replacement by a socialism governed by the workers. Both Marx and Engels were German by birth, but in 1849 they moved to England. In 1859 Marx published the extended study for which he is also remembered, a critique of capitalism entitled Das Kapital. 1849–1850 Gold Rush and California Statehood By the time Americans came into formal possession of Alta (Upper) California, the region’s tremendous commercial potential had become clearly evident. The discovery of gold by James Marshall in March 1848 had launched the first of the great “gold rushes” of the 19th century and quickly transformed the pastoral economy of the Mexican era. By mid-century the population of California had grown dramatically, as tens of thousands of gold seekers arrived from other regions of the United States, Latin America, Europe, China, and Australia. These newcomers established American political structures in a frontier society where legal institutions had been weak and ineffective. With the ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in July 1848, and with the creation of the first of the extractive industries that would long dominate the economic history of the American West, the stage was set for California statehood in 1850. SEE FIGURES 19A & B
1846–1848 Mexican-American War 1848 U.S. Annexes Southwest
The Mexican-American War was America’s first international conflict explicitly justified by the idea of “Manifest Destiny.” This belief was first expressed in 1845 by a Democratic Party publicist who argued that the superiority of American values and institutions bestowed a right to extend the nation’s borders across the continent. Thus native Americans and Mexicans who occupied portions of the Western territories could be pushed aside, isolated, or even exterminated. In 1845 the United States annexed the republic of Texas, territory still claimed by Mexico. Resulting diplomatic tensions and border disputes set the stage for war in 1846. For President James Polk and his expansionist allies, the justice of the conflict was never in doubt. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed after American forces reached Mexico City, resulted in the annexation of California and the Southwest as well as the establishment of the Rio Grande River as the nation’s southern boundary.
Figures 19A & B. When gold was discovered in California, a new generation of Argonauts rushed in from around the world to claim their share of the loot. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.
1859 Charles Darwin Formulates Theory of Evolution
Even as a boy Charles Darwin (1809 –1882) had been interested in observing birds and collecting insects. As a young man, having first studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and then theology at Cambridge University, Darwin decided to focus his career on natural history. In his early 20s he was selected for the position of naturalist on the HMS Beagle and spent the next five years on a collecting expedition to South America and the South Pacific. In the course of this experience he concluded that all organisms necessarily adapt to environmental changes and that, as a result, they evolve over time. He also concluded that organic species are involved in an intense competition for limited resources. Those species with adaptive characteristics are more likely to survive and reproduce. Darwin referred to this as evolution by natural selection. Portions of Darwin’s lifelong research were ultimately published in On the Origin of Species (1859), a book that fundamentally transformed biology and controversially challenged Christian doctrine.
1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Publish Communist Manifesto
At a time of renewed European unrest, Karl Marx (1818 –1883) and his fellow socialist Friedrich Engels (1820 –1895) issued a call to arms in 1848 that was intended to define the role of the working class. In so doing, they sought to explain the structural dynamics of economic systems and the crises that beset them. Converting the idealist dialectic of Georg W. F. Hegel (1770 –1831) into a materialist interpretation, Marx and Engels argued that history progresses by means of class struggle: an enduring conflict between an upper class of owners and a lower class that does the actual labor. In the case of capitalism the internal tensions deriving from this conflict would inevitably lead, they thought, to the system’s destruction through revolution and its
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