"Southern" California

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that even the acquisition of Alta California from the Spaniards changed little the agrarian social and economic structure of "Southern" California; but the discovery of gold in "Northern" California brought new settlers, creating large cities, altering the agrarian way of life of the people and separating the northern culture from that of "Southern" California. The author points out the perpetually controversial importance of water as determined by two conflicting legal doctrines, the doctrine of riparian rights, signifying that the owners of land not contiguous to a stream had no rights to the water, and the second the doctrine of "prior appropriation", giving the first user of water the unrestrained right to divert it from the stream and to sell this right to others. The paper relates that, though growth in "Southern" California started slowly, it was enhanced by various land booms over the rest of the 19th century and into the 20th century and set the stage for rapid growth in industry and commerce, including the film industry.

From the Paper:

"The prevailing economic form was a system of land tenure, from which the ranchos evolved. This system was based on an ancient principle of Spanish law, which saw the king as owner in fee simple of all the colonial possessions in the New World. This was the Latin encomienda system. The settlement of the region was conducted by use of presidios, missions and pueblos, each founded on a land grant from the crown."

More papers on "Southern" California:

• Analytical Essay # 139603 : "Water and Southern California Growth"
• Comparison Essay # 55610 : "Northern and Southern California"
• Essay # 90352 : "Housing in Southern California Today "

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