The first European settlement in the area was founded by the Spaniards
in 1776 as a mission community surrounding the Mission San Francisco de
Asís, in what is today called the Mission Dolores in the Mission
District. In addition to the mission, a military fort was built near the
Golden Gate: the Presidio.
Upon gaining independence from Spain in 1821, the area became part of
Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the mission system gradually came to an end
and private ownership of land became a possibility. In 1835, an
Englishman named William Richardson founded the town of Yerba Buena, the
first significant settlement on the peninsula outside of the Mission
Dolores area. As the new settlement gradually grew, Yerba Buena
developed a street plan and became attractive to settlers.
In 1846, the United States claimed California, and in July of that year,
the U.S. Navy arrived to raise the American flag above Yerba Buena. Over
the next couple of years, California officially became part of the
United States following the Mexican-American War, and the name of the
town was changed from Yerba Buena to San Francisco.
With the California Gold Rush of 1848, San Francisco began to explode in
population. Waves of immigrants came to the city to seek their fortunes,
including large numbers of Chinese immigrants, forming one of the
largest Chinese populations outside of Asia. During this time, many
major businesses were created and flourished in San Francisco, and
famous (and infamous) personalities settled in the city. Of course, with
all this success came problems: the rapid growth of the city outstripped
any efforts at city planning, meaning proper sanitation and
infrastructure were largely undeveloped, which led to a cholera outbreak
in 1855. Violence and corruption were evident, and anti-immigrant
violence resulted in many race riots. For a good book on the tumultuous
early history of San Francisco, read Herbert Asbury's Barbary Coast.
In the 1890's, there was a large campaign to modernize and beautify the
city, the success of which led some officials to proudly call San
Francisco the "Paris of the West." But in 1906, a devastating earthquake
shook the city and a resulting fire leveled much of the city (in fact,
almost 90% of the total damage was from the fire, and not the quake
itself). Nevertheless, officials at the time immediately set out on a
plan to rebuild the city, with new parks, boulevards, the current civic
center complex, and landmarks such as the Coit Tower atop Telegraph
Hill. In 1915, San Francisco hosted the Panama-Pacific Exposition (where
the Palace of Fine Arts complex is currently located) to showcase the
completely rebuilt city.
In the wake of the Great Depression of the 1930's, San Francisco
remained largely unscathed. In fact, it was during this time that the
Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge were conceived and built. It was
also during this time that the Federal Government established a prison
on Alcatraz Island, which would hold some of the most notorious
criminals of the era.
After World War II, San Francisco continued to grow in population. Urban
planning projects at the time led to more highrises downtown (including
the Transamerica Pyramid) and the destruction of many neighborhoods to
build freeways (many of which were later torn down after the 1989 Loma
Prieta earthquake). In the same period, San Francisco became a center of
counterculture and the hippie movement, contributing to San Francisco's
liberal outlook. San Francisco also became a center for homosexuals
during this time, leading to the development of gay neighborhoods like
the Castro.
More recently, San Francisco has experienced a boom in business. Despite
falling victim to the dot-com bubble burst in the 1990s, the city's
economy largely recovered and gentrification of neighborhoods like SoMa
continues.
Today San Francisco is known for its liberal outlook and remains one of
America's top tourist destinations. Tourism is the city's largest
industry.
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