The California Gold Rush | History In A Nutshell — Transcript

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1. 0:00foreign
2. 0:02[Music]
3. 0:27[Music]
4. 0:35anyone who has ever gone mining or
5. 0:37prospecting can tell you this is some
6. 0:39hard work
7. 0:40unfortunately hard work doesn't always
8. 0:43pay off
9. 0:44sometimes luck has to be on your side
10. 0:47this edition of history in a nutshell
11. 0:49will explore such a case the California
12. 0:52Gold Rush
13. 0:54the discovery of gold in the late 1840s
14. 0:57changed the American West forever
15. 1:00hundreds of thousands of folks from the
16. 1:02United States and abroad flock to
17. 1:04California with hopes and dreams of
18. 1:06making a quick Buck mining for gold
19. 1:09while some did make a considerable
20. 1:11profit during the Gold Rush many others
21. 1:14were not quite so lucky
22. 1:16making the Trek to California was
23. 1:18difficult enough but many who actually
24. 1:20made it to California had to face long
25. 1:23periods of grueling back-breaking labor
26. 1:26on top of the Dog Eat Dog lawlessness of
27. 1:28the Wild West
28. 1:30the Gold Rush is a significant event in
29. 1:33American history and essentially
30. 1:34fast-tracked California to becoming a
31. 1:37state in 1850.
32. 1:39from 1848 to 1855 about two billion
33. 1:44dollars worth of precious metal was
34. 1:46extracted from the area during the Gold
35. 1:48Rush which reached its peak in 1852
36. 1:52join me as we dig a little deeper into
37. 1:55the history of the gold rush
38. 1:58as the Mexican-American War concluded
39. 2:01California became an American possession
40. 2:05at the time the area was populated by
41. 2:08about 6500 Californios
42. 2:11700 Americans and 150 000 Native
43. 2:15Americans
44. 2:17January 24th 1848 was a typical work day
45. 2:21for Carpenter James W Marshall
46. 2:24Marshall was commissioned by german-born
47. 2:26Swiss Pioneer John Augustus Sutter to
48. 2:29construct a water-powered sawmill in
49. 2:32Coloma located on the American River
50. 2:36Sutter was the founder of the colony
51. 2:38called Nueva helvisha which is
52. 2:40present-day Sacramento
53. 2:43while digging a channel for The Sawmill
54. 2:46Marshall looked down and saw shiny
55. 2:49metallic flakes in the water below him
56. 2:53as soon as the work day was over
57. 2:55Marshall made a four-day trip to present
58. 2:58his Discovery to Sutter
59. 3:01after running some tests it turned out
60. 3:04that the shiny metal flakes Marshall
61. 3:05found were indeed pure gold
62. 3:10despite Sutter and Marshall wanting to
63. 3:12keep the discovery a secret it would not
64. 3:15take long for rumors of a gold Discovery
65. 3:17to circulate in nearby San Francisco
66. 3:23in April 1848 some Curious San
67. 3:26franciscans made their way to the South
68. 3:28Fork of the American River to do some
69. 3:30digging for themselves
70. 3:33one of these curious San franciscans was
71. 3:36a business owner by the name of Sam
72. 3:38Brannon
73. 3:39in May Brannon returned to San Francisco
74. 3:42where he excitedly confirmed the rumors
75. 3:45while running up and down the streets
76. 3:47like a madman holding a glass bottle
77. 3:49filled with gold dust
78. 3:53to say that San Francisco became a blaze
79. 3:56with excitement would be an
80. 3:57understatement
81. 3:58many San franciscans dropped whatever
82. 4:01they were doing right then and there and
83. 4:03made a beeline for Sutter's Fort with
84. 4:05hopes of finding gold
85. 4:08soon after news of the gold Discovery
86. 4:11spread north and south and Californians
87. 4:14journeyed to the Sierra Nevada mountains
88. 4:16with hopes of striking it rich
89. 4:19Sam Brannan ended up becoming
90. 4:22California's first millionaire
91. 4:24he made his fortune selling mining
92. 4:26supplies to Gold Seekers
93. 4:29in just 10 weeks Brandon's store took an
94. 4:32around 36 thousand dollars worth of gold
95. 4:34about one million dollars in today's
96. 4:37value
97. 4:39news of gold in California spread to the
98. 4:42east coast however many were skeptical
99. 4:44at first taking the news as exaggerated
100. 4:48that would all change on December 8 1848
101. 4:52when President James K Polk officially
102. 4:55announced during a congressional address
103. 4:57that the news is true
104. 5:00gold has indeed been found in California
105. 5:04many American citizens soon found
106. 5:07themselves gripped with Gold Fever
107. 5:09and a mass movement Westward began
108. 5:13thousands of Eastern Americans mostly
109. 5:15men made their way to the Sierra Nevada
110. 5:18mountains the location of the motherload
111. 5:22although some women did tag along for
112. 5:25the journey most were left behind to run
113. 5:28the businesses and Farms
114. 5:31people from other parts of the world
115. 5:33including Europe China Mexico and South
116. 5:38America flock to California as well
117. 5:41out of all the foreigners traveling to
118. 5:43California the Chinese which made their
119. 5:46way across the Pacific Ocean was the
120. 5:49largest group
121. 5:51they came to America to escape the
122. 5:53political and economic turmoil of the
123. 5:56ruling Qing government and the
124. 5:58destruction from the taiping Rebellion
125. 6:02starting over in the U.S seemed like a
126. 6:04breath of fresh air for Chinese
127. 6:06immigrants
128. 6:07all these folks making the journey to
129. 6:09California were called 49ers
130. 6:15yep that's how a certain football team
131. 6:17in California got its name
132. 6:20so how did Americans get to California
133. 6:23there are primarily three ways
134. 6:26the first was by sailing ship to sail
135. 6:29all the way around South America turning
136. 6:32at Cape Horn and then sailing up the
137. 6:35Pacific Ocean to San Francisco
138. 6:38that trip typically took between four to
139. 6:41six months
140. 6:44the second was to take a steamship to
141. 6:46the Isthmus of Panama cross Overland
142. 6:49then take another steam ship up to San
143. 6:52Francisco
144. 6:55the third and most popular way was to
145. 6:58cross the North American continent via
146. 7:01the Oregon and California trails
147. 7:05with all these folks heading to
148. 7:06California this made for tremendous
149. 7:09business opportunities
150. 7:11companies such as the U.S mail steamship
151. 7:14company and the Pacific male steamship
152. 7:16company obtained vast wealth among their
153. 7:19owners
154. 7:21Wells Fargo got its start during the
155. 7:23Gold Rush as an express shipping company
156. 7:25and Bank transporting gold bullion mail
157. 7:29and other valuables back and forth
158. 7:32between the East and West coasts of the
159. 7:34U.S
160. 7:36mining towns sprung up all over
161. 7:38California
162. 7:41in order to accommodate the mass influx
163. 7:43of gold Seekers many businesses such as
164. 7:46shops hotels saloons and more were
165. 7:50established with the goal of making
166. 7:52their own fortunes
167. 7:54wagon drivers called Teamsters turned a
168. 7:57good profit by taking Supply Goods to
169. 8:00California
170. 8:01the flooding of people to San Francisco
171. 8:04caused that Town's population to explode
172. 8:08in 1848 there were roughly only 600
173. 8:12people living there
174. 8:13two years later you're looking at
175. 8:15between 25
176. 8:17000 to 30 000 people with more arriving
177. 8:20every single day
178. 8:25once folks got to California how was
179. 8:28gold obtained
180. 8:30the goal was to find as much gold as
181. 8:32quickly as possible
182. 8:34mining technology radically advanced
183. 8:37thanks to determination and ingenuity
184. 8:40the money was in the ground and the more
185. 8:43dirt Prospectors could process at a time
186. 8:45the more gold they were likely to find
187. 8:49the most common method was called Placer
188. 8:51mining where miners would comb stream
189. 8:54beds for gold using various tools
190. 8:58Prospectors panned for Gold by
191. 9:00collecting dirt in a pan and used water
192. 9:03from a stream to filter out gold from
193. 9:05unwanted debris
194. 9:08accounting worked but was notoriously
195. 9:10slow
196. 9:12newer tools such as rockers and long
197. 9:15Toms were invented to process larger
198. 9:17loads of dirt at a faster rate
199. 9:20actually finding gold was more a matter
200. 9:23of luck than anything
201. 9:26depending on where one mined some
202. 9:29location claims turned a small fortune
203. 9:32While others turned up little to nothing
204. 9:34at all
205. 9:37most of the surface gold dried up by
206. 9:39around 1850 but the demand for profit
207. 9:43continued to increase
208. 9:46industrialization led to a new mining
209. 9:48method in 1853 called hydraulic mining
210. 9:51where Prospectors built dams and used
211. 9:54high pressure water jets to clear away
212. 9:56massive amounts of gold-bearing dirt and
213. 9:59gravel
214. 10:01by the end of the 1850s the California
215. 10:04Gold Rush fizzled out
216. 10:07the most profitable deposits in
217. 10:09California became exhausted and once
218. 10:12that happened many miners went to look
219. 10:14for gold elsewhere
220. 10:16when the Comstock load was discovered in
221. 10:19Nevada in 1859 many left California
222. 10:22creating a new Rush
223. 10:27what are the lasting legacies of the
224. 10:29California Gold Rush
225. 10:31the rush was one of the largest single
226. 10:33movements of human beings in world
227. 10:35history
228. 10:36more than 300 000 people from all over
229. 10:39the world came to California searching
230. 10:41for that precious substance
231. 10:44while some folks made fortunes during
232. 10:46the rush it came at a cost
233. 10:49merchants and entrepreneurs made far
234. 10:52more profit than the miners themselves
235. 10:54did
236. 10:56on the plus side many of the businesses
237. 10:58formed during the rush prospered and
238. 11:01America's economy boomed thanks to the
239. 11:03sudden influx of gold and capital
240. 11:07the California Gold Rush was so
241. 11:09profitable in fact economies all over
242. 11:12the globe experienced stimulation
243. 11:14[Music]
244. 11:15many miners who didn't strike at lucky
245. 11:17finding gold were able to cash in on
246. 11:20green gold
247. 11:22some folks traded in their mining tools
248. 11:25for farming equipment and took advantage
249. 11:27of California's climate to establish
250. 11:29prosperous Farms people certainly needed
251. 11:32to eat during the rush
252. 11:35while the rush had its perks it
253. 11:37unfortunately created massive negative
254. 11:39impacts for California as well
255. 11:43much of California's landscape was
256. 11:45destroyed by the hydraulic mining and
257. 11:47the dams built for hydraulic mining took
258. 11:50much needed water away from surrounding
259. 11:52farmlands
260. 11:54foreign
261. 11:56hydraulic mining became so destructive
262. 11:58that the practice was eventually banned
263. 12:01by federal law in 1884.
264. 12:06massive amounts of mercury were used to
265. 12:08extract gold from the ground
266. 12:11so much mercury was used during the rush
267. 12:14that the waters surrounding the Sierra
268. 12:16Nevada mountains are still contaminated
269. 12:19with it and could possibly remain that
270. 12:21way for around 10 000 years
271. 12:25if someone found gold those findings
272. 12:28could just as easily be taken away
273. 12:31there was little to no law enforcement
274. 12:33in California's gold fields and crimes
275. 12:36like robberies and murder were common
276. 12:40many women became widows thanks to Crime
277. 12:42mining accidents or disease
278. 12:47additionally one could work all day
279. 12:50mining for gold and then turn around and
280. 12:53lose it by drinking or gambling it all
281. 12:55away
282. 12:56[Music]
283. 12:57oppression of minorities was another
284. 13:00major issue during the rush
285. 13:02when the supply of gold began to dwindle
286. 13:04violence and anti-immigrant tensions
287. 13:07skyrocketed
288. 13:09many Chinese immigrants were hard
289. 13:11workers at first welcomed by their
290. 13:13mining compatriots
291. 13:15Unfortunately they soon became victims
292. 13:18of prejudice accused of stealing the
293. 13:21gold which white miners believed
294. 13:23belonged to them
295. 13:26California's government even went so far
296. 13:28as to impose a twenty dollar per month
297. 13:31tax on immigrants in 1850.
298. 13:34the anti-immigrant sentiment became so
299. 13:37bad that people from France Mexico and
300. 13:40Chile gave up and went back to their
301. 13:43home countries
302. 13:46the demographic which suffered the worst
303. 13:48was California's Native American
304. 13:50population
305. 13:52the Sudden Rush of people to California
306. 13:55brought diseases which Native Americans
307. 13:57were not prepared to handle
308. 14:00the increase in farms pushed many
309. 14:02American Indians from their homes
310. 14:05gravel silt and toxic chemicals from
311. 14:08mining operations destroyed habitats and
312. 14:11killed fish
313. 14:13around 150 000 American Indians lived in
314. 14:17California just before the rush
315. 14:20due to genocides diseases and
316. 14:23destruction of habitats by 1873 roughly
317. 14:27thirty thousand remained
318. 14:35[Music]