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The California

In: Historical Events

Submitted By robby678
Words 1087
Pages 5
the California’s gold rush OF 1849 and how it changed and shaped AMERICA’S
WEST

EN1320

Gold, since the beginning of civilization has been the focal point of wealth and power. The alluring power of gold stirred the untapped desires of man all though out history. Causing great changes in civilization and molding us to what we are today. The same holds true to the American gold rush in 1849 in California. How that gold rush shaped American economy and the west of the Americas in that time frame. The gold discovery that caught the eye of the world and brought attention to California happened on January 24, 1848 two week right before the peace signing negotiations between the Mexico and American governments (hittell, 1999) . In short the Mexican government gave up a huge discovery in the California’s lands that they had control over at that time. Neither the America nor the Mexican governments knew the magnitude of the discovery in California until the singing was over. The gold discovery that changed America happened in Sacramento Valley, most likely one of the most significant events to shape American history during the first half of the 19th century (The Gold Rush of 1849). As the news spread about the discovery of gold people by the thousand poured into San Francisco and the surrounding area by land and sea by the end of 1849 over 100,000 nonnatives California’s occupied the California claim lands. Before the 1849 discovery records showed that occupies was less than a 1000 before the 1848. (The Gold Rush of 1849). On January 24, 1848 the man who made the first discovery in California was James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter originally from New Jersey, found flakes of gold in the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Coloma, California. (The Gold Rush of 1849) At the time of the discovery Marshall was working to build a

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