ECONOMICS (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -The discovery of gold in 1848 by James Marshall sparked a massive wave of westward migration. The largest influx occurred in 1849, and those prospectors who sought their fortunes became known collectively as forty-niners, in reference to the year they arrived.

Detailed explanation-2: -This famous gold rush began in January of 1848 when a man named James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill in California. Soon, an influx of gold-hungry people began to migrate to California, coming from all corners of the world.

Detailed explanation-3: -At the time, the California Gold Rush of 1849 was in full swing, and men of all ages were flocking west to get rich. Gold was not the only thing that people were after. There were many different opportunities to get rich, such as: logging, mining, and farming that could not be done in the east.

Detailed explanation-4: -Arriving in covered wagons, clipper ships, and on horseback, some 300, 000 migrants, known as “forty-niners” (named for the year they began to arrive in California, 1849), staked claims to spots of land around the river, where they used pans to extract gold from silt deposits.

Detailed explanation-5: -The promise of wealth and a new life lured people from around the world to California. American gold seekers traveled west from the Eastern states, migrating in such vast numbers that their passage stimulated advancements in transcontinental travel.