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What was the Gold Rush? |
When the colonists pushed west, I still regard them as colonists because once again, they tried colonizing more of the country, they pushed towards California. In California they discovered gold in the mines. After this discovery, people from all over the country decided to pack up and move to California in hopes of getting rich off of the gold. This new interest in California also sparked the interest of the Chinese. This was the first big way of Asian immigrants. When the Chinese arrived to California they were welcomed for their work and supported. However, as time went on, colonists began to feel entitled and felt as if the Chinese were taking their jobs, this was not actually the reality. The Chinese were paid very little and were not given much to start with whereas the colonists wanted more and more money and had a good foundation in the states to begin with. The colonists felt the Chinese were taking their jobs because as they were fighting for higher pay, the Chinese were happy having any job that paid money, colonists just felt entitled. This led to the Anti-Chinese sentiment and the foreign miners tax as a result. This tax taxed anyone who was not 'American', or a better term, taxed anyone who was not a colonizer from the United States.
Alongside their entitlement and westward expansion of colonization, they enslaved Natives to work in the mines as well. Enslavement was still occurring to Africans at this time and Natives all throughout the country. |