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Because of its distance and isolation from the rest of the country, travel to and communication with California was difficult. Early settlers either traveled overland; sailed around Cape Horn; or sailed to the Central American isthmus, crossed to the Pacific side, and took another ship to California. The Pony Express offered mail service between the east and California for 18 months until the first transcontinental telegraph went into operation in 1861.

Construction of the first transcontinental railroad began in 1863, with the Central Pacific Railroad being built eastward from Sacramento. The line met the Union Pacific, being built westward, in 1869. The connection of the Southern Pacific Railroad to eastern lines in 1881 created a second rail link to the east. Large numbers of settlers traveled to California by railroad.

What the new immigrants found was often disappointing. Railroad barons and large landowners controlled California's government and much of its economy. Corruption was widespread, railroad freight rates were exorbitant, and wages were low. Much of the land was arable only with irrigation, but, under California law, those who owned land along riverbanks were able to deny others access to water. This was changed after the passage of the Wright Act in 1887, permitting the formation of irrigation districts so that water could be distributed more fairly.

Fear of competition from Chinese laborers, who had come to California in large numbers to help build the railroads, led to anti-Chinese sentiment. There was sporadic anti-Chinese violence during the 1860's and 1870's, and discriminatory laws were passed. Japanese workers, first brought to California as farm laborers, also faced discrimination.

In the 1870's, citrus fruit growing expanded, especially after the introduction of navel and Valencia oranges assured year-round harvests. Lemons and grapefruits were soon introduced, and shipments to eastern markets by refrigerated boxcars began. Also about this time, oil was discovered in several parts of the state.

The population grew by 60 per cent during 1900-10. In 1906, much of San Francisco was destroyed by an earthquake and fire. In 1910, the voters rebelled against corruption and elected Hiram Johnson, a reform candidate, governor. Many progressive laws were passed, and the influence of the railroads in politics decreased. At about this time, the motion picture industry became centered in Hollywood.
During the decade beginning in 1910, there were several instances of violence caused by labor strife. In 1910, union radicals bombed the building of the anti-union Los Angeles Times, killing 20 persons. In 1913, near the town of Wheatland, a riot occurred when the sheriff attempted to arrest the leaders of striking farm workers. Four people were killed, and many more injured. In 1917, labor leader Thomas J. Mooney and an associate, Warren K. Billings, were convicted of planting a bomb that had killed 10 people in San Francisco the previous year. Mooney and Billings won widespread sympathy, their defenders claiming that they had been denied justice because of antilabor prejudice. (In 1939, Governor Culbert L. Olson pardoned Mooney and commuted Billings' sentence to time served.)

In order to provide water for irrigation and the increased population, huge water-diversion projects were undertaken. The Los Angeles Aqueduct, extending 240 miles (386 km) from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles, was completed in 1913. It aroused intense, and sometimes violent, controversy because persons displaced by it believed they had been forced to sell their land for an unfair price. Hetch Hetchy Dam, part of a watersupply project for San Francisco, was completed in 1923. Hoover Dam, finished in 1936, was part of the Boulder Canyon Project, which brought water from the Colorado River to southern California.

There was an oil boom in the 1920's, when new petroleum deposits were found. Also in that decade, the population increased 65 per cent. After the Great Depression began in 1929, thousands of people migrated to California, large numbers of them impoverished farmers from the drought-stricken Plains states. Many of those who came sought work as migrant agricultural workers; lack of jobs and low pay caused more labor unrest. Not until World War II were there jobs for everyone.

During the war, rapid growth took place in California's defense-related industries, including aircraft construction, shipbuilding, textiles, and chemicals. In 1942 some 93,000 persons of Japanese descent, the majority of them American citizens, were removed from California to relocation camps, because of fear that they would commit espionage or sabotage. Many of them lost their homes, businesses, and possessions in the relocation.

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