Answer Close-Reading Questions
Have students write their responses, or use the Close-Reading Questions to guide a discussion.
• How did the discovery of gold in 1848 change the area that would become California? (Cause and Effect)
The discovery of gold sparked the California Gold Rush, in which more than 300,000 people migrated to California from all over the world. The sudden population increase helped create thriving cities like San Francisco and Sacramento. California became a state in 1850, just two years after the United States acquired the land following the Mexican-American War. The Gold Rush helped fuel the development of infrastructure like roads, bridges, and the transcontinental railroad. Today, California has more people than any other state and remains one of the most diverse.
• What challenges did prospectors and Indigenous people face? (Key Details)
Many prospectors risked everything to travel to California, and panning for gold was difficult work that they often performed in unsanitary and unsafe conditions. Asian and Latin American immigrants, Black prospectors, and Indigenous people experienced discrimination and violence. Indigenous people suffered from attacks and diseases that prospectors brought. Although about 150,000 of them lived in the area in 1848, fewer than 30,000 remained by the 1870s.