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“...Spanish conquest followed soon after. Early Spanish conquistadors came from Peru in the north, hoping to exploit the area for precious gold and silver. Finding little of value, they returned to Peru,” https://www.adventure-life.com “During the Conquest, when the Spaniards wandered America seeking those ores and bearing off everything they found,” (52) -
“The early storms were also a problem for forty-niners crossing the Northern Sierra that year. By 1849, everyone using Donner Pass or the nearby alternatives had been warned about reaching the mountains too late.” https://www.sierrasun.com/news/education/sierra-history-the-gold-rush-winter-of-1850-part-2-2/ “The last days of January 1850 witnessed one of the worst ice storms ever seen in those parts.” (305) -
“For the most severe earthquake experienced by the oldest inhabitant. It came on suddenly, and lasted two minutes, but the time appeared much longer”
/www.geo.cornell.edu/ “That was the year of the floods, which were immortalized in schoolchildren’s textbooks and in their grandparents’ memories. . . .a series of minor temblors, which came like God’s wrath, finished destroying everything . . .” (31). -
“series of military engagements fought between the British Empire and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Opium_War “In 1839, when the Opium War between China and Great Britain broke out, Tao Chi’en was sixteen years old.” (165) -
“The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave Mexicans the right to remain in United States territory or to move to Mexico. About three thousand chose to move, but the overwhelming majority decided to stay. These people could choose to retain Mexican citizenship or become citizens of the United States” https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/ “... in 1848 the Mexicans had rights to American Citizenship.”(329) -
“Word of Marshall’s discovery first arrived in Valparaiso, Chile, with the arrival of the brig JRS on August 19, 1848.” https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ca-chileaneldorado/#:~:text=Word%20of%20Marshall%27s%20discovery%20first,JRS%20on%20August%2019%2C%201848. “The news of gold discovered in California reached Chile in August” (1848) (120) -
“In 1850, the California legislature passed a Foreign Miners' Tax that required miners who were not U.S. citizens to pay $20 every month for the right to mine in the state” https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1714#:~: “That year, 1850, the legislature of California approved a tax on mining operations designed to protect whites.” 329 -
“California became the 31st state on September 9, 1850” https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23856#:~: “In September of 1850, Tao was present at the noisy patriotic celebration when California became the newest state in the union” (318)