Transcript The Gold Rush of 1849

Made by Kochev Dmitry
Teacher: Travkina O.V.
Lvovskaya school №4
2011
The Gold Rush of 1849
Origins of the Gold Rush
◊ Westward Expansion
• Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark of the United
States Army were commissioned by President Thomas
Jefferson in 1804 to explore the possible expansion of the
US territory to the west.
• The Corps of Discovery (as the expedition was called) lasted
from 1804 till 1806.
• This journey gave the US Government a knowledge of the
geography of that territory.
• It also promoted commerce in this region, prompting many
people to move across the country.
Striking Gold!
◊ Forty two years after Lewis and
Clark’s expedition gold was
discovered in Northern
California
◊ On January 24, 1848 James
Marshall found gold while
mining
◊ The land was owned by Captain
John Sutter and was near the
place where San Francisco
would be built soon.
January 24, 1848
◊ The California Gold
Rush began when
gold was discovered
at Sutter’s Mill
◊ As the news of
discovery had spread
over 300000 people
came to California
from the rest of the
United States and
abroad.
The Rush is On!
◊ Northern California became a
very popular place in 1849.
◊ Thousands of people
travelled west during the
“Gold Fever” to reach the
region of their hope.
◊ These people were known as
“49ers” because they left
everything and moved west
in 1849.
How did I get to California?
◊ Three main routes were taken during Gold Rush in 18491850
• Overland Route
◊ Groups left from Midwest and travelled across the Plains
• Water Route
◊ Groups left from Eastern port cities (Boston, New York, and
Philadelphia) and travelled around South America
• Water and Land Route
◊ Groups left from Eastern port cities for the East Coast of
Panama and went from the West Coast of Panama in different
boats to California
Choosing your way: Overland
◊ They travelled by Covered
Wagon in groups called
“Wagon Trains”
◊ Approximately 40,000
people chose this route
from 1849 till 1850
◊ Travellers had to cross
over rivers, mountains,
prairies, and deserts
???
Overland Route
Water Routes
Choosing your way: Water Route
◊ Large Clipper Ships
were used to travel
around South America
◊ They stopped in Brazil
and Chile to take new
supplies and fuel;
◊ More than 15,000
people chose this route
to travel to California
Choosing your way:
Water and Land Route
◊ Large ships sailed from
northeast to the
Isthmus of Panama in
the Gulf of Mexico
◊ Then travellers made
their way sixty miles
through the jungle of
California
◊ Panama City was the
port for their second
ship to California
THE MINERS
Ethnical Conflicts
By 1850 most of the easily accessible gold had been
collected
and attention
turned to extractingWoman
gold from
more
Massacre
in
defends
difficult
deposits.
out foreigners to
Latino
campAmericans began to drive
herself
get the most accessible gold that remained. The new
California State Goverment set a tax of twenty dollars per
month for foreign miners. Americans began to organize
attacks on foreign miners, particularly Latin Americans and
Chinese. In addition, a great number of newcomers occupied
the Native Americans’ traditional hunting, fishing and foodgathering areas.
Ethnical Conflicts with Native
Americans
To protect their homes and
territories some Native Americans
attacked the miners. This
provoked counter-attacks on
native villages. The Native
Americans, who had no guns,
were often slaughtered. Those
who escaped massacres were
forced to survive without access to
their food-gathering areas, and
they starved to death.
Gold recovery techniques
Because the gold in the California
gravel beds was so richly
concentrated, the early fortyniners simply panned gold in
California's rivers and streams.
However, panning could not be
done in a large scale. And some
groups of miners developed new
technologies such as "cradles"
and "rockers" or "long-toms" to
process larger volumes of gravel.
The workers canneled water from
one river to another and then dug
for gold in the newly exposed river
bottom.
A LONG TOM
MINERS AT WORK WITH LONG TOMS
Techniques for retrieving gold
◊ At first a technique called
panning was used to get
gold from streams and
riverbeds.
Hydraulic mining was later
invented in California. This
technique was created for
larger scales of gold mining
Hydraulic technologies
At the next stage, by 1853, hydraulic
mining was used on ancient goldbearing gravel bed. A high-pressure
hose directed a powerful stream or
jet of water at gold-bearing gravel
beds. The loosened gravel and gold
would then pass over sluices with
the gold settling to the bottom where
it was collected by "hydraulicking".
This style of hydraulic mining later
spread around the world.
WATER WHEEL AND HYDRO PRESS
Famous People - Samuel Brannan
◊ Samuel Brannan was the first
millionaire because of the
California Gold Rush
◊ Brannan established the first
newspaper in San Francisco
called the California Star and
also organized the first school
◊ Brannan was elected to the
California State Senate in
1853. He also gave money for
developing banks, railroads,
and telegraph companies.
Famous People - H. Wells & W. Fargo
They decided to profit from
Gold Rush by providing
services to miners.
They created Wells &
Fargo Co. for banking, mail,
and stage coach services.
Famous People - Levi Strauss
*He ran a successful drygoods store
*He patented canvas pants
with riveted pockets which
are now
called jeans.
The negative effects of the Gold Rush
Native Americans
became the victims of
diseases, starvation and
genocidal attacks.
- The Native American
population in 1845 was
150,000
- The Native American
population in 1870 was
less than 30,000.
Many people who went
to California
from around the world
never reached it.
The Donner party- A group
of 87 people from various
families set out for
California and became
snowbound in the Sierra
Nevada. Only 48 of the
87 pioneers survived.
The positive effects of the gold
rush
◊ Towns and cities were
founded.
◊ Roads, schools, and
churches were built.
◊ Transportation was
improved between
California and the
east coast
All of these
developments led to the
statehood of California
on September 9th, 1850
as the 31st state.
THE DREAM OF A MINER