CH. 12-Manifest Destiny #4 (California Gold Rush)

• 1848-James Marshall discovered gold on Sutter's Mill in California

• thousands headed west

• "forty-niners"-miners who traveled to California seeking gold in 1849

• Exhaustion, poor food, & disease all damaged the miners’ health

• few miners grew rich from gold itself (they sold land, tools, food)

• About 2/3 of "forty-niners" were Americans

• others came from Europe, South America, Australia, and China

• by 1852 the "gold rush" was over

• 250,000 people came to California

• This huge migration caused economic growth that changed California permanently

The gold rush provided an opportunity for new lifestyles and increased wealth, but it did not have a positive impact on everyone. Many people who had long lived in California found their livelihoods destroyed. Californios had thrived on California’s abundant farmland and prosperous ranchos. Newcomers to the area did not respect Californios’ customs or legal rights, and in some cases they seized Californios’ property. In addition, thousands of Native Americans died at the hands of gold miners or from the diseases that they and other settlers brought into the region.

• San Francisco became a center of banking, manufacturing, shipping, & trade

• Sacramento became the center of a productive farming region

• California became a free state on September 9, 1850

• part of Compromise of 1850

• capital is Sacramento

Quails can only fly a short distance & have a lifespan of 2-3 years.

Many American territories waited years before achieving statehood, but not California. With its population booming and lawlessness plaguing its mining camps, California needed a strong government right away. Since it now easily met the population requirements, many people felt that it was time for California to become a state.

In 1849, territory leaders met at a convention in Monterey to draft a constitution and to make a plan to petition the federal government for statehood. California’s first constitution prohibited slavery. However, it did not grant civil rights to all of the state’s nonwhite or female populations.

golden poppy, quail, grizzly bear, and state flag