THE GOLD RUSH with fortunes in their pockets American gold seekers traveled west from the eastern states migrating in such vast numbers that their passage stimulated advancements advancements in transcontinental travel People of diverse backgrounds and ethnicities traveled to California selling their property and getting loans to afford the journey Along the way they risked danger and disease for a chance at gaining riches The influx of migrants had serious consequences for the many native peoples of California The people whose ancestors had lived in California for thousands of years shared little of the prosperity brought to California by the Gold Rush Many American Indians were involved in the Gold Rush from its earliest days but were mistreated by white settlers and reduced to positions as laborers with low wages California’s Indians were devastated by the many diseases that were brought by migrants during the late 1840s and throughout the 1850s Before the Gold Rush Indians made up most of California’s population numbering about 150,000 By 1870 however only thirty thousand Indians remained Many of them were moved to reservations reservations where living conditions were very poor The settlements that arose in response to the Gold Rush and the environmental impact of gold mining made traditional traditional Native American lifestyles impossible to maintain 6
INTRODUCTION In 1849 alone 10 million worth of gold was pulled from the ground and over the next few years this number number grew In view of the huge amounts of money that could be made and the rising lawlessness in mining settlements politicians pushed to speed up the process of statehood In 1850 California became the thirty-first state The Gold Rush peaked in 1852 when 81 million worth of gold was extracted in California Afterward the number slowly declined By the end of the 1850s the Gold Rush was over but its legacy would continue to influence California and the nation in the years to come 7
CHAPTER ONE THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA By the time it came under the control of the United States in 1848 California had undergone undergone many changes For thousands of years before Europeans arrived in the Americas California was home to hundreds of diverse American Indian groups Spanish explorers reached California during the sixteenth century and formed trading relationships with the Indians The Spanish claimed California but mostly ignored it until 1769 when they established a mission at San Diego with the aim of converting the Indians to Christianity At the time more than three hundred thousand thousand Indians lived in California Over the next fifty years the Spanish founded twenty more missions along the coast Spanish families families were given large grants of land and enjoyed political control of the region This elite Spanish population living in California came to be known as the Californios 88
THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA This sculpture depicts Saint Junipero Serra a Franciscan priest who founded the first Spanish missions in California beginning in 1769 California remained under Spanish control until 1821 when Mexico won independence from Spain Under the Mexican government the Californios retained much of their power and influence and further land grants were given to Mexicans In 1846 the United States declared war on Mexico The Mexican-American Mexican-American War ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2 1848 The Mexican government government ceded control of California to the United States just nine days after James Marshall had discovered gold in Coloma WHO WERE THE FORTY-NINERS The first gold seekers to arrive in California came from the Sandwich Islands which are now Hawaii and from Oregon and Mexico American settlers African 9
