Eureka ("I Have Found It") | |||||
| Anthem | "National Anthem of California" | ||||
| Capital | Monterey | ||||
| Largest city | Los Angeles | ||||
| Language official |
English, Spanish | ||||
| others | Chinese, Tagalog, Navajo | ||||
| Religion main |
Catholicism | ||||
| others | Protestantism, Mormonism | ||||
| Demonym | Californian, Californio | ||||
| Government | Federal presidential constitutional republic | ||||
| President | Gary Johnson | ||||
| Area | 2,455,153 km² | ||||
| Population | 91,714,389 | ||||
| Currency | Californian dollar (CLD)
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| Time Zone | UTC-8 to UTC-7 | ||||
| Calling Code | +1 | ||||
| Internet TLD | .cl | ||||
California, officially the Republic of California (Spanish: República de California) is a sovereign state located in North America. The country is bordered by Mexico to the south and by the United States to the north and the east. It is currently the world's tenth largest country in terms of land area as well as having the 16th-largest population in the world. Monterey is the capital and Los Angeles is the country's largest city.
Notable contributions to popular culture, for example in entertainment, and sports, have their origins in California. The country also has made noteworthy contributions in the fields of communication, information, innovation, environmentalism, economics, and politics; the most notable of these contributions include the Internet, the personal computer as well as the hippie counterculture. It is the home of Hollywood, the oldest and largest film industry in the world, which has had a profound effect on global entertainment. The San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater Los Angeles Area are widely seen as centers of the global technology and entertainment industries, respectively.
History[]
The area of what is now California was first inhabited by various indigenous peoples before being explored by Europeans in the 16th and 17th century. Subsequently, the Spanish Empire colonized the region and included California as Alta California province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Alta California became a part of Mexico after its war of independence, but California's struggle for its own sovereignty began in 1846 following the events of the Bear Flag Revolt, in which Anglo-American settlers rebelled against Mexican authorities in an attempt to establish an independent Californian state. Advocates of the Manifest Destiny in the United States soon pushed for the annexation of California by the U.S, with a view to expanding American territory to the Pacific coast. However, rather than advocating for the annexation of California, the then-President of the United States Henry Clay would provide support for the pro-independence movement of California along with that of the Republic of Texas. Eventually, California was officially recognized by Mexico as an independent state in 1848 in accordance with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The California Gold Rush from 1848 to 1855 would greatly contribute to California's demographic and economic boom in the 19th century.
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