California and The United States - Research Paper Example

California and the United States What motivated the United States to acquire California? Social, economic and political are essential factors that led to acquisition of California by the US during the expansion of its territorial boundaries towards the west. One of the significant economical factors that motivated U.S to acquire California was the discovery of gold in California. Discovery of gold nugget in the American river led to influx of large number of people from The US and other states intending to benefit from that opportunity. The large number of people came to California as gold prospectors, resulting to rapid population increase in the country. This is because revealing of gold was an essential indication of the future economic growth of the state. Consequently, this led the U.S to acquire California for its future economic strength and expansion of its territorial boundary towards the west (Olson & Olson, 2011). The need for United States to expand its territory was also a factor that led to the acquisition of California. The then President James K. Polk influenced the territorial expansion during his tenancy to ensure his region had a wide area of influence as well as security against other rival states at that particular time such as, Mexico and Spain (Genovese, 2010). Polk achieved his desire of expanding the U.S territory through the invasion of Texas, ending the Mexican-American war and negotiation of the Oregon treaty with Britain (Genovese, 2010). Finally, the outcome of these activities was acquisition of California among other states and US’ western advancement in terms of territory. How did the idea of Manifest Destiny and suspicion of foreign interest in California affects the process of the United States gaining California? Manifest Destiny focused on US’ territorial boundary growth in particular the western expansion in order to spread beliefs and culture of the America. Manifest destiny drew support from democratic individuals who were for the spread of American ideologies while employing nonviolent measures for the peaceful coexistence of the people (Paris, 2012). Thereby, Manifest destiny became crucial in the acquisition of California during the process of western expansion. Discovery of gold in California also attracted a large number of emigrants thus prompting global emigration of wealth seekers from Germany, Turkey, Mexico, China, France, Ireland and Chile thus creating suspicion of the US gaining California (Gold, 2012). This created the necessity to establish measures of eradicating suspicion brought by foreign immigration (Gold, 2012). The number of Chinese immigrant was high than the other immigrants that come for the sake of acquiring wealth through the sale and purchase of gold. Many Chinese did not intend to settle in California, but they only acquired the available gold and retuned to their states. This enabled them to acquire more wealth during their stay in California compared to when they initially came to California (Gold, 2012). Invasion of Chinese and decline of gold deposits led to ethnic strain in California and brought necessity to enact appropriate legislation to control gold markets in relation to foreign prospectors. As a result, California legislature imposed foreign miner tax on the Chinese, hindering them from prospecting gold in California and becoming citizens. What factors impeded California statehood? Early 1848, after the Buena Vista battle, Zachary Taylor took over as president by replacing James K. Polk. Taylor’s first duty in office was solving the pending California statehood issue. This was because even after a successful signing of the Guadalupe treaty, California was still not only under the American military rule but was also still under the Mexican laws (Inn California, 2010). In a move to advocate for quick statehood in California, Taylor stimulated a convention in Monterey where the main topics discussed were immediate granting of California statehood in addition to abolition of slavery (Inn California, 2010). The battle for California statehood continued to the congress level where there were divided opinions on whether California was ready to become a fully independent state. Whereas Whigs and democrats were against the idea, President Taylor still campaigned for California’s statehood. After President Taylor’s death due to a long battle with Typhoid, his campaign for California statehood did not die because President Millard Fillmore, the former vice president, pushed for the recognition of California as a state. After many debates, the congress finally gave in and it was on 28th August that saw the official signing of the California statehood bill, hence making it the 31st Free State in the USA (Inn California). Were American fears of foreign interest in California founded or unfounded? In my opinion, the American fears for foreign interest in California was founded, this is because since the state had discovered gold in 1848, this resulted to immigrants from as far as Russia and Europe migrate to California in a move termed as the “Gold Rush” (Paddison, 2014). Some of the earliest immigrants to arrive in California were the Chileans and Mexicans later followed by the Chinese. Apart from allocating themselves huge portions of mining areas, these groups also conducted started businesses such as laundry, merchants, cooks and herbalists (Paddison, 2014). According to Paddison, by 1850, California had already received more than 300,000 immigrants and this resulted to existence of many language groups in California. The worst case was that most of the immigrants were not there to stay, the immigrant main objective was mining gold and return back to their place of origin and this did more harm than good to the Americans because by this move the nation lost most of its source of wealth (Paddison, 2014). What was the historical context in which the California statehood debate took place? Before California achieved its statehood, black slaves that escaped normally yearned to reside in Mexico where slavery never existed after its abolition in 1829 (Stevenson, 2014). Many Americans residing in California never wanted to be associated with blacks or slaves. After California finally received its statehood in 1850, its official declaration as a free state, slavery still thrived, and it is because of this that the statehood debate still continued for a long period. Despite that fact that California was a free state, slavery still dominated for some time before its full abolition. Years after the California received its statehood, slavery business was still rife because public trading of slaves was still rife to the extent that some slaves appeared on newspapers put on auction for willing buyers (Stevenson, 2014). References Genovese, M. A. (2010). Encyclopedia of the American presidency. New York: Facts On File. Gold, M. (2012). Forbidden citizens: Chinese exclusion and the U.S. Congress : a legislative history. Alexandria, VA: TheCapital.Net. Inn- California. (2010). California Statehood. Retrieved on 14th April 2014 from http://www.inn-california.com/articles/history/californiastatehood.html Olson, J. S., & Olson, B. H. (2011). The Ethnic Dimension in American History. Hoboken: Paddison,J. (2010). 1848-1865: Gold Rush, Statehood, and the Western Movement. Retrieved on from http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/calcultures/eras/era4.html Paris, J. L. (2012). CliffsNotes Praxis II. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Strevenson, E.B. (2014). Memoirs of slaves helped frame debate in California's history. Retrieved on 14th April 2014 from http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/memoirs-of-slavery- helped-shape-271594.aspx Read More