California Gold Rush

Chapter 12 Section 42010

EUREKA! “I Found It”

• Searching for Gold• People from all over flock to California– People have given up their jobs– Stopped working on their

farms to join the search– 1849: More than 80,000

people migrate to California• Called “Forty-Niners”

Travel to California• Many Came by Sea– Mexico, South America,

Europe, Australia, China• Some Travel on the

Oregon and Santa Fe Trails– Cross the Sierra Nevada

Mountain Range

SANTA FE TRAIL:• CROSSES OVER THE

GREAT PLAINS FROM MISSOURI AND DOWN THE RIO GRANDE INTO PRESENT-DAY MEXICO

LEWIS AND CLARK TRAIL:• CROSSES OVER THE NORTHWEST INTO PRESENT-DAY OREGON/ WASHINGTON

Important Facts:• Americans made up 80% of the 49ers• $6 million worth of gold taken from the American

River by 1848• 300 men came from China, making this the first large

group of Asian immigrants to come to America• Population Grows:– 1848: 20,000– 1852: 220,000

• Levi Strauss pants were first developed and marketed in 1873 in San Francisco– Adds were aimed miners and farmers

Controlling Land in California• Californios: Mexican Californians– Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended

the war with Mexico and created a new group of citizens

– Californios gained rights to their lands• Law of 1851: Created a group of

people to review the Californios’ land rights– Had to prove what they owned– If someone else claimed that land,

they’d go to court to settle• Some lost their land, some were able to

prove their claimsAndres Pico

TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES

California Livin’• Boomtowns: New communities

built to house the flood of people moving to the area– Places went from having a few

house to hundreds• Mining Camps– No police or prisons in

mining towns• Growth of Services:– Hotels– Stores (Bakeries, Groceries)– Gambling Houses

California Gold Rush• Doubled the world’s supply of gold

• Very few miners became wealthy– Most 49ers didn’t have knowledge

or experience for digging/panning for gold

– Others lost their riches gambling or spending

• Merchants made huge profits– Could charge whatever they’d

like because the miners had nowhere else to go

Gold Rush Society• Very few woman lived in the mining camps– Mainly men from all over the world and of different

walks of life• Vigilantes: Took the law into their own hands,

acting as police, judges, juries, and even executioners

Sutter’s Mill

Progress• Gold Rush ended within a few years– Helped expand trade, shipping, and agriculture

• Provide the miners with goods and services

– Many stayed to run a business or farm• Growth of population pushed for more effective

government– President Taylor urge California to apply for statehood– Wrote a constitution in 1849

• Banned slavery, Gain Representatives and Governor

– Became a state in 1850 (31st State)• After a compromise was reached to allow California as a free state

– It would throw off the balance between slave and free states