19th Century History of Chinese in Cali

Nineteenth Century
History of Chinese in California

    The very first immigrants to migrate from china to the united states of America were mainly from the Guangdong province in the South eastern areas of china, most came to sought out ways to make money to send home for their families and hopefully strike it rich to go back to their mainland wealthy. During eighteen forty-nine the opium war against the British has finally resolved after a long three years, but in the favor of the British empire, they forced the Chinese to open there ports for outside trade which lead to a higher western influence and political dominance. The living conditions and quality of living changed drastically after the war. The Chinese people began facing a great increase in tax, large numbers of unemployment, competition from foreign imported merchandise, high rates of poverty and opium addiction, they also had to deal with the countries political and economical hardships. Due to the coastal sea ports being open to trade, the Chinese were able to have foreign contacts which allowed for the news of the gold rush in California as well as the news of work opportunities to spread throughout south east china. Soon thousand of Chinese men took the new found opportunity to leave the mainland for a chance at a new life with more job opportunity in the land of gold, California.
When they arrived in California, the European American view of the immigrants from the far-east were far from positive, much of the European Americans in the Eighteen-fifties had a strong belief in white supremacy, they believed to be much superior and thought the Chinese immigrants to be inferior, as a result the Chinese immigrants faced discrimination and racist laws   like the Foreign Miner tax, which was targeted mainly toward the Chinese immigrant miners. According to Judy Yung’s Book Chinese American Voices: From the Gold rush to the present she states that “The tax Accounted for between twenty five to fifty...