Oakland, California

Oakland, founded in 1852, is a major city on the east side (also called East Bay) of San Francisco Bay in Northern California in the United States. To its north lies Berkeley, home to the famous university campus (University of California, Berkeley). To its west stands San Francisco, across the Bay Bridge. To its south lies the island city of Alameda, and San Leandro lies to the southeast. Along the hills which run from north to east, Oakland borders five of the East Bay Regional Parks. In the center of Oakland, and completely surrounded by it (prompting the common analogy to a doughnut hole), is the wealthy independent city of Piedmont. Oakland is home of the Port of Oakland, one of three major shipping ports on the American West coast.

History

The area was originally inhabited by the Yelamu tribe, belonging to a linguistic grouping later called the Ohlone (a Miwok Indian word meaning "western people"). In Oakland, they were heavily concentrated around Lake Merritt, Emeryville, and Lake Temescal, the later, a small lake in the Oakland Hills. Temescal is an Aztec word for bath-house, brought north by Spanish colonizers.

Related Topics:
Yelamu - Ohlone - Lake Merritt - Emeryville - Lake Temescal - Oakland Hills

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Oakland, along with the rest of Northern California was claimed for Spain by visiting Spanish explorers in 1772. During its days under the Spanish Empire in the late 18th to early 19th century, and later under an independent Mexico in the early 19th century, Oakland (along with most of the East Bay), was owned by a wealthy landowner Luís María Peralta who named his area Rancho San Antonio. Upon his death in 1842, Peralta divided his land among his four sons as most of Oakland fell within the shares given to Antonio Maria and Vicente. They would open the land to settlement by American settlers, loggers, European whalers and fur-traders.

Related Topics:
Spain - Spanish Empire - Mexico - East Bay - Luís María Peralta - Rancho San Antonio - Loggers

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Full scale settlement and development occurred following California being conquered by the United States during the Mexican American war, and the California Gold Rush in 1848. Oakland was founded and incorporated in 1852 and grew with the railroads, becoming a major rail terminus in the late 1860s and 1870s. Originally comprising the area west of Lake Merritt (now downtown and Chinatown), it gradually annexed farmlands and settlements to the east and north. Oakland's rise to industrial prominence and its subsequent need for a seaport led to the digging of a shipping and tidal channel in 1902 creating the "island" of nearby town Alameda. In 1906 its population doubled with refugees made homeless after the San Francisco earthquake and fire who had fled to Oakland. By 1920, Oakland was the home of numerous manufacturing industries, including metals, automobiles, and shipbuilding.

Related Topics:
Mexican American war - Gold Rush - 1848 - 1852 - 1902 - Alameda - 1906 - San Francisco earthquake and fire

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World War II

During WWII, the East Bay Area was home to a massive Naval shipbuilding industry. The industry attracted a huge amount of laborers from around the country. Many of the new workers were African Americans from the western South (Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas), who enjoyed great prosperity during the war years.

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Post-war years

Soon after the war, the shipbuilding and automobile industries virtually evaporated, as did the jobs that came with it. Many who came to the city did not leave and decided to settle in their new home of Oakland. Meanwhile, many of the city's more affluent white residents fled the city after the war in order to move into newly developing suburbs to the north and south of Oakland's city borders.

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By the late 1960s, Oakland, which had been quite prosperous and affluent before the war, found itself with a population that was dominated by a lower income class than had been typical for the city. Much of Oakland's current reputation as a high-crime city can be traced to the transformation that occurred after World War II, especially to the post-1965 era.

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1960s and 1970s activism

Oakland was home to many activist groups during the 1960s and 70s. The Black Panther Party, created in 1966 to protect residents against police excesses, is perhaps the most famous of the groups that formed in Oakland.

Related Topics:
1960s - 70s - Black Panther Party

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