Citizendia

For other meanings, see Gold rush (disambiguation)

A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers into the area of a dramatic discovery of commercial quantities of gold. Gold (ˈɡoʊld is a Chemical element with the symbol Au (from its Latin name aurum) and Atomic number 79 Several gold rushes took place throughout the 19th century in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Argentina topics. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Chile, officially the Republic of Chile ( Spanish:) is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow Coastal strip wedged between the New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Gold rushes helped spur permanent non-indigenous settlement of new regions and define a significant part of the culture of the North American and Australian frontiers. As well, at a time when money was based on gold, the newly-mined gold provided economic stimulus far beyond the gold fields. Money is anything that is generally accepted as Payment for Goods and services and repayment of Debts. The gold standard is a monetary system in which a region's common media of exchange are paper notes that are normally freely convertible into pre-set fixed quantities of Gold The history of gold rushes extends back to the Roman empire as well as the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and probably yet further back to Ancient Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial The Spanish colonization of the Americas was Spain 's conquest settlement and rule over much of the Western hemisphere. Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA ( المملكة العربية السعودية, al-Mamlaka al-ʻArabiyya as-Suʻūdiyya) or Suudi The first known map is of a gold mine in Nubia, for example. This article is about the region in Africa for other uses see Nubia (disambiguation. The gold mining activities were described by Diodorus Siculus and Pliny the Elder. Gaius or Caius Plinius Secundus, ( AD 23 – August 25, AD 79 better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient Author

Contents

Roman Gold rushes

Panoramic view of Las Médulas
Panoramic view of Las Médulas

During the first century BC, the Romans under Augustus expanded their empire in several directions, but especially by invading and subduing northern Spain. Augustus ( Latin: IMPERATOR·CAESAR·DIVI·FILIVS·AVGVSTVS September 23 63 BC – August 19 AD 14) born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, was Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. There were many rich gold deposits in the region, and the Roman army were quick to exploit gold and many other metals. The Roman army was a set of military forces employed by the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and later Roman Empire as part of the Roman military They used hydraulic mining methods on a very large scale to extract gold from extensive alluvial deposits, such as those at Las Medulas. Hydraulic mining, or hydraulicking, is a form of Mining that employs Water to dislodge rock material or move sediment Las Médulas, located near the town of Ponferrada in León province, Spain, used to be the most important Gold mine in the Roman The rush was always under the control of the state but the mines may have been leased to civilian contractors some time later. The gold helped finance the growth of the empire, and was an important motive in the Roman invasion of Britain by Claudius in the first century AD, although there is only one known Roman gold mine at Dolaucothi in west Wales. This page refers to the conquest begun in AD 43 For other Roman invasions see Caesar's invasions of Britain and Carausian Revolt. Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or Claudius I ( August 1, 10 BC &ndash October 13, AD 54 ( Tiberius Claudius Drusus from birth to The Dolaucothi Gold Mines ( also known as the Ogofau Gold Mine, are Roman surface and deep mines located in the valley of the River Cothi, Gold was a prime motivation for the campaign in Dacia when the Romans invaded Transylvania in what is now modern Roumania in the second century AD. Dacia, in ancient geography was the land of the Dacians. It was named by the ancient Hellenes ( Greeks) " Getae " Transylvania (Ardeal or ro ''Transilvania'' Erdély, see also other denominations) is a Central European region located in the eastern half of the Carpathian Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania The legions were led by the emperor Trajan, and their exploits are shown on Trajans column in Rome. Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus, commonly known as Trajan ( September 18 53 &ndash August 9 117) was a Roman Emperor who Trajan's Column is a Monument in Rome raised in honour of the Roman emperor Trajan and constructed by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2

North American Gold rushes

A California Gold Rush handbill
A California Gold Rush handbill

The first significant gold rush in the United States was the Georgia Gold Rush in the southern Appalachians, which started in 1829. The Georgia Gold Rush was the first significant Gold rush in the United States. The Appalachian Mountains ( often called the Appalachians, are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America. It was followed by the California Gold Rush of 1848–49 in the Sierra Nevada, which captured the popular imagination. The California Gold Rush (1848&ndash1855 began on January 24 1848 when Gold was discovered by James Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California The Sierra Nevada ( Spanish for "Snowy Range" is a Mountain range located in the U The California gold rush led directly to the settlement of California by Americans and the rapid entry of that state into the union in 1850. The History of California is divided into the following articles Successive gold rushes occurred in western North America, gradually moving north: Fraser Canyon, the Cariboo district and other parts of British Columbia, and the Rocky Mountains. fountaincanyon10jpg|thumb|400px|right|View of Fraser Canyon looking upstream from Fountain British Columbia The Cariboo is an Intermontane region of British Columbia along a plateau stretching from the Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Mountains. Mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a Mountain range in western North America. One of the last "great gold rushes" was the Klondike Gold Rush in Canada's Yukon Territory (1898–99), immortalized in the novels of Jack London, the poetry of Robert W. Service and films such as Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush. The Klondike Gold Rush, infrequently referred to as the Yukon Gold Rush or Alaska Gold Rush, was a frenzy of Gold rush Immigration to and for Yukon (ˈjuːkɒn is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three territories. Jack London (January 12 1876 &ndash November 22 1916 was an American author who wrote The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Robert William Service ( January 16, 1874 &ndash September 11, 1958) was a poet and writer The Gold Rush is a 1925 Silent film comedy written directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin in his Little Tramp Resurrection Creek, near Hope, Alaska was the site of Alaska's first gold rush over a century ago, and placer mining continues today. Hope is a Census-designated place (CDP in Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U Alaska ( Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent Placer mining (pronounced "plass-er" refers to the mining of alluvial deposits for Minerals This may be done by open-pit (also called open-cast [1] Other notable Alaska Gold Rushes were Nome and the Fortymile River. The Fortymile River is a River in Alaska and the Yukon. Prior to the Klondike Gold Rush, there was considerable mining activity along this tributary The gold rush in 1849 stimulated world-wide interest in prospecting for gold, and led to new rushes in Australia, South Africa, Wales and Scotland. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain.

Australian Gold rushes

The Victorian gold rush, which occurred in Australia in 1851 soon after the California gold rush, was the biggest of several Australian gold rushes. The Victorian Gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s The Australian gold rushes started in 1851 when prospector Edward Hammond Hargraves claimed the discovery of payable Gold near Bathurst, New South That gold rush was highly significant to Australia’s, and especially Victoria's and Melbourne's, political and economic development. Melbourne ( is the second most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 3 With the Australian gold rushes came the construction of the first railways and telegraph lines, multiculturalism and racism, the Eureka Stockade and the end of penal transportation. "Railroad" and "Railway" both redirect here For other uses see Railroad (disambiguation. The term multiculturalism generally refers to a state of racial, cultural and ethnic diversity within the Demographics of a specified List of racism-related topics|Racism by country Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that The Eureka Stockade was the setting of a gold miners' Revolt in 1854 near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia against the officials supervising the Transportation or penal transportation refers to the deporting of Convicted Criminals to a Penal colony, for example by France Many of those involved in mining in Victoria later travelled across the Tasman Sea to take part in the Central Otago Gold Rush, New Zealand's biggest gold rush. The Tasman Sea is the large body of water between Australia and New Zealand, some 2000 Kilometres (1250 Miles across The Central Otago Gold Rush (often simply called the Otago gold rush) was a Gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand This kick-started New Zealand's economy and made the city of Dunedin a major financial center in the young colony. Dunedin (dəˈneɪdɪn) Ōtepoti in Maori is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the region of

South Africa

In South Africa, the Witwatersrand Gold Rush in the Transvaal was equally important to that country's history, leading to the founding of Johannesburg and tensions between the Boers and British settlers. The Witwatersrand Gold Rush was a Gold rush in 1886 that led to the establishment of Johannesburg, South Africa. For the Russian theme park see Transvaal Park. The Transvaal (Afrikaans lit Johannesburg ( Pronounced /jō-hān'ĭs-bûrg'/ is the largest city in South Africa. Boer (ˈbuːr in Dutch ˈbʊɚ/ /boʊɚ or /ˈbɔr/ in English is the Dutch word for Farmer which came to denote the descendants of the proto Afrikaans

Gold rushes were typically marked by a general buoyant feeling of a "free for all" in income mobility, in which any single individual might become abundantly wealthy almost instantly. The significance of gold rushes in history has given a longer life to the term, and it is now applied generally to denote any capitalist economic activity in which the participants aspire to race each other in common pursuit of a new and apparently highly lucrative market, often precipitated by an advance in technology. Capitalism is the Economic system in which the Means of production are owned by private Persons and operated for Profit and where Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Technology is a broad concept that deals with a Species ' usage and knowledge of Tools and Crafts and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt

Life cycle of a gold rush

Many gold rush towns boom overnight and expand rapidly, only to eventually become uninhabited
Many gold rush towns boom overnight and expand rapidly, only to eventually become uninhabited

Within each mining rush there is typically a transition through progressively higher capital expenditures, larger organizations, and more specialized knowledge. They may also progress from high-unit value to lower unit value minerals (from gold to silver to base metals).

The rush is often started by a discovery of placer gold made by an individual or small group. At first the gold may be washed from the sand and gravel by individual miners with little training, using a gold pan or similar simple instrument. Once it is clear that the volume of gold-bearing sediment is larger than a few cubic meters, the placer miners will build rockers or sluice boxes, with which a small group can wash gold from the sediment many times faster than using gold pans. (See placer mining for details. Placer mining (pronounced "plass-er" refers to the mining of alluvial deposits for Minerals This may be done by open-pit (also called open-cast ) Winning the gold in this manner requires almost no capital investment, only a simple pan or equipment that may be built on the spot, and only simple organization. The low investment, the high value per unit weight of gold, and the ability of gold dust and gold nuggets to serve as a medium of exchange, allow placer gold rushes to occur even in remote locations.

After the sluice-box stage, placer mining may become increasingly large scale, requiring larger organizations, and higher capital expenditures. Small claims owned and mined by individuals may need to be merged into larger tracts. Difficult-to-reach placer deposits may be mined by tunnels. Water may be diverted by dams and canals to placer mine active river beds or to deliver water needed to wash dry placers. The more advanced techniques of ground sluicing, hydraulic mining, and dredging may be used. Hydraulic mining, or hydraulicking, is a form of Mining that employs Water to dislodge rock material or move sediment The gold dredge is a mechanical method of extracting gold from sand and gravel

Typically the heyday of a placer gold rush would last only a few years. The free gold supply in stream beds would become depleted somewhat quickly, and the initial phase would be followed by prospecting for veins of lode gold that were the original source of the placer gold. Gold (ˈɡoʊld is a Chemical element with the symbol Au (from its Latin name aurum) and Atomic number 79 Hardrock mining, like placer mining, may evolve from low capital investment and simple technology to progressively higher capital and technology. The surface outcrop of a gold-bearing vein may be oxidized, so that the gold occurs as native gold, and the ore needs only to be crushed and washed (free milling ore). The first miners may at first build a simple arrastre to crush their ore; later, they may build stamp mills to crush ore more quickly. As the miners dig down, they may find that the deeper part of vein contains gold locked in sulfide or telluride minerals, which will require smelting. Sulfur or sulphur (ˈsʌlfɚ see spelling below) is the Chemical element that has the Atomic number 16 Tellurium (tɪˈlʊəriəm/ /tɛl- is a Chemical element that has the symbol Te and Atomic number 52 Chemical reduction, or smelting, is a form of Extractive metallurgy. If the ore is still sufficiently rich, it may be worth shipping to a distant smelter (direct shipping ore). Lower-grade ore may require on-site treatment to either recover the gold or to produce a concentrate sufficiently rich for transport to the smelter. As the district turns to lower-grade ore, the mining may change from underground mining to large open-pit mining.

Many silver rushes followed upon gold rushes. A Silver rush is the silver-mining equivalent of a Gold rush. As transportation and infrastructure improve, the focus may change progressively from gold to silver to base metals. In this way, Leadville, Colorado started as a placer gold discovery, achieved fame as a silver-mining district, then relied on lead and zinc in its later days. Leadville is a Statutory City that is the County seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Butte, Montana began mining placer gold, then became a silver-mining district, then became for a time the world’s largest copper producer. Butte (IPA) is a city in and the County seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States.

Notable gold rushes

Rushes of the 1690s

Rushes of the 1820s

Rushes of the 1840s

Rushes of the 1850s

Rushes of the 1860s

Rushes of the 1870s

Rushes of the 1880s

Rushes of the 1890s

Rushes of the 1900s

Rushes of the 1970s

Rushes of the 1980s

Rushes of the 2000s

Klondike

Main article: Klondike Gold Rush

One of the best-known gold rushes was that of the Klondike in 1897–99; the main goldfield was along the south flank of the Klondike River near its confluence with the Yukon River near what was to become Dawson City in Canada's Yukon Territory but it also helped open up the relatively new US possession of Alaska to exploration and settlement and promoted the discovery of other gold finds there. The Klondike Gold Rush, infrequently referred to as the Yukon Gold Rush or Alaska Gold Rush, was a frenzy of Gold rush Immigration to and for The Klondike River is a Tributary of the Yukon River in Canada that gave its name to the Klondike Gold Rush. The Yukon River is a major watercourse of northwestern North America.

The Klondike Gold Rush sparked the largest mobilization of goldseekers in history. Millions started on the journey although ultimately only a few hundred thousand reached the "Yukon Ports" or other disembarkation points such as Nome, Alaska, Yakutat Bay and Stewart, British Columbia, for the long overland journey to the goldfields. Yakutat Bay is a 29-km-wide (18 mi bay in the US state of Alaska, extending southwest from Disenchantment Bay to the Gulf of Alaska. Stewart is a small town at the head of the Portland Canal in western British Columbia, Canada. Some hopeful disembarkation points such as Edmonton, Alberta, turned out to be impractical and only a handful made it by such routes. Edmonton (ˈɛdmɨntɨn is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta. Alberta (ælˈbɝtə is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1 1905 Only 35,000 finally reached what was to become Dawson City, at the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers, to be faced by famine, fire and some of the world's bitterest and darkest winters. A famine is a widespread shortage of food that may apply to any Faunal species which phenomenon is usually accompanied by regional Malnutrition, Starvation

The Klondike Gold Rush brought prospectors to other locations in the Far North, with several other smaller rushes occurring as spin-offs. Three of the better-known of such rushes were in Atlin, British Columbia (1898), and Nome (1898–99) and Fairbanks (1902), Alaska.

South Africa

South African gold production went from zero in 1886 to 23% of the total world output in 1896. At the time of the South African rush, gold production benefited from the newly discovered techniques by Scottish chemists, the MacArthur-Forrest process, of using potassium cyanide to extract gold from low-grade ore. Gold cyanidation (also known as the cyanide process or the MacArthur-Forrest process) is a metallurgical technique for extracting Gold from low-grade Potassium cyanide is an Inorganic compound with the formula KCN [6]

Australia

Gold rushes happened at or around:

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-IMPACT/2008/January/Day-28/i347.htm U. Coolgardie is a small town in the Australian state of Western Australia, east of the state capital Perth. Bathurst is a regional centre in the state of New South Wales, Australia approximately 200km west of Sydney and is the seat of the Bathurst Regional Council Bendigo is a regional city in central Victoria Australia, located in the City of Greater Bendigo. Gold mining in the United States has taken place since the discovery of gold at the Reed farm in North Carolina in 1799 Gold mining in Alaska, a state of the United States, has been a major industry and impetus for exploration and settlement since a few years after the United States acquired the Origins The Romans are generally famous for their advanced Engineering accomplishments although some of their own inventions were improvements on older ideas concepts S. Environmental Protection Agency
  2. ^ Gold rush -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  3. ^ In Amazon Jungle, a Gold Rush Like None Before
  4. ^ Gold Rush in the Rainforest: Brazilians Flock to Seek their Fortunes in the Amazon
  5. ^ Brazilian goldminers flock to 'new Eldorado'
  6. ^ Micheloud, François (2004). The Crime of 1873: Gold Inflation this time. FX Micheloud Monetary History. François Micheloud: www. micheloud. com.

External links

Dictionary

gold rush

-noun

  1. Any period of feverish migration into an area in which gold has been discovered
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic