How did the discovery of gold affect the settlement of he west?

Answer 1

24 January 1848 marked the start of the "California Gold Rush." That was the date that John Marshall discovered gold in the American River while working for John Augustus Sutter on his vast land holdings. The next year--1849--over 80,000 people entered California and the 49er Gold Rush was on. Aside from the amount of gold discovered, and the impact it had on the economy of California and the nation, the most important aspects of the gold rush were the populating of California, its admittance to the Union and the unfolding of events that would lead the nation to a Civil War. The Southern states looked to the West for the expansion of slavery and the plantation system. Proslavery southerners wanted Mexican lands and most of California. The admission of California as a state would upset the equality between north and south in the US Senate, were California to be admitted as a free state. Abolitionists in the North made it necessary for southerners to demand that some kind of equality in the US Senate be guaranteed. Henry Clay, the Great Compromiser, introduced legislation that would require both North and South to make significant concessions. His attempt at compromise only drove the sections further apart. The Fugitive Slave Act served as an example of sectionalism. The South favored the return of runaway slaves via the use of federal commissioners who could circumvent local courts, while the abolitionists consider the act a way of making slavery legal in states that had anti slavery laws. Anti slavery northerners would create a new political party, the Republican Party, to continue the political fight against the expansion of slavery. The compromises suggested would continue to fail, and the nation would continue its division until the Election of 1860. MrV

Answer 2

By the mid-1850's the California Gold Rush had ended. Disappointed minors still hoped to strike rich , began prospectingin other parts of the west. in 1858 a mining expedition found gold on slopes of PIKE PEAK in the Colorado Rockies. Newspapers claimed that miners were making $20 a day panning for gold-a large sum at a time when servents made less then a dollar a day. By the spring of 1859, about 50,000 prospectors had flocked to Colorado. Thier slogan was "Pikes Peak or Bust."

Answer 3

A mass migration from the East, plus Asian, European and South American miners, labourers and adventurers with dreams of striking it rich, headed for California and environs.

Answer 4

Many people migrated from the East, as well as from foreign countries such as China and Ireland. The discovery of gold and silver also triggered the California Gold Rush.

Answer 5

a lot of poor people wanted to come and find gold and the place got crowded