preview

Mexican California In The Gold Rush

Better Essays

Mexican California in the Gold Rush

Moe Bamdad
San José State University
October 29, 2014

During the last half of the 19th century, relations between the United States and Mexico were just beginning to come together after ending the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). On January 24, 1848, James Marshall discovered gold along the American River, in Sutter’s Mill, California. Less than two weeks later on February 4, 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed and would mark the end of the Mexican-American War. Under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the Republic of Mexico ceded to the United States more than one-third of its valuable land, including California. Californios, the people of …show more content…

In the 19th century “Manifest Destiny” views was mutual among the Anglo-settlers that establishing and owning California was their calling and meant to be. Unfortunately the outcome of losing lands owned by the Mexican government, was incorrectly managed and ignored. Mexican California was vulnerable and under pressure from distraction of threats from other directions and politically unsteady.
By 1849, Mexicans had already been outnumbered by the Anglo’s (sitters, speculators, miners) were cementing their hierarchy of races in California and which void any productive blending relationships after the war. Evidence found in Antonio Maria Osio's memoirs, thriving opportunities were dismissed by the Californios when Spanish government directed the Royals the essential funding’s needed to discover and establish Baja California, which was ultimately denied by Mexico, " ...but since that time [during the Spanish Monarchy] the Mexico Government had declared itself the stepfather of California, denying its protection, like to a bastard child..." In California, a region that had so recently been their own, the Mexicans found they were considered foreigners by the legions of Anglo-American miners from eastern America. Many boundaries were crossed as the Anglo-Americans felt entitled to California’s property and discounted land rights of the indigenous …show more content…

Job opportunities were limited for the Californios, especially during the gold rush period. But for the Mexicans with mining experience before the California gold rush, and were occasionally hired by wealthy Americans to mine gold for them. Aside from mining, the rancheros’ leading financial source was their cattle and sheep traded or sold as food and hides. With the sudden burst of gold prospectors and miners, the population in northern California was overwhelming for some Californios, and economically beneficial for other Californios and

Get Access