California Gold Rush | Battlelines | 3
American History Tellers
Native Americans and the Gold Rush in California
Spanish and Mexican colonization was devastating for native people in California. Between disease, declining food sources, and brutal working conditions, the native population fell from 300,000 at the start of Spanish rule to half that by the late 1840s. The gold rush seemed to be a boon for some Native Americans, but that changed as competition increased. As these heavily armed settlers began driving them off their lands, some native California inhabitants responded with violence of their own.
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