The Japanese Journal of American Studies, No. 19 (2008)

Origins of Cities and Urbanization in
Nineteenth-Century Southern California:
Regional Changes in the Context of Three
Economic-Cultural Regions of the Americas

Noritaka YAGASAKI*

INTRODUCTION
The arrival of Columbus at the end of the fifteenth century marked the beginning of change in the Americas. The emergence of urban settlements was
one of many changes that occurred for Native Americans, as Europeans introduced urban traditions to colonize the New World. While urban settlements served an important function as the ceremonial and administrative
centers of Mesoamerica and the Andes in the pre-Columbian period, large
areas with sparse Native American populations, including the area that would
become the present-day United States, were occupied by those who engaged
in hunting, gathering, and farming; until the European colonization of North
America, there was no tradition of building urban settlements there.
Although the European urban tradition was introduced to the Americas,
the morphology, function, and landscape of urban settlements differed acrossregions, reflecting the origin of the colonists, their purpose and method ofcolonization, the type of colonial economy, and environmental factors. For
example, in the vast Spanish colonies, administrative centers and mining
towns prospered while the Spaniards assembled natives in rural towns for the
Copyright © 2008 Noritaka Yagasaki. All rights reserved. This work may be used,with this notice included, for noncommercial purposes. No copies of this work may
be distributed, electronically or otherwise, in whole or in part, without permission
from the author.
*Professor of Geography, Tokyo Gakugei University

197

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NORITAKA YAGASAKI

purpose of Christianizing them and using them as laborers. In the Portuguesecolony of Brazil, where the sugar economy prospered, the sugar plantation
was a socioeconomic unit that constituted rural regions with urban functions,and Atlantic port towns connected the colonial sugar economy and the European market. In the French colonies of North America, inland trading posts
along the waterways played an important role in fur trading, while major port
towns were central in the colonial period. In the British colonies, diverse urban settlements appeared, such as New England towns and entrepôts on the
Atlantic seaboard. The origin, function, landscape, and morphology of thesecolonial cities differed from contemporary American cities, and the city distribution was also altered over the course of time. Moreover, modern cities on
the eastern seaboard differed not only from the inland cities of the Great
Plains but also from the cities on the Pacific coast, reflecting the regional
development process.
Why and how did cities appear and what role have they played in the development of the United States? In fact, there may be many approaches tothese questions. What I intend to present in this paper is a geographic interpretation of the development of the Americas as a whole and the nature ofsouthern Californian cities. Geographers analyze the characteristics of regions on various scales, from the micro to global level, assuming that a region
consists of various human and physical factors. It is also important to emphasize that regions are interconnected so that people, ideas, and commodities
diffuse freely over the earth’s surface to shape regional characteristics; regions are dynamic entities where change occurs due to both internal and external forces.1 Although there are different approaches to analyzing the urban
geography of the United States,2 I attempt to interpret the origins of cities andurbanization in the broader context of the Americas since the beginning of
the post-Columbian period.
In this paper, my focus is the origin of cities and urbanization in southern
California in the nineteenth century. Rather than scrutinizing individual cities, I intend to elucidate the context of regional changes in order to verify thatsouthern Californian cities in the nineteenth century reflected the overall transition taking place in the economic-cultural structure in the Americas. In order to clarify the development of the Americas as a whole from the beginningof the Columbian Exchange, I will begin my argument by proposing three
economic-cultural regions: the northwestern European peasant economiccultural region, the plantation economic-cultural region, and the Iberian cattle
ranching economic-cultural region. Next, I will interpret the development of
the United States in the context of these three economic-cultural regions as a

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199

process in which one economic-cultural region encroaches on another andeventually expands across the entire territory. A discussion of the overall
transformation of southern California in the nineteenth century follows; theorigin of cities and urbanization are examined in order to substantiate myargument that the changing characteristics of cities reflected a transition fromone economic-cultural region to another.
THREE ECONOMIC-CULTURAL REGIONS IN THE AMERICAS
The process of development and formation of regional characteristics in
the Americas since the arrival of Columbus may be better explained by proposing three economic-cultural regions and examining their dynamics: thenorthwestern European peasant economic-cultural region, the plantation economic-cultural region, and the Iberian cattle ranching economic-cultural re-

Northwestern
EuropeanPeasant
EconomicCultural Region

Iberian Cattle
Ranching
EconomicCultural
RegionFigure 1.

Plantation
EconomicCultural
RegionThree Economic-cultural Regions in the Americas and their Origins

200

NORITAKA YAGASAKIgion.3 These three regions differed in terms of method of colonization, natureof colonial economy, social-cultural tradition, and population composition,
which directed subsequent development and defined the regional characteristics of the Americas. Many of the geographic features that we observe in thepresent-day Americas are rooted in these three economic-cultural regions,whose structures were originally transplanted from northwestern Europe andthe Iberian Peninsula. Figure 1 illustrates these regions and their economiccultural origins.
The northwestern European peasant economic-cultural region was formedon the Atlantic seaboard and inland, east of the Mississippi River in North
America. Immigrants from northwestern Europe introduced the basic concept of colonization in the New England and Middle Colonies, which werecharacterized by European farmers engaged in small-scale family farming
and mixed farming combining feed crops and livestock, with a tradition offorest clearing, construction of wooden houses including log cabins, and isolated farmsteads. Many of the basic characteristics of the United States wereshaped in this economic-cultural region.
The plantation economic-cultural region was established on the Atlantic
seaboard of North America, including Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia,
as well as the Caribbean and the Atlantic coast of South America, including
northeastern Brazil and São Paulo. This region was characterized by tropicaland sub-tropical climates, large-scale landholdings, class society, slavery anda cheap labor force, and tropical crops such as sugar cane, tobacco, cotton,
rice, and coffee, which were oriented to the European market. Cities prospered as the wealth garnered by the plantations accumulated and was consumed.
The Iberian cattle ranching tradition was transplanted from the southern
Iberian Peninsula as the Spaniards colonized South, Middle, and western
North America, and the Portuguese colonized eastern South America. Thiseconomic-cultural region was characterized by the following: grassland andsparse wood, large-scale landholdings, resident workers and cowboys, classsociety, and an extensive method of cattle ranching. The Iberian cattle ranching economic-cultural region occupied a vast territory, including the areasthat were highly populated by Native Americans. In the Caribbean and northeastern South America, the Iberian cattle ranching and plantation economiccultural regions overlapped, but the latter was more influential.
Following Columbus’ voyages to the Americas toward the end of the fifteenth century, these three economic-cultural regions were established, imposing various changes on the world inhabited by Native Americans. Differ-

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201

ent economies and societies were formed in these regions. The historical
geography of the Americas may be better explained by clarifying these economic-cultural regions and following the process of change up to the present.
In the territory of the present-day United States, all three economic-cultural regions were established by the early nineteenth century: northwestern
European peasant, plantation, and Iberian cattle ranching regions. The peasant tradition was transplanted from northwestern Europe to the northern
seaboard of the Atlantic Ocean. The Middle Colonies became the heart ofAmerican agriculture, where European mixed farming was enforced throughthe clearing of the original forest. Native corn, an excellent source of hog andcattle feed, enriched the mixed farming system. As settlers migrated westward, this American tradition of corn-based mixed farming was also diffused.
Plantations prospered in the southern coastal regions of the Atlantic seaboard: in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Tobacco,
rice, cotton, and indigo, which were all exported to Europe, were major
sources of wealth. Slavery provided the foundation of the labor force that wasused to manage the large-scale plantations. To the west, from the Great Plains

U.S.A

Northwestern European
N
Peasant EconomicP
Cultural Region
C

Plantation
Economic-Cultural
RegionIberian Cattle Ranching
Ib
Economic-Cultural
Ec
RegionR

Figure 2. Three Economic-cultural Regions and the Development of the United States

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NORITAKA YAGASAKI

to California, in the semi-arid environment, cattle ranching on the range became a significant economic activity. Cattle were also introduced from the
Iberian Peninsula as a means of animal husbandry.
The development of the United States may be interpreted as a process of
expansion of the northwestern European peasant economic-cultural region,
as is schematized in Figure 2. It expanded to the south, where the plantation
economic-cultural region was prevalent, and to the southwest, where the Iberian cattle ranching economic-cultural region dominated. It also expanded
northwestward, which was less developed, devoid of plantations or Iberiancattle ranching.
The federal government’s development policy in the nineteenth century
accelerated settlers’ westward movement by granting or selling quarter sections to facilitate family farming. Thus, after cowboys and settlers fought
fence wars during the 1880s, the Great Plains were transformed from a worldof Texas Longhorn cattle managed by cowboys into a farming frontier populated by settlers. This process signified the expansion of the economic-cultural characteristics of the northeastern United States, i.e., the northwestern
European peasant economic-cultural region. California also altered from an
Iberian cattle ranching economy to a small-scale family farming economy
during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The plantation south also began to change as the plantation-based economy and society was modified
under the influence of northeastern United States following the end of the
Civil War. Hence, the northwestern European peasant economic-cultural region spread across the national territory of the present-day United States.
The changes that occurred in each region during the nineteenth century
may be understood as a shift either from a plantation economic-cultural region to a northwestern European peasant economic-cultural region, or froman Iberian cattle ranching economic-cultural region to a northwestern European peasant economic-cultural region. In order to verify this thesis, carefully conducted case studies should be accumulated. In this paper, I will examine the case of southern California.
Figure 3 schematically illustrates the overall changes that developed insouthern California in the nineteenth century, as it transitioned from Iberian
California to American (northwestern European) California. The changes
must be analyzed in five areas: the land tenure system, type of agriculture,
type of cities and urbanization, composition of the population, and perceived
regional image. Large-scale landholdings, originally known as rancho,
granted during the Spanish-Mexican period, became subdivided into smallscale landholdings. This was accompanied by a change in farming methods,

ORIGINS OF CITIES AND URBANIZATION
ᵧᶀᶃᶐᶇᵿᶌᴾᵡᵿᶊᶇᶄᶍᶐᶌᶇᵿ

203

ᵟᶋᶃᶐᶇᶁᵿᶌᴾᵆᵬᶍᶐᶒᶆᶕᶃᶑᶒᶃᶐᶌᴾ
ᵣᶓᶐᶍᶎᶃᵿᶌᵇᴾᵡᵿᶊᶇᶄᶍᶐᶌᶇᵿ

Large-scale Landholdings
Small-scale Landholdings
Open-Range Cattle Ranching

Intensive Farming

Frontier Institutions

Colony System
Mexican City

Land BoomAmerican City

People with Spanish Surnames

Americans

Isolated Frontier/Marginal Land

Utopia'PXKTQPOGPVQH5QWVJGTP%CNKHQTPKC
1800

1810

Figure 3.
fornia

1820

1830

1840

1850

1860

1870

1880

1890

1900

Geographic Transformation from an Iberian California to an American Cali-from open-range cattle ranching to intensive farming. The composition of the
population also altered from those with Spanish surnames, mainly from
northern Mexico, to those with northwestern European origins. Althoughsouthern California was perceived by people in Mexico as an isolated frontier
and marginal land during the Spanish-Mexican period, Americans came toperceive this region as a health utopia and an ideal environment for invalids
and health seekers. The environment of southern California remained unchanged throughout the entire period. The intention of this paper is to present
a frame of reference to examine the economic-cultural structure of southern
California and to scrutinize one of the five areas: that type of changing cities
and urbanization.
DISTRIBUTION OF URBAN SETTLEMENTS IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURYSouthern California is one of the most urbanized parts of the United States,with diversified economic activities. The 2000 Census of Population lists
over 16 million people in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. Although their

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NORITAKA YAGASAKI

rapid population growth, accelerated urbanization, and industrial development all arose at the beginning of the twentieth century, the cities themselves
were founded during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Furthermore,
despite the fact that southern California is disadvantageously far from theurbanized Atlantic seaboard, it is blessed with an ideal climate for invalids
and health seekers. Migration to southern California during the latter half ofthe nineteenth century was substantially motivated by its healthy climate on
the basis of medical climatology and the image of an arcadia, despite the factthat the economy and infrastructure had not yet developed to accommodate
migrants from the eastern United States.4
The region covered in this study is coastal southern California, including
the present counties of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San
Bernardino, Riverside, and San Diego. It is intended to map the historic-geographic process of urbanization and to examine the driving force behind theestablishment of cities. Figure 4 shows the distribution of ninety urban settlements that existed in southern California in the late nineteenth century. It isbased on a map entitled “Southern California 1887,” included in Dumke’s

5CPVC%NCTC4KXGT

5CPVC#PC4KXGT.QU
#PIGNGU4KXGT

Cities that existed in
the late 1880s
Railroad in 1887
0

Figure 4.

100km

Distribution of Cities in Southern California in the Late Nineteenth Century

ORIGINS OF CITIES AND URBANIZATION205

The Boom of the Eighties in Southern California,5 to which some additions
were made using other maps and literature sources. All of these cities weresurveyed in order to determine when and how they were founded. Gudde’s
California Place Names: the Origin and Etymology of Current GeographicalNames was used as the main reference, supplemented by Los Angeles A to Z:
An Encyclopedia of the City and County and other publications on local history.6
Figures 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11 show the distribution of urban settlements during the Spanish-Mexican period and during the American period from the1850s through to the 1880s. The urbanization of southern California may be
divided into the following periods: (1) the Spanish-Mexican period, (2) the
emergence of American cities (1850s and 1860s), (3) the steady increase ofplanned cities (1870s to mid-1880s), and (4) the boom of the late 1880s andrapid urban development. Each period was characterized by different types ofurban settlements and different processes of urbanization. The following sections elucidate the origin of cities and urbanization on the basis of the distribution maps.
FRONTIER SETTLEMENTS DURING THE SPANISH-MEXICAN PERIOD
Some of the cities in southern California originated during the Spanish
colonial period. Native Americans in California did not build urban centers,
unlike in Mesoamerica and the Andes, where large administrative and ceremonial centers were founded, including Tenochtitlan and Cuzco. Therefore,
urban settlements began to appear with the advent of the Spaniards.
When the Spaniards colonized “Alta California,” or present-day California
located north of the Baja California Peninsula, frontier institutions such as
missions, presidios, and pueblos were established. Missions were religious
settlements established to house and evangelize Native Americans, while
presidios were military bases that provided security. Pueblos were plannedcolonies designed to settle civilians on the frontier. Among the twenty-one
missions built along the coast of California, nine were in southern California:
San Diego (established in 1769), San Luis (1798), San Juan Capistrano(1776), San Gabriel (1771), San Fernando Rey (1797), San Buenaventura(1782), Santa Barbara (1786), Santa Ynez (1804), and La Purisima (1787).
Southern California had two presidios, San Diego (1769) and Santa Barbara(1782), among the four presidios along the entire California coast, and thepueblo of Los Angeles (1781).7 These settlements, planned and founded inorder to manage and develop the northern frontier, had urban characteristics

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NORITAKA YAGASAKI

La PurisimaSanta Ynez
Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara

San Fernando Rey

San Buenaventura
Los Angeles

MissionSan Gabriel

San Juan Capistrano

Presidio

San Luis

PuebloSan Diego
0

Figure 5.

100km

San Diego

Frontier Institutions in Southern California during the Spanish Period

and provided the nuclei for later urban development (Figure 5).
Another important feature was the rancho, or land grant system. During
the Spanish colonial period, large stretches of pasture land called ranchos
were granted to veterans. During the Mexican period, when granting ranchos
was considered a method to populate and develop California, a settler who
petitioned with a diseño, a rough sketch or map of the property, was able toobtain a rancho land grant. When California became a part of the UnitedStates in 1848, the prime land on the coast had already been privatized.8
Thus, in terms of land tenure, California stood in marked contrast with otherwestern frontiers, where the Federal Government promoted small-scale family farming by granting or selling small properties. Individual ventures into
small-farm development were hindered due to the existence of large private
properties. From the viewpoint of urban development in the late nineteenth
century, ranchos provided large reserves of land to be purchased collectively
and divided for the construction of cities.

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207

EMERGENCE OF AMERICAN CITIES DURING THE 1850S AND 1860S
The population of southern California stood at less than 6,000 in 1850, andsubsequently increased to 25,000 by 1860. Although population increase wasslight during the 1860s, southern California’s population doubled between
1870 and 1880, and tripled between 1880 and 1890. Despite the fact that theeconomy of southern California largely depended on ranching and farming,
new cities were born to accommodate the steadily increasing population.
Figure 6 shows the distribution of cities during the 1850s. Los Angeles, thelargest urban settlement in California by the 1840s, had the plan of a Spanish
colonial town. When the pueblo was founded in 1781, land with good accessto the Los Angeles River was selected. Water was then delivered by way ofirrigation canals called zanjas. Furthermore, grid-pattern roads were laid forthe residential quarters. Figure 7 shows the land use of Los Angeles, which I
drew based on the “Plan de la Ciudad de Los Angeles” surveyed by Lieutenant E. O. C. Ord in August 1849. Los Angeles at the beginning of the Amer-

Cucamonga
San Bernardino
Wilmington

Anaheim

San Pedro

Urban settlement
established in the 1850s
Urban settlement in the
Spanish period0Figure 6.

100km

Urban Settlements in Southern California during the 1850s

Temecula
Fallbrock208

NORITAKA YAGASAKI
Residential Subdivisions

Administrative andCommercial District

Plaza

Agricultural Land

0

Figure 7.

1000m

Urban Land Use of Los Angeles in 1849

ican period consisted of the central plaza, the administrative and commercial
district adjoining the plaza, the residential subdivisions, and the agriculturalland mainly for corn, vineyards, and gardens. Although Los Angeles wasincorporated as city in April 1850, during the 1850s it retained the typicalmorphology of a new town founded in the New World under Spanish rule: theurban landscape, economy, and residents were also Spanish-Mexican.9 As
Los Angeles expanded during the following decades, the central business
district moved to the southwest along Main Street away from the central
plaza.
Besides the urban centers that existed during the Spanish-Mexican period,
seven new cities appeared: San Bernardino, Anaheim, Temecula, Fallbrook,
Wilmington, San Pedro, and Cucamonga (Figure 6).
The first American city was San Bernardino in the eastern suburbs of Los
Angeles. It was planned and settled by the Mormons in 1851 under theirscheme for the “State of Deseret.” Former rancho land was purchased by the
Mormon Church in 1851, where San Bernardino was built as a Mormon out-

ORIGINS OF CITIES AND URBANIZATION

209

post on the western frontier. However, due to frequent conflicts with nonMormons in various localities, the Mormon Church forsook its expansive
colonization scheme.10 Thus, the town of San Bernardino was only shortlived, having little impact on the subsequent development of cities; however,
San Bernardino represents an episode in the historical geography of the development of cities in southern California.
The late 1850s also saw a unique attempt at urban development by a groupof Germans to settle cooperatively in Anaheim. The Los Angeles Vineyard
Society, a joint stock company, was formed by Germans in San Francisco.
Through hired agents, land for development was purchased along the Santa
Ana River in Rancho San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana. The land was then divided into farming and housing lots, irrigation canals were constructed todeliver water from the Santa Ana River to the fields, and grape vines wereplanted; these preparatory arrangements led to the arrival of German settlers,
who established vineyards and wineries as part of a carefully planned cooperative project to promote viticulture. Although the German character of the

Residential Quarter

Commercial andIndustrial District
Agricultural Land

0

Figure 8.

Urban Land Use of Anaheim in the 1880s

1000m

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NORITAKA YAGASAKI

community soon faded, it provided a model for building communities insouthern California.11
Anaheim typified the urban morphology of American cities in southern
California. The land use of Anaheim in the late 1880s is shown in Figure 8,
which I prepared with reference to the map of Anaheim in 1887 published by
the Sanborn Map & Publishing Company and the land use map of 1888 thatappeared in Raup’s study on Anaheim.12 Commercial and industrial functions, including wineries, occupied the center of the community, which wasadjoined by the residential quarters. The agricultural land, mainly planted invines, surrounded the commercial-industrial and residential quarters. Unlike
Los Angeles, no plaza was built in Anaheim.
Seven cities were founded in southern California during the 1860s (Figure9). New cities were built by dividing former ranchos and constructing town
lots. John G. Downey, the governor of California from 1860 to 1862, divided
Rancho Santa Gertrudis and built a new town in 1865, which was later named
Downey. Rancho de la Nacion, near San Diego, was plotted as a new town in1868 and named National Ranch, later renamed National City. Santa Ana

Saticoy
Carpinteria

Chino
DowneySanta Ana

Urban settlement
established in the 1860s
Urban settlement
existedininthe
the1850s
1850s
extant
La Jolla
0

Figure 9.

100km

Urban Settlements in Southern California during the 1860s

National City

ORIGINS OF CITIES AND URBANIZATION211

was established in 1869 in Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana.13 Other cities constructed during the 1860s were La Jolla, Chino, Saticoy, and Carpinteria.
Southern California during the 1850s and 1860s retained the characteristics of the Spanish-Mexican period in terms of the economy, landscape, andmorphology of its cities.14 It differed sharply from northern California, where
the Gold Rush triggered economic development and population increase.
Among the twenty-four urban settlements existing in southern California at
the end of the 1860s, eleven originated during the Spanish-Mexican period as
missions, presidios, and pueblos. At the same time, new attempts to divide
rancho land and to build new urban centers were initiated for various purposes, which led to further urbanization in the following decades.
INCREASE OF CITIES IN THE 1870S AND 1880S
Urban settlements increased rapidly during the 1870s and 1880s in southern California. Figures 10 and 11 show the distribution of cities in the 1870s
and 1880s, respectively. Eighteen cities were built during the 1870s, while
thirty-four were added during the 1880s. This urbanization was promoted byorganized attempts to plan and build cities; some were cooperative settlement
projects, which may be termed the “colony system.”15 Those cities foundedby cooperative colony projects are italicized in Figures 10 and 11. The realestate boom of the late 1880s in Los Angeles and its vicinity fueled the urbanization process in southern California.16 The cities established during thereal estate boom (1886−88) are underlined in Figure 11. Some examples ofthe building of new cities may well represent the degree of urbanization during this period.
It was Riverside—located in the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles on the
Santa Ana River—that pioneered the cooperative project of colony development during the 1870s. As a leader was necessary in promoting colony projects, Judge John Wesley North played an important role, while the actual
building of the city was overseen by the Southern California Colony Association. North’s plan was to organize a cooperative to purchase land sufficient
to settle 10,000 people, and to distribute small plots to members at affordable
prices. The people of the state of Michigan participated in an “excursion,”
which was organized to accumulate capital for the colony project and to recruit settlers. A property of 8,000 acres in a former rancho was chosen andpurchased for colony development: Irrigation canals were built from theSanta Ana River. Town lots were laid, while the surrounding areas were divided into ten, twenty, and even larger-acreage farming plots. North intended

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NORITAKA YAGASAKI

Santa Maria
Las Alamos
Ojai

LompocSangusNewhall
Santa Paula
Pasadena

HuenemeGlendalePomonaColtonAlhambra
Santa Monica

Riverside
OrangeTustinUrban settlement
established in the 1870s

Westminster

Urban settlement
extant ininthe
existedthe1860s
1860s
Italicized : founded by colony project0

Figure 10.

100km

Urban Settlements in Southern California during the 1870s

to build a “colony of intelligent, industrious and enterprising people.”17 The
Washington navel orange was introduced to Riverside around 1873, and thecolony developed as a center of orange culture in California.18
With the advent of railroads into southern California, the establishment ofcolonies came to attract capitalists. John G. Downey, former governor of
California, and capitalists from San Francisco organized the Cucamonga
Homestead Association of Los Angeles County in 1872. Eight thousand
acres of Cucamonga rancho land was purchased and subsequently divided
into plots ranging from ten to eighty acres along with the development ofwater supply systems. The good climate and fertile farming land was advertised.19
Pasadena, another interesting example, was founded as a cooperative settlement established by people from the state of Indiana. Under the leadershipof Thomas B. Elliott and Daniel M. Berry, an attempt was made to establish
Indiana Colony in southern California in 1873. The California Colony of Indiana was organized in Indiana by Elliott, a medical doctor, and Berry, who

ORIGINS OF CITIES AND URBANIZATION

213

suffered from asthma. The San Gabriel Orange Grove Association was officially organized in California and purchased some 4,000 acres in Rancho San
Pasqual in 1873. Along Orange Grove Avenue, which runs north-south, land
was subdivided into lots. Moreover, a reservoir was constructed and underground water pipes were installed in 1874. Each stockholder was assigned a
two-acre town lot and a farm lot of less than 160 acres. When stockholders
obtained the land, water was readily available, allowing them to start constructing houses and initiate farming. Being located at the foot of the San
Gabriel Mountains, Pasadena developed as a resort town with notable hotels
such as the Sierra Madre, the Raymond, and the Green.20
The establishment of other cities was also brought about through cooperative colony projects. The Slover Mountain Colony Association built Colton
in 1873. The Los Angeles Immigration and Land Cooperative Association,organized by speculators in Los Angeles, purchased 5,600 acres of Rancho
San Jose and built Pomona. The Lompoc Valley Land Company purchased
33,000 acres of Lompoc Rancho, which was divided into forty-acre lots.

Barstow

Summerland

Fillmore

NaplesMontalvo

Burbank
TolucaOntario

Victorville

La Crescenta
Altadena
Monrovia Magnolia Villa
Redlands
Fullerton

Inglewood
RedondoUrban settlements
established in the 1880s

Whittier

Beaumont

SouthRiverside
Long Beach

Elsimore

Banning

PerrisWildomarMurrieta

AvalonOceanside

Urban settlements
extant ininthe
existedthe1870s
1870s
Italicized : founded by colony
project
0100km

Escondido

Encinitas
Pacific Beach
Ocean Beach

Underlined : established during
the real estate boom (1886-88)

Figure 11. Urban Settlements in Southern California during the 1880s

La Mesa
Chulavista

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NORITAKA YAGASAKI

Lompoc was modeled after the temperance colony in Vineland, New Jersey.21
Westminster, a colony founded by a Presbyterian minister, developed during
the 1870s.22 Other planned cities during the 1870s included the following:
Santa Maria in the 1870s, Hueneme in 1870, Santa Paula in 1872, and Ojai in
1874.
Even more cities were founded during the 1880s, as is shown in Figure 11.
Among the thirty-four cities added during the 1880s, only two were built bycooperative settlement projects. Long Beach was founded by William F.
Willmore as American Colony in 1882 by dividing the land in Rancho los
Cerritos. The Long Beach Land and Water Company purchased the property
and changed the name to Long Beach.23 The other was Whittier, founded in1887 by the Pickering Land and Water Company, and owned and operated by
Quakers from Indiana, Iowa, and Illinois.
In the 1880s, when southern California was linked to the eastern UnitedStates by way of the transcontinental railroad and its population increased
substantially, cities were planned and founded in even greater numbers. The
establishment of cities became a profitable business for both local capitalists
and real estate agents. The railroad played an important role in locating new
cities: Barstow and Victorville were founded in the inland Mojave Desert,
along the Santa Fe Railroad. Along the Southern Pacific Railroad to Yuma,
Arizona, Beaumont and Banning were established. Along the California
Southern Railroad to San Diego, Perris, Elsinore, Wildomar, Murrieta, andEscondido appeared. Along the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Santa
Clara River, Fillmore and Montalvo were founded.
Urbanization was accelerated in the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles in San
Gabriel Valley, where the Santa Fe Railroad and the Southern Pacific Railroad ran parallel to each other; Monrovia, Whittier, Magnolia Villa, and Ontario were founded there. George B. Chaffey obtained land in Cucamonga
Ranch and built Ontario, naming it after his native province in Canada.24
In addition, many cities appeared on the coast as well. A typical example
is Redondo, which was founded in 1881 in Rancho San Pedro. The Santa Fe
Railroad reached Redondo in 1888, and it developed as a seaside resort withhotels and a large indoor swimming pool.25 Other coastal cities included
Naples, Summerland, Oceanside, Pacific Beach, and Ocean Beach.
Looking at the year of establishment of these cities, there appears to havebeen a city-building rush in the late 1880s. Although two cities were foundedeach year from 1881 through to 1884 and three were founded in 1885, six
cities were founded in 1886, twelve in 1887, and four in 1888. This reflects
the real estate boom from 1886 to 1888, which reached its peak late in the

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215

summer of 1887. The boom was directly caused by the price war between theSouthern Pacific Railroad Company and the Santa Fe Railroad Company, andthe reduced fares accelerated the migration flow to southern California.
Among the thirty-four cities founded in the 1880s, half appeared during thisreal estate boom. Although the center of the boom was Los Angeles and its
outlying areas, it accelerated urbanization in the coastal areas as well as in theinland valleys (Figure 11).
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO URBANIZATION
The growth of cities in southern California reflected the population increase in the late nineteenth century. According to the United States Census,
the population of southern California was 5,513 in 1850, but it later increased
to 24,751 in 1860, 32,032 in 1870, 64,371 in 1880, 201,352 in 1890, and304,211 in 1900; the increase in the 1880s was phenomenal. This population
increase was brought about by the continuous flow of migrants from the eastern United States. Thus, it is necessary to analyze the “pull factors” accelerating transcontinental migration in the late nineteenth century.
The face of the United States changed radically during the nineteenth century as people migrated to the West. During the latter half of the nineteenth
century, in particular, the Pacific Coast became an important destination.
While forces that pushed people out to the West continuously functioned in
the East, where the opportunities for success were considered limited, theimagined economic success in the western frontier provided the pull factor.
In addition to the economic opportunities, climate was an important factor
for westward migration, especially to southern California. As modern medicine was still underdeveloped and environmental factors such as miasma
were considered major causes of illness, medical climatology experts designated the dry and temperate climate ideal for the sick; furthermore, among
the health arcadia in the West, southern California was considered particularly ideal for health seekers, including tuberculosis patients. Consideringthat the economy of southern California was predominantly agricultural, theideal climate was the most important pull factor in the late nineteenth century; in fact, many Easterners migrated to southern California not because of
the economic opportunities but for uneconomic reasons—the climate.26
This utopian image of southern California was magnified by writers suchas Charles Nordhoff. His publication of California: For Health, Pleasure,and Residence in 1873 provided those in the East with geographical information about California as well as practical information for moving and settling

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there.27 The completion of the transcontinental railroads further facilitatedmovement to southern California. Sunbelt migration, which attracted majorsocial attention in the 1970s, had already begun in the late nineteenth century.
The most practical method of settling in southern California was the colony system of cooperative settlement projects such as Anaheim, Riverside,and Pasadena, as described above. Southern California provided conditions
conducive to the development of planned cooperative settlements, and boththe settlers and the local host society reaped the benefits of the system.
Although the land in southern California was fertile and inexpensive andthe climate was ideal, it was geographically far from the populated East;
moreover, only limited information was available, and the expected costs for
migration and settlement were a burden to prospective settlers. Many people
in the East hesitated to migrate to the unknown world across the continent,
where they had no friends or family. Thus, cooperative colony projects wereable to reduce the cost as well as the risk involved in migration and settlement. Hence, community life was secured through cooperative settlements,
thereby overcoming the fear of isolated frontier living.
The dry climate was also a factor in promoting cooperative settlement
projects. Unlike the humid Midwest and East, irrigation was inevitable forfarming in southern California, while water also had to be supplied for urban
consumption. In order to secure a steady water supply, water rights had to beobtained, irrigation canals had to be constructed, and irrigation pipes had to
be installed in the fields. All of these, requiring substantial capital investment
and construction work, would have been impossible for an individual; cooperative colony settlement addressed all of these problems. In this sense, cooperative projects of colony settlement in southern California differed from theearlier utopian colonies in California—economic benefits rather than culturaland religious ties were important.28
Thus, the increasing numbers of migrants and the development of cities
brought economic benefit to the local host society. As southern California
had ample land to accommodate the new migrants, Californians establishedvarious organizations to promote urbanization. The California ImmigrantUnion, established in 1869 in San Francisco, promoted migration to California by providing information about available land for settlers. The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce was established in 1873 and played an importantrole in welcoming migrants. Local real estate agents also contributed to promoting colony projects by providing information on the available land insouthern California, as cooperative settlement projects were ideal for dispos-

ORIGINS OF CITIES AND URBANIZATION217

ing large tracts of land.
The railroad companies, in turn, also welcomed the settlers from the Eastand the rapid urban development. In addition to the fares collected from theincreasing number of passengers, the railroad companies owned large
stretches of land awarded to them through the Pacific Railroad Act, which
they were able to dispose of as the number of settlers increased.
CONCLUSION: FROM AN IBERIAN CALIFORNIA TO AN AMERICAN CALIFORNIAThe origins of cities and the urbanization process examined in the preceding discussion reflect the overall transformation of southern California in thenineteenth century from an Iberian California to an American California;
other changes were observed in the land tenure system, type of agriculture,composition of population, and perceived regional image, as is represented in
Figure 3. The overall transformation may be summarized as follows.
During the Spanish colonial period, the system of open-range cattle ranching on large-scale landholdings was introduced from the southern Iberian
Peninsula to the Caribbean. As the Spaniards colonized the Americas, cattle
ranching and large-scale landholdings also spread over the North and SouthAmerican continents. California constituted the northern frontier of the Iberian cattle ranching economic-cultural region.29 The Iberian tradition of cattle
ranching and large-scale landholdings was sustained up to the late nineteenth
century, while small-scale irrigation farming of fruits, vineyards, and vegetables began to change the face of southern California by subdividing the former rancho land. Small-scale family farming, which originated in northwestern Europe, was transplanted in the Middle Colony on the eastern seaboard
and prospered in the Midwest; this system of agriculture was introduced insouthern California and eventually replaced Iberian cattle ranching in the latenineteenth century.
During the Spanish colonial period, urban settlements were planned andestablished as frontier institutions to manage and exploit the marginal areas;
the tradition continued during the Mexican period. But as the American period began in the mid-nineteenth century, cities appeared spontaneously
without governmental planning by those from the eastern United States. The
establishment of cities, whether through private efforts or cooperative projects, became a profitable business during the late nineteenth century: the basic urban plan was transplanted from the East. Thus, in terms of urban morphology and landscape, the Iberian influence faded.
Furthermore, the perception of California as an unattractive marginal land

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also changed to that of a climatic arcadia. People in Mexico, in the culturaland economic center, had viewed California as an unproductive frontier during the Spanish and Mexican periods. On the other hand, for those who migrated from the eastern United States, characterized by humid and cold climatic conditions, California was perceived as a climatic utopia. Moreover,
the American tradition of perceiving the environment and creating a regional
image that developed on the eastern seaboard was obviously inherited fromthe traditions of northwestern Europe through Atlantic migration; while the
Spanish-Mexican manner of viewing nature came from the Iberian Peninsula.
The origins of cities and urbanization in southern California may well be
understood in this broader context of the Americas, where both Iberian tradition and northwestern European tradition were transplanted.
NOTES
1Noritaka Yagasaki, Masahiro Kagami, and Etsuzo Furuta eds., Chishigaku gairon [Introduction to Regional Geography] (Tokyo: Asakura Shoten, 2007).
2
Michael Pacinoe, Urban Geography: A Global Perspective (London: Routledge, 2001);
Risa Palm, The Geography of American Cities (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981).
3
I first presented this idea in a special lecture I was invited to give at the 2004 annual meeting of the Human Geographical Society of Japan. Noritaka Yagasaki, “Satou, ushi, marutagoya: nanboku Amerika chishi eno rekishi chirigakuteki apurochi,” [Sugar, Cattle, and the
Log Cabin: Historical Geographic Approach to the Regional Geography of the Americas],2004 Jinbun Chiri Gakkai Taikai Happyou Youshi [Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the
Human Geographical Society of Japan] (2004): 20−24.
4James E. Vance, Jr., “California and the Search for the Ideal,” Annals of the Association ofAmerican Geographers 62 (1972): 185−210; Noritaka Yagasaki, “19 Seiki ni okeru Kariforunia no Imeji to Chiikisei [The Image and Regionality of California in the Nineteenth Century],
Gakugeichiri 54 (1999): 2−20.
5Glenn S. Dumke, The Boom of the Eighties in Southern California (San Marino: Huntington Library, 1944).
6
Erwin G. Gudde, California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names 4d ed. revised and enlarged by William Bright (Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1998); Leonard Pitt and Dale Pitt, Los Angeles A to Z: An Encyclopedia of
the City and County (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
7David J. Weber, The Spanish Frontier in North America (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1992).
8
W. W. Robinson, Lands in California: The Story of Mission Lands, Ranchos, Squatters,
Mining Claims, Railroad Grants, Land Script, Homesteads (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1948).
9Antonio Rio-Bustamante and Pedro Castillo, An Illustrated History of Mexican Los Angeles, 1781−1985 (Los Angeles: University of California Chicano Studies Research Center
Publications, Monograph No. 12, 1986); Zelia Nuttall, “Royal Ordinances Concerning theLaying Out of New Towns,” Hispanic American Historical Review 5 (1922): 249−254.
10
D. W. Meinig, “The Mormon Culture Region: Strategies and Patterns of the Geography of

ORIGINS OF CITIES AND URBANIZATION

219

the American West, 1847−1964,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers55(2)(1965): 191−220; Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of
the Latter-day Saints, 1830−1900 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005).
11
Hallock F. Raup, “The German Colonization of Anaheim, California,” University of California Publications in Geography 6 (3) (1932): 123−146; Leo J. Friis, Campo Aleman: The
First Ten Years of Anaheim (Santa Ana: Friis-Pioneer Press, 1983).
12
Raup, op.cit., footnote 11.
13Charles D. Swanner, Santa Ana: A Narrative of Yesterday (Claremont: Saunders Press,
1953).
14
Robert G. Cleland, The Cattle on a Thousand Hills: Southern California, 1850-80 (SanMarion: Huntington Library, 1941).
15
Oscar O. Winther, “The Colony System of Southern California,” Agricultural History 27(2) (1953): 94−103.
16
Glen S. Dumke, “The Real Estate Boom of 1887 in Southern California,” Pacific Historical Review 11 (1942): 425−438; Glen S. Dumke, “Colony Promotion during the Southern
California Land Boom,” Huntington Library Quarterly 6 (1943): 238−249.
17Winther, op. cit., footnote 15.
18
Marlin Stonehouse, “The Michigan Excursion for the Founding of Riverside, California,”
Michigan History 45 (3) (1961): 193−209.
19
Winther, op. cit., footnote 15; Donald L. Clucas, Light over the Mountain: A History of theRancho Cucamonga Area, Revised Edition (Upland: California Family House Publishers,1979).
20
James H. Madison, “Taking the Country Barefooted: The Indiana Colony in Southern
California,” California History 69 (1990): 237−249; Lucie M. Lowery, Pasadena: Heritage toHigh Tech (Canoga Park: CCA Publications, 1993); Marlin Heckman, Pasadena in Vintage
Postcards (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2001); Thomas D. Carpenter, Pasadena: Resort
Hotels and Paradise (Pasadena: Castle Green Times, 1984).
21
Winther, op. cit., footnote 15.
22
Ivana F. Bollman, Westminster Colony, California, 1869−1879 (Santa Ana: Friis-Pioneer
Press, 1983).
23
Richard DeAtley, Long Beach: The Golden Shore, A History of the City and the Port
(Houston: Pioneer Publications, 1988).
24
Louis Gentilcore, “Ontario, California and the Agricultural Boom of the 1880s,” Agricultural History 34 (1960): 77−87.
25
Historical Commission of Redondo Beach, Redondo Beach 1880−1930 (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2005).
26
Kenneth Thompson, “Insalubrious California: Perception and Reality,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 59 (1969): 50−64; John E. Baur, “The Health Seekers and
Early Southern California Agriculture,” Pacific Historical Review 20 (1951): 347−363; Oscar
O. Winther, “The Use of Climate in Promoting Southern California,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 33 (1946): 411−424.
27Charles Nordhoff, California: For Health, Pleasure, and Residence (1873; repr. n.p., Ten
Speed Press, 1973).
28
Robert V. Hine, California’s Utopian Colonies (New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
1973); E. C. Berh, “Colonization Methods Past and Present,” California Countryman 8 (3)(1922): 3−4,18.
29
Terry G. Jordan, North American’s Cattle Ranching Frontier: Origins, Diffusion, and Differentiation (Albuqueque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993).