The great American gold rush began in 1849, followed by an accidental discovery of gold by a Swiss miller named John Sutter in 1848 in California. This triggered a high scale migration of men, women, and children from all around the globe. This particular migration, which was to search gold, is usually termed as the 'gold rush'. A wave of emigrants braved miseries, Illness, hardships, and sometimes even death in their quest to find gold. All such emigrants are known as the forty-niners.
California is the fourth largest state in the US. The geological position of California is such that it lies on the west coast of the United States, and was formerly a part of Mexico. The gold deposits were mainly borne by the rivers in California.
When the news first broke out about the discovery of gold in the late 1848, the people living in and around California were the first ones to take advantage of this literally golden opportunity, and made quick money. Slowly and gradually, the world witnessed a global migration towards the wild, Wild West! People migrated from east America, Latin America, Europe and even Asia.
About 90,000 people migrated to California, in 1849 alone! The figure continued to increase exponentially, and this global migration set to change the face and fate of the United States of America. The gold rush altered the dynamics of this place so drastically that the otherwise small and unknown town of San Francisco became a thriving hub of business, a city with limitless opportunities of trade. Today, San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California, and contributes 13% of the total GDP growth of the country.
The lawless state of California headed towards a revolutionary legally administered region after going through cultural and ethnic turmoil, for ages. This massive migration posed troubles not only for the emigrants, but also for the host country. It is important to understand that not all the emigrants went straight to the gold mines; most of them ended up in taking up other jobs like in factory, or in the farms.
Not everybody was lucky enough to find their fortunes in the gold mines. The reason behind this is that with the passage of time, gold mining became harder, and costlier. Individual gold miners were taken over by corporate companies. However, the migrants had burnt their boats!
They stayed over there, in the US, and learnt all other possible and impossible ways of survival. This resulted in the development of other industries and agriculture, because labour was abundant, and cheap.
The local Indians were forced to leave their homeland during this period. The gold mining industry privileged many, but posed major threats to the ecological system forever. The region was occupied by a variety of ethnic people. The greed for gold by the powerful ones led them to practice great racial discrimination especially towards the Chinese, and the Asians. In short, the American gold rush was not just a regional or national experience, but it had strong repercussions on the socio-economic factor of the world.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3072977
California is the fourth largest state in the US. The geological position of California is such that it lies on the west coast of the United States, and was formerly a part of Mexico. The gold deposits were mainly borne by the rivers in California.
When the news first broke out about the discovery of gold in the late 1848, the people living in and around California were the first ones to take advantage of this literally golden opportunity, and made quick money. Slowly and gradually, the world witnessed a global migration towards the wild, Wild West! People migrated from east America, Latin America, Europe and even Asia.
About 90,000 people migrated to California, in 1849 alone! The figure continued to increase exponentially, and this global migration set to change the face and fate of the United States of America. The gold rush altered the dynamics of this place so drastically that the otherwise small and unknown town of San Francisco became a thriving hub of business, a city with limitless opportunities of trade. Today, San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California, and contributes 13% of the total GDP growth of the country.
The lawless state of California headed towards a revolutionary legally administered region after going through cultural and ethnic turmoil, for ages. This massive migration posed troubles not only for the emigrants, but also for the host country. It is important to understand that not all the emigrants went straight to the gold mines; most of them ended up in taking up other jobs like in factory, or in the farms.
Not everybody was lucky enough to find their fortunes in the gold mines. The reason behind this is that with the passage of time, gold mining became harder, and costlier. Individual gold miners were taken over by corporate companies. However, the migrants had burnt their boats!
They stayed over there, in the US, and learnt all other possible and impossible ways of survival. This resulted in the development of other industries and agriculture, because labour was abundant, and cheap.
The local Indians were forced to leave their homeland during this period. The gold mining industry privileged many, but posed major threats to the ecological system forever. The region was occupied by a variety of ethnic people. The greed for gold by the powerful ones led them to practice great racial discrimination especially towards the Chinese, and the Asians. In short, the American gold rush was not just a regional or national experience, but it had strong repercussions on the socio-economic factor of the world.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3072977