California state is on the west coast of the United States, along the pacific ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south, and pacific Ocean to the west. California is the most populous U.S. state. Its four largest cities are Los Angeles, San Deigo, San Jose, and San Francisco. It is known for its varied climate and geography as well as its diverse population.
California is colonized by the Spanish soverign beginning in the late 18th century. The state and the rest of Mexico became an independent republic in 1821. In 1845 California broke away from Mexico, and after the Mexican-American War, Mexico ceded California to the United states. California became the 31st state admitted to the United States on september 9, 1850.

The California Gold rush systematically changed California with a large influx of people and an economic boom in earlier years.

Demographics
Area: Estimte of 163,696 square mile, is the thrid-largest U.S. state by land area after Alaska and Texas, and preceding Montana. Its geography and borders ranges from the Pacific coast to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the east, to Mojave desert areas in the southeast and the Redwood fir forests of the northwest. The center of the state is dominated by the Central valley, one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world.
Width of 250 mile
Length of 770 miles   
Population: As of the 2008 estimated by the US Bureau of Census at 36,756000, making it the  
most populous state. Density of 234/sq mi
Official Language: English
Capital: Sacramento,
Largest city: Los Angeles
Nick name: Golden state
Highest mountain: Mount whitney
State tree: Coastal redwood
State colors: Blue (for the sky) and Gold (for the gold found)
State Brid: California Valley Quail 
State Mammal: California Grizzly Bear
State mineral: Gold
State Marine mammal: California Gray whale (migrates from alaska to mexico)
State Industry: Along with California's prosperous agricultural industry, other industries 
                        incude aerospace,petroleum, computer and information technlogy.
California ranks amongst the ten largest economies in the world, and is the 35th among the most populous countries, with a GDP similar to France. California is the 3rd largest state in area and the largest state in population. California has one of the largest Chinese communities outside Asia in the entire world (San Francisco).
The Los angeles area has more people of Mexican ancestry than any other urban area in the world, outside of Mexico. California has the largest Armenian population outside Armenia (Glendale).

Ranking third among the U.S. states in area, California has a diverse topography and climate. A series of low mountains known the Coast Ranges extends along the 1200 mile coast. The region from point Arena, north of San francisco, to the southern part of the state is subject to tremors and sometimes to severe earthquakes caused by tectonic stress along the Fault. The Coast Ranges receive heavy rainfll in the north where the giant redwood forests prevail, but the climate of these mountains is considerably drier in south California. Behind the coastal ranges in central California lies the great Central Valley, a long alluvial valley drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. In the southeast lie vast wastelands, notably the Mojave Desert. In the east of the Central Valley is the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which includes Mount. Whitney, Kings Canyon national park, Sequoia national park, and Yosemite national park. The Cascade mountain Range, the northern continuation of the Sierra Nevada, includes Lassen Volcanic national park. Lying east of the South Sierra Nevada is Death valley national park.

California has an enormously productive economy, which for a nation would be one of the ten largest in the world. Although agriculture is gradually yielding to industry as the core of the state's economy, California leads the nation in the production of fruits and vegetables.  The state most valuable crops are grapes, cotton, flowers, and oranges, along with dairy products, which contribute the single largest share of farm income, and California is again the national leader in this sector. The state also produces the major share of U.S. domestic wine.

California's farms are highly productive as a result of good soil, a long growing season, and the use of modern agricultural methods. Irrigation is critical, especially in the San Joaquin valley and Imperial valley. The gathering and packing of crops is done largely by seasonal migrant labor, primarily Mexicans. Fishing is another important industry.

California continues to be a major U.S. center for motion-picture, television film, and related entertainment industries, especially in Hollywood. Tourism also is an important source of income. Disneyland, Sea World, and other theme parks draw millions of visitors each year, as do San Francisco with its numerous attractions.

Geography
California is surrounded by the Coastal mountain ranges in the west, the Sierra Nevada ranges to the east, the Cascade Range in the north and the Tehachapi mountains in the south. The central Valleyis California's agricultural heartland and grows approximately one-third of the nation's food. Divided in two by the Sacramento-San Joaquin river Delta, the northern portion, the Sacramento Valley serves as the watershed of the Sacramento river, while the southern portion, the San Joaquin valley is the watershed for the San Joaquin river.  Both areas drive their names from the rivers that transit them. The Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers have remained sufficiently deep that several inland cities are shaped as seaports. These rivers serve as a critical water supply hub for the state. Water was routed through an extensive network of canals and pumps out of the delta, and flow across nearly the length of the state, including the Central  Valley project, and the State water project. The two river drain the Central Valley and flow to the Pacific ocean through San Francisco Bay. Two other important rivers are the Klamath river, in the north, and the Colorado river, on the southeast border.

Moun Whitney range, at 14505 feet, surrounding Yosemite Valley famous for its glaciers; Sequoia national park for its giant Sequoia trees the largest living organisms on the earth; and the deep freshwtrer lake, Lake Tahoe, the largest lake in the state by volume.  In the east of the Sierra Nevada are Owens valley and Mono Lake, an essential migratory bird habitat. In the western part of the state is Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake by area entirely in California. Although Lake Tahoe is larger, it is divided by the California/Nevada border.

About the 45 percent of the state's total surface area is covered by forests, and California's diversity of pine species is unmatched by any other state. California contains more forest land than any other state except Alaska. Many of the trees in the California Mountains are the oldest in the world.

The Salton Sea is a large inland salt lake located in the south. Deserts in California make up about 25 percent of the total surface area. The south-central desert is called the Mojave; to the northeast of the Mojave lies Death Valley, which contains the lowest, hottest point in north America.  The distancefrom the lowest point of Death Valley to the peak of Mount Whitney is less than 200 miles.  Along the California coast are several major metropolitan areas, including Greater Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area, and San diego.

California is famous for earthquakes due to a number of fault zones. It is vulnerable to tsunamis, floods, droughts, Santa Ana winds, wildfires, and landslides on steep terrain, and has several inactive volcanoes.  

Climate
California climate varies from Mediterranean to subarctic. Much of the state has a Mediterranean climate, with cool rainy winters and dry summers.  Further inland, one encounters colder winters and hotter summers.
Northern parts of the state average higher annual rainfall than the south. California's mountain ranges influence the climate as well. Some of the rainiest parts of the state are west-facing mountain slopes. Northwestern California has a temperate climate, and the Central Valley has a Mediterranean climate but with greater temperature extremes than the coast. The high mountains, including the Sierra Nevada, have a mountain climate with snow in winter and mild to moderate heat in summer.  The east side of California's mountains has a drier rain shadow. The low deserts east of the southern California mountains experience hot summers and nearly mild winters, with the higher elevation seeing hot summers and cld winters.

Ecology
Ecologically, California is one of the richest and most diverse parts of the world and includes some of the most endangered ecological communities.  Many California endemics have become endangered, as urbanization, logging, overgrazing, encroached on their habitat. California boasts several superlatives in its collection of flora; the largest trees, the tallest trees, and the oldest trees.

Economy
California s counted for estimate of more than 10 percent of the United States gross domestic product (GDP). One problem is that a substantial portion of the state income comes from income taxes on a small proportion of wealthy citizens. Estimate of low ercent of state taxpayers pay approximately more than half of all state taxes. The taxable income of this population is highly dependent upon capital gains, which has been severely impacted by the stock market declines periodically.
California is also the home of several significant economic endeavors, such as Hollywood entertainment, Southern California aerospace, the Central Valley agriculture, Silicon Valley computers along with high technology, and wineproducing regions such as the Napa Valley, Sonoma valley as well as southern California's Santa Barbara, Temecula Valley and Paso Robles areas.

In terms of jobs, the five largest sectors in California are: 
   1. Trade, transportation, and utilities
   2. Government 
   3. Professional and business services  
   4. Education and health services    5. Leisure and hospitality
In terms of output, the five largest sectors are:
   1. Financial services
   2. Trade, transportation, and utilities
   3. Education and health services
   4. Government
   5. Manufacturing.

California's economy is dependent on trade and international related commerce accounting for approximately one-quarter of the state's economy. Computers and electronic products are California's top export, holding for more than 30 percent of all the State's exports.

Although agriculture contributes the least toward employment and output, it remains an important sector in California's economy. The increase in Farming products has been continued for past decades, despite a 15 percent decline in acreage devoted to farming during the period.  Factors contributing to the growth in sales/acre include more intensive use of active farmlands and technological improvements in crop production.

Many coastal cities include some of the wealthiest per-capita areas in the U.S.  The high-technology sectors in northern California, specifically Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, have emerged from economic downturn caused by the dot.com bust.

California levies an estimate of more than 9 percent maximum variable rate income tax, with six tax brackets. The combined state, county and local sales tax rate is from 7.25 to 8.75 percent.  The rate varies throughout the state at the local level.  All real property is taxable annually based on the property's fair market value at the time of purchase. This tax does not increase based on a rise in real property values unless resale of property, erection of new improvement or new contruction, and transfer of title, with few exemptions.

Transportation
California's vast terrain is connected by an extensive system of freeways, expressways, and highways. Construction and maintenance of state roads and statewide transportation planning are primarily the responsibility of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).
One of the state's more visible landmarks, the Golden Gate bridge was completed 1937.  This highway bridge is a popular tourist attraction and also accommodates pedestrians and bicyclists. It is simultaneously designated as U.S. Route 101, and State Route 1.  Another of the seven bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area, is the San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridge, completed in 1936, and transports enormous number of vehicles per day.
Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport are major hubs for trans-Pacific and transcontinental traffic. There are about a dozen important commercial airports and many more general aviation airports throughout the state.
California also has several important seaports. The giant seaport complex formed by the port of Los Angeles and the port of Long Beach in southern California is the largest  in the country and responsible for handling about a forth of all container cargo trafficing the United States. The Port of Oakland, fourth largest in the nation, handles trade from the Pacific rim and delivers most of the ocean containers passing through northern California to the entire USA.
Inter-city rail travel is provided by California Amtrak , which manages the inter-city rail lines in the US. It includes combination of Metro rail, Light rail system, and commuter rail networks. Nearly all counties operate bus lines, and many cities operate their own bus travel which is provided by Greyhound and Amtrak thruway Coach.
The rapidly growing population of the state is straining all of its transportation networks. A regularly recurring issue in California politics is whether the state should continue to aggressively expand its freeway network or concentrate on improving mass transit networks in urban areas. 
The California high speed rail Authority was created in 1996 by the state to implement an extensive 700 mile rail system. construction was approved by the voters during the November 2008 general election.

Politics  California has an idiosyncratic political culture.  Overall, the trend in California politics has been towards the Democratic party. The trend is most obvious in presidential elections.  The districts in California are usually dominated by one or the other party, with very few districts that could be considered competitive.  California is now a reliable Democratic state. According to political analysts, California should soon gain more seats, and electoral votes, which would be scaled as the most electoral votes in the nation.

California State Law
California's legal system is explicitly based on English common law, (as is the case with all other states except Louisiana), but carries a few features from Spanish Civil law, such as community property.

Education 
California's public educational system is supported by a unique constitutional amendment that requires a minimum annual funding level for grades K-14 (kindergarten through community college) which grows with the economy and student enrollment figures.

California's public postsecondary education offers a unique three tiered system:    . The preeminent research university system in the state is the University of California (UC) which employs more Nobel Prize laureates than any other institution in the world, and is considered one of the world's finest public university systems. There are ten general UC campuses, and a number of specialized compuses in the UC system. 
    . The California State University (CSU) system has almost 450,000  
students, making it the largest university system in the United States. It  
is intended to accept the top one-third of high school students. The 23 CSU schools are primarily intended for undergraduate education.
      The California community Colleges system provides lower division   
coursework as well as basic skills and workforce training. It is he  
largest network of higher education in the US, composed of 110
colleges serving a student population of over 2 millions.

California is also home to such notable private universities such as Stanford University, the University of Southern california (USC), the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and the Claremont Colleges. California has handerds of other private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions.  
  
Sports
California has estimate of nineteen major professional sports league franchises, far more than any other state. The San Francisco Bay Area has seven major league teams spread in three cities, San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. while the Greater Los Angeles Area is home to ten major league franchises. San diego has two major league teams, and Sacramento also has two.
Home to some of the most prominent universities in the United States, California has long had many respected collegiate sports programs. In particular, the athletic programs of UC Berkeley, USC, UCLA, Stanford and Fresno State are often nationally ranked in the various collegiate sports. California is also home to the oldest college bowl game, the annual Rose Bowl, and the Holiday Bowl, among others.
 


Cities, towns and counties
The state's local government is divided into 58 counties and 480 incorporated cities and towns; of which 458 are cities and 22 are towns. Under California law, the term "city" and "town" are explicitly interchangeable.
The majority of these cities and towns are within one of five metropolitan areas. More than sixty perent of California's population lives in its three largest metropolitan areas, Greater Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Riverside-San Bernardino Area, known as the Inland enterprize. although smaller, the other two large population centers are the San Diego and the Sacramento metro areas.
The state recognized two kinds of cities; charter and general law. General law cities owe their existence to state law and consequentially governed by it; charter cities are governed by their own city charters. Cities incorporated in the 19th century tend to be charter cities. All of the state's ten most populous cities are charter cities.