The American Gold Rush And Global Migration

The American Gold Rush And Global Migration:

 

A Swiss miller John Sutter in 1848 discovered gold in California. Thus, the great American Gold Rush is the outcome of accidental discovery of gold in California in1848. Thus, the discovery of gold triggered off many people from different parts of the world to migrate to California. This migration, which took place in the quest of gold was named as gold rush. Many people suffered in the hunt for gold. Majority of the people faced a lot of hardships, ailments as well as deaths. Such emigrants were named as forty-niners.

California is the fourth largest state in the US. The geological position of California is such that it lies on the west coast of the United States, and was formerly a part of Mexico. The gold deposits were mainly borne by the rivers in California.

When people came to know about the discovery of gold for the first time at the end of the year 1848, the first comers at the site of gold were the people of California and its adjoining areas. They were the first ones who took advantage of the discovered gold deposits, and hence made a lot of money from those deposits.

Nearly 90,000 people moved to California in 1849. This figure kept multiplying for several years. The huge number of immigrants changed the destiny and value of California. The gold rush added much to the value of this previously unknown region.

Just in 1849, near about 90,000 people moved towards California. This migration rate then kept on increasing enormously. Thus, this migration played an important role in determining United States as an important country on the globe of the world. The dynamics of this state were started changing quite rapidly. Soon, the unknown city of San Francisco acquired a new dimension on the map of the world and became a centre of trade and commerce. At present, it is ranked as the fourth largely populated city in the state of California. Moreover, the population of San Francisco contributes 13% of GDP growth to the country.

Once, California suffered a lot of cultural, as well as social tumult, but with the gold rush law, and order conditions were introduced, and were later improved. The large number of migrated people added much to the problems of the natives, as well as the State. It is not so that all people accomplished their task of discovering gold, and making money. Many people ended up in acquiring jobs in offices, and factories, or did farming as well.

As the time passed, the gold discovery for people became a difficult task. It not only became expensive due to the arrival of advanced methods, but the corporate also employed people on wages for mining purposes. The immigrants had left their own homes, and countries, and they were left with the only option to survive. Thus, they had done jobs in other industries founded by the immigrants, such as agriculture industry.

The greed for gold by the powerful ones led them to practice great racial discrimination especially towards the Chinese, and the Asians. In short, the American gold rush was not just a regional or national experience, but it had strong repercussions on the socio-economic factor of the world.