California Gold Rush's Contribution To The Expansion Of The United States

GKE Task 1

A. One of the most significant that contributed to the expansion of the United States was the California Gold Rush that started in 1848. In 1848, word of a bounty of gold to be found in California caught the attention of many easterners. They had dreams of becoming rich. So in the year 1849, many men left their families and homes for the California wilds to make their fortune. They figured that a year away from home was worth the riches they would return with. These men were referred to as “forty-niners” as they left in the year 1849. As hundreds of gold seekers flooded California, the gold eventually ran out. Thousands of people made the journey west for gold. Many stayed seeing the potential of the new western land.
In one day the city of Guthrie exploded into a population of ten thousand residents. The government opened land in the state as a first come first served basis. People lined up to stake their claim on land at the border. At 12 noon, the barriers were lifted and one of the most chaotic events in history unfolded. Hundreds of people on foot, wagon and horseback bolted for their unclaimed property. Within hours, almost all of the plotted out townships were taken. This expansion contributed greatly to the population moving west and economically gave a boost to the new “frontier”. It was one of the biggest and fastest western moves in
Axes for war and building, pottery wheels, and glass are just a few of the exported goods. They were thought to have also invented the wheel. The wheel made everyday life so much easier for their people and others as this invention was spread around. The use of a divided day and night into two 12 hour blocks was made by the Mesopotamioans to make trade easier with other cities. They then divided their weeks into seven days. The Jewish people then made this seven day calendar into Sundays as a day of rest and worship which then morphed into our modern day weekend. Currency was also developed by the Mesopotamians to make trade easier. The worth of a cow, pottery and a slave, was all written down to make trade fare. Mesopotamia contribute to many economic cultures by starting this way of fare trade. Mesopotamia and Egypt used cultural exchange through war, trade and migration to diffuse their two cultures. With these two rivers of Tigris and Euphrates so easily accessable for both cultures, trade was easily obtained while workers were needed to help with the progression of cultural advancement. Trade and warfare were huge factors in diffusion of these two cultures. Both Mesopotamia and Egypt began to depend on the other for various trades of produce, animals, products, and