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Reading Notes W3: Part A

One Hundred Years of Exploration and Conquest: Introduction
·     Spanish army captain Gaspar de Portolá led small overland expedition (San Diego to San Francisco)
·     Written in 1733, elsewhere on this continent, Benjamin Franklin published numerous editions of Poor Richard’s Almanac.
o  Poor Richard’s AlmanacPoor Richard's Almanack was a yearly almanac published by Benjamin Franklin, who adopted the pseudonym of "Poor Richard" or "Richard Saunders" for this purpose. 
·     Military governors: Pedro Fages, Crespi and Junípero Serra (Franciscan padres) – founded string of missions, perisidios, and civil towns along the strip of San Diego and Sonoma. 
o  Christianiza and “civilize” indigenous tribes began to process cultural suppression and population decline due to governmental success. 
o  Colonialism
§ Establishing economic base: underprovided weapons, money, troops
·     Russian American Company (around 1806) founded Fort Ross
·     Trading
·     First overland expedition into California was led by Jededish Smith in 1826, from Salt Lake to San Diego.
o  Gold was discovered on the American River (1848)
·     Tribes was voiced by T’tcetsa (Young Lucy)
o  Uprooted by settelrs and state legislators coveted their ancestral lands.
·     Anglos and Hispanics power struggle
o  Expansions, gold and silver, resources

Montalvo
·     Writer of “Las Sergas Esplandían (The Adventures of Esplanadian)”, Madrid, 1510.
o  Fictional romance (a heroic knight and the son of Amadis
o  Sequel to “Amadis of Gual”
§  The story tells of a place known as "California”, is also an island full of griffins. Queen Calafia decides to travel all the way to Constantinople to aid in the Muslim fight against the Christians. She also brings with her, an army of trained griffins to destroy and eat her enemies.  In the story, she later converts to Christianity and even marries a Knight and returns to her land, where she allows men to dwell as well as women.

The Luck of Roaring Camp
·     The story speaks of a dying prostitute named Cherokee Sal in California mining town of Roaring Camp. She gives birth to a child, who is named Thomas Luck. He is adopted and raised by the miners. They are rough but have care for Luck. This brings about moral regeneration to Roaring Camp. It’s the story of Christ—word gets out that the men of Roaring Camp “worship an Ingin baby”—transposed to the Wild West, ending in both apocalypse and redemption.
o   Key words: redemption; settlement; Christianity; power; family; community
§  It is a melting pot
§  Importance: the birth of Luck

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