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The California Gold Rush: The Discovery that Sparked a Golden Dream and Changed America Forever
Paperback
Series: Half Hour History
19th Century United States History
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Publisher: Independently Published
Pages: 152
Weight: 0.42
Height: 0.38 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Gold. Fortune. Adventure. And a discovery that transformed America forever.
In January 1848, carpenter James Marshall noticed something shining in the water beside a sawmill at Sutter's Mill. It was gold.
Within months, the secret was out.
Thousands abandoned farms, businesses and families and headed west. They crossed the American wilderness by wagon, sailed around Cape Horn and struggled through the jungles of Panama. Americans were soon joined by fortune seekers from Mexico, Chile, Europe, China, Australia and beyond.
California would never be the same again.
The California Gold Rush: Half Hour History tells the remarkable story of one of history's greatest migrations, from the first discovery of gold to the chaotic mining camps, exploding boomtowns and spectacular rise of San Francisco.
Discover:
- How gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill
- Why the Forty-Niners risked everything to reach California
- What life was really like in the goldfields
- How miners actually found and extracted gold
- The boomtowns, saloons and gambling halls of Gold Rush California
- The Chinese, Mexican, European and other international miners who joined the rush
- The devastating consequences for Native Californians
- Why merchants often became richer than the miners
- How hydraulic mining literally moved mountains
- Whether the average prospector actually made any money
- How the Gold Rush helped transform California into an American state
- Why its effects were eventually felt around the world
The California Gold Rush created enormous wealth, but it also brought violence, discrimination, environmental destruction and the catastrophic dispossession of Indigenous peoples. Behind the romantic legend was a far more complicated story.
Fast-paced, engaging and packed with fascinating detail, this is the California Gold Rush explained without the unnecessary padding.
Perfect for history enthusiasts, students, travellers and anyone who wants to understand how a few pieces of gold discovered in a quiet California river helped change the world.
Big history. Short read. Half Hour History.
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