IndexHistory of CaliforniaWest HeaderLife in the California Gold RushWorks CitedCalifornia became an American territory when the United States defeated Mexico in 1847. John Marshall discovered gold the following year , bringing people from all over the world to the port of San Francisco and surrounding areas. These prospectors scoured river beds and mountain slopes and eventually used dynamite to extract the hard rock. The influx of people caused many changes to the land: from inflation and banking, to the permanent settlement of the far west coast of the United States. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayHistory of CaliforniaThe state of California belonged to the Spanish in 1600 and was lost when Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821. it will not remain a Mexican possession for long. In 1846, soon after General Sam Houston and his army won the Texas War for Independence, U.S. President James Polk sought to increase the size of the United States by annexing the continent's west coast. He offered Mexico $40 million for the territory, but his offer was flatly rejected. Other European countries looked to California's lands for their own expansion. In the midst of these failed negotiations, American surveyor James Charles Fremont began the Bear Flag Rebellion, which declared California's independence from Mexico. The Mexican government refused to allow the United States to take the land away and declared war on the United States. Zachary Taylor and later Winfield Scott lead the American armies against the Mexican enemy. After several battles, on September 17, 1847, Mexican General Antonio Lopez Santa Anna ceded the disputed Mexican territories to the United States. Both countries signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican War and forced Mexico to cede the New Mexico and California area territory to the United States. California became an American territory in 1850. Gold! Soon after the war, on January 24, 1848, James Marshall discovered gold in California. He was supervising the operation of a sawmill near present-day Coloma, California, located on the American River. The mill was located fifty miles from land owned by his Swiss-German partner, John Augustus Sutter. Sutter left Europe due to bankruptcy and arrived in California in 1839 after obtaining a land grant of 48,000 acres from Mexico. He hoped to regain his fortune by farming. Once Marshall told his partner about his discovery, Sutter tried to keep it a secret. He knew he had no solid rights to the land where the gold had been found. He also feared that his farm would be ruined by prospectors seeking riches. The secret of the gold discovery became public knowledge and reached an opportunistic Mormon shopkeeper named Samuel Brennan. Brennan used the hysteria surrounding the discovery of gold to increase his personal fortune by raising the prices of common goods. In April 1848, Brennan purchased as many supplies as possible to replenish his supplies. He took a quinine bottle filled with gold dust and ran through the streets of San Francisco screaming, 'Gold! Gold! From the American River!” He also wrote an article on the subject in his newspaper, the "California Star". In 1848, only those living in the California area answered the cry. These prospectors poured onto the land near Sutter's farm and sifted the sand and gravel of the riverbed with baskets and pans. Even the agricultural workers ofSutter left his job to pan for gold, abandoning his crops and leaving him in ruins. It took longer for the news to spread to the eastern United States. Those who lived far away needed further proof of the reality of the discoveries. The US government has provided this evidence. California's military governor, Richard Mason, came to inspect the site where Marshall first discovered gold. He brought with him his aid, Lieutenant William T. Sherman. The presence of the precious metal was confirmed in an official report then published in various newspapers in the country. President Polk also mentioned California gold in his State of the Union address on December 8, 1848. Heading West Now that all of America was certain of the validity of the Gold Rush, many people, especially men, left work and their families to seek their fortune. Many people living on the East Coast have faced a difficult journey. Some chose to travel overland, but were slowed by the lack of a direct road or waterway. They followed what became known as the Oregon-California Trail. This bumpy path took the searchers on a four-month journey across the country. Others left the east coast by boat and circumnavigated the entire tip of South America to reach California. It was a dangerous journey that lasted up to four months. Some of those using the sea route tried to shorten the travel distance by crossing the small land bridge in Panama, only to face treacherous rainforest. Many people from foreign countries also came to California to find their fortune. People from Australia, China, Chile, Turkey, Ireland, Germany and France all arrived at the port of San Francisco once the cries of gold reached foreign ports. The small town's population exploded from 850 to 80,000 almost overnight. These foreigners and Americans, all known as the '49ers, had one thing in common: the hope of becoming rich. The gold hunters began their search near the American River. Baskets initially used to sift gravel from the riverbed evolved into metal pans. By 1852, most of the readily available surface gold had been discovered. This forced prospectors to change their mining methods. One method was to place large quantities of soil in large silos and use river water to wash the heavier gold off the soil. Small channels called flues were used to convey water to the site of the operation. A rarer method was hydraulic mining. Using high-pressure water, large sections of mountain slopes were brought to light. The soil was then sieved. Mounds of dirt often got stuck in nearby rivers and caused flooding of personal property and even urban areas. Once all the gold that could be found by these methods had been collected, prospectors had to resort to a process that used explosives to find the gold within the hard rock. Life in the California Gold Rush As gold became increasingly difficult to find, xenophobia became a problem among the many cultures that had settled in the city of San Francisco. Strangers who had once been welcome in the city were now treated with contempt. Native Americans, who generally did not get caught up in the gold hysteria, were the first victims. Before the Gold Rush years, approximately 300,000 Native Americans lived in the California area. The discovery of gold resulted in an influx of people who had little or no respect for the tribal customs of the Indians. The miners.