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México y sus relaciones con Cánada y Estados Unidos Julia Sarina Maurer/ 401455
Essay: The California Gold Rush
Until 1849, California always used to be a sleepy, little-known backwater. However, with the
California Gold Rush suddenly everything changed. The city, people, culture, infrastructure
as well as the economy. In no time the California Gold Rush transformed the isolated island
of tranquility to an unruly emporium of business and bedlam.
When we think about the California Gold Rush today, many of us only know about the good
sides of it: the wealth it brought, the economic stimulation and the possibility for California
to become a state. However, a look behind the scenes quickly reveals the dark sides of the
California Gold Rush. Therefore I firstly want to talk about the bad sides of the gold rush.
Prior to the gold rush and the arrival of gold seekers from across the country and the world,
California's native population was an estimated 150,000 people. What really comes as a
shock for me is that within only a short period of two years this number diminished
drastically to less than 60,000 Native Americans. It’s making me mad that this was largely
