Three Historical Actors of California - Assignment Example

Three Historical Actors of California Introduction The California is often referred to as “The Golden of the USA, due to its rapid developmentthat originated from the discovery of gold in the year 1848. Over the Pacific, the state has golden coastal sunsets and has a golden bridge; probably these are some of the reasons why it got named the “The Golden State” (Jakes, 17). The largest city in California is Los Angeles, with the highest demographic size in California. It joined the American Union in 1850 and had Jerry Brown as its current governor, with its local government segregated into fifty-eight counties. The most spoken language is English, with Roman Catholicism as its official state religion. It’s the largest economy in the USA, with a range of industries, and has the leading sports activities in the entire country (Cooke, 2005). In this five-page paper, I am going to talk about three historical actors who played significant roles in shaping California and the reasons behind their shaping positions. Industrialization Industrialization, as an actor, played significant roles in the shaping of California’s present environment, both natural and manmade, during the early 19th and 20th Century. The country went through a rapid growth through industrialization, increasing both its agricultural and industrial power. “Industrialization led to make the California economy to specialize in agriculture, oil, tourism and shipping among others, which later resulted in a rise in technological advancement” (Jakes, 17). The state improved in aerospace and electronics industry, leading to the emergence of film stars of the Hollywood, making the country attract attention from all over the world. Industrialization later resulted in high advancement levels of computers in the country, specifically in the Silicon Valley, thereby emerging as the global center for all the process of innovation and invention of computers. The discovery of oil in California, during the periods of 1848 was later enhanced by industrialization that brought in all the technological machinery that got required for the process of extracting the oil. Later on, the state got in a position to develop all the machinery needed for manufacturing the oil since it was purely crude oil. This can get attributed to the necessity of industrialization to meet the increasing oil demand by the growing population in this state. The crude oil got manufactured, and different petroleum products such as oil gas, paraffin, kerosene, diesel, among other bi-products got made (Isenberg, 11). Some of these products were used locally by the state’s citizens while others got imported overseas as well as the other states of USA. The increased oil production and supply led to the development of automobiles and other leading automobile manufacturing sector in the United States of America. Industrialization led to advancement infrastructure in the California State, including construction of dual-way transportation tarmac roads, railway stations, and railway and petroleum feeling stations for automobiles. Others included aircrafts, airstrips, and other international airports, both for the transportation of the local citizen and exports from the region. All this is evident in the different cities of California, having one of the best transport systems such as underground trains, electric trains, and steam engine trains. Industrialization as a factor, lead to the development of some projects in some of the states of California (Deverell and Hise, 23). Some of them include the water projects, electric projects, veterinary projects, human health projects among other community-based projects that get still conducted up to the present times. At present times, the state of California is a position to sustain itself, its population demands, without relying on any foreign support or from any donor country. Moreover, the state of California is one of the leading states of the world that gives donations among other project funding in some of the African and Asian countries. Salvation’s Army Help in 1906 Earthquake “In the year 1906, the United States of America experienced an earthquake that up to date is rated as the worst natural disasters in its history, as well the most significant earthquake of all times” (Cooke, 5). The shock covered an approximate area size of 375,000 square miles, with almost half of it covering the Pacific Ocean. It is the first major natural disaster in the world whose effects got recorded by use of photography. The earthquake destroyed a quarter of the San Francisco, destroying 28,000 buildings and 500 blocks in this region, as well as displacing 225,000 of the present population by then. During the first nineteen months, San Francisco undertook on construction that cost him ninety million US dollars. During the earthquake, there was a lot of fire, with big flames that burned for three days and three nights, with very high temperatures of up to 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. The reports from this event indicated that the temperatures arising from these fire flames got hotter than the earthquake itself. The Navy from the Salvation Army played a significant role during this catastrophic period, shaping California from the incident, which has made it get to where it is currently. They played a significant role of putting out the fire flames. They managed to do this by running a series of water lines as well as supplying the city’s water department with water for the purposes of running their steam engines. The San Francisco received the relief that got approximated to $9 million from different persons, some cities; states, other nations, and the federal government, and all this got facilitated by the Salvation Army. The army worked hand in hand with the Francisco Red Cross Relief Corporation in the process of providing the relief administration services (Cooke, 21). The Army established twenty-one refugee camps, where it offered some relief administrative services. These services ranged from; distribution of food, clothing and other needs that got relevance for the process of necessitating the quake victims. After the whole process got controlled, the army later rebuilt other better facilities for the purpose of providing shelter and other services. All the victims, slowly got back to their original life, participating in the economic growth and development, which later shaped California to get where it is currently. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power This is another organization that played a significant role in the shaping of California, and it has made it get at where it is currently. The group, by use of human resources, capital, and other manpower built and operated the Los Angeles Adequate system. The system got comprised of the Owns Valley Adequate and the water conveyance system, which got constructed by the department of water in the city’s administration. The construction of the Los Angeles Adequate got built during the period referred to as the Bureau of Los Angeles Adequate under supervision by Engineer William Mulholland. He who was the Chief Engineer of the Loa Angeles Department of Water and Power by then, therefore the success of this project was attributed to his work and those of his junior engineers and other officers. The source of water for this particular system of Los Angeles is the Owens River, located in the east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. During the initial stages of construction of this project, there arose some controversies concerning the diversion of water to Los Angeles. The water instead ended up in getting used for agricultural reasons; irrigation for the crops that got cultivated along the Owens Valley (Isenberg, 17). This has brought some reactions concerning to its usage and environmental sustainability and other effects its generating to Mono Lake among other surrounding ecosystems. Until the present time, there are some court battles, numerous public debates and legislation that have sequentially followed one another, for the same reasons of environmental threats the project poses to other regions. The downloaded image below is a picture of the part of the Los Angeles Adequate, Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/los-angeles-aqueduct Initially, during the early periods of 18th Century, experienced a lot of droughts, and the population, among another residence in this region, suffered due to the lack of water. The urge for water as a basic need is what led to the urgent call for finding a better and more consistent water supply that could get more reliable for the population’s needs. Currently, the California State is in a position to adequately meet the water demand of its bigger population in the region, both for industrial and domestic use. Transport system by waterways got enhanced in the area, and all this got attributed to the activity facilitated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. We can, therefore, account for the current status and shape of California, to this projected that was initiated and made to completion by the concerned organization. Conclusion Nearly all the nations, cities, towns and states of the world are occupying theyre current economic, political, social and another diplomatic status to the effects brought in by their respective historical actors. For the case of California, the three historical actors, namely; the industrialization, Christianity and the British Colonization played significant roles in shaping the California’s present environment. As discussed above, the environment in question encompasses the natural environment and the man-made environment. Therefore, in a nutshell, it is right to say that current economic, political, social, demographic and ideological states of California have direct traces from the above named historical actors. Therefore, Over the Pacific, the state has golden coastal sunsets and has a golden bridge; probably these are some of the justifications on why it got named the “The Golden State”. The country went through a rapid growth through industrialization, increasing both its agricultural and industrial power. Industrialization later resulted in high advancement levels of computers in the country, specifically in the Silicon Valley, thereby emerging as the global center for all the process of innovation and invention of computers. Some of these products were used locally by the state’s citizens while others got imported overseas as well as the other states of USA. Christianity as religion played one of the major roles towards the shaping of the state of California to the current shape and state that it is. Though majority got resistance in the beginning, they later got influenced and absorbed by the active waving wind of Christianity. Works Cited Cooke, Tim. 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Milwaukee: Gareth Stevens Pub., 2005. Print. Deverell, William Francis, and Greg Hise. Land Of Sunshine. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005. Print. Isenberg, Andrew C. Mining California. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005. Print. Read More