The vibrant city of Los Angeles, California, stands today as the second-largest metropolitan area in the United States, a sprawling hub of culture, industry, and innovation. However, the fascinating history of Los Angeles reveals a relatively young city, officially founded in the mid-18th century, with roots stretching back to ancient indigenous communities and evolving through periods of Spanish, Mexican, and American influence.
Early Inhabitants and European Arrival
Long before European settlement, the area now known as Los Angeles was home to several thriving Indigenous tribes, including the Tongva, Cahuilla, Kumeyaay, and Chumash. These skilled peoples were renowned for their fine boatbuilding and established intricate societies across the region.
The first European explorer credited with reaching the area was Juan Cabrillo in 1542. He made landfall at present-day San Pedro, where he was greeted by Tongvan men who paddled out to meet his ship. Cabrillo’s exploration was cut short, as he died later that year while wintering on Santa Catalina Island. For the next 227 years, no other European presence was recorded in the vicinity.
Spanish Colonial Foundations
The Spanish conquest of Mexico eventually extended into Alta California. In 1769, Gaspar de Portolá’s expedition traversed the region, paving the way for the establishment of religious missions. The Mission San Gabriel Archangel was founded in 1771 by Franciscans, becoming one of eight critical missions in Southern California.
Traditional accounts assert that on September 4, 1781, 44 “pobladores” (settlers) recruited from northern Mexico established the settlement. These early settlers were a diverse group; only two identified as Spaniards, with the majority being of African or Indigenous descent. Recent scholarship suggests the pobladores arrived separately over time, some as early as June, though September 4 remains the celebrated anniversary of the city’s founding. This small town received the grand name El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles de la Porciuncula, translating to “The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels.” It rapidly grew into a significant cattle ranching center along the Los Angeles River. The oldest surviving house in Los Angeles County, built in 1795, is now known as the Henry Gage Mansion in Bell Gardens, a testament to this early period.
Impact on Indigenous Populations
At the height of Spanish missionary activity, an estimated 5,000 Tongvan Indians lived in 31 known village sites. Like other California tribes, the Tongva were drawn into the mission system, where efforts were made to convert them to Roman Catholicism and integrate them into agricultural practices. While their traditional hunter-gatherer culture was significantly disrupted, the mission system utilized Native American labor on its farms and ranches. When the missions were eventually secularized, these communities were often left with greatly reduced resources. The Tongva tribe continues to exist today, with several thousand members, though without established reservations.
Mexican Rule and American Conquest
Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821 brought few immediate changes to daily life in Los Angeles, beyond the secularization of the missions. This process led to the distribution of vast mission properties as land grants to powerful rancheros, fundamentally reshaping land ownership.
A minor gold rush erupted in 1842 after a shepherd discovered gold in Placerita Canyon, just outside the current city limits. Mining continued to be an important industry for decades, employing both hard rock and placer techniques. Even today, hopeful prospectors occasionally pan for gold in the San Gabriel River, and the local mountains are still dotted with abandoned mines.
The doctrine of Manifest Destiny dramatically impacted California during the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). In June 1846, the Bear Flag Revolt saw a small group of Americans declare California’s independence from Mexico. U.S. troops quickly secured presidios at Monterey and San Francisco, believing the conquest complete.
However, Mexican forces in Southern California initially resisted the American advance. Los Angeles eventually fell to Lieutenant Colonel John C. Fremont. The conflict formally ended in California with the signing of the Treaty of Capitulation at Cahuenga Pass on January 13, 1847, officially transferring the territory to the United States.
American Rule and Early Turmoil
Los Angeles was incorporated as a city on April 4, 1850. The transition to American rule proved challenging for many existing landowners. Compelled to validate their land grants in U.S. courts, many legitimate Mexican landowners faced bankruptcy and lost their properties, a significant blow to their established way of life.
During this period, some Mexican residents resisted the new Anglo authority through acts of social banditry. Figures like Juan Flores, who threatened Southern California with a full-scale revolt in 1856, became legendary. Flores was publicly hanged in Los Angeles before a crowd of 3,000. Another prominent bandit, Tiburcio Vasquez, revered among the Mexican population for his daring exploits against the Anglos, was captured near present-day West Hollywood. He was found guilty of murder and hanged in San Jose in 1875.
Tragically, the thriving Chinatown district was the site of terrible violence in 1871. A Tong war between rival gangs led to the accidental death of a white man, enraging the white populace. A mob of 500 men descended upon Chinatown, killing 19 men and boys. Only one of the victims had been involved in the initial killing; even a white man who tried to protect the Chinese community was murdered. Homes and businesses were looted. Although a grand jury investigation followed, only one man served prison time, highlighting the racial tensions of the era.
The Late 19th and Early 20th Century Boom
In the 1870s, Los Angeles was still a small village of only 5,000 residents. By 1900, its population had exploded to over 100,000. Visionary and ambitious men actively promoted the city’s development, aiming to transform it into a major urban center that could rival San Francisco, with its established port, railway terminal, banks, and factories.
A critical undertaking was the development of a deep-water port. In 1871, Phineas Banning excavated a channel out of the mudflats of San Pedro Bay, connecting it to Wilmington. Banning had already laid rail lines to link the port to the city. Later, Harrison Gray Otis, the influential founder and owner of the Los Angeles Times, along with other business magnates, championed the expansion of San Pedro into a federal harbor, leveraging federal funds. This effort put them in direct conflict with Collis P. Huntington, president of the powerful Southern Pacific Railroad Company and one of California’s notorious “Big Four” robber barons.
The Southern Pacific rail line reached Los Angeles in 1876, with Huntington favoring a port at Santa Monica, where the impressive Long Wharf was constructed. However, the San Pedro advocates ultimately prevailed, though it required Banning to turn his railroad over to the Southern Pacific. Work on the San Pedro breakwater began in 1899 and was completed in 1910. Otis Chandler and his allies secured a change in state law in 1909, allowing Los Angeles to annex San Pedro and Wilmington, using a long, narrow land corridor to connect them to the main city.
Another pivotal discovery occurred in 1892 when Edward L. Doheny struck oil near the site of the present-day Dodger Stadium. This transformed Los Angeles into a major oil production center in the early 20th century, with the region producing a quarter of the world’s total supply by 1923. It remains a significant producer today.
The Water Wars and Urban Expansion
Sustained growth demanded new, reliable sources of water. The city’s original water supply, the intermittent Los Angeles River, and minimal groundwater replenishment were insufficient for its burgeoning population. Concerns about water supply were strategically leveraged to garner support for a monumental engineering and legal endeavor: to bring more water to the city and facilitate further development.
Far to the northeast, in Inyo County, lay the Owens Valley, a slender desert region boasting the Owens River—a permanent stream fed by Sierra Nevada snowmelt, which collected in the saline Owens Lake. Between 1899 and 1903, Harrison Gray Otis and his son-in-law, Harry Chandler, led clandestine efforts to purchase inexpensive land in the northern San Fernando Valley, on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Concurrently, they enlisted William Mulholland, Chief of the Los Angeles Water Department, and J.B. Lippincott of the United States Reclamation Service. Lippincott, while secretly on the City of Los Angeles’s payroll, conducted water surveys in the Owens Valley for the Reclamation Service. He skillfully persuaded Owens Valley farmers to pool their interests and relinquish water rights to 200,000 acres of land to Fred Eden, Lippincott’s agent and a former mayor of Los Angeles. Eden then resigned from the Reclamation Service, joined the Los Angeles Water Department as Mulholland’s assistant, and handed over crucial Reclamation Service maps, field surveys, and stream measurements to the city. These studies formed the basis for designing what would become the longest aqueduct in the world.
By July 1905, Chandler’s L.A. Times began to warn Los Angeles voters of an impending drought, urging them to approve bonds for the aqueduct’s construction. Artificial drought conditions were reportedly created, with water diverted into sewers to decrease reservoir levels and residents forbidden from watering their lawns. On election day, the populace approved $22.5 million in bonds for the Owens River Aqueduct. With this funding and a special Act of Congress allowing cities to own property beyond their boundaries, Los Angeles acquired the Owens Valley land. On November 5, 1913, at the aqueduct’s opening, Mulholland famously delivered a five-word speech: “There it is. Take it.”
The City of Los Angeles, which had largely remained within its original 28 square-mile land grant until the 1890s, began a rapid expansion. Early annexations included Highland Park and Garvanza. In 1906, the approval of the Port of Los Angeles and a change in state law enabled the city to annex the “Shoestring” – a narrow strip of land extending south towards the port. San Pedro and Wilmington were added in 1909, and the city of Hollywood was annexed in 1910, bringing the city’s total area to 90 square miles. The abundant water supplied by the aqueduct—four times what the city initially required—became a powerful incentive for neighboring communities. The city, burdened with a large bond and excess water, effectively locked in customers through annexation, refusing to supply water to communities that resisted. Otis Chandler strategically used his Los Angeles Times to promote development near the aqueduct’s outlet in the San Fernando Valley. By a referendum in 1915, 170 square miles of the San Fernando Valley and the Palms district were added to the city, nearly tripling its area, primarily towards the northwest. Dozens of further annexations followed over the next decades.
The Birth of Hollywood and Automobile Culture
Around this same time, motion picture production companies began migrating from New York and New Jersey to sunny California. The region’s consistently good weather, offering abundant natural sunlight essential for film exposure before powerful artificial lights were available, was a major draw. The diverse open spaces and natural scenery also provided ideal backdrops for filmmaking.
Another significant factor was the geographical distance from Thomas Edison, who held nearly all the patents relevant to motion picture production. In the East, Edison and his agents frequently sued independent film producers. On the West Coast, filmmakers could operate with greater autonomy. If Edison’s agents did venture to California, news often preceded them, allowing filmmakers to escape to nearby Mexico. This environment fostered the rapid establishment of dozens of film studios, particularly in the Nevada district (now often referred to as Hollywood).
The growth of Los Angeles continued its outward spread, particularly with the extensive development of the San Fernando Valley and the construction of massive freeways launched in the 1940s. As the local streetcar system eventually declined, Los Angeles evolved into a city designed around the automobile, a transformation that brought with it unique social, health, and political challenges inherent in such dependence. Amid this road-building boom, the iconic Route 66 was commissioned in 1926, its path shifting numerous times over the decades as Los Angeles relentlessly expanded.
Mid-20th Century and Modern Los Angeles
During World War II, Los Angeles became a vital center for producing aircraft, war supplies, and munitions. This industrial demand drew thousands of African Americans and white Southerners to the area, seeking factory jobs and new opportunities.
By 1950, Los Angeles had transformed into an industrial and financial giant, fueled by wartime production and a massive influx of migrants. The city assembled more cars than any city outside Detroit, manufactured more tires than any city except Akron, produced more furniture than Grand Rapids, and stitched more clothes than any city except New York. Crucially, it had also become the national capital for motion pictures, radio programs, and, soon after, television shows. Construction boomed as tract houses, largely financed by the Federal Housing Administration, sprang up in ever-expanding suburban communities.
Los Angeles’s famed urban sprawl became a defining characteristic, with growth accelerating throughout the 20th century. The San Fernando Valley, often dubbed “America’s Suburb,” became a prime target for developers, and the city continued to grow beyond its downtown core, extending towards the ocean and eastward. Today, the metropolitan area encompasses a vast 469 square miles and spans five counties, a testament to its dynamic and complex history.
The Enduring Legacy of Route 66
Route 66, the historic “Main Street of America,” played a significant role in connecting the rest of the nation to the burgeoning opportunities and allure of Los Angeles. As the city expanded, so too did the routes and alignments of this legendary highway, symbolizing the relentless westward migration and the spirit of American enterprise that defined much of Los Angeles’s growth.
Conclusion
From its origins as an ancestral homeland for indigenous tribes to its founding as a Spanish pueblo, and through its evolution into a Mexican territory and ultimately an American metropolis, the history of Los Angeles is a remarkable narrative of relentless growth, innovation, and sometimes turbulent change. Shaped by the ambition of its leaders, the ingenuity of its engineers, the allure of its industries, and the diverse peoples who have called it home, Los Angeles stands as a testament to human resilience and the pursuit of a dream. Its journey from a small settlement to a global powerhouse is a story continually being written, reflective of its unique environmental, economic, and social forces.
