California

California was home to more Indigenous nations than any other future U.S. state, including the Ohlone, Chumash, Yurok and Miwok, before Spanish missions and later Mexican rule reshaped the land from the late 1700s. The United States annexed California after the Mexican-American War, and the 1848 discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill triggered a rush that brought statehood in 1850, the 31st state, and permanently altered the region's demographics and economy.

Twentieth-century California became a global centre of invention and culture: Hollywood built the American film industry from the 1910s, wartime aerospace and shipbuilding boomed around Los Angeles and the Bay Area, and postwar growth in Silicon Valley made the state synonymous with technology innovation from semiconductors to the internet.

Today California is the most populous U.S. state and, on its own, one of the world's largest economies, anchored by technology, entertainment, agriculture and tourism. Its geography spans Pacific beaches, redwood forests, the Sierra Nevada and desert basins, giving visitors an unmatched range of landscapes within a single state.