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End date: 1850
Start date: 1830 “ . . .rich veins of silver and gold were discovered in the north” (65). https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/gold-rush-of-1849# -
“Trade report – The heavy rains and high rivers have caused flooding at Canton. The factories are underwater and no business can be done. Goods cannot be shipped or landed for the time being. Even opium is not selling.” “a year of typhoons, bad harvest, and famine . . .” (187)
This quote shows what China was going through at this time and what type of environment Tao Chi’en was exposed to;provides a setting https://houghton.hk/china-1793-1844-part-5/ -
“Two hundred years earlier, a devastating earthquake . . .”(40) https://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/01/vanwyhe.quake.chile.darwin/index.html (cnn) -
“In May 1839, the Chinese forced the British Chief Superintendent of Trade in China, Charles Elliott, to hand over the stocks of opium at Canton for destruction. This event caused outrage among the British, and was the spark that ignited the war..” “In 1839, when the Opium War between China and Great Britain broke out, Tao Chi’en was sixteen years old”
This shows what Tao the conditions he had to grow within
https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/first-china-war-1839-1842 -
“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 . . .” (38-39). -
This treaty, signed on February 2, 1848: By its terms, Mexico ceded 55 percent of its territory, including the present-day states California. “The yellow pellet that unleashed the madness was found nine days after the war between Mexico and the United States had ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. By the time the news spread, California no longer belonged to Mexico.” (254). https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-guadalupe-hidalgo -
California became the 31st state on September 9, 1850. "In September of 1850, Tao was present at the noisy patriotic celebration when California became the newest state in the union." (373). https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23856#:~:text=In%201849%2C%20Californians%20sought%20statehood,state%20on%20September%209%2C%201850. -
After 165 years, the winter of 1850 still ranks as the 15th wettest in San Francisco since 1849 with a total 33.10 inches of rain. “The last days of January 1850 witnessed one of the worst ice storms ever seen in those parts.” (295). https://www.sierrasun.com/news/local/sierra-history-the-gold-rush-flood-of-1850-2/ -
The Foreign Miners' Tax Act of 1850 was an Act passed by the United States state of California in 1850, imposing a tax of $20/month on foreign miners. “That year, 1850, the legislature of California approved a tax on mining operations designed to protect whites.” (365). https://dbpedia.org/page/Foreign_Miners'_Tax_Act_of_1850