History Of How The Gold Rush Reshaped California

How The Gold Rush Reshaped California Before the gold rush, California was only a territory. ln 1850 gold was found in California. In effect, California’s population exploded. By 1851 California had applied for statehood and became the thirty first state. News traveled fast and far, prospectors came from around the world to try their hand in panning gold. Gold mining had reached its peak by 1852. More than $80 million in gold had been pulled from mines (Encyclopedia.com, 2015). Even though the gold rush was not profitable for all who came to California, the gold rush reshaped the demographics of California because people from Asia and other parts of the world traveled to California and the population rose. In 1848, James Marshall discovered gold while constructing a mill for John Sutter (Encyclopedia.com, 2015). At the time, John Sutter had 3 mills and more than two hundred and sixty people working for him (Kosher, 2015). As news traveled about the discovery of gold, Sutter’s workers quit working for him and began gold panning. However, Sutter’s men were not the only group of people who sought for riches in California. By 1849, people from all over the world made the long trip to California’s mountains in search for gold. These “gold seekers,” would later on be known as the “Forty-niners” (Wikipedia.com, 2015). Most of California’s

For instance, “in 1852 a special foreign miner’s tax aimed at the Chinese was passed by the California legislature” (Explore.museumca.org, 1996). Essentially, the Chinese were charged a certain amount of money to search for gold. Also, the native Mexicans in California were deemed foreign as well, therefore they too were taxed (Pbs.org, 2006). In addition, many Native Americans had to flee from the gold mines because their women were being raped and their men were targeted (Kosher, 2015). Nevertheless, people still continued to flock to