Territorial evolution of California
Well kiddo, do you know what California is?
California is a state in the United States where many people live and it has big cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
But did you know that California did not always look the way it does now? It changed a lot over time, just like how you grow and change every year.
A long, long time ago, California was not even a part of the United States. It was actually a part of Mexico! Mexico used to control a lot of land including California, but then America and Mexico had a war and America won. So California became a part of the United States in 1850.
But even after it became a state, California kept changing. It got bigger and smaller as people added new pieces of land or gave some away. Some of this was because of wars or treaties, but a lot of it was just people buying or selling land.
Now, California looks like a big rectangle on most maps, but if you look closely, you can see that it has some funny shapes and borders. That's because different people owned different parts of it at different times, and they didn't always agree on where one person's land ended and another person's began.
So that's the story of how California changed over time. Just like you, it started out small and grew bigger and changed a lot along the way.
California is a state in the United States where many people live and it has big cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
But did you know that California did not always look the way it does now? It changed a lot over time, just like how you grow and change every year.
A long, long time ago, California was not even a part of the United States. It was actually a part of Mexico! Mexico used to control a lot of land including California, but then America and Mexico had a war and America won. So California became a part of the United States in 1850.
But even after it became a state, California kept changing. It got bigger and smaller as people added new pieces of land or gave some away. Some of this was because of wars or treaties, but a lot of it was just people buying or selling land.
Now, California looks like a big rectangle on most maps, but if you look closely, you can see that it has some funny shapes and borders. That's because different people owned different parts of it at different times, and they didn't always agree on where one person's land ended and another person's began.
So that's the story of how California changed over time. Just like you, it started out small and grew bigger and changed a lot along the way.