad extended into Nevada in 1868, the Army staffed Fort Bidwell to quell various uprisings and disturbances until 1890. A Paiute reservation and small community maintain the name Fort Bidwell and his wife, Annie Kennedy Bidwell, was the daughter of Joseph C. G. Kennedy, a socially prominent, high ranking Washington official in the United States Census Bureau who was active in the Whig party. She was deeply religious, and committed to a number of moral and social causes, Annie was very active in the suffrage and prohibition movements. The Bidwells were married April 16,1868 in Washington, D. C. with then President Andrew Johnson, upon arrival in Chico, the Bidwells used their mansion extensively for entertainment of friends. Some of the guests who visited Bidwell Mansion were President Rutherford B, hayes, General William T. Sherman, Susan B. Anthony, Frances Willard, Governor Leland Stanford, John Muir, Joseph Dalton Hooker, in 1875 Bidwell ran for Governor of California on the Anti-Monopoly Party ticket. As a strong advocate of the movement, he presided over the Prohibition Party state convention in 1888 and was the Prohibition candidate for governor in 1880
John Bidwell
–
John Bidwell
John Bidwell
–
Annie and John Bidwell
39.
John Marsh (pioneer)
–
John Marsh was born in 1799 in South Danvers, Massachusetts and died in Pacheco, California in 1856. He was a pioneer and settler in Alta California, the first Harvard graduate. He knew Hebrew, Latin and Greek, and was the first to compile a dictionary of the Sioux language and he became one of the wealthiest ranchers in California, and was one of the most influential men in the establishment of California statehood. Marsh graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover in 1819 and he attended Harvard University from 1819 to 1823 and received a bachelors degree. Colbruno writes that Marsh was dismissed from Harvard for participating in a student uprising and he was readmitted in 1821, after promising not to engage in any further disturbances. He originally planned to study for the ministry, but changed his major to medicine after his readmission and he then studied medicine with a Boston doctor. Marsh migrated west, living in the Michigan Territory, where he opened a school, Marsh then became an Indian agent for the Sioux Agency at Fort Snelling, At Fort Snelling, Marsh took a French/Indian mistress named Marguerite Decouteaux, who bore him a son named Charles. Territorial Governor Lewis Cass appointed Marsh to the position of Justice of the Peace in Crawford County, Marsh resumed his study of medicine, with a Dr. Purcell, post doctor for Fort Snelling, but never received a certificate because his mentor died before Marsh finished his studies. As a result, he was forced to flee to New Salem, Illinois, taking his mistress, leaving them there, he returned to Prairie du Chien. Marguerite, who was pregnant and pining for Marsh, tried to walk for several hundred miles to rejoin him, the journey exhausted her and she and the baby died in childbirth. Marsh then gave his son, Charles, to a Painter family in New Salem to be raised. He was discovered selling guns illegally to some of the Indians and had to flee the territory, this time settling in Independence, Missouri, in southern California, Marsh found that he was the only person who had any knowledge of western medicine. He presented his Harvard degree to the local Mexican Government of Alta California, the degree was written in Latin, which none of the local authorities could read, so they took his word and granted him permission to practice medicine. Marsh was quite successful in his new profession, but his prices were very high and he is credited as being the first person to practice medicine in California. He was paid in the currency of the day, cowhides, Marsh joked that his adobe looked more like a warehouse than the offices of a physician. In 1836, he sold his accumulated inventory to a Boston trader for $500, since only Catholics in California were allowed to own land, he became baptised as a Roman Catholic. The price he paid for the rancho was $500 and he thus became the first non-Hispanic white settler in what is now Contra Costa County. Marsh prospered there, both as a rancher and as a doctor, in practicing medicine, he again charged very high prices, generally in relation to how far he had to travel to see the patient
John Marsh (pioneer)
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John Marsh in 1852
John Marsh (pioneer)
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John Marsh house (ca 1870). The house still exists, and has been stabilized, but awaits restoration (pending fundraising). See External Links below.
John Marsh (pioneer)
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Plaque marking the site of his murder
40.
Mount Diablo
–
Mount Diablo is a mountain of the Diablo Range, in Contra Costa County of the eastern San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. It is south of Clayton and northeast of Danville and it is an isolated upthrust peak of 3,849 feet, visible from most of the San Francisco Bay Area. The summit is accessible by foot, bicycle, or motor vehicle, Road access is via North Gate Road or South Gate Road. The peak is in Mount Diablo State Park, a park of about 20,000 acres. Preserved lands on and around Mount Diablo total more than 90,000 acres. The day use fee per vehicle for the park is by entrance way, $6 via Macedo Ranch or Mitchell Canyon, on a clear day the Sierra Nevada is plainly visible. The best views are after a storm, a snowy Sierra shows up better. Lassen Peak,181 miles away, is occasionally just visible over the curve of the earth, sentinel Dome in Yosemite National Park is visible, but Half Dome is hidden by the 8000-foot ridge at 37. 755N119. 6657W. Eight bridges are visible, from west to east, San Mateo, Bay, Golden Gate, San Rafael, Carquinez, Benicia, Antioch, claims that the mountains viewshed is the largest in the world—or second largest after Mount Kilimanjaro—are ill founded. It does boast one of the largest viewsheds in the Western United States, countless peaks in the state are taller, but Mount Diablo has a remarkable visual prominence for a mountain of such low elevation. The summit is used as the datum for land surveying in much of northern California. Mount Diablo is sacred to many California Native American peoples, according to Miwok mythology and Ohlone mythology, prior to European entry, the creation narrative varied among surrounding local groups. In one surviving fragment, Mount Diablo and Reeds Peak were surrounded by water. In another, Molok the Condor brought forth his grandson Wek-Wek the Falcon Hero, about 25 independent tribal groups with well-defined territories lived in the East Bay countryside surrounding the mountain. Their members spoke dialects of three languages, Ohlone, Bay Miwok, and Northern Valley Yokuts. The Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone from Mission San Jose and the East Bay area, called the mountain Tuyshtak, the Nisenan of the Sacramento Valley called it Sukkú Jaman, or as Nisenan elder Dalbert Castro once explained, the place where dogs came from in trade. A Southern Miwok name was Supemenenu and it has also been suggested that an early Indian name for the mountain is Kawukum or Kahwookum, but there is no evidence to confirm the assertion. It resurfaced as a real estate gimmick in 1916 with a new translation, Laughing Mountain
Mount Diablo
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West face of Mount Diablo and
Hwy 24
Mount Diablo
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Aerial view of the Los Medanos foothills and Mount Diablo from over Suisun Bay at Concord, California
Mount Diablo
–
View of Mount Diablo from
Concord; The main peak is at right, North Peak at left and Mount Zion at center
Mount Diablo
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The summit of Mount Diablo
41.
Illegal immigration
–
Many countries have had or currently have laws restricting immigration. Whether a person is permitted to stay in a country legally may be decided by quotas or point systems or may be based on such as family ties. Article 13 on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares the right to any country, including ones own. Illegal immigration, as well as immigration in general, is overwhelmingly upward, however, it is also noted that illegal immigrants tend not to be the poorest within the populations they emigrate from. Living in another country illegally includes a variety of restrictions as well as the risk of being detained and deported or of facing other sanctions, if the status of being illegal is any way perceivable to host community residents, illigal migrants may additionally face visible or verbal disdain. There have been campaigns in many countries since 2007 discouraging the use of the illegal immigrant. They are generally based on the argument that the act of immigrating illegally does not make the people themselves illegal, however, related terms that do not directly describe people are still used. For example, Associated Press still uses the illegal immigration to describe the action of entering or residing in a country illegally. In contrast, in some contexts the term illegal immigrants is shortened, often pejoratively, there are multiple models that try to explain illegal immigration from the perspective of the immigrants. Gaining employment and legal status are mainly what is perceived as successful result of the illegal immigration, there are two contradicting views on the impact of illegal immigrants on the labor market in terms of competition between host community workers and newcomers. According to this view it is assumed that illegal workers tend to add to, and compete with, Illegal workers may find employment by accepting lower wages than host community workers, sometimes below the minimum wage and off-the-books. This may result in a downward spiralling of wages, economist George Borjas has calculated that real wages of US workers without a high school degree declined by 9% from 1980–2000 and claims that this was due to competition from illegal immigrants. Since the decline of middle-class blue-collar jobs in manufacturing and industry, in the US, only 12% of the labor force has less than high school education, but 70% of illegal workers from Mexico lack a high school degree. The majority of new blue-collar jobs qualify as Masseys underclass work, and suffer from unreliability, subservient roles and, critically, from this it is assumed that the willingness to take undesirable jobs is what gives illegal immigrants their employment. Entry-level white-collar and service jobs offer advancement opportunities only for people with work permits, however, the advantage decreases with the skill level of the firms workers, In recent years, developing countries have pursued the benefits of globalization by adopting measures to liberalize trade. Illegal immigrants are not impoverished by standards of the home country, the poorest classes in a developing country may lack the resources needed to mount an attempt to cross illegally, or the connections to friends or family already in the destination country. Other examples do show that increases in poverty, especially associated with immediate crises. It also marked the start of a swell in Mexican immigration
Illegal immigration
–
Border patrol at sea by the
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Illegal immigration
–
HMC Vigilant, one of several customs cutters of the UKBA, capable of speeds up to 26 knots departing
Portsmouth Naval Base.
Illegal immigration
–
Aerial view of
São Paulo, where most illegal immigrants in Brazil live.
Illegal immigration
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ABVP against Bangladeshi illegal immigrants
42.
Passport
–
A passport is a travel document, usually issued by a countrys government, that certifies the identity and nationality of its holder for the purpose of international travel. Standard passports may contain information such as the name, place and date of birth, photograph, signature. Passports are moving towards including biometric information in a microchip embedded in the document, making them machine-readable, as of 5 April 2017,96 countries emit biometric passports. A passport holder is entitled to enter the country that issued the passport. Some passports attest to status as a diplomat or other official, entitled to rights, many countries normally allow entry to holders of passports of other countries, sometimes requiring a visa also to be held, but this is not an automatic right. Many other additional conditions, such as not being likely to become a charge for financial or other reasons. Some countries and international organisations issue travel documents which are not standard passports, one of the earliest known references to paperwork that served in a role similar to that of a passport is found in the Hebrew Bible. In the medieval Islamic Caliphate, a form of passport was the baraa, only people who paid their zakah or jizya taxes were permitted to travel to different regions of the Caliphate, thus, the baraa receipt was a travelers basic passport. Etymological sources show that the passport is from a medieval document that was required in order to pass through the gate of a city wall or to pass through a territory. In medieval Europe, such documents were issued to travelers by local authorities, on the whole, documents were not required for travel to sea ports, which were considered open trading points, but documents were required to travel inland from sea ports. King Henry V of England is credited with having invented what some consider the first true passport, the earliest reference to these documents is found in a 1414 Act of Parliament. In 1540, granting travel documents in England became a role of the Privy Council of England, in 1794, issuing British passports became the job of the Office of the Secretary of State. The 1548 Imperial Diet of Augsburg required the public to hold imperial documents for travel, the speed of trains, as well as the number of passengers that crossed multiple borders, made enforcement of passport laws difficult. The general reaction was the relaxation of passport requirements, consequently, comparatively few people held passports. During World War I, European governments introduced border passport requirements for security reasons and these controls remained in place after the war, becoming a standard, though controversial, procedure. British tourists of the 1920s complained, especially about attached photographs and physical descriptions, in 1920, the League of Nations held a conference on passports, the Paris Conference on Passports & Customs Formalities and Through Tickets. Passport guidelines and a general booklet design resulted from the conference, while the United Nations held a travel conference in 1963, no passport guidelines resulted from it. Passport standardization came about in 1980, under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO standards include those for machine-readable passports
Passport
–
First
Japanese passport, issued in 1866.
Passport
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Chinese passport from the
Qing Dynasty, 24th Year of the Guangxu Reign - 1898.
Passport
–
An
Ottoman passport (passavant) issued to
Russian subject dated July 24th, 1900.
Passport
–
An
Indian Diplomatic Passport and an Official Passport. These passports serve supplementary functions to an ordinary Indian passport. Each passport type has a different color.
43.
Manuel Micheltorena
–
José Manuel Micheltorena was a brigadier general of the Mexican Army, adjutant-general of the same, governor, commandant-general and inspector of the department of Alta California, then within Mexico. Micheltorena was the last non-Californian Mexican governor before Californian native son Pío Pico took office, Micheltorena received this appointment by the President of Mexico, Antonio López de Santa Anna and served from 30 December 1842, until his ouster in 1845. Micheltorena was instrumental in the privatisation of California land by rancho land grants, with his loyalties firmly seated in Mexico City, he faced criticism, opposition, and eventually war from the Californios in Alta California. Micheltorena lost to Juan Bautista Alvarado and the Californios in the 1845 Battle of Providencia, a History Of The New California - Its Resources And People. New York, The Lewis Publishing Company
Manuel Micheltorena
–
Manuel Micheltorena
44.
William B. Ide
–
William Brown Ide was a California pioneer who headed the short-lived California Republic in 1846. William Ide was born in Rutland, Massachusetts to Lemuel Ide, a carpenter by trade, Ide married Susan Grout Haskell in 1820. He and his wife Susan lived at first in Massachusetts, but soon began moving westward—to Kentucky, then to Ohio and they farmed in Springfield, where Ide supplemented his income by teaching school. Since at least as early as 1886 and as late as 1993, accordingly, Ide and his family were the first known Mormons to enter California and Ide—as President of the short-lived Republic of California—was, arguably, the first LDS head of state. In 1845, Ide sold his farm and joined a train in Independence. On the advice of the mountain man Caleb Greenwood, Ide and they arrived at Sutters Fort on October 25,1845. Ide traveled north to work for Peter Lassen on Rancho Bosquejo, in 1846, on a report that the Mexican government was threatening to expel all settlers who were not Mexican citizens, about thirty settlers conducted what was to become known as the Bear Flag Revolt. On June 14, Ide and the others seized the pueblo of Sonoma and captured the Mexican Commandante of Northern California, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, on June 15, Ide released the Proclamation he had written the night before. By noon of June 17, the raised the new California Bear Flag. Ide had been chosen to serve as commander, the Bear Flag Republic lasted until July 9,1846, just 25 days, until the U. S. Ide and other Bear Flaggers joined John C, frémont and the U. S. armed forces in taking possession of California from Mexico. After the Mexican–American War, Ide returned to his home near Red Bluff, California and he bought out Belden in 1849, and was successful in mining. Ide went on to a career as a public servant in Colusi County. There he served as Probate and County Judge, Presiding Judge of the Court of Sessions, County Recorder, County Auditor, County Clerk, County Treasurer, Deputy County Surveyor and Deputy Sheriff. Ide died of smallpox in December 1852, probably during the night of the 19th–20th and he is buried in a small cemetery on the east side of Highway 455 miles south of Hamilton City at the former site of Monroeville where a monument is visible from the road. On June 7,2014 new gravestones, created by William B, Ide Adobe State Historic Park, comprising a restored adobe house and other buildings near Red Bluff, commemorates his life. Simeon Ides A Sketch of the Life of William B, hubert H. Bancrofts History of California, Vol. V. 1846-1848 The Bear Flag Museum, William Brown Ide, Bear Flagger by Fred Blackburn Rogers
William B. Ide
–
Colony (1768–1822)
William B. Ide
–
Photo purported to be of Ide
45.
Texas
–
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
Texas
–
Sam Rayburn Reservoir
Texas
–
Flag
Texas
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Texas Hill Country
Texas
–
Big Bend National Park.
46.
Bear Flag Revolt
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In June 1846, a number of American immigrants in Alta California rebelled against the Mexican departments government. The immigrants had not been allowed to buy or rent land and had threatened with expulsion from California because they had entered without official permission. Mexican officials were concerned about a war with the United States coupled with the growing influx of Americans into California. The rebellion was soon overtaken by the beginning of the Mexican–American War, the name California Republic appeared only on the flag the insurgents raised in Sonoma. It indicated their aspiration of forming a government for California. The insurgents elected military officers but no structure was ever established. The flag featured an image of a California grizzly bear and became known as the Bear Flag and the revolt as the Bear Flag Revolt. Three weeks later, on July 5,1846, the Republics military of 100 to 200 men was subsumed into the California Battalion commanded by U. S. Army Brevet Captain John C. By 1845–46, Alta California had been neglected by Mexico for the twenty-five years since Mexican independence. The 1845 removal of Manuel Micheltorena, the latest governor to be sent by Mexico and forcefully ejected by the Californians, resulted in a divided government. The region south of San Luis Obispo was ruled by Governor Pio Pico with his capital in The Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Porciúncula River, Pico and Castro disliked each other personally and soon began escalating disputes over control of the Customhouse income. Decrees issued by the government in Mexico City were often acknowledged and supported with proclamations. By the end of 1845, when rumors of a force being sent from Mexico proved to be false. The relationship between the United States and Mexico had been deteriorating for some time, texas, which Mexico still considered to be its territory, had been admitted to statehood in 1845. Mexico had earlier threatened war if this happened, james K. Polk was elected President of the United States in 1844, and considered his election a mandate for his expansionist policies. Mexican law had long allowed grants of land to naturalized Mexican citizens, obtaining Mexican citizenship was not difficult and many earlier American immigrants had gone through the process and obtained free grants of land. The orders also required Californias officials not to land grants. All non-citizen immigrants, who had arrived without permission, were threatened with being forced out of California, Alta Californias Sub-Prefect Francisco Guerrero had written to U. S
Bear Flag Revolt
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Pío Pico
Bear Flag Revolt
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The Bear Flag
Bear Flag Revolt
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US President James K Polk
Bear Flag Revolt
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José Castro
47.
Flag of California
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The Bear Flag is the official flag of the state of California. The precursor of the flag was first flown during the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt and was known as the Bear Flag. The first official version of the Bear Flag was adopted by the California State Legislature, the 1911 statute stated, The bear flag is hereby selected and adopted as the state flag of California. In 1953, the design and specifications for the flag were standardized in a bill signed by Governor Earl Warren. He shall, periodically, compile the laws and regulations regarding the State Flag, copies of the compilation shall be printed and made available to the public at cost by the Department of General Services. When the flag is displayed vertically, it is rotated 90 degrees clockwise such that the bear and star face upward, the flag is also used as the state ensign. The modern state flag is white with a red strip along the bottom. There is a red star in the left corner and a grizzly bear facing left in the center. The size of the bear is 2/3 the size of the hoist width and has a ratio of 2 by 1, the grass plot has a ratio of 11 to 1. The five-point star is taken from the California Lone Star Flag of 1836, the bear on the current flag of California is claimed to have been modeled on the last Californian grizzly bear in captivity. The bear, named Monarch, was captured in 1889 by newspaper reporter Allen Kelley, the bear was subsequently moved to Woodwards Gardens in San Francisco, and then to the zoo at Golden Gate Park. After the bears death in 1911, it was mounted and preserved at the Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park, the 1953 law includes an official black and white rendering of the bear as well as the plot of grass and brown tufts. This drawing and other specifications that define the flags colors and dimensions are identified as 54-J-03. In 2001, the North American Vexillological Association surveyed its members on the designs of the 72 U. S. state, U. S. territorial, and Canadian provincial flags and ranked the flag of California 13th. The 1953 legislation defined the shades of the Californian flag with a total of five colors relative to the 9th edition of the Standard Color Card of America. It is one of only four US state flags that does not contain the color blue, Seal is used for the dark shading of the bear, the 12 darker tufts in the plot of grass, the border of the plot and the lettering CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC. Old Glory Red is used for the star, the bears tongue, irish Green is used for the grass plot. The bears claws are also accented with white, the left front and rear paws have four white claws while the right rear claw displays three
Flag of California
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"Monarch" the bear
Flag of California
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California
Flag of California
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Bear Flag monument on the
Sonoma Plaza
Flag of California
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Todd's original Bear Flag, photographed in 1890
48.
George Washington
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George Washington was an American politician and soldier who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and he is popularly considered the driving force behind the nations establishment and came to be known as the father of the country, both during his lifetime and to this day. Washington was widely admired for his leadership qualities and was unanimously elected president by the Electoral College in the first two national elections. Washingtons incumbency established many precedents still in use today, such as the system, the inaugural address. His retirement from office two terms established a tradition that lasted until 1940 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term. The 22nd Amendment now limits the president to two elected terms and he was born into the provincial gentry of Colonial Virginia to a family of wealthy planters who owned tobacco plantations and slaves, which he inherited. In his youth, he became an officer in the colonial militia during the first stages of the French. In 1775, the Second Continental Congress commissioned him as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, in that command, Washington forced the British out of Boston in 1776 but was defeated and nearly captured later that year when he lost New York City. After crossing the Delaware River in the middle of winter, he defeated the British in two battles, retook New Jersey, and restored momentum to the Patriot cause and his strategy enabled Continental forces to capture two major British armies at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781. In battle, however, Washington was repeatedly outmaneuvered by British generals with larger armies, after victory had been finalized in 1783, Washington resigned as commander-in-chief rather than seize power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to American republicanism. Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which devised a new form of government for the United States. Following his election as president in 1789, he worked to unify rival factions in the fledgling nation and he supported Alexander Hamiltons programs to satisfy all debts, federal and state, established a permanent seat of government, implemented an effective tax system, and created a national bank. In avoiding war with Great Britain, he guaranteed a decade of peace and profitable trade by securing the Jay Treaty in 1795 and he remained non-partisan, never joining the Federalist Party, although he largely supported its policies. Washingtons Farewell Address was a primer on civic virtue, warning against partisanship, sectionalism. He retired from the presidency in 1797, returning to his home, upon his death, Washington was eulogized as first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen by Representative Henry Lee III of Virginia. He was revered in life and in death, scholarly and public polling consistently ranks him among the top three presidents in American history and he has been depicted and remembered in monuments, public works, currency, and other dedications to the present day. He was born on February 11,1731, according to the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar was adopted within the British Empire in 1752, and it renders a birth date of February 22,1732. Washington was of primarily English gentry descent, especially from Sulgrave and his great-grandfather John Washington emigrated to Virginia in 1656 and began accumulating land and slaves, as did his son Lawrence and his grandson, Georges father Augustine
George Washington
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George Washington by
Gilbert Stuart, 1797
George Washington
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Washington's birthplace
George Washington
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Washington's map, accompanying his Journal to the Ohio (1753–1754)
George Washington
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A
mezzotint of
Martha Washington, based on a 1757 portrait by
Wollaston
49.
Salvador Vallejo
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Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo was a Californio military commander, politician, and rancher. He served in the first session of the California State Senate, the city of Vallejo, California is named for him, and the nearby city of Benicia is named for his wife. Mariano Vallejo was born in Monterey, California, the eighth of thirteen children and third son of Ignacio Vicente Ferrer Vallejo, there is controversy over Vallejos exact date of birth. According to Vallejo himself, and his family bible, he was born on 7 July 1807 and his baptismal certificate, however, signed by Fr. Baltasar Carnicer states that he was baptized on 5 July 1807, other sources state a birthdate of 7 July 1808. Vallejos parents were at Santa Barbara Mission February 18,1791 and his paternal grandparents, Gerónimo Vallejo and Antonia Gómez, maternal grandparents, Francisco Lugo and Juana María Rita Martínez. His fathers great grandfather, Pedro Vallejo, was said to have served as viceroy of New Spain, however, these ancestors were probably only a family mythology. Ignacio himself had been a well considered sergeant at the Presidio of Monterey, as a teenager, Mariano, his nephew Juan Bautista Alvarado, and José Castro received special instruction from Governor Pablo Vicente de Solá. The boys received government documents and newspapers from Mexico City, as well as access to the personal library. Vallejo then worked as a clerk for English merchant William Hartnell, who taught Vallejo English, French, Vallejo was serving as the personal secretary to the new Governor of California, Luis Argüello, when news of Mexicos independence reached Monterey. Argüello enrolled Vallejo as a cadet in the Presidio company in 1824, after being promoted to corporal, Argüello appointed Vallejo to the diputación, the territorial legislature. He was promoted to alférez, and in 1829, Vallejo led a group of soldiers against the Miwoks, after a three-day battle, Vallejos troops forced the Miwok to flee to Mission San José, seeking refuge with the padres. In 1831 Vallejo participated in the installation of Pío Pico as acting Governor. Vallejo became the Commander of the Presidio of San Francisco in 1833, Mission San Francisco Solano was taken over by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. At first he gave some of the land to the mission workers as ordered. But later he transferred all the land and building to own Rancho Petaluma Adobe of 44,000 acres in the Petaluma Valley, Vallejo laid out the town of Sonoma in 1835. He had a plaza made in front of the old mission chapel. But then he took tiles from the roof and put them on his own house
Salvador Vallejo
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Mariano Vallejo, ca. 1880-85.
Salvador Vallejo
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The 1840 rebuilt Mission San Francisco Solano circa 1910, last of the 21 missions
Salvador Vallejo
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Stylized portrayal of the original Mission San Francisco Solano
Salvador Vallejo
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A Vallejo reenactor at
Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma, California, in 2015
