In the widest sense, the areas of mediterranean climate in Chile and California have similar histories in that the Europeans who came to dominate the native peoples of both regions were from Spain, another area with a mediterranean climate, and they were familiar with plants already adapted to that climate. The native peoples of the two areas, however, were different. Those of Chile cultivated crops, most of which were derived from the Andean highlands or the Peruvian coastal desert. Being more numerous and engaged in farming they had long disturbed the native vegetative cover. Further, it is likely that the comparatively recent Inca conquest had introduced large herbivores, e.g. the llama and alpaca, and probably plants such as Nicotiana glauca and Schinus molle (Bahre, 1979).

Significant entry of Europeans into Chile was accomplished more than two centuries earlier than in California and it was by territorial conquest. European entry into California was by the Franciscan missions and involved the establishment of distant points of control and the gradual domination of the neighbouring Indian groups. Through both the Spanish and the Mexican periods, until 1846, extensive parts of California's region of mediterranean climate were not controlled or even visited by Europeans. Thus the introduction of plants into a large part of California came much later than in Chile and can sometimes be documented.

The colonial period

In Chile the conquistadores found a farming system that could be exploited.