In 1846, as the Mexican-American War was starting, some Americans in California hoped to create a California Republic. These men flew a "Bear flag" that had a golden bear with a star on it. This Republic ended suddenly, however, when Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into San Francisco Bay. He said that California was now part of the United States. After the war with Mexico ended, California was split between the two countries. The Mexican portion became the Mexican states of Baja California Norte (north) and Baja California Sur (south). ("Baja" means "lower" in Spanish.) The western part of the part given to the United States became today's state of California.
In 1848, there were about 4,000 Spanish-speaking people in today's California on the American side. (Today the state has a total of nearly 40,000,000 people.) In 1849, gold was suddenly found and the number of people went up very fast as the Gold Rush took hold. Slavery also spread there as people hoping to find gold brought black slaves and either forced them to work in gold mines or hired them out for other work. In 1850, California became a state in the Union (the United States).
During the American Civil War (1861-1865), many people in California, especially in the southern part of California, thought the South was right and slavery should be protected. Some people in Southern California even wanted Southern California to leave the rest of the state and join the Confederate States of America. However, this did not happen. California joined the war to and helped the North (the Union) and sent many troops east to fight the Confederacy.
At first, travel between the far west and the east coast of the United States was dangerous and took a lot of time. Going by land was very difficult, because there were no roads and no trains, and many Native Americans were attacking American people heading West in wagons. The only other way was to travel by boat around the Cape Horn, at the southern end of South America. This took months, since the trip was thousands of miles long and the Panama Canal had not yet been built either. But in 1869, the connection got better quickly, because the first railroad across the continent was finished. Meanwhile, more people in California were learning that the land there was very good to grow fruit and other crops. Oranges were grown in many parts of California. This was the beginning of the huge farming business that California has today.
The economy of the State of California is the largest in the United States. It has a gross state product (GSP) of US$3.2 trillion as of 2019. It has many sectors. The most dominant are finance, business services, government and manufacturing. If California were a sovereign nation, according to 2019 statistics, it would rank as the world's fifth largest economy, lying between Germany and India. Over 10% of the Fortune 1000 companies were based in California in 2018.
In 1900, there were only a million people in California and 105,000 in Los Angeles. Today, California has more people than any other U.S. state. Starting in 1965, the variety of people became much greater as many different people from around the world came to the United States and often decided to live in California. California is thought to be a very liberal state, but there are still a lot of people who are Republicans and view Ronald Reagan as a hero. Technology is very advanced and many new cultural trends begin there. Engineering and computers play a big part in the state's life. For over a hundred years, film has been one of the most important businesses in California. By the 1950s, television had also become an important business in California.
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication to distribute information. It is always biased. The information is designed to make people feel a certain way or to believe a certain thing. The information is often political.
It is hard to tell whether the information is true or false. Very often, the information is confusing and unfair. Propaganda does tend to make disputes last longer, and be more difficult to resolve. It can take the form of posters, TV advertisements, and radio announcements.
The word 'propaganda' comes from Latin. At first, it meant 'ideas to be spread around'. But in the First World War, it came to mean political ideas that are supposed to be misleading.
Propaganda is like advertising in some ways. For example, it uses the mass media to spread its ideas. But advertising is usually trying to sell something, whereas propaganda is about ideas. It is often political, and used by states or political parties, not private companies.
Propaganda is often used during wars. There it can be very useful. Sometimes it keeps the people of a country happy telling them that their country is fighting well and telling them how important it is that the enemy is defeated. Sometimes it tries to make people hate the enemy. The information could tell people that the enemy is evil or make them seem not human. Sometimes a government gives propaganda to the enemy telling them that the war is going badly for them and that they should stop fighting.
When a country is not at war, propaganda can still be used. The government may use propaganda to change what people think about a political situation. A group may try to change the way people act towards an issue.
Propaganda under some countries, like dictatorships, is used along with censorship. While propaganda tries to give people false ideas, censorship forces the ones who disagree with propaganda to keep quiet. Then the propaganda can say everything, because nobody can question it in public.
Propaganda is also used to win people by tricking them. Some people say that cults use propaganda to get people to join them.
"Examples of propaganda:"
Propaganda has been used in every known civilisation. It was used by Rameses II on his monuments in Ancient Egypt; it was used by Ancient Greek orators; it was used by Julius Caesar, and all Roman Emperors. The word itself is formed from "propagate", meaning to multiply.
Propaganda was carried much further by the "Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide" of the Catholic Church. This committee, founded in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, had action branches in most European countries. These were the local branches of the Inquisition, which sought out heretics. With torture and the threat of death by burning at the stake, they forced heretics to recant (to publicly withdraw their previous beliefs). The objective was to remove all challenges to the supremacy of the Church in matters of belief. The 1578 handbook for inquisitors noted "Punishment does not take place primarily and for the correction and good of the person punished, but for the public good in order that others may become terrified and weaned away from the evils they would commit".
Topology
Topology is an area of Mathematics, which studies how spaces are organized and how they are structured in terms of position. It also studies how spaces are connected. It is divided into "algebraic topology", "differential topology" and "geometric topology".
Topology has been called rubber-sheet geometry. In a topology of two dimensions there is no difference between a circle and a square. A circle made out of a rubber band can be stretched into a square. There is a difference between a circle and a figure eight. A figure eight cannot be stretched into a circle without tearing.
The spaces studied in topology are called topological spaces. They vary from familiar manifolds to some very exotic constructions.