Who, What, Where, When, Why?
Who : James Wilson Marshall and John Sutter, main people of the first discovery of gold in California.
What : " John Sutter born in February 15, 1803, spent most of his life in Switzerland and eventually moved to California. There John made a new life and built "sutter's Fort" which lead him to an idea of creating a water sawmill. During the process James W. Marshall found flakes of gold and the word spread out. Causing a massive amount of people to come to California and make a California a huge state because of the population that was created.
When : January 24, 1848 to 1855
Where : California, on the South Fork of the American River in the valley the Nisenan Indians knew as Cullumah
Why : The gold rush wan't really meant to occur, but happened because the discoverers of the gold wanted to keep this as a secret, but somehow the secret got away and the whole world knew about it.
What : " John Sutter born in February 15, 1803, spent most of his life in Switzerland and eventually moved to California. There John made a new life and built "sutter's Fort" which lead him to an idea of creating a water sawmill. During the process James W. Marshall found flakes of gold and the word spread out. Causing a massive amount of people to come to California and make a California a huge state because of the population that was created.
When : January 24, 1848 to 1855
Where : California, on the South Fork of the American River in the valley the Nisenan Indians knew as Cullumah
Why : The gold rush wan't really meant to occur, but happened because the discoverers of the gold wanted to keep this as a secret, but somehow the secret got away and the whole world knew about it.
Significance
The Significance of the gold rush is how the discovery of a few gold flakes grabbed everyones attention and drew them to California searching for gold. It is important to know where the people from California are from and how California became a state and why it's a big state. Without the Gold Rush, California would have not become a state since that territory had a small amount of people until it exponentially grew causing jobs to rise, people to make money, and making that territory into California state. The California gold rush of 1849 brought large numbers of American citizens and new immigrants from Europe to California. The presence of gold -- the worldwide standard currency in that time -- made California tremendously valuable to the United States. California was not a US territory at that time, as it had quite recently revolted from Mexico and set up a military junta, quickly followed by a constitutional government. California was also valuable to the US because it solidified the US claim to the entire middle of the North American continent. California, with its rapid growth and gold exports, was able to demand concessions from the United States Congress including immediate statehood, expanded borders, and limited rights for Mexican and Spanish land grant holders.