-famous for film industry 

- every person heard about Hollywood or Silicon Valley

But first:

- Europeans first arrived in California in 1542 (there were a number of Native American tribes)

- had different cultures and languages 

- were mostly peaceful people 

- they hunted, fished and gathered nuts and fruit 

- another 200 years later the Spanish decided to build missions in 1769

- missions were build in effort to convert the Native Americans to Catholicism 

- two of those missions would become the famous cities San Diego and Los Angeles 

- Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, California became a province of Mexico

- population kept growing in the following years because many settlers were moving to California from the east

On September 9. 1850, California was admitted into the Union as the 31st State

- today California is the state with the largest population of the United States 

- California‘s Capital is Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles are more famous

Is also a state of contrasts

- there are Mountains covered in snow, deserts with high temperatures or giant redwoods (tallest trees on earth) in the national parks