Los Angeles

The city of Los Angeles was founded in 1781 by Felipe de Neve, the Spanish governor of California. It became part of Mexico in 1821, and twenty-six years later, as a result of the Mexican-American War, it became part of the United States. The city had no natural harbor, relatively little fresh water, and a small population for its first hundred years. It did have rich fertile soil, a good climate, and plenty of land, but these were of little use without some way of transporting crops to distant markets. As a result, Los Angeles was slow to mature as a center of agricultural activity.