ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

History of Los Angeles

Los Angeles is a big city in California, and it has a long history that started a long, long time ago. Before people even lived there, it was just a big piece of land with mountains and valleys and animals. Then, a long time ago, people called the Tongva lived there. They built their homes out of sticks and plants, and they hunted animals to eat.

A few hundred years later, in the 1500s, Spanish explorers came to California and they saw Los Angeles for the first time. They decided they wanted to take it over and make it part of their country. So they built a big fort called the San Gabriel Mission, where they could live and work and make the Tongva people start living like them.

Lots of people started moving to Los Angeles from different countries, like Mexico and China, and they all brought their own cultures and ways of doing things. They built big buildings and bridges and streets, and the city started to grow really fast. It became a really important place in California for movies, music, and art.

But, just like in other places, people started fighting over things, like land and jobs and money. In the 1960s and 70s, there were riots and protests because people weren't being treated fairly. But, people kept working together and trying to make things better, and now LA is a really cool place full of different people and languages and cultures.