Major Events In California in 1850

Major Events In California in 1850

Introduction

California in 1850 was a vast territory at a crossroads. Having been seized from Mexico only just a few years before, California would formally enter the Union in that year. More important, the famous California Gold Rush was entering full swing, unleashing forces that would capture the imagination of the entire world, rapidly transforming the state and changing the American nation forever. California in 1850 was a rough, unsettled land in a tumultuous state of flux.

History

California was formerly a possession of the Spanish Empire, and then a part of Mexico following Mexican independence from Spain in 1821. Although there were American citizens migrating into the northern part of California through the early-to-mid 19th century, the population of the region remained small. Prior to 1846, there were fewer than 10,000 people living in California, with fewer than 1,500 of them being Americans. (Eichengreen McLean 1994)

The United States declared war on Mexico on May 13, 1846. It took roughly two months for word that the U.S. and Mexico were at war to even reach isolated, distant California. However, in June 1846 a small uprising of Americans seized a Mexican garrison in Sonoma, raising the Bear Flag, which continues to be the standard of California to this day. Elements of the U.S. Army, led by Captain John C. Fremont, took over several days later. From that point forward, the conquest of Mexico was a U.S. military affair, with Army and Navy forces seizing different parts of the state from Mexican rule. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the Mexican War and formally ceded control of California (among other territories) to American sovereignty. (Maddock McLean 1984)

Features

The most obvious feature of California circa 1850 was the ongoing Gold Rush. Gold was discovered near Sacramento in 1848, attracting hundreds of thousands of prospectors from around the world to California for the next several years. While the easily accessed gold deposits would all be exhausted by the end of 1850, gold-hungry migrants would keep on coming, looking for gold all across California (sometimes successfully). The California Gold Rush began with the discovery of significant gold deposits near Sacramento in 1848. As accounts of the discovery spread, residents of the thinly-populated West Coast poured into the gold fields and migrants swarmed in from the Far East, Mexico, South America, and the East Coast ...