Historical Settlement of North America

(Link to www.tahg.org)

The first European settlements in the United States were in the east coast. They created the 13 colonies and started to gain their independence from being British colonies to their own independent country. California was not part of this because the Europeans have not traveled west yet. This was mostly because of the terrain of the United States. The Appalachian mountains blocked westward movement until the 1850's. Before the westward migration, California was populated by Native Americans and
was part of Mexico. There was a clash between the settlers in California and Mexico to gain control over the territory. After the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo it ended the battle and split the region of California to the US and Mexico. Although the east created state boundaries by the metes and bounds system, the west created their boundaries with rectangular survey system. That is why the east forms its state boundaries by the topography while the western states have straight lines for borders and look more rectangular.