Los Angeles – Long Beach
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Los Angeles – Long Beach – Santa Ana, California
Los Angeles – Long Beach – Santa Ana, which is also the metropolitan statistical area of Los Angeles, is constituted by Los Angeles and Orange counties. It is the center of culture, science, business trade and education. The formation of the prosperity mainly depends on its good geographic location, natural resources, population diversity. Los Angeles – Long Beach – Santa Ana locates in the west of the whole Los Angeles, which is the coast area of the whole Los Angeles. It is the largest metropolitan area in California and the second largest metropolitan area in the United States, after New York (U.S. Census, 2010).
Los Angeles is located in Southern California, which is nearly 400 miles away from San Francisco. It is surrounded by the mountains such as San Fernando Valley and Santa Monica Mountains. The highest mountain in Los Angeles is Sister Elsie Peak. Los Angeles is also environed by Los Angeles Basin which is relatively flat areas (G.I. Smith, p198-199). Los Angeles River is a primary seasonal river which passes through the city (Blake Gumprecht, p174). Los Angeles has many earthquakes, approximately 10,000 per year, because it is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire (USGS, 2011). Although Los Angeles has both hills and flat areas, the prosperity of city is mainly determined by its coast lines. It is facing the east of the San Pedro Bay and Santa Monica Bay of the east Pacific Ocean, which can bring many tourists and business overseas.
Los Angeles has hundreds years of history. In early period, the Tongva, the Chumash, and Native American settled in Los Angeles areas for thousands of years. Due to the voyage of the exploration in the sixteenth century, Portuguese explorer João Cabrilho leaded his fleet to reach the area, and they claimed that the area belongs to Spanish Empire and called it “the City of God” in 1542 (Charles Dwight, p21-24). However, they eventually did not stay there for long time to develop this area. Therefore, it gave the chance to Spanish to found the city. Since 1769, more and more missionaries arrived at Los Angeles for new church location and started their mission and preach. Until 1781, they founded the town called “Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angles of Porciúncula”, which is the colony of Spain (Noelle, p7-9). This was the rudiment of Los Angeles. Later the new Spanish in Los Angeles fought for freedom and gained the independence in 1821, and then Los Angeles went to Mexico. However, Mexico finally lost its power by controlling Los Angeles due to the Mexican-American War. Mexican army lost the war and United States took over the governing (Guinn, James Miller, p50). In 1850, Los Angeles was finally formally founded as a part of American land because of the Gold Rush beginning in 1948.
The real flourish of Los Angeles started around 1900s. Due to the rich nature resources, the discovery of the oil allowed Los Angeles to become the head of oil producer in the world, which made Los Angeles developed rapidly (Kipen, p45-46). After