The California Gold Rush
“In a small Californian city of Coloma, January 28, 1848, one event occurred that would change the course of world history and American history (Axon 1)”. A new mill (Sutter’s mill) was put up on the American River, and was doing its job of sweeping away the rubble from, the crystal clear water. James W. Marshall, the mill’s owner, caught something gleaming at the corner of his eye in the water. As he reached over and scraped up some of the silt with his fingers, yellow flakes caught his eye. Many thoughts went through his head such as; what are these flakes doing in my river, or he though it was probably just fool’s gold. To his surprise he discovered real gold, which was plentiful ...
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Nature had done nothing on a small scale” (Seidman 99). California at that time had a population of around 14,000. Not included in these estimates were the 200,000 Native Americans that lived within its borders. Prior to the Mexican War of 1846-1848, California was an isolated northerly province of Mexico. Due to the lack of a large population and association to belong to, some said, “ Politically, technologically, and socially, revolutions were occurring everywhere” (Axon 5). The year of 1848 was the year of the revolution. There was suffering from a variety of problems, including the change from agriculture to industry and from undemocratic rule to popular elections. Such turmoil in the world at this time caused the basis of communism to be founded by Karl Marx, as he published the Communist Manifesto. No one ever thought that a year later the average Americans could have a shot at riches. Many would take this shot as the news of California gold filtrated through ...
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in their own country. Many Latin American people were also located in California. All of the different ethnic groups accounted for only 14,000 people in California. Even before the discovery of gold, immigration was on a rise for California. The Gold Rush would help to speed up this process by and estimated 10 years.
The population of California was on a slight increase prior to the gold discovery. The immigrants mainly came to California due to worse conditions in their homeland. Major cities at the time included San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego. San Francisco was one of the largest cities, which had a population of around 2,000 (Axon 102). The populations of ...
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"The California Gold Rush." Essayworld.com. June 21, 2008. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-California-Gold-Rush/85602.
"The California Gold Rush." Essayworld.com. June 21, 2008. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-California-Gold-Rush/85602.
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