The California Gold Rush

There are many events in history that are considered to be memorable and noteworthy. One of those particular events was the California Gold Rush. The news of the discovery of gold would alter the California landscape, as more than 300,000 people would migrate to the state from the rest of the United States and from overseas as a result. The effects of the California Gold Rush would not only alter the populace in the state of California but substantially change the dynamics of the United States as well.

The Event

The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when James W. Marshall discovered a piece of gold in the American River. Marshall found this lump of gold while constructing a sawmill for John Sutter, an agriculturalist based in Sacramento, CA. The news of this breakthrough would catapult many into the state in hunt of the yellow treasure. The arrival of individuals was referred to as the 49ers. As a result of the swelling population growth, that was rapid in movement, California was brought into the Union as the 31st state in 1850; subsequent two years after the United States had received it from Mexico under the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. This treaty in effect had ended the Mexican-American War. The spur of movement of individuals was an internal faction of Americans from eastern states in the hopes that they would make considerable fortunes in the state of California. At the onset of the migration were two separate routes. The first was a six-month sea passage from New York around the tip of South America to either the cities of San Diego or San Francisco. This was often deemed challenging due to the amount of seasickness and soaring expenditure that would develop as a result. The second route was over the Oregon-California Trail via covered wagons. The journey lasted normally, a period of six months. By 1850, the routes had been traveled profoundly and had led to encouragement to create the Panama Railway. The railway would become the first transcontinental railroad, built transversely the Isthmus of Panama by classified American enterprises to speed journeys to California and diminish the problems and issues that had occurred along the two routes ("California Gold Rush (1848–1858)"). This made it easier for those seeking to come to California to seek out their proverbial piece of the gold pie could do it without dilemma. 

Prior to the unearthing of gold by Marshall, the bulk of the West did not belong to the United States, therefore when it was discovered; many Americans believed it was a sign similar to manifest destiny. In other words, California was a gift from the heavens. In addition to the enormous migration from the east to the state of California, the gold rush also elicited a superfluous quantity of foreign luck seekers from China, Germany, Chile, Mexico, Ireland, Turkey, and France. Perhaps the biggest amount resulted from the country of China. The rivalry for gold bred serious quarrel, which would inescapably lead to more than a few anti-Chinese measures drafted by the United States. One of the more prominent pieces of legislation was the $20 monthly Foreign Miners Tax. The Chinese people also faced grave prejudiced acts under the Chinese Exclusion Act that was enacted in 1882. This particular law suspended Chinese colonization to the United States for several years. Through perseverance, however, the Chinese people would remain in the United States helping to construct the American railroad systems and becoming a part of the American tapestry ("California Gold Rush (1848–1858)"; Elder). 

The Manifest Destiny & Subsequent Events

As described in the literary work, Harvest of Empire, the Manifest Destiny has often been discussed significantly by scholars and commentators because of its effects on imperialism in America and the United States efforts to enforce free markets and egalitarianism on other nations that had flocked to the United States during the California Gold Rush. The so-called Manifest Destiny challenged the times. It was a sign of the times that America needed change and renovation. The completion of the railroad would put many local transportation entrepreneurs out of work, and as well as the dismissal of numerous railroad workers in spite of the industrialization progression that the solitary railroad would bring. Many neighborhood businesses tried to stop the building of the railroad but were fruitless in their attempts. The exclusivity of Panama in the continental U.S. Empire would afford a shift in the growth of Latin American laissez-faire. Panama's autonomous uprising would have occurred without U.S. intrusion, yet the efforts from the United States helped vastly. It created a colossal universal logic of rights and strengthened the authenticity of many of Panama's demands of the United States (McGuinness). Manifest Destiny eventually curbed the course of the revolution of equality in Panama. 

During the boom of the California Gold Rush, the city of San Francisco prospered and was a mixture of many races, and devout groups. The mining sector had at the outset taken resources from the products sector, which including manufacturing and farming products. Yet, after 1849, much of the earnings levels were in decline but ultimately stabilized around 1857. Hefty pieces of gold were recurrently picked out of mud and gravel through the usage of acids. The California Gold Rush would increase the number of jobs between 1870 and 1880. An additional result of the gold rush was the expansion of residential areas that were the result of developed areas in San Francisco and Oakland. In 1857, horse-drawn streetcars began riding along Market Street in San Francisco and this opened up other routes that would allow professionals to go to work who had come to the United States as a result of the gold rush. The cable car transportation business expanded significantly over the course of several years. By 1899, housing was erected, and cable cars were operating on nearly all of the major streets in San Francisco. The gold rush essentially allows San Francisco to benefit greatly from the accretion of human capital, which in this case referred to the effects of the association of groups of people and their respective output in their search for gold (Frost).

The gold rush successfully helped California and the people of the United States. Locomotives and ships benefited as well as the mining industry. While history has reported that much of the landscape of the mining sector was depleted due to the institution of certain areas as a result of demands for machines and equipment, output productivity was definitively increased. Companies were able to produce more products due to the expansion of the mining companies. Hydraulic mining companies developed new nozzles for hoses. San Francisco benefited significantly from the gold rush. Perhaps the central feature to San Francisco and other surrounding cities in California that resulted from the gold rush was capital creation. Corporations and partnerships were able to seriously capitalize on resource removal as well as the commercial and transport roads that were created and built. Consortiums of San Franciscans set up companies that were able to provide and establish agricultural areas and irrigation for small-scale farmers. Due to this, farms were able to nurture tree and vines that they had been having trouble with due to the lack of water supply in the rural areas (Frost). The agricultural industry would also benefit from the gold rush. 

Economists have long studied the rising eminence of the agricultural sector, beginning with the contributions from Roswell Garst. With the rise in food production and an expansion of the manufactured goods sector, rural workers were often released from having to overproduce. The standard farm became proficient in serving a considerable segment of the urban populace. Between 1890 and 1910, the number of residents of San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles, were aided by every 100 farms in the state. The increase was noted as going from "781 to 1,124 [which meant] an increase in productivity of 31 percent, or 1.5 percent per annum. By 1930, the number of residents in California's two largest cities that were served by every 100 farms had increased to 1,693" (Frost). This included the dairy industry as well. 

During the gold rush, industrialists started importing milk cows from the east to the west to boost the making of butter and cheese. The number of dairy cattle increased by "282 percent and output of milk by 372 percent. There was also a rise in acreage planting of fruit trees in cities such as Solano, Sacramento, and Yolo. While it was understood that fresh fruit was highly perishable, farmers understood that with the increase of population as an effect of the gold rush, that there would be an increase in demand and thus a need for an increase in supply" ("California Dairy Tales"; Frost). In spite of the many accomplishments that resulted from the California Gold Rush, the event has not been without criticism. 

Scholars that have examined the gold rush and its consequences have stated that there were certain aspects of it that in effect, California, would have been better off if Marshall had never discovered gold. While prosperity and expansion evolved as a result of the gold rush, scholars have purported that California would have better benefited from a gradual change in its cultural landscape. Historians have argued that with the rise of modern industrialization that came, that much of the environment was altered, destroyed and depleted. In the early months in the mining camps, historians have stated that the jubilation of having survived the life-threatening journeys to California was elevated with antagonism. Rumors would fly as a result of miners seeking to battle for space. This led to an increase in the pace of work, and many miners not being able to continue their work. Pandemonium eventually ensued in many cases. Historians also recount the many different diseases that resulted from the mania of the California Gold Rush (Rawls and Burn). The California dream was ruined with incidents of accidents, violence, and disease. Casualties often went from a few to many. 

Several scholars have spoken that much of the countryside where quartz mining took place was severely damaged due to the gold rush adventure that took place with the number of people that came to the state. The historians ask the question, what kind of progress was the gold rush really, but a manhunt for gold fetishes and monetary gain. Of course, interpretations have varied, with the myriad of scholars deeming the gold rush an economic success to many groups that migrated to California as a result of the noted fixation. Many small-time politicians were able to rise to power as well because they could state the differences between themselves and the establishment. These small-time politicians were often from the east that had a different philosophy regarding racial boundaries between the groups and looked at the African Americans, Mexicans and Chinese people who heavily populated California in a more favorable light than these groups had traditionally been seen as (Rawls and Burn). As with most historical events, historians and scholars have debated whether the positives outweigh the disadvantages that typically come. 

The California Gold Rush was one of the most fascinating events in United States history both for its advantages and disadvantages that resulted. The economy was stimulated, both around the world and within the state because of the groundbreaking dynamics of the discovery of gold and the massive influx of people that came from the east and overseas. While the jubilation of searching for gold was the principal reason, many ethnicities remained following the end of the gold rush and changed the course of the United States in many sectors. The noteworthy achievement of the gold rush was a shift in the productivity of many industries in California and the establishment of the transcontinental railroad.  

Works Cited

"California Dairy Tales." California Milk Advisory Board, 2013. 19 Apr. 2013. http://www.realcaliforniamilk.com/features/tips-for-cooking-with-dairy/ca-dairy-tales.

"California Gold Rush (1848–1858)." Immigration to the US. The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2013. 19 Apr. 2013. http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/goldrush.html.

Elder, Robert K. "The California Gold Rush." The New York Times 28 Jan. 2013: 16-19.

Frost, Lionel. "'Metallic Nerves': San Francisco and Its Hinterland During and After the Gold Rush." Australian Economic History Review, 50.2 (2010): 129-147.

McGuinness, Aims. Path of Empire: Panama and the California Gold Rush. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008.

Rawls, James J., and Walter Bean. California: An Interpretive History. 10th. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 2011.