California is a state in the United States located in the Pacific region with 39.5 million population. The state is considered as the hottest and driest place in the United States. The largest city in California in Los Angeles while its capital is Sacramento. The region was first sighted by a Spanish navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542. While it became a territory of the United States in 1847 after the Mexican and American wars. Agricultural and manufacturings are the leading sectors of the state and rich natural resources such as timber, natural gas, and petroleum. This post on California History Trivia questions and answers can expand your knowledge about the history of California.
Table of Contents
California History Trivia
1. In which region of the USA the California state located?
Answer: Pacific region
2. Which state of the USA is most populous? And do you know the total population of that state?
Answer: The California state is the most populous among all, and the population is 39.5 million
3. Do you know the total area of California State in square miles?
Answer: 163,696 square miles
4. Is California a state of USA?
Answer: Yes
5. Do you know the name of the capital of California?
Answer: The capital of California is Sacramento
6. Which is the most populous city of California? What is the total population?
Answer: Los Angeles with 18.7 million population
7. Do you know the nickname of California?
Answer: The golden state
8. When did California became a state?
Answer: September, 9 1850
9. What percentage of California state covered by water?
Answer: 4.7% which means 7737 square miles covered by water
10. Do you know the highest elevation of California?
Answer: 14505 feet
11. Where is the lowest elevation of California located and what is the elevation value?
Answer: Bad water Basin with -279 feet
12. In which categories history of California is divided?
Answer: Native American Period, European Exploration Period, Spanish Colonial Period, Mexican Period and the United States Statehood.
13. Which place is considered as the hottest and driest place in the United States?
Answer: California
14. Which is the largest living tree in the world located in California?
Answer: General Sherman in Sequoia National Park
15. What is the size of the trunk of the tree?
Answer: Slightly greater than 102 feet.
16. What is the name of the state’s largest mountain?
Answer: The Sierra Nevadas
17. What was the estimated population of California when the Europeans came?
Answer: Around 300,000
18. Name the tribes in California?
Answer: Karok, Maidu, Mojave, Yokuts, Pomo, Modoc, Paiute and Cahuilleno.
19. Why did the Franciscans came to California?
Answer: To train them for the life in European Colonial society.
20. What are the most common nicknames of California?
Answer: The Golden State, The Land of Milk and Honey and The Grapes State.
California is also famous with the name of ‘The Golden State’ and ‘The Grapes State’. The area of the states is 163,694 square miles of which 7737 square miles (4.7%) are covered with water.
The famous bird of the state is the California quill while Gold trout is the most famous fish of the country.
California History Timeline
21. What are the percentage of Spanish speakers in California?
Answer: 28.8% population can speak Spanish
22. What is the time zone format of California?
Answer: UTC-08-00 (PST)
23. Do you know the USPS abbreviation for California?
Answer: The USPS abbreviation of California is CA
24. Do you remember the ISO 3166 code for California?
Answer: US-CA
25. What is the trade abbreviation of California?
Answer: Calif., Cal.
26. What is the official website address of the California government?
30. California’s economy is the world’s number one sub-national economy in the world. Do you know the worth?
Answer: $3.0 Trillion
31. What was discovered in 1848 at Sutter’s Mill?
Answer: Gold
32. When the California Republic was declared by American settlers?
Answer: On 10th June 1846
33. How and when the Republic ended within one month?
Answer: When the war between the USA and Mexico declared on 9th July 1846 and they joined the USA
34. Yerba Buena was the original name of which place?
Answer: San Francisco
35. What was the strongest factor in developing California?
Answer: The 21 missions by Serra and his successors.
36. In 1821 California was part of which country?
Answer: Mexico
37. After which war California became the part of the USA?
Answer: After Mexican-American war
38. The California gold rush started on which year?
Answer: In 1848
39. Fortress Ross was established by which country at the west coast of North America?
Answer: Russia
40. Mexican war of independence fought in 1821. From which country Mexico got independence?
Answer: From Spain
The explorer of California is Hernan Cortes, Francisco de Ulloa, Francis Duke, and many others. Hernan Cortes discovered the Baja California Peninsula while exploring northern western Mexico.
Francisco de Ulloa explores the west Coast and Sir Francisco Drake is famous for claiming California for England.
Explorers of California Quiz
41. In 1536 who discovered the Baja California Peninsula while exploring the northern western part of Mexico?
Answer: Hernan Cortes
42. The explorer of the west coast (current Mexico) Francisco de Ulloa belonged to which country?
Answer: He was from Spain
43. When did Hernan Cortes reach the Caribbean island from Spain?
Answer: In 1504
44. What is the size of ‘Baja California’?
Answer: It is 800 miles long and 30 to 145 miles wide.
45. On 3 May 1535, where Cortes entered with three ships?
Answer: The Bay of La Paz
46. Who and when California was claimed for England?
Answer: Sir Francis Drake in 1579
47. Who were the two most famous conquistadors?
Answer: Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizzaro
48. When the explorer Sir Francis Drake died?
Answer: 28 January 1596
49. For what the explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo known for?
Answer: For exploring the West Coast of North America on behalf of the Spanish Empire.
50. What was the nationality of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo?
Answer: Portuguese
51. Who was the first European in California?
Answer: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo
52. When did Sebastian Vizcaino explored California?
Answer: In 1602-03
53. Where and when Sebastian Vizcaino died?
Answer: In Mexico in 1629.
54. When and where the explorer Ewing Young was born?
Answer: In 1792 in Tennessee.
55. What was the profession of Young before this?
Answer: He was a trapper and trader in New Mexico.
56. What was the name of James Ohio Pattie’s father?
Answer: Sylvester
57. When did Pattie and a group of trappers moved towards California?
Answer: In 1828
58. In which book Pattie wrote his adventures in California?
Answer: The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie
59. Where the explorer Peter Skene Ogden was born?
Answer: In Quebec City, Canada in 1790.
60. The explorer James Pierson Beckwourth was son of who?
Answer: He was son of a Revolutionary War officer and slave owner.
Some more California History facts are provided in this post. The state Oregon is in the North of California while in the East there are the Nevada and Arizona states. On 10th June 1846, California was declared as Republic by the Americans however, the Mexican-American war ended the Republic.
California History Facts
61. What was the great movement led by the backers of California Sen. William M. Gwinn?
Answer: To divide California into two states: one slave and one free.
62. Where the Monterey Bay is located?
Answer: On the Coast of the United State of California
63. When the contact between Europeans and California started?
Answer: In the mid-1530s
64. What was the time period of seven years war during Spain colonization?
Answer: 1756-1763
65. What was created at San Jose in 1777?
Answer: An independent civil pueblo.
66. What is the unofficial name of Alta California?
Answer: Nueva California
67. When did Alta California became a territory of Mexico?
Answer: After the War of Mexican Independence in April 1822
68. Who was the first Spanish governor?
Answer: Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga
69. What was the time period of First Mexican governor?
Answer: 1822-1825
70. Who established the first Alta California mission?
Answer: The Franciscan friar Junipero Serra and Gaspar de Portola.
Spanish California
71. What are Ranchos?
Answer: Spanish government rewarded large land grants for raising cattle and sheep.
72. What were the primary exports of California?
Answer: Hides and tallow until the mid-19th century.
73. Who was John Wilson Marshall?
Answer: A carpenter from New Jersey.
74. When did Mexico gained independence from Spain?
Answer: In 1821
75. When the first legislator of California created?
Answer: 9 November 1822
76. Which Constitution refers Alta California as ‘territory’?
Answer: The 1824 Constitution of Mexico
77. About how many people moved to California during 1848 to 1855?
Answer: Over 300,000 people
78. Who wrote the book ‘California History for Kids: Missions, Miners, and Moviemakers in the Golden State’?
Answer: Katy S. Duffield
79. From where the name of California comes from?
Answer: From a 16th-century Spanish novel.
80. Which states is in the north of California?
Answer: Oregon
81. What the center of the state is called?
Answer: Central Valley
82. How many types of plants blossom in California?
Answer: About 6500
83. What was the Spanish Colonial period?
Answer: 1769-1821
84. When was the first permanent mission in Baja California was founded?
Answer: On October 15, 1697.
85. What Spain gained from the seven-year war between Britain and France?
Answer: The French Louisiana Territory
California History for Kids
86. Which fruits are largely produced in the state of California?
Answer: Lemons, apricots, avocados, dates, figs, grapes, kiwi, peaches and many other.
87. Which people were discriminated in the constitution developed in 1879?
Answer: Chinese
88. What was the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882?
Answer: This act suspended Chinese immigration for 10 years.
89. What is the EPIC reform movement?
Answer: End Poverty in California reform movement.
90. Which political party gained strength in California during the Great Depression era?
Answer: The Democratic party.
91. Why the Republican governor Earl Warren resigned in 1953?
Answer: To become chief justice of the United States.
92. Who became the new governor in 1958?
Answer: Edmund Brown
93. At which place California was ranked in 2012 based on its economy?
Answer: At ninth place in the world.
94. What percent of United State’s wine grapes are produced in California?
Answer: 90 percent
95. On average, how many wine grapes are produced each year?
Answer: 3.3 million tons
96. What is the highest temperature often reaches at the Death Valley?
Answer: 120 Fahrenheit
97. The national parks of the state are devoted for what?
Answer: For preservation of nature and natural resources.
98. What was the time period of the U.S. Civil War?
Answer: 1861-1865
99. How many cities are there in the state?
Answer: Fifteen
100. Which Californian Constitution outlawed any form of slavery?
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