Title: Historical Impact of the California Gold Rush | Norwich University Online
Headings: Historical Impact of the California Gold Rush
Historical Impact of the California Gold Rush
Historical Context of the Gold Rush
Brief History of the Gold Rush
Effects of the Gold Rush
Effects on Manufacturing and Industry
Effects on the Development of Agriculture
International Effects of the Gold Rush
Effects on Transportation
Negative Outcomes of the Gold Rush
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Content: and American humorist, Mark Twain, got his start in San Francisco, where he initially joined his brother is prospecting for gold but ended up finding greater success as a reporter for The San Francisco Call. For historians and students alike, learning more about the California Gold Rush can help explain the development of the American West and how California came to be. Historical Context of the Gold Rush
In February 1848, Mexico ceded California to the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which effectively ended the Mexican-American War. The treaty granted over one million square miles of land to the United States, which included present-day Nevada, Wyoming, and New Mexico. At the time, the United States was influenced by significant expansionist sentiment, with President James Polk having won the presidency in 1845 running on a strong expansionist platform. Many Americans believed in what was called “Manifest Destiny,” or, the idea that the United States’ Westward expansion and acquisition of lands on the North American continent were both inevitable and justifiable. California’s Gold Rush and the fledgling territory’s rapid increase in wealth and population necessitated a civilian government to maintain the public order and prompted its speedy entry into the United States in 1850. By contrast, territories such as New Mexico and Arizona didn’t become states until 1912. California also boasted a community armed with a strong sense of ambition and civic duty; within a year, California sent representatives to Washington with a draft constitution to request statehood.