In 1849, the discovery of gold in California spurred the Gold Rush. Both external and internal immigration drastically increased, fueled by the lure of prosperity and available jobs. Cities often appeared, and some flourished, near the sites of precious metal discovery. Other discoveries of precious metals in various states fueled similar migrations. …show more content…
The immigrants tended to settle in the same places. Immigrants created ethnic enclaves, in part because of the desire for support systems. The ethnic enclaves supplemented various American traditions that the immigrants chose to follow. For instance, during the late 1850s, what began as a Chinese neighborhood in San Francisco transformed into Chinatown, with nearly half of the Chinese in California by the end of the 1800s residing in San Francisco.
The Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, which impacted migration patterns by leading to the migration of Americans to lands in the vicinity of the railroad. Americans now had much greater abilities to move across the country, and most migrants settled in the Midwest and the Great Plains. Also, the government passed the Homestead Act in 1862, which fostered westward migration to the Great Plains. Settlers were granted with 160 acres of of public land after they had lived on the land for 5