Critical Thinking on California History
Introduction
California has been populated for thousands of years. There were diversified tribes of Native American living there when European arrived. These tribes together with Maidu, Pomo, Mohave, Chumash, and Yuma spoke plenty of languages but separated by geographical characteristics such as desserts and mountain ranges. They were recognized as peaceful people with varied cultures who gathered nuts, fished and hunted for food (Moyle, 1976, p. 111). In this critical essay, we will concisely but critically evaluate California history in terms of social behaviors, institutions, and oppressive systems.
Body
Oppression system is documented as institutional and systemic exploitation of authority which constructed around the philosophy of inferiority of some groups and inferiority of others. This system enables the authoritarian to have complete control over choices and natural resources of the inferior group which obstructs them from practicing their freedom of choice. Mid to the late 19th-century era of California history is familiar as the “California Genocide” where local, state and federal government institution actions demolish the indigenous California population. The California population dropped by 50,000 under Spanish rule 1769 to 1834. The indigenous population further reduced to 150,000 when Mexico got independence from Spanish rule. This population remained just 30,000 in 1870 under the US dominance. During the 1850s to 1870s, almost 15,000 Native Americans killed by European American in California (Madley, 2016). There is a plethora of literature available which conclude that the misuse of the Californian institutions was the core cause of dispossession of the Native Americans. The Pre European to mid-1900s California history revolves around significant gender, class and race discrimination. No matter who ruled California, the superior people always propagated dominations to the inferior people (Fenelon & Trafzer, 2014, p. 4). The oppression of any type, either racial or classism oppression, has been an important source of turmoil among all civilizations. These historical events provide us intuitions that every country or tribe have their own distinctive culture and characteristics that should be adopted or at least respected by everyone to live peacefully in the modern world of nuclear-equipped.
Conclusions
In this research essay, after keen evaluation of the bulk of historical literature, we shed light on the selected era of Pre European to mid-1900s. This essay provides an insight into how Native Americans suffered during different ruling regime in the understudy time period. These historical patterns can be observed in modern America too but now all kinds of these harassments advance resistant behavior among Americans to stand for their human rights.
Work Cited
Fenelon, J. V., & Trafzer, C. E. (2014). From colonialism to denial of California genocide to misrepresentations: Special issue on indigenous struggles in the Americas. American Behavioral Scientist, 58(1), 3-29.
Madley, B. (2016). An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873. Yale University Press.
Moyle, P. B. (1976). Fish introductions in California: history and impact on native fishes. Biological Conservation, 9(2), 101-118.
