California Gold Rush Expansion Analysis

The first of my two environmental/geographical factors that contribute to both the expansion and development of the United States is the California gold rush. Before the gold rush, California was mostly unfamiliar to the rest of the United States. When gold was discovered in 1849, mostly men left their homes and started traveling across the country to discover the newfound riches. New towns began to pop up along the routes that travelers were taking to get to California. Populations growths were abundant in the new areas of the United States were there weren’t many people before (History of the Gold Rush, 1999). The second of my two environmental/geographical factors that contribute to both the expansion and development of the United States is the Sunbelt. All through U.S. history, mainly after World War II, the Sun Belt saw a great deal of population growth in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California as well as many others and has been an important area socially, politically and economically. Part of the region 's growth was a result of increasing agriculture and
Early settlers saw potential among the Mesopotamia and began to build along the rivers surrounding the area. Mesopotamia in fact means “land between rivers” it is the area in the middle of the Tigris and Euphrates river system. The people of this region survived using the natural resources that were given to them in the form of vegetation and animal life. The people soon found a way of irrigation to grow their own crops and use the crops as a way to feed their animals. With irrigation, the food supply[->0] in Mesopotamia was quite plentiful. The area expanded as more people began to move into the area, what was once known as a desolate desert area, is now known as Iraq (Iraq,