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Welcome to We Are California
Did you come from another country or another state to live in California? Did your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, or ancestors come from somewhere else to make a home in California? Were your Native Californian ancestors here before the first Europeans arrived hundreds of years ago? If so, then you are part of the great unfolding story of California: the most populous and the most diverse state in the nation.
Make YOUR story part of California's story.
Learn More
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Precontact–18th CenturyThe First Californians
California has always been home to one of the most diverse populations on Earth.
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1540s–1830sConquest & Colonization
The European drive to claim California began as early as 1542.
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1820s–1850sClash of Civilizations & the Discovery of Gold
By 1820 many new arrivals had come to California to seek their fortune, and in 1841 the first U.S. emigrants made their way from the Midwest by covered wagon.
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1850s–WWIFrom Western Outpost to American State
California became the 31st state of the union in September 1850.
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WWI–1940sThe Great Internal Migrations
From World War I through the end of the Second World War, Americans participated in many great internal migrations. Millions of those Americans chose California as their new home.
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1940s–1960sImmigration / Liberalization
Witnessing the horrors and devastation of the Holocaust, American leaders were compelled to pay greater attention to the question of human rights around the globe.
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1960s–PresentGlobal California
Vast changes in the world political and economic systems since the 1960s have reshaped the state of California in important ways.
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