Scribd
Upload
110 views5 pages

dbq2 Gold Rush

The Gold Rush of 1848 had major impacts on California and its development. It drew large numbers of immigrants from around the world seeking wealth from gold, rapidly expanding California's population and diversifying its demographics. Women also traveled to California to work alongside men. The influx of people and economic activity helped make California prosperous enough to achieve statehood in 1849 as a free state. The gold also financed California's contributions to the Union during the Civil War. Overall, the Gold Rush was a pivotal event that transformed California socially, economically, and politically.

Uploaded by

api-458516246
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
110 views5 pages

dbq2 Gold Rush

The Gold Rush of 1848 had major impacts on California and its development. It drew large numbers of immigrants from around the world seeking wealth from gold, rapidly expanding California's population and diversifying its demographics. Women also traveled to California to work alongside men. The influx of people and economic activity helped make California prosperous enough to achieve statehood in 1849 as a free state. The gold also financed California's contributions to the Union during the Civil War. Overall, the Gold Rush was a pivotal event that transformed California socially, economically, and politically.

Uploaded by

api-458516246
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

Zamora 1

The Gold Rush


The Impacts on California and its People

Silvia Zamora

LBS 375: The California Experience


Professor Krystal Cheek
11 October 2016
Zamora 2

The discovery of gold changed California forever, it was literally

groundbreaking. On January 28, 1848 John Marshall was taking a walk by

the American River when he had his first sight of gold at Sutter’s Mill. Word

about the discovery traveled fast and it caused men to rush west to

California for gold. Large numbers of men jumped for the opportunity

across the nation to become wealthy by digging for their portion of gold.

Moving west became the American Dream for immigrants all over the

nation, which expanded California’s population. California’s gold helped

the nation economically due to the Civil War and its financial needs.

Socially California brought many changes due to the few women who did

travel and worked along side of men. The social view of women in

California contributed to the role of women today.

The Gold Rush brought large populations of miners to California

with the desire to find gold. “Experienced miners came from Mexico,

Chile, and Peru. Others came from as far away as Europe and China.

Most came from the United States. Groups of whites, free blacks, enslaved

African Americans, and Indians all headed west.”1 High populations of

diverse men traveling to California at the same time would drastically

change the demographic. Without the Gold Rush event, it would have

probably taken many more years for people to be attracted to a foreign

place to travel to in large number. The Gold Rush is a pivotal event of

California becoming the 31st state in 1849.


Zamora 3

The mass migration helped California become a state but the

debate became whether it would enter statehood as a free state. This

brought dispute within other states that led to the Civil War. With all wars

come financial needs to supply weapons and to help the injured heal.

The Gold Rush helped California’s economic branch and it financed

California to get through the war. As a new state, it was expected to not

be able to be sufficiently financed to make it. Getting through it set

California apart from the rest of the states in their early stages.

The Gold Rush was known as “one of the most demographically

male events in history.”2 The men would travel to California in hopes of

finding gold and returning home to their wives and families. Due to the

women staying back home, the men had to learn the domestic tasks that

they were used to their wives or mothers doing for them. But there were

many adventurous women who accompanied their husbands, fathers or

brothers to golden California. “Once in California, enterprising women

engaged in almost every occupation and inhabited every level of

society. They mined for gold, raised families, and earned substantial sums

by their domestic and entrepreneurial labors, and stayed on to help settle

the land—contributing a facet of gold rush history that until now has been

largely overlooked or forgotten.”3 Women were not only the prostitutes to

please men during the Gold Rush, but also a huge part of making

California the state it is today.


Zamora 4

The Gold Rush was a pivotal event for California, it brought a

diverse amount of populations that included men from not only the United

States but from around the World. Strong, adventurous women also

arrived to work along side of the men as equal laborers. The gold and the

jobs that came along with it helped California’s economics skyrocket and

finance the Civil War. Most importantly, the large migrations of citizens led

California into entering statehood as a free state. California became the

31st state of the United States of America largely due to the Gold Rush.
Zamora 5

References

1Beverly Armento et al., O, California (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Co. 1999),


pp. 122-123.

2Susan Lee Johnson, Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California
Gold Rush (New York: WW Norton, 2000), 12.

3 Sucheng Chan and Spencer C. Olin, Major Problems in California History:


Documents and Essays (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), 121.

You might also like