California's infrastructure was established in the early 20th century through ambitious public works projects like dams, aqueducts and reservoirs. These projects helped power the growth of the mega-state and allowed California to support a booming population. Major projects included the Boulder Dam constructed in the 1930s during the Great Depression. California also saw significant population growth during World War 2, with the population increasing over 50% between 1940-1950, partly due to over a million migrants between 1945-1947. Disneyland helped establish a sense of place and theme for Southern California as it developed rapidly in this time period.

1. CALIFORNIA
BY: KEVIN STARR
Set 1 - Chapters 7 – 9
Power Point Slides
By Amanda Garibay
History141
Time Period from 1920-1963
31644

2. Ch. 7
Great Expectations: Creating the Infrastructure of a Mega-State
The mega-state began with water, the sine qua non of any civilization. For California to
become inhabitable and productive in its entirety would require a statewide water
system of heroic magnitude. In 1878 the Drainage Act was passed. From then on
William Hammond Hall was responsible for all of the studies that laid out a
comprehensive program for the development of California through water projects.

3. Great Expectations
The first forty years of statehood saw
California organize its political and social
economical structures and lay the foundations
of its built environment.
The second forty years as a state-(twentieth
century), the public works infrastructure of
California was established. Some activity
beginning in the 1890’s
The dams, aqueducts, reservoirs, power plants,
industrial sites, bridges, roadways ,public
buildings, and stadiums created during this
second phase served the growing population
of the state. They also foretold and
empowered the mega-state to come

4. Great Expectations
1920: Legislature expands the scope of anti-Japanese legislation. The California

Institute of Technology is named. Donald Douglas opens an aviation company in
Santa Monica.
1924: Immigration Act prohibits Japanese from emigrating to the Untied States.

Los Angeles Basin is producing 230 Million barrels of crude oil and 300 million cubic feet
of natural gas.
1927: T. Claude Ryan builds Spirit of St. Louis in San Diego. Mexican

field workers organize the Mutual Aid Society and submit demands to growers.
1928: Phillo T. Farnsworth makes the first television transmission from San Francisco

laboratory.
1929: Western Airlines announces service to New York via Kansas City. The jazz singer

introduces sound in film.

5. Ch. 8
Making It Happen: Labor Through the Great Depression and Beyond
The Great Depression of the 1930’s witnessed the continuing creation of a
statewide infrastructure as the state and federal governments sponsored
ambitious programs of public works that completed California. The resulting
social strife was compounded by the structural instability of the agricultural
workforce; a militant labor movement in the San Francisco Bay Area; A
labor-resistant oligarchy, especially in Southern California and the working
people.

6. Making It Happen
The agriculture
workers of
California had
by their stooped
and
backbreaking
labor played a
crucial role in
bringing
California into
existence and
into prominence.
They had a right
to a decent and
dignified life in
the state they
had helped to
create, to sustain,
and to enrich.

7. Making It Happen
Thanks to the
sponsorship of
President
Herbert Hoover,
the monumental
Boulder Dam was
constructed
between 1931
and 1935 on the
Colorado River
at the Nevada-
Arizona border.
This was the most
formidable dam
up to that time in
human history.

8. War And Peace: Garrison State and Suburban Growth
Act of war governed by the military. California remains
1846-1850
closely connected to the military through the rest of the nineteenth
century.
1854 The navy maintained an important ship repair facility on Mare
Island in San Francisco Bay.
Starting in 1891 the fourth Cavalry had responsibility for patrolling the
Yosemite Valley, resulting in California's need for military to increase.
1898 The Spanish-American War formally established the United
States as an Asia-Pacific power.
The point of these dates being brought up are to inform of the past that soon later on resulted
with the wars and peace of the second world war on September 1, 1939

9. War and Peace
The attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of
December 7, 1941took all the force from the
America First movement, already reeling form the
anti-Semitic direction it had taken in certain
speeches by former Californian Charles
Lindbergh.
This California-Japanese war, as Carey
McWilliams described it, was part of a larger
“Yellow Peril” movement that brought with it a
virulent “White California” crusade led by former
San Francisco mayor James Duval Phelan.

10. Between 1940 and 1950 the state population grew from
6.9 million to 10.6 million, a gain of 53 percent. Between
July 1945 to July 1947, more than a million people
migrated to California, which created a housing shortage
of monumental proportions.

11. War and Peace
Such massive development demanded anchorage
in time, place, and theme. Disneyland helped to do
this. IN the rise of Southern California, hotels,
resorts, and expositions played a founding role.