How The Gold Rush Affected Migration And Settlement In California

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The first way the Gold Rush impacted migration and settlement in California was through economic opportunity. In the book, The Rush, by Edward Dolnick, it states “Emigrants are always the most hopeful members of their set, the ones willing to leave behind everything familiar on the chance that the new will be better than the old”, stating that emigrants are hopeful in that there will be a new chance to improve their lives (73). In The Rush, it also reads “Those who headed for California, tempted not by the vague visions of a better life but by firm expectations of hillsides strewn with gold nuggets, took that customary optimism and multiplied it tenfold” (73). This is where individuals who traveled to California during the Gold Rush were motivated