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Essay On California Gold Rush

920 Words4 Pages

The California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush; an era of hope, greed, destruction, and growth. The California Gold Rush was, in the 1800s, a direct pathway to the American Dream. In January 1848 James Wilson Marshall found gold in the American River. This new discovery spread throughout the United States and eventually throughout the world. After President Polk confirmed the rumors of gold in California in 1848 (Oakland Museum Staff), around 250,000 people came to California in seek of the soft metal that could lead to a fortune: gold (The forty-niners). The California Gold Rush not only presented fortune, it presented a new idea of the American Dream: “‘one where the emphasis was on the ability to take risks and the willingness to gamble …show more content…

People like foreigners and women were presented with challenges on their journey. In fact, in 1882 the campaign to restrict immigration created the federal Chinese Exclusion Act, which stopped the Chinese from migrating for 10 years. This prevented the Chinese from achieving the American Dream for that time period. Also, the government placed a tax on immigrant mining, charging them $500 a month, in this time (Maranzani). Women also had a difficult time during the Gold Rush. Many women had to stay home making only 8% of California female. The American Dream, ultimately, was only applicable by American men during the California Gold Rush. Not only was the Gold Rush kept from women and foreigners, it also discriminated against …show more content…

It left behind many legacies, ideas, and opinions. If the California Gold Rush never happened, perhaps California wouldn 't be a state and most definitely wouldn 't be the diverse area it is today. In California there is diversity, economy, and hope which wouldn 't be here if it weren’t for new races migrating to California. On the flipside, without the Gold Rush California would have a more stable population of Native Americans in California, and it would have mountains and rivers that we don 't have today. The California Gold Rush did, however, change the United States and the American Dream

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