A Primary Source Investigation of Manifest Destiny by Xina M. Uhl

Author:Xina M. Uhl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc

California was the grand prize of manifest destiny. It was at the far end of the North American continent. To many, it represented the United States grown to its full potential. More significant, it also linked the United States with Asia in the west. Newspaper editors across the country encouraged enterprising men to "Go West!" As it had been before the war, it was thought of as a land of milk and honey.

This notion was soon partially proved right. In January 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold outside of San Francisco. News spread quickly to the city. From there, news rippled outward. Across the country, people caught gold fever. Tens of thousands of people dropped everything and headed west in search of the rare metal. In 1848, San Francisco was a small town of six hundred people. By 1849, its population had ballooned to more than twenty-five thousand. San Francisco was a boom town. All across the state, new towns practically burst out of the ground, while old towns became cities. Tent metropolises sprung up amid half-finished buildings. Because everything had happened so quickly, San Francisco's political system was often disorganized. Nobody had ever seen anything like it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.