Los Angeles (often called simply, LA) is one of the most famous places in the world. Yet it is only just over a century old. So how did this city grow up to be so successful in the middle of a desert and in a place where even the first Europeans experienced earthquakes? Los Angeles is in the southern half of California. It is much closer to the equator (34°N ) than some other big US cities such as New York (47°N) and so it is warmer. It is also in a part of the world which has a long dry, hot and sunny summer. This was important for some of the best-known features of the city.

It is home to about 18 million people, making it the second largest US urban area. Los Angeles is part of the Los Angeles basin. The city is 70km by 50km, one of the world’s largest. But across that basin run ridges of hills, splitting the city up. The hills are by far the nicest place to live and these have become the chosen areas for people with the most money. The other area for wealthy people is by the sea at locations such as Newport and Venice.

The rocks under Los Angeles are criss-crossed with cracks (fault lines) which can move at any moment. When they do, they cause earthquakes. Los Angeles has had many earthquake events in its short history. Fortunately, most have been relatively small and not catastrophic as they have been in San Francisco.

The coastal area where Los Angeles was to grow up is hot, sunny and dry in summer, with a mild, wet winter. Rivers flow from the mountains to give water and fertile floodplains. It is a place that can grow oranges and lemons, grapes, wheat and grass for sheep. Inland rise ranges of high, dry mountains, so, perhaps it is not surprising that the first people to live in Los Angeles made villages by the sea and, as well as gathering fruits from the land, they caught fish.

Their remains show they were living in the Los Angeles basin over 8000 years ago. Over the centuries other native American peoples moved in to the area, so that by the time the first Spanish explorers moved up from Mexico along the Pacific Ocean coast, there were already about 5000 people living in the Los Angeles area between the mountains and the sea.

The first Europeans used ships and were seeking their way to China. The first Spanish arrived in 1542. Sir Francis Drake sailed past the Los Angeles region on his way north to claim the west coast for England. But, after these first brief meetings, the people of the coast did not meet any other Europeans until 1765.

The first major European settlement was begun by the Spanish colonists of Mexico. They decided to expand the land they controlled (called Alta California) by setting out a line of military forts and putting missions beside them. The missions would grow food and this would help support the soldiers in the forts. They were based all along what came to be known as the King’s Road (El Camino Real) and which is more or less followed by Interstate 5 today. From this first expedition, we get to understand what Los Angeles was like before it became a city. One priest (Father Crespi) wrote:
"Thursday, 3, 1769. At half past six, we left the camp and forded the Porciuncula River... After crossing the river we entered a large vineyard of wild grapes and an infinity of rosebushes in full bloom. All the soil is black and loamy, and is capable of producing every kind of grain and fruit which may be planted. We went west, continually over good land well covered with grass. After travelling about half a league we came to the village of this region, the people of which, on seeing us, came out to the road."

The one person most responsible for the founding of Los Angeles was the new Governor of California, Felipe de Neve. In 1777 he visited the new area and decided to set up villages (pueblos). One of the sites he chose was Los Angeles. The first settlers numbered just 44.

The official date for the founding of the city is September 4, 1781. The settlers gathered at the San Gabriel Mission and together made their way to the place that had been decided as the site for the pueblo. It was called El Pueblo de la Reyna de los Angeles ( The Town of the Queen of the Angels). But it was to be a difficult start. By the end of the first year only eight settlers were still in the town. Yet gradually more people came to stay, so by 1800 there were 29 buildings surrounding a square (plaza) in typical Spanish style. On one side of the plaza was the church and city buildings.

When the settlers arrived, the Los Angeles floodplain was wooded and had many swamps. The river was immediately used to take water to the fields, as rain does not fall in the summer. However, the new settlers gradually took over all the land suitable for farming, leaving the native Americans without land. They revolted and got a few more rights, but the settlers continued to see the native people as simply a source of cheap labour. In 1821 Mexico became independent of Spain, but the native Americans were still bypassed and profited little. By 1841, the population was about 1700. In May, 1846, the Mexican American War started and by 2 February 1848, California was American territory.

In 1848, gold was discovered in California and the Gold Rush years began in the north. With so many extra people in the state there was a demand for food, and the Los Angeles area supplied the beef they needed.

Contact with the Europeans also brought disease to the native peoples, with the result that their numbers dwindled by five sixths in just a few decades. Furthermore, people from Mexico took the labouring jobs the native Americans had once had, and in this way the native peoples got pushed to the edge of cities and treated as ‘non-persons’. It took many more decades for them to get even basic civil rights. Today the number of native Americans who descend from those early days is less than 2000.

In 1870 there were just 5000 people living in Los Angeles, but by 1900 it had swelled to 100,000 – a substantial city. The rivalry between Los Angeles and San Francisco had begun. The first Chinese arrived in Los Angeles in 1850 in search of gold, but they found themselves put to work in the gold mines of northern California and other labouring jobs. Many of those who stayed in Los Angeles lived together in what became Chinatown. It was the Chinese who built the first railway into California. Thus the Chinese found themselves badly used, just as the native Americans had been.

The rush to the south of California began in the 1880s. People in the East were told of a land beyond the desert and over the mountains where there was a warm and pleasant Garden of Eden. This was how land agents advertised southern California. And to make it even more attractive, the great trek to the west was made far more comfortable by the railway. Just 40 years earlier, the pioneers in their covered wagons had faced hardship on the Oregon Trail. It had taken months. Now the people of the East were offered a comfortable seat on a railway train at an incredibly cheap fare.

It was in the interests of the railway owners to attract people west. They owned huge areas of land next to the railway – and they intended to make every acre pay handsomely. But it was not only the chance to start again that attracted old Americans and new immigrants. There were other ideas in the air, too. In the 1880s, people were looking for a healthier place to live than the smoke-ridden East, and so they flocked to seaside towns like Santa Monica and Venice Beach. About one in ten migrants to southern California was looking for a place to cure ills and aches and pains of every sort.

In 1892 oil was discovered in Los Angeles. Derricks sprang up everywhere. Later they were replaced with smaller pumps, and many are still working around the modern city, although the amount of oil they pump out is small.

One other thing that caused growth of Los Angeles in the early 20th century was the rise of unions in the East of the US. Large companies were becoming afraid of the power of the unions and looked to start new factories in places far from the East Coast.

One of these was the new movie industry. The excuse made was that it was an area of sunshine and so good for the film making, but fear of the unions lay behind it.

Making clothing was another industry that grew up in these early years of the 20th century. Clothing is still made in Los Angeles, mostly using Mexican labour. During the Second World War, when there was a great need for aircraft, tanks and other military equipment, factories grew up in Los Angeles. It also had migrant workers to do the jobs.

As a result of all of this prosperity, and the fact that many people could now afford cars, the city began to spread and spread – something called sprawl. As the city sprawled, so people no longer looked to the centre to find their shops, but to shopping areas. Then new shopping areas were built for people to reach by car only. These are the shopping malls.

The result of all of these changes is that it is now hard to find a heart to the city, and many Los Angelenos now live dozens of miles from the city centre.