After hearing the news about James Marshall’s discovery of gold in California, people from all corners of the world flooded to the Golden State. The idea of a culturally diverse West did not fit with the Anglo-American ideology of manifest destiny, so they established both the Foreign Miner’s Tax Law (a law that pushed higher taxes on non-Americans) and lynching in an attempt to drive them out. One of the largest ethnic groups, the Chinese, came as gold hunting “sojourners”, temporary residents who planned to return home once they earned enough money. Hard working and proud, the Chinese suffered from exclusion, denial of education, and violence at the hands of whites, who feared the Asian culture would undercut white labor. Americans drove Californios, original residents of Spanish and Mexican ancestry, out of the Mariano Vallejo with prejudice laws and took their land. Native American tribes were pushed to the most remote regions of the state, and fell victim to disease, starvation, and murder. Only a few prospectors managed to become rich as a result of gold findings, but the gold rush managed to attract “a rainbow of other nationalities”. While white men dominated the state at the time, racial diversity remains a significant aspect of the California Gold Rush.
1. Why did the vast majority of "forty-niners" fail to "strike it rich" from gold?
2. How did the initial attitude of Anglo-Americans towards other cultures influence future relationships with those cultures?
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