The Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Gender practices 
As the California Gold Rush brought a disproportionate population of men and set 
an environment of experimental lawlessness separate from the bounds of standard 
society, conventional American gender roles came into question. In the large 
absence of women, these migrant young men were made to reorganize their social 
and sexual practices, leading to cross-gender practices that most often took place 
as cross-dressing. Dance events were a notable social space for cross-dressing, 
where a piece of cloth (such as a handkerchief or sackcloth patch) would denote a 
'woman.' Beyond social events, these subverted gender expectations continued into 
domestic duties as well. Though cross-dressing occurred most frequently with men 
as women, the reverse also applied. 

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These miners and merchants of various genders and gendered appearances, 
encouraged by the social fluidity and population limitations of the Wild West, 
shaped the beginnings of San Francisco's prominent queer history. 
Longer-term 
California's name became indelibly connected with the Gold Rush, and fast success 
in a new world became known as the "California Dream." California was perceived 
as a place of new beginnings, where great wealth could reward hard work and good 
luck. Historian H. W. Brands noted that in the years after the Gold Rush, the 
California Dream spread across the nation: 
The old American Dream ... was the dream of the Puritans, of Benjamin Franklin's 
"Poor Richard"... of men and women content to accumulate their modest fortunes a 
little at a time, year by year by year. The new dream was the dream of instant wealth, 
won in a twinkling by audacity and good luck. [This] golden dream ... became a 
prominent part of the American psyche only after Sutter's Mill. 
 
(1) State motto, "Eureka" on the Seal of California. (2) California state route shield, 
with the number 49 and shaped like a miner's spade. (3) The 1925 
commemorative California Diamond Jubilee half dollar. 
Overnight California gained the international reputation as the "golden 
state". Generations of immigrants have been attracted by the California Dream. 
California farmers, oil drillers, movie makers, airplane builders, computer and 
microchip makers, and "dot-com" entrepreneurs have each had their boom times in 
the decades after the Gold Rush. 
In addition, the standard route shield of state highways in California is in the shape 
of a miner's spade to honor the California Gold Rush. Today, the aptly named State 
Route 49 travels through the Sierra Nevada foothills, connecting many Gold Rush-
era 
towns 
such 
as 
Placerville, Auburn, Grass 
Valley, Nevada 
City, 
Coloma, Jackson, and Sonora. This state highway also passes very near Columbia 

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State Historic Park, a protected area encompassing the historic business district of 
the town of Columbia; the park has preserved many Gold Rush-era buildings, which 
are presently occupied by tourist-oriented businesses 
 Sutter's Mill 
In 1848 John Sutter was having a water-powered sawmill built along the American 
River in Coloma, California, approximately 50 miles (80 km) east of present-
day Sacramento. On January 24 his carpenter, James W. Marshall, found flakes of 
gold in a streambed. Sutter and Marshall agreed to become partners and tried to keep 
their find a secret. News of the discovery, however, soon spread, and they were 
besieged by thousands of fortune seekers. (With his property overrun and his goods 
and livestock stolen or destroyed, Sutter was bankrupt by 1852.) From the East, 
prospectors sailed around Cape Horn or risked disease hiking across the Isthmus of 
Panama. The hardiest took the 2,000-mile (3,220-km) overland route, on 
which cholera proved a far greater killer than the Native Americans. By August 
1848, 4,000 gold miners were in the area, and within a year about 80,000 “forty-
niners” (as the fortune seekers of 1849 were called) had arrived at the California 
goldfields. By 1853 their numbers had grown to 250,000. Although it was estimated 
that some $2 billion in gold was extracted, few of the prospectors struck it rich. The 
work was hard, prices were high, and living conditions were primitive. 
Observe mining methods used during the California Gold Rush 
See all videos for this article 
In what was a typical pattern, the Gold Rush slackened as the most-workable 
deposits were exhausted and organized capital and machinery replaced the efforts of 
individual miner-adventurers with more efficient and businesslike operations. 
Likewise, the lawless and violent mining camps gave way to permanent settlements 
with organized government and law enforcement. Those settlements that lacked 
other viable economic activities soon became ghost towns after the gold was 
exhausted. The California Gold Rush peaked in 1852, and by the end of the decade, 
it was over. 

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The Gold Rush had a profound impact on California, dramatically changing 
its demographics. Before the discovery of gold, the territory’s population was 
approximately 160,000, the vast majority of whom were Native Americans. By 
about 1855, more than 300,000 people had arrived. Most were Americans, though a 
number of settlers also came from China, Europe, and South America. The massive 
influx gave rise to numerous cities and towns, with San Francisco gaining particular 
prominence. The Gold Rush was credited with hastening statehood for California in 
1850. 
2. Definition of ’’ The Gold Rush’’ and its effects to the world. 
A gold rush is when a lot of people rapidly descend upon a specific region to mine 
for small pieces of a soft, extremely valuable metal. The California gold rush hit its 
peak in 1849. 
If enough fortune seekers hurry to find gold in the same place at more or less the 
same time, that's a gold rush. During the 19th century, news of gold-seekers 
discovering small chunks of the precious metal sparked gold rushes in many 
countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil. The California gold rush 
began in 1848, and by 1855 it had brought more than 300,000 migrants into the state 
to search for gold 
Historical Context of the Gold Rush 
In February 1848, Mexico ceded California to the United States through the Treaty 
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which effectively ended the Mexican-American War. The 
treaty granted over one million square miles of land to the United States, which 
included present-day Nevada, Wyoming, and New Mexico. At the time, the United 
States was influenced by significant expansionist sentiment, with President James 
Polk having won the presidency in 1845 running on a strong expansionist platform. 
Many Americans believed in what was called “Manifest Destiny,” or, the idea that 

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the United States’ Westward expansion and acquisition of lands on the North 
American continent were both inevitable and justifiable. 
California’s Gold Rush and the fledgling territory’s rapid increase in wealth and 
population necessitated a civilian government to maintain the public order and 
prompted its speedy entry into the United States in 1850. By contrast, territories such 
as New Mexico and Arizona didn’t become states until 1912. California also boasted 
a community armed with a strong sense of ambition and civic duty; within a year, 
California sent representatives to Washington with a draft constitution to request 
statehood. 
Brief History of the Gold Rush 
For all its significance, the onset of the Gold Rush originated from a seemingly 
innocuous event. In January 1848, James Marshall, a carpenter, was building a 
sawmill for Swiss immigrant and pioneer John Sutter at Sutter’s Fort, a trade and 
agricultural colony, when he spotted something shiny in the American River. Not 
sure of what he had found, he collected the apparent gold flecks and ran some 
rudimentary tests on them—including biting them and hitting them with a hammer. 
When their appearance did not change, Marshall confirmed they were genuine gold 
and quickly notified John Sutter. Sensing that the discovery would negatively impact 
the building of his sawmill and bring a large number of squatters to his land, Sutter 
swore all his employees to secrecy. However, news of the discovery quickly got out 
and spread across the region, including nearby San Francisco (known as Yerba 
Buena at the time). Soon, gold seekers from across the region swarmed Sutter’s Fort, 
and just as Sutter had feared, his employees all left to look for gold. By many 
accounts, once news of the discovery reached San Francisco, the city quickly 
emptied, with workers deserting their workplaces, stores and ships to look for gold. 
Within a few months, news of the gold discovery expanded beyond the region, with 
the Baltimore Sun becoming the first American newspaper to report on it in late 

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summer. In the fall, the New York Herald ran a subsequent story on the gold 
discovery and by December, President Polk announced to Congress that significant 
amounts of gold were being discovered in California. The year 1849 prompted a 
massive migration to California from many parts of the country as well as places as 
far as China, Chile and France. The migrants, dubbed the “forty-niners” for the year 
of their trip, flocked to cities such as San Francisco and present-day Sacramento, 
which were experiencing unprecedented development. The population of San 
Francisco, for example, exploded from 500 in 1847 to more than 150,000 in 1852. 
Effects of the Gold Rush 
With the massive influx of migrants, California underwent a radical transformation 
in a very short amount of time. It changed from a sparsely populated region to a 
territory with enough people to constitute a state. At the time, the population of 
California was still predominantly Mexican; however, the arrival of many U.S. 
migrants quickly reshaped the local demographics. The newcomers often wanted to 
keep in touch with family around the United States and pushed for the development 
of new communication and transportation tools that would help them bridge the 
distance. 
The famed Pony Express was created to send mail and parcels from California to the 
Midwest within a two-week period using ponies. Businessman and founder of the 
California Star newspaper, Samuel Brannan, created a delivery mail service called 
the California Star Express that connected California and Missouri. While the Gold 
Rush allowed some of the earlier prospectors to become rich, it was the ensuing 
economic development that sprang up around the industry that would prove most 
profitable; new businesses designed to satisfy the needs of gold prospectors and the 
mining industry would ultimately result in prosperity for merchants. The increased 
investment in the emerging California economy would have a lasting impact on both 
California and the United States. 

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Effects on Manufacturing and Industry 
The Gold Rush led to an explosion in manufacturing for mining machinery and 
equipment for hydraulic operations, which were often used in the mining process 
and had previously been supplied by the East before the Gold Rush prompted newer, 
more immediate demand. The Gold Rush also led to increased production of lumber 
and the creation of new flour mills. The need for clothing increased dramatically, 
and the leather industry experienced significant growth. Wholesale and retail 
developed at this time and were instrumental in helping meet the growing demands 
of consumers. 
Effects on the Development of Agriculture 
The rapid development of agriculture thanks to heightened demand and the 
availability of more sophisticated tools was another major outcome of the Gold 
Rush. In fact, many who did not succeed in mining turned to California’s “green 
gold” taking full advantage of the state’s favorable climate to produce massive 
amounts of fruits, vegetables and grains in order to feed denizens of the mining 
communities. Enterprising newcomers from Europe also saw an opportunity to 
satisfy demands for wine. They planted the first orchards and vineyards, and soon 
they were not only supplying locally but also exporting to other countries; California 
varietals remain some of the most sought-after and highly regarded wines to this 
day. 
International Effects of the Gold Rush 
California-based businesses weren’t the only ones benefiting from the Gold Rush, 
as foreign producers and manufacturers found new markets for their products in the 
United States. Agricultural producers in Chile suddenly had new consumers for their 
fruit; China started exporting significant amounts of sugar, and Norway eyed 
California for opportunities to expand its naval shipping industry. All this economic 

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expansion necessitated new financial services, and several banks would also grow 
out of the Gold Rush and its aftermath. 
Effects on Transportation 
The fervor surrounding the Gold Rush led to a revolution in transportation. New 
roads, bridges, ferries, wagons and steamships were created to help prospectors 
reach California, which was fairly isolated at the time. The accelerated development 
of transportation culminated in the building of the isthmus across the Panama Canal, 
which significantly hastened travel time to California. San Francisco which 
experienced the largest economic boom at the time saw its rapid modernization and 
economic development rewarded, as it was chosen as the site for the western 
terminus for the first transatlantic railroad, which linked the East Coast with 
California through Omaha and revolutionized transport and commerce. 
Suddenly, California became the hub of a new Pacific market, and as Friedrich 
Engels wrote to his collaborator, Karl Marx, the new economy and markets arising 
from the Gold Rush seemed to “come out of nothing.” 
Negative Outcomes of the Gold Rush 
The Gold Rush was not beneficial to all, however. It led to increased violence against 
Native Americans, tens of thousands of whom are estimated to have lost their lives 
in clashes with settlers. Later in the Gold Rush, immigrants from China often 
experienced intense discrimination. During the 19th century, China struggled 
economically, and thousands of young Chinese men immigrated to California in the 
hopes of earning enough money to support their families back home. Some 
Americans unfairly convinced that these Chinese immigrants were taking revenue 
and employment opportunities away from other Americans pushed to place 
restrictions on Chinese immigration and to create a tax on all foreign miners working 
in California. 

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The Gold Rush also had a severe environmental impact. Rivers became clogged with 
sediment; forests were ravaged to produce timber; biodiversity was compromised 
and soil was polluted with chemicals from the mining process. Additionally, the 
Gold Rush created a severe lack of labor in the non-gold mining industries of not 
just California, but areas such as Great Britain, China and Hawaii all of which 
experienced mass emigration in the wake of Gold Fever. Finally, while the Gold 
Rush helped boost the international economy as businesses in other countries sought 
to meet the demands of gold prospectors, the increasing amount of gold in circulation 
resulted in higher prices for commodities as well as inflationary shock, as the 
monetary standard of the time was backed by precious metals. 
The Gold Rush significantly influenced the history of California and the United 
States. It created a lasting impact by propelling significant industrial and agricultural 
development and helped shape the course of California’s development by spurring 
its economic growth and facilitating its transition to statehood. The Gold Rush also 
led foreign businesses to flourish as they expanded the export of their goods and 
services to the booming new consumer markets in California. Today, the effects of 
the Gold Rush can still be observed in California. The state’s slogan, “Eureka!” (“I 
found it!”) is a nod to Gold Rush prospectors. The Gold Rush also attracted 
dreamers, adventurers and vagabonds from all over the world and epitomized much 
of what came to be known as the American Dream. Many scholars and theorists have 
drawn parallels between the spirit of the Gold Rush and the ongoing technological 
and entrepreneurial boom experienced in Silicon Valley. It is therefore vital for 
students of history to form an understanding of the geopolitical, economic and social 
effects of such movements in the United States.