Chapter 3: Foundations of Human Activity

There were people living in California who spoke Hokan as early as 3000 B.C. Sometime later, although unknown exactly how, they were replaced by people who spoke a language called Tongva. Those people named the Los Angeles region Yaa.

When the Spaniards first arrived, there were already about 5,000 native people living around in the Los Angeles Basin.The Spaniards decided to colonize locations around California. Because the natives had already chosen the best sites to live on, the Spaniards had a lot of communication and trading going on when they were building their new settlements with the natives.The official date for the founding of Los Angeles being in September 4, 1781, with 44 settlers, known today as the Los Angeles Pobladores. As the city grew, it became a mix of Spaniards and Indians, many of the indians from a village named Yaanga.

California Indians

The 1846 Mexican American War led to the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo  in 1847, which officially ceded California to the U.S. The available land, with the American belief of manifest destiny, plus the California  gold rush one year later in 1848 led to the quick American settlements of Los Angeles. It was then  where new minorities emerged in Los Angeles, including Chinese, Italian, French and Russians.

http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/la/historic/crespi.html

Chapter 2:  Physical Features

Location: As stated before, Los Angeles lies in Southern California, and it is surrounded on all sides by other cities/towns/Suburbs such as Huntington Park, Beverly Hills, South Gate and Compton.

Climate: In the Koppen Climate Classification, Los Angeles falls under the Subtropical-Mediterranean area meaning in general that we get lots of sunshine in most of the months with about an average of a month of rain. Average temperature in downtown L.A. is around 66 degrees fahrenheit and because it is located pretty close to the pacific ocean, L.A is subject to maritime influence.

Mount Lukens

Physiography: Los Angeles covers a total of 502 Square miles, and the highest point of elevation lies in Mount Luken, which is a little north of the San Fernando. (About Two thirds of the San Fernando Valley's land area is part of L.A. City)
Other parts with hills

Black-necked Stilts in the L.A River

One very noticeable physical landmark in L.A. is the Los Angeles River. It runs for 48 miles and contains a wide variety of wildlife although no native species of the L.A. River survived the channelization of the river in 1938.   :(

Credit to:

"Down By the Los Angeles River: Friends of the Los Angeles Rivers Official Guide"

 By Joe Linton

Chapter 1: Introduction

Los Angeles is located in Southern California and is the second highest populous city in the United States. The city is very ethnically diverse, as it is a point of attraction for many immigrants of all places. L.A. is also ranked as the third richest city in the world, which most likely than not, has a lot of influence in its pull factors.