California and the Gold Rush Research Assignment Paper

Your University of Affiliation
California Gold Rush
Your Name
October 30, 2016
Course number and Professor’s name
Due date
The Gold Rush
The California Gold rush which peaked during 1849 can have its roots traced back to an accidental discovery of a gold nugget, a year before that. On exactly January 24, 1848, a man named James Marshall found a mysterious metal “while inspecting the water flow through the mill’s tail race”. After this, he went to the cook and laundress of their camp – Elizabeth Jane “Jennie” Wimmer – to have the metal tested and found out that it was indeed gold. After its confirmation Marshall immediately went to the owner of the land – John a Sutter – and informed him about this. However, Sutter was not really excited about this news since he knew what would be the implications of this if the word gets out. Despite trying his best to hide this information, rumors got out and in just a short span of time, flocks of immigrants seeking to find gold flooded the land. It was just a year after Marshall’s discovery – 1949 – when an even greater increase in the number of immigrants came to the place. These immigrants were then called the “49ers” in reference to the ‘peak’ of this migration pattern which occurred in the year 1949. According to Maranzani, by March 1848 there were “roughly 157,000 people in the California country.” Among these numbers are “150,000 Native Americans, 6,500 of Spanish or Mexican descent known as Californios and fewer than 800 non-native Americans.” However, because of the discovery of the gold nugget, the numbers of the ‘non-natives’ rose to more than 100,000 in just 20 months.[Legends of America. California legends - The California Gold rush. June 2015. Online. 30 October 2016.] [Wilson, Lori lee. Articles Featuring The California Gold Rush From History Net Magazines - A Lady’s Life in the Gold Rush. 2016. Online. 30 October 2016.] [History.com. THE GOLD RUSH OF 1849. n.d. Online. 30 October 2016.] [Maranzani, Barbara. 8 Things You May Not Know About the California Gold Rush. 24 January 2013. Online. 30 October 2016.]
California and the Gold rush
Generally, the California gold rush can be said to be have been one of the greatest thing that happened to the state. Because of the vast amounts of money (revenue) coming from the mining business, its road to statehood was “fast-tracked”. This event turned California into the 31st state of the US and at the same time, provided a fast paced growth for its citizens and their society politically, socially, and (more especially) economically. Another benefit of the gold rush is the ‘development’ that quickly followed the migration pattern, in order to cater for the ever increasing population. In just a single year after Marshall’s discovery schools, churches, businesses, and other living places were created for the place’s new residents. Aside from this, it could also be argued that this even paved way for greater technological innovations that would then leave a huge impact all throughout the world. During the early days of the gold rush, many immigrants said that gold can easily found and picked up in the river banks and streams. However, as these precious resources started to dwindle, technological innovations were created. These innovations started from simple ‘panning’, or the use of metal pans to filter the gold from water, to the use of hydraulic machines to increase the results. However, despite all of the benefits that the gold rush brought to the citizens of California and the US, there are also a lot of issues and conflicts that it created.[Maranzani] [ibid] [Wilson]
Political, Social, and Environmental Issues
Just like any other major events in history, the Gold rush also brought a lot of social, environmental, and political issues to the state and those living in its borders. For one, the major upsurge in the number of immigrants greatly decreased the resources available thus leading to conflict, discriminatory policy creation, racism, and resistances. This is apparently an inevitable phenomenon more especially because of the fact that “resources are limited” and that the sudden “Americanization” of this once Mexican-dominated land happens in a very quick manner. Because of this, “anti-immigrant policies” were created by the government by imposing more taxes and stricter rules and regulations for those who are “foreigners” and non-natives. This imposition of higher taxes for foreigners could be seen as the result of the major influx of immigrants in the...