USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The California gold rush caused a huge increase in California’s population. That year about 80, 000 gold-seekers came to California, hoping to strike it rich. These migrants were known as “forty-niners.” Nearly eighty percent of these were Americans from the east. The others came from all over the world.

Detailed explanation-2: -It is estimated that approximately 90, 000 people arrived in California in 1849-about half by land and half by sea. Of these, perhaps 50, 000 to 60, 000 were Americans, and the rest were from other countries.

Detailed explanation-3: -The ‘49ers Come to California Thousands of would-be gold miners, known as 49ers for the year they arrived, traveled overland across the mountains or by sea, sailing to Panama or even around Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America.

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: -"Forty-niners” flocked to California during the Gold Rush. Pioneers came to California by land and by sea from other parts of America and the world. The result was new wealth and a dramatically increased and diverse population. Small settlements grew into cities, business boomed, and California became a state in 1850.