Chinese Gold Miners Impact The Development In California

Chinese Immigration and the California Gold Rush
Name
Professor
Institutional affiliation
Date
Chinese Immigration and the California Gold Rush
Introduction
Gold was first discovered in America in California in January 1848. By the following year, people were coming from all over the world in search of gold (Stillson, 2014). The gold rush created a rapid increase in the population of the area. It is approximated that around 80,000 people moved into the area with the sole goal of striking gold and becoming rich. 80% of these people were from the American east while the rest came from countries whose people had already come into the country.
Thesis
In the California gold rush, the Chinese people saw an opportunity to make money. The promise of more money with the combination of very tough conditions from their homeland they sought to work mine the gold mines. This paper will deliberate on the main reasons that they decided to migrate from their land and the reaction of the white community to the immigrants.
The reality life of Chinese immigration
There are many reasons why the Chinese travelled many miles to reach America. One of them was the promise of reaching the place they had nicknamed ‘gum shan’ which can be translated to mean the gold mountain. They travelled over 5000 miles through rough waters to reach this place where some believed they could collect the gold from anywhere. They were hit by the hard reality when they reached the coast only to discover they are over 150 miles away from the actual mines (Wedell-Wedellsborg, 2016). Another factor that contributed to their migration was the fact that China is much closer to California than the other eastern part of America. The proximity to America motivated many to migrate in search of finer pastures. The promise of reaching the gold mountain met chin at a time of poverty and trouble especially the beginning of the Taiping rebellion whereby a group of local leaders sought to seek the persecution of the millenarian sect led by Hong Xiuquan who believed himself to be the young brother of Jesus Christ. At this time Chinese people were penniless and decided to move from their countries to look for a better lifestyle.
Another fact that contributed to their migration is the violence that was brought by the rebellion. The rebellion was not using dialogue as a means of achieving what they wanted. The south-west province of Guangxi was torn in violence, and the people saw the need to move away. Some were not contended with what they were making and decided to move to this country. Working in the mines Chinese people could make double what they were making in their country, and this played a big role in increasing the number of immigrants. The immigration of the Chinese people into the country led to the creation of the first and oldest Chinatown in the world it is situated in San Francisco. At the time when gold was discovered in California statics suggest that there were only 45 Chinamen in the country but three years later the number had grown to 151,000 with 116,000 of them being situated in California.
Women and families who came also
It is essential to realise that during the immigration it is not only men that came. Women and child...