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CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH

1851 – 1876

In 1849, there were only fifty-four Chinese immigrants residing in California. However, when tales of immense gold in California reached China, several hundred Chinese immigrants came to the United States in the following year. The influx of aspiring miners reached its peak in 1852 as 20,000 Chinese immigrants landed in San Francisco, accounting for 30 percent of all immigrants during the gold rush era. Those who arrived too late were willing to partake in back-breaking work on the transcontinental railroad, which connected the Atlantic to the Pacific. For a short period, these Chinese immigrants were commended as cheap labor. But as prices, rents, and values plummeted and unemployed Americans stood among thousands of Chinese immigrants—a conspicuous body of un-American competition—an anti-Chinese movement swept the region. 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Chinese builders of Gold Mountain [Video]. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/video/kvie-viewfinder-chinese-builder-gold-mountain/

Norton, H. K. (1924). The Chinese. The Museum of the City of San Francisco. http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist6/chinhate.html

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

CLICK ON AN EVENT ABOVE TO LEARN MORE...

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The Opium Wars

Taiping Rebellion

California Gold Rush 

Chinese Americans and the Transcontinental Railroad

Chinese Exclusion Act

Second Sino-Japanese War

The Chinese Civil War

Northwest China Famine

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Japan's Comfort Women

Nanking Massacre

The War Brides

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Great Chinese Famine

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Immigration and Nationality Act

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Chinese Cultural Revolution

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COVID-19 Anti-Asian Sentiment

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