In 1848, a discovery completely transformed the history of the state - the discovery of gold at John Sutter's mill in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
This event sparked the beginning of the Gold Rush, a momentous episode in the history of the United States.
During the Gold Rush, 300,000 people flocked to California.
Immigrants came from all over the world - Latin America, Europe, Australia, China - to try their luck, and became known as the "forty-niners" (1849).
As ships sailed into San Francisco, the population surged from 200 to 36,000 people.
Many of these ships were abandoned and converted into homes, stores, taverns, landfill... as it was too expensive to sail them back.
This influx of people and money had huge repercussions for the state.
It improved communication between the East and West Coasts.
On the flip side, around 16,000 Native Americans were massacred, deprived of their food sources and decimated by disease.
Fun fact : although gold was discovered at Sutter's mill, he was desperate for the news to he kept quiet.
Indeed his dream was to become an agricultural hub. However he was quickly overcome by this new influx of people.
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