LOS ANGELES CITY

Los Angeles city is the largest city in the state of California and the second-largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A., it is rated an alpha world city, having an estimated population of 3.8 million and spanning over 469.1 square miles in Southern California. Additionally, the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area is home to nearly 17,776,000 people who hail from all over the globe and speak 224 different languages. Los Angeles is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populous and most diverse county in the United States. Its inhabitants are known as "Angelenos" .

Los Angeles city was founded in the year 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula. It became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its independence from Spain. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican-American War, Los Angeles and California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thus becoming part of the United States; Mexico retained the territory of Baja California. It was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850 — five months before California achieved statehood.

Los Angeles city is one of the world's most prominent centers of culture, technology, media, business, and international trade. It is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and it is one of the most important economic engines of the United States, with the city and surrounding region having a GDP that is among the twentieth largest in the world. Los Angeles also leads the world in producing popular entertainment — such as motion picture, television, video games and recorded music — which forms the base

Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva and Chumash Native American tribes thousands of years ago. The first Europeans arrived in 1542 under João Cabrilho, a Portuguese explorer who claimed the area as the City of God for the Spanish Empire; he continued with his voyage and did not establish a settlement. The next contact would not come until 227 years later, when Gaspar de Portola, together with Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769. Crespi noted that the site had the potential to be developed into a large settlement.