The Gold rush of 1849 had a huge impact on American society at the time because it created jobs for people from all over the country. People from all over the world came to mine gold. Financially the Gold rush had an enormous impact on society, since gold was worth a significant amount of money at the time. Although the actual work of mining gold was not good. Many people lacked in hygiene and suffered from depression, disease, and broken bones. A majority of the prospectors came from the eastern United States and included a large continent of merchant confederates. Gold rushes not only had effects of the economy but on the land as well. The Gold Rush was great for the people who found gold. If you found gold you were set very well. An ounce of gold was worth around 20 dollars during 1849. If you found a significant amount of gold, you would get a significant amount of money. An early miner could make ten times more money mining gold than working in the east. Gold dust emerged as a common form of currency in the early days of the Gold Rush. Early miners were really set to live well. However, few ever struck it big. Historians have estimated that miners dug up 10 million dollars of gold in 1849, 41 million dollars more in 1850, and another 81 million dollars in 1852. Those were the greatest amounts of gold that was mined, but in 1857 miners still managed to get 45 million dollars worth. When workers are finding millions of dollars in the gold mines, the economy is going to have a positive effect. Living situations and housing was also affected by the gold rush. As forty niners poured into California, the towns and villages quickly filled up, resulting in the growth of already established cities such as San Francisco. Also ... ... middle of paper ... ...eir mental illness wasn’t too serious. Serious cases of mental illness would result in separation from other miners and sometimes restrained. Since the medical knowledge of mental illness wasn’t high, people were not often cured and left to fend for themselves. Physical and mental illness was a huge factor in the time of the gold rush. It affected tons of people. Thousands of people died due to the lack of medical knowledge and treatment. Families were affected by this too. If a husband who belongs to a family goes to mine and gets sick, that family is in trouble. There will be no income of money and resources so they will have a tough time. For the people who struck gold, it was great! For the people who ended up with disease or mental illness, it wasn’t so great. That’s why going to California to mine gold was such a risk. You either made it or you didn’t.
San Francisco would arise into the “importer, the banker, the market” and the “great financial and commercial centre of all the Pacific coasts and countries” (300). Trade opportunities with other countries would be created and an increase in economic success would surface. Although there are many benefits, there are also some major drawbacks with the arrival of the railroad. George says, the state of California has a chance to grow rapidly, however the “aggregated population and wealth of the State will diminish rather than increase” (298). In spite of the new era being greater, richer and more powerful than the California in the past, some major economic transformations would be seen in the state. In the past, California did not have a rich class, nor a poor class. “With the expansion of the railroad, the State will become a better system for some social classes than it was in the past, but it will also be far worse for others.” ( ). People who are rich would become wealthier, while poorer people would have a harder time acquiring wealth. For instance, those who already own land, business, etc., will become richer. While people with their own labor, will become poorer and find it harder
The Gilded Age was a time in American history that came to be known as a major turning point for the country, as it marked the decline of an economy based on agriculture, and brought forth the rise of an economy based on business and industry. Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, it was a great time for change, especially for the economy. The economy improved, and at the same time, it granted more opportunities for inventors and businessmen to come out and share their talent with the the world. As America began to industrialize and make new advancements in technology, it also began to encourage the growth of the middle class and promoted the importance of social mobility and competition between businesses. The Gilded Age was a time when
In the 1800’s people with mental illnesses were frowned upon and weren't treated like human beings. Mental illnesses were claimed to be “demonic possessions” people with mental illnesses were thrown into jail cells, chained to their beds,used for entertainment and even killed. Some were even slaves, they were starved and forced to work in cold or extremely hot weather with chains on their feet.
“The Great Depression was a worldwide economic slump of the 1930’s” (Fetzer; p.338). The Great Depression caused a catastrophic amount of grief and distress for the citizens of the United States. Some of these citizens, however, faced more problems which caused grief and distress than others. Among those citizens were the mentally ill. During the era of the Great Depression, the mentally handicapped were treated unfairly in almost every aspect of their lives; this included how society treated them, how they were treated medically, and even how their personal lives were affected.
In January of 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill, which is now in present-day California. From 1848-1849, 300,000 people rushed to California in search of gold. These gold-seekers, nicknamed “Forty-Niners”, came from all over the world. Most of the Forty-Niners came from the rest of America, but some even came from Europe, Australia, Latin America, and Asia. Because of the huge gold rush, roads, churches, schools, canals, cities, and towns were established in the California area. This new economic explosion influenced California to become a state in the Union.
People now had the chance to look for gold out west and the Gold Rush began. This is when America really had its boom. Lastly, we now have twice as much, if not more, natural resources than we had before.
As most folks do, when I think of the term “Gold Rush”, it conjures up images of the West! Images of cowboys and crusty old miners ruthlessly and savagely staking their claims. Immigrants coming by boat, folks on foot, horseback, and covered wagon form all over the US to rape and pillage the land that was newly acquired from Mexico through the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo… California. But let me tell you about a gold rush of another kind, in another place, even more significant. It was the actual first documented discovery of gold in the United States! Fifty years earlier…in North Carolina!
In 1851 there was a period in Australia called The Australian Gold Rush that lasted 25 years. Gold was so easily found that the news travelled and spread quickly all around the world. Due to its value and availability, soon enough different nationalities mainly Chinese and European people were attracted to looking out for this gold. Many people migrated to Australia to seize this opportunity to improve their lives, however, they also had difficulties during their migration and settlement.
The gold rush era in the United States began in California in 1848 and ended around the year 1900. (Yukon) Although miners searched for the valuable metal into the twentieth century, the Klondike gold rush, which was around 1897 till 1900, was the last of some of the major rushes to occur. People had flocked to the upper part of the Yukon River in hopes of striking it rich. Many people had traveled from the Canadian and American regions to the center of the Klondike gold rush to fulfill their dreams of one day being rich with gold. (Place 48) The Yukon River Valley of Canada and Alaska was once peaceful and isolated, wild animals and a few white trappers and people. The miners had wandered north after the California fields gave out and fulfilled their dreams on a few dollars in gold they managed to eke out of their mines. This loss of gold in California had made the peaceful Alaska into a rampage of greed and envy that would never make Alaska the same.
There have been many discoveries that have shaped our nation as a whole. Discoveries have allowed our country to thrive and become one of the most powerful nations in the world. When we look back at our nation's rich history, it is clear to see that there was one discovery in particular that had a vast impact on the United States; the discovery was gold in California. It was in this vastly unoccupied territory that the American dream was forever changed and California emerged as a powerful state busting at the seams. The California Gold Rush shaped California into the state that it is today. California is defined by its promise of entrepreneurial success and its acceptance and encouragement of obtaining the American Dream.
The California Gold Rush was discovered accidently. Most of the world’s gold is deep underground and embedded in hard rock. Unlike anywhere else in the world at that time the gold in California was easy to dig up, free for the taking and required little tools to acquire any gold. All that was requires was a pick or shovel and a pan to shift out the gold from the rock, sand and debris. The Gold Rush affected not only California but the outcome of the nation. It created the expansion of our nation into Western America and California. The rush brought hundreds of thousand Americans and foreigners to the Sierra Nevada’s with the hopes of sticking it rich. This impacted the social life and the economy while effected the rest of the country. The
For example they traded meet,accessories, valuables, fruits ,vegetables ,clothing and many other interesting things. They would trade with different tribes that had what they wanted. They also lived in dome structures.The Miners are also known as “The Forty-Niners”. They traveled to california for the goldfields in 1849 so they earned the name Forty-Niners. The vast majority of forty-niners were Americans however, many were from Europe. Every time a rumor of a gold strike was reported a boomtown would spring up. Why was this? It was because lots of people wanted gold and if they had gold they had power. That is a lot of things people wanted back then and still happens up to this day.Gold miners also lived in mining camps. Life in the mining camp was difficult, and crime and murder were common occurrences in the early years of the Gold
The California Gold Rush in 1849 was the catalyst event for the state that earned them a spot in the U.S. union in 1850. This was not the first gold rush in North America; however, it was one of the most important gold rush events. The story of how the gold was discovered and the stories of the 49ers are well known. Men leaving their families in the East and heading West in hopes of striking it rich are the stories that most of us heard about when we learn about the California Gold Rush. Professors and scholars over the last two decades from various fields of study have taken a deeper look into the Gold Rush phenomena. When California joined the Union in 1850 it helped the U.S. expand westward just as most Americans had intended to do. The event of the Gold Rush can be viewed as important because it led to a national railroad. It also provided the correct circumstances for successful entrepreneurship, capitalism, and the development modern industrialization. The event also had a major influence on agriculture, economics, and politics.
The gold rush was located in California. It was a time period in which there was a lot of mined gold. People started moving to California to mine for gold. The gold rush had more of a positive effect on America because it colonized open land and prohibited slavery.
The Gold Rush was one of the most influential times in California History. During the four years from 1848-1852, 400,000 new people flooded into the state. People from many countries and social classes moved to California, and many of them settled in San Francisco. All this diversity in one place created a very interesting dynamic. California during the Gold Rush, was a place of colliding ideals. The 49ers came from a very structured kind of life to a place where one was free to make up her own rules.