History of the west coast of North America
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The history of the west coast of North America[1] stretches back to the arrival of the earliest people over the Bering Strait, through the development of significant pre-Columbian cultures and population densities, to the arrival of the European explorers and colonizers. The west coast of North America today is home to some of the largest and most important companies in the world, as well as being a center of world culture.
As used in this article, the term west coast of North America means all or parts of the modern American states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California, and all or parts of British Columbia and the Yukon in Canada, as well as the regions bordering the Pacific Ocean in Spanish-speaking North America, from Mexico to Panama.
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[edit] First people
This region of North America likely saw the first sustained arrival of people to the continent. Although there are other theories, most scientists believe that the first significant groups of people came through today's Bering Strait area, then through modern Alaska, and from there spread throughout North America, and to South America.
Although the descendants of these first people on the west coast of today's Canada and United States did not develop "high civilizations," the population density along the west coast of today's United States was significantly higher than in the rest of the northern part of the continent; it has been estimated that in 1492, one-third of all Native Americans in the United States were living in California.[2] In the Pacific Northwest, the Haida people, for example, took advantage of the resources of the sea and many rivers to develop permanent settlements.
In the western half of Mesoamerica (that is, western portions of today's Mexico and northern Central America), among the oldest settlements are those which date to approximately 2000 B.C.E.[3] A succession of cultures started with the very early Capacha culture, which appeared on the Pacific coast of modern Mexico about 1450 B.C.E. and spread into the interior.[4] The following cultures developed into "high civilizations" in Mesoamerica, with extensive urban areas, writing, astronomy and fine arts:
- Olmec (beginning about 1150 B.C.E.)
- Mixtec (beginning perhaps 1000 B.C.E.)
- Maya (settled villages along the Pacific coast appear from 1800 B.C.E., and ceremonial architecture by approximately 1000 B.C.E.) and
- Aztec (from 14th century C.E.)
Farther south, Panama was home to some of the earliest pottery-making, such as the Monagrillo culture dating to about 2500-1700 B.C.E.; this culture evolved into significant populations best known for spectacular burial sites (dating to c. 500-900 C.E.) and polychrome pottery of the Coclé style.
Each of these cultures rose, flourished, and was then conquered by a more militarily-developed culture. While not all of these civilizations had large settlements along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, their influence extended to the Pacific coast.
[edit] European arrival (1513-1750)
In 1513, Spanish explorers were the first Europeans to reach the west coast of North America. However, from the point of view of European powers in the age of sailing ships, the west coast of North America was among the most distant places in the world. The arduous journey around Cape Horn at the tip of South America and then north meant nine to twelve months of dangerous sailing. These practical difficulties discouraged all but the Spanish Empire from making regular visits and establishing settlements and ports until the second half of the 1700s - some 250 years after Europeans first reached the west coast of North America.
[edit] Spanish explorers and conquistadors
Explorers flying the flag of Spain reached the New World beginning in 1492. These explorers were following up on the grants of the Pope (contained in the 1493 papal bull Inter caetera) and rights contained in the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas; these two formal acts gave Spain the exclusive rights to colonize all of the Western Hemisphere (excluding Brazil), including the exclusive rights to colonize all of the west coast of North America. The first European expedition to actually reach the west coast of North America was led by the Spaniard Vasco Núñez de Balboa, which achieved the Pacific coast of Panama in 1513. In an act of enduring historical importance, Balboa claimed the Pacific Ocean for the Spanish Crown, as well as the lands touching it, including all of the west coast of North America. This action of Balboa further solidified the Spanish claim of exclusive control over the entire west coast of North America.
[edit] English interest
In 1579, the west coast of North America was visited by the English explorer Sir Francis Drake who landed north of today's San Francisco and claimed the area for England; the next official visit by the British would be some two hundred years later.
[edit] Settlements and conflicts (1750-1846)
While the Spanish had dominated development on the west coast of North America for over 200 years since the early 1500s, beginning in the mid-1700s, this period saw the advent of British and Russian rivals, followed by the independence of Mexico and the Central American countries. The United States started on its path to become the dominant power on the west coast of North America.
[edit] Spanish settlements in coastal Latin America
The Pacific Coast of Mexico and Central America was not especially conducive to economic development during this era. Coastal northern Mexico (including Baja California) was largely too dry for substantial agriculture or ranching, and south of the deserts, the jungles and tropical diseases of the Pacific Coast of central and southern Mexico and of Central America were also an impediment to large-scale development.
A primary exception was the development of the major Spanish port at Acapulco. As early as 1528, this harbor was the primary port of the Spanish Empire on the west coast of North America; most importantly it was a home of the vital Manila Galleons. Beginning in 1565, the Manila Galleons crossed the Pacific Ocean to the Spanish possession of the Philippines, laden with silver and gemstones from Mexico. There, the wealth was used to purchase Asian trade goods such as spices, silk, and porcelain. These goods were then carried across the Pacific by the Manila Galleons to Acapulco; from there, the goods were transshipped across Mexico, for delivery to the Spanish treasure fleet, for shipment to Spain. The income provided to Spain by the Manila Galleons was essential to the Spanish Crown and to the Spanish economy of the era.[5]
[edit] Spanish missions
In the late 1600s, Spain sent the first missionaries into today's Baja California (founding the first mission there in 1697) and then into today's California (then called Alta California, founding the first mission at San Diego in 1769). These missions eventually stretched from the southern tip of Baja California to Sonoma, California, north of San Francisco. The purpose of the missions, which typically had an accompanying pueblo (town) and presidio (military outpost), was to solidify the 250-year old Spanish claim to the region. This need became more urgent as the Russians and British were encroaching on the northern part of the west coast of North America. (In addition, there was an interest in creating a safe anchorage for seaworn Manila Galleons on their return to Acapulco).
[edit] Russian settlements
Explorers and fur trappers from the Russian Empire (beginning with the Vitus Bering expedition of 1741) arrived on the Pacific coast of today's Alaska, and after establishing settlements there (beginning in 1784), expanded hunting and trading down the west coast of North America. In the early 1800s, fur trappers of the Russian Empire explored the west coast of North America, hunting for sea otter pelts as far south as San Diego. In 1812, the Russian-American Company set up a fortified trading post at Fort Ross, near present day Bodega Bay some sixty miles north of San Francisco.
[edit] British North America
In 1778, the British seafaring Captain James Cook, midway through his third and final voyage of exploration, sailed along the west coast of North America, mapping the coast from California all the way to the Bering Strait. The northern stretch of the west coast of North America was claimed by the British, but the region was not settled by any British subject until the late 1780s, when the first small trading post was established on Nootka Island in today's British Columbia.
[edit] Conflict between Spain and Great Britain
In the late 1700s, Spain reacted to the expanding Russian and British presence in the Pacific Northwest by sending exploratory expeditions along the coast as far north as Alaska. These Spanish parties performed "acts of sovereignty" in Alaska; today, Spain's Alaskan legacy endures as little more than a few place names, among these the Malaspina Glacier and the town of Valdez. Spain established its own competing fortified trading post at Nootka Sound (Santa Cruz de Nutka, maintained between 1789 and 1795[6]) on Vancouver Island, in today's British Columbia, and sought forcibly to remove the small British trading post on adjacent Nootka Island.
War between Spain and Great Britain over control of the Pacific Northwest was averted by the Nootka Convention, signed in 1790. Spain gave up its claim that it alone could establish settlements in the Pacific Northwest (a claim which dated back to the 1493 papal bull and Balboa's actions in 1513). Instead, while still retaining a claim of ownership to the area, Spain allowed British trading posts north of the 42nd parallel (today's boundary between California and Oregon). This agreement effectively allowed a greatly expanded British presence in the Pacific Northwest, including today's British Columbia, Oregon and Washington.
The primary beneficiary of this agreement was the Hudson's Bay Company which, in 1825, established a major trading post at Fort Vancouver across the Columbia River just north of today's Portland, Oregon. From this headquarters, British fur trappers and hunters spread throughout the Pacific Northwest, extending as far east as the Rocky Mountains and, by using the Siskiyou Trail, as far south as California's Central Valley.
[edit] Mexican and Central American independence
After Mexico won its War of Independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico initially retained Spain's missions and settlements along the Pacific coast, and claimed territory as far north as today's border between California and Oregon. In the 1830s, Mexico ended Church control of the missions in California and opened the land to secular development, particularly ranching. By the 1840s, there were small Mexican settlements at San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the territorial capital at Monterey. These settlements primarily traded cattle hides and tallow with American and European merchant vessels which came to call.
During the 1820s as well, the Central American possessions of Spain gained their independence, and the boundaries of young nations shifted in alliances and configurations. For example, what was to became the nation of Panama was simply a province of Colombia, and Guatemala was variously part of a confederation with Mexico, and part of the United Provinces of Central America, before becoming a separate nation in 1838. Almost all of these Central American nations saw continuing political strife throughout this period (and into the 20th century), as struggles continued between indigenous peoples and elites, and among factions of the elites.
[edit] French interest
In 1786, Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse led a group of French scientists and artists on a voyage of exploration ordered by Louis XVI and were welcomed in Monterey, California. They compiled an account of the California mission system, the land and the people.
The leader of a further French scientific expedition to California, Eugene Duflot de Mofras, wrote in 1840 "...it is evident that California will belong to whatever nation chooses to send there a man-of-war and two hundred men." In 1841, the Mexican military commander in Northern California, General Mariano Vallejo, wrote "there is no doubt that France is intriguing to become mistress of California."
[edit] American expansion
In 1805, the first official party of Americans to arrive on the west coast of North America, the fabled expedition of Lewis and Clark, came down the Columbia River to the river's mouth on the border between today's Oregon and Washington. In 1819, the United States acquired the Spanish claims to the Pacific Northwest (as negotiated in the Nootka Convention) in the Adams-Onís Treaty. The United States argued that it acquired the Spanish rights to exclusive ownership of the Pacific Northwest as far north as Alaska. This position led to a dispute with Britain known as the Oregon boundary dispute. The two countries agreed to defer resolution of the dispute, and to allow settlement by both British and American immigrants in what became known as the Oregon Country (today's Oregon and Washington, and much of today's Idaho and British Columbia).
In 1841, the United States Exploring Expedition visited the west coast of North America by ship, and sent an overland party down the Siskiyou Trail, from the site of today's Portland, Oregon to San Francisco.
Americans began arriving on the west coast of North America in significant numbers in the mid-1830s. They first came overland along the Oregon Trail, settling primarily in the rich Willamette Valley south of today's Portland. By 1841, the first overland party of American settlers reached California along what became the California Trail, and by the mid-1840s significant numbers of Americans were arriving in California.
In addition, the long-standing dispute between the United States and Great Britain over the Oregon Country was resolved in 1846, with the signing of the Oregon Treaty; the Oregon Treaty divided the disputed territory along what later became the current international boundary between Canada and the United States.
[edit] Rapid growth (1846-1945)
This era saw the transformation of much of the west coast of North America from an area still largely populated by indigenous peoples to widespread population of non-natives. In particular, the west coast of the United States showed the most dramatic change, beginning with the California Gold Rush, through the development of Hollywood in Southern California, and increased industry and agriculture in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Canadian and Latin American development also proceeded during this time, but at a slower pace.
[edit] United States
The American immigrants in California rebelled against Mexico, and in 1846 established the short-lived California Republic. However, the Mexican American War had already been declared, and the American military quickly took control of California. At the end of the war, Mexico ceded control of California to the United States. Things began to change dramatically in 1848 with the California Gold Rush which saw an overwhelming influx of immigrants from around the world. While few found much gold, many stayed, founding communities and turning to farming and other practices. Despite these increases in population the west coast was still on the periphery. The American Civil War had little effect. This began to change as the first transcontinental railroads (completed in 1869) stretched across the United States. For the first time, it was relatively cheap and easy to move to the west coast.
In 1867, the United States acquired Alaska from the Russian Empire, capping American westward expansion on the North American continent.
The next 75 years saw monumental change on the west coast of the United States. Successive booms of agriculture, oil, entertainment, and industry greatly increased California's population. Logging, fishing, and industry drove the economies of Oregon and Washington.
[edit] British North America and Canada
The gold rush fever spread progressively north; in 1853, the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush began in British Columbia, and at the end of the century, the Klondike Gold Rush saw the Yukon hit by masses of prospectors.
The formal delineation of the international border had not completely allayed Canada's fears of losing its western region, especially as it continued to lag behind the western United States in population and development. With British Columbia's joining Canadian Confederation in 1871, the Canadian government began the monumental task of building its own railroad to the west to break the American monopoly. The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885 and firmly cemented the north-south divide of the region.
[edit] Latin America
While the Pacific Coast of Mexico remained relatively undeveloped economically, exceptions were tobacco cultivation in the coastal province of Nayarit, tourism at Acapulco, and local-scale fishing all along the coast. The countries of Central America continued to struggle politically during this time (with perhaps the notable exception of Costa Rica), and began to expand agriculture, particularly in coffee and bananas with investment and substantial control by the United States. The establishment in 1903 of the newly-independent nation of Panama (under pressure from the United States) led to the creation of the Canal Zone and opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. The opening of the Canal benefited the region economically as trade with the Eastern United States and Europe became far easier.
[edit] Immigration
Both the gold rushes and the building of the railroads required vast amounts of labor. One available source that was used on both sides of the border were immigrants from East Asia, largely from China and Japan. These immigrants were willing to work for very little and played a crucial role in building the infrastructure of the west coast. However, they faced constant discrimination. Asians were deprived of their civil rights in both Canada and the United States. There was also pressure to restrict Asian immigration, opinions that were acted on with quotas, head taxes, and finally a complete ban in both nations in the 1920s. Because of discrimination, and also a desire to remain a community, Chinatowns developed in all the major cities along the west coast.
[edit] Increased trade and World War II
The rise of the Japanese economy also benefited the region as the ability to trade across the Pacific continued to show its great potential.
However, only a few decades later, Japan would become a major threat. During World War II, there were few attacks against North America, but the occasional Japanese submarine lurked off the shores. Japan tried to damage the region by sending over hundreds of balloon bombs in an attempt to light forest fires. These were generally ineffective, however several did land in both Canada and the United States but they caused no great destruction.
[edit] Post-war period (1945-present)
The post-war years would be ones of great prosperity and growth on the west coast of North America. The quick reemergence of Japan and its stunning growth over the next decades meant great wealth for the west coast ports. Japan became the second largest trading partner of both Canada and the United States, and this trade was almost entirely based in the west coast. Later the other Asian economies would add to this trade. Throughout the northwest logging, mining, and fishing remained the central industries. California, however, became a cultural centre to rival the northeast due to the film industry as well as a becoming a centre of music, literature, and cooking. The area became home to some of the continent's greatest universities.
Unlike the east, the western economies were not based upon manufacturing and the great deindustrialization of the 1970s and 1980s did little to hurt the region--creating an imbalance between rapid growth in the west and stagnation or decline in the east.
During this period, the west coast became the bastion of conservatism with the population favouring low taxes and small government. In the United States, this manifested itself in support for the Republican Party. Especially for the two Republican presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. In British Columbia, the right wing Social Credit Party governed for over thirty years.
The general economic revival of North America in the late 1990s brought the east back to health, but even greater growth in Northern California due to the high-tech industry. The region was, hurt, however, by the decade long economic slump of Japan beginning at the same time. This was made up for by the rapid growth of Southeast Asia, South Korea, and especially China. The entire region shifted quite dramatically politically, however. Westerners diverged from conservatism over social issues such as gay rights, abortion, and the legalization of soft drugs. In 1991, British Columbia threw out Social Credit electing the socialist NDP. California, Washington, and Oregon were pivotal in Bill Clinton's two victories and Al Gore and John Kerry's near wins in 2000 and 2004. This change was mainly in the urban coastal areas. Inland, rural regions of California reamined stauchly Republican, and the interior of British Columbia has voted solidly for the Reform Party and its successors.
[edit] Notes
- ^ The term North America has a variety of meanings, including just the United States and Canada, those two countries plus Mexico, or all of the continent from Panama north; this article uses this most expansive definition.
- ^ Starr, Kevin. California: a history, New York, Modern Library (2005), p. 13
- ^ See Matanchén Complex: New Radiocarbon Dates on Early Coastal Adaptation in West Mexico. Joseph B. Mountjoy, R. E. Taylor, and Lawrence H. Feldman. Science 17 March 1972: Vol. 175. no. 4027, pp. 1242 - 1243. Abstract: Samples of marine shell from archaeological context on the coast of Nayarit, Mexico, have given radiocarbon determinations of 1810 ± 80 B.C., 2000 ± 100 B.C., and 2100 ± 100 B.C. Even with maximum correction for upwelling these are the earliest dates for coastal occupation in West Mexico north of Acapulco, Guerrero. Analysis of the midden contents has provided new insights regarding early coastal adaptation.
- ^ Discussion of the Chapaca culture
- ^ It is estimated that one-third of the silver from Mexico was used to purchase trade goods in Manila.
- ^ History of Nootka
