Spain discovers gold in CA in 1800

What if Spain discovered gold in CA in 1800? Would it be possible to have a "gold rush" in CA in 1800 or is it too remote? What would an 1800 gold rush look like? Would Mexico fail to become indendent in 1810 as Spain will fight tooth and nail for the gold mines? How would it effect the balance of power in Europe?
 
You would need the Spanish to actually care about colonizing California, instead of considering it as nothing but a useless province on the fringe of a mighty asset. Keeping Mexico Spanish would definitely help.
 
You would need the Spanish to actually care about colonizing California, instead of considering it as nothing but a useless province on the fringe of a mighty asset. Keeping Mexico Spanish would definitely help.

If someone stumbled across gold in CA somehow Spain WILL care.
 
If someone stumbled across gold in CA somehow Spain WILL care.

How do they "stumble" upon the gold? Because the only reason the Americans discovered it, was that they were building a lumber mill over a river and accidentally discovered the gold deposits. Unless there was a concerted effort to colonize California, stumbling across Gold seems highly unlikely.
 
How do they "stumble" upon the gold? Because the only reason the Americans discovered it, was that they were building a lumber mill over a river and accidentally discovered the gold deposits. Unless there was a concerted effort to colonize California, stumbling across Gold seems highly unlikely.

Highly unlikely but not impossible. Some Spaniard gets really, really lucky. It happens sometimes.
 
Once again, you would need a POD involving heavier Spanish involvement in the areas where the Gold fields are.

They HAD people living in CA at the time. People sometimes get really, really lucky. Once I drew into an inside royal flush (I don't even want to know the odds against that!). I didn't expect to get that, but I figured I had a 1 in four chance of getting a flush, some chance at getting a straight and if that failed a good chance at getting high pair. If you are curious I was missing the Queen of Diamonds. When I get luck like that I remember!
 
What if Spain discovered gold in CA in 1800? Would it be possible to have a "gold rush" in CA in 1800 or is it too remote? What would an 1800 gold rush look like? Would Mexico fail to become indendent in 1810 as Spain will fight tooth and nail for the gold mines? How would it effect the balance of power in Europe?

This might give Spain second thoughts about ceding Louisiana back to France among other Napoleonic era butterflies. The area might be, however, too remote for news to spread all that quick.
 
They HAD people living in CA at the time. People sometimes get really, really lucky. Once I drew into an inside royal flush (I don't even want to know the odds against that!). I didn't expect to get that, but I figured I had a 1 in four chance of getting a flush, some chance at getting a straight and if that failed a good chance at getting high pair. If you are curious I was missing the Queen of Diamonds. When I get luck like that I remember!

All Im saying is to have it happen you would need a greater interest in the area, maybe a more concerted effort by the Spanish to discover the Lost Cities of Gold. If they find the gold, then California quickly becomes a center of Spanish colonization and given the lack of any real native opposition, quickly becomes the most Spanish of all the Spanish colonies.
 
All Im saying is to have it happen you would need a greater interest in the area, maybe a more concerted effort by the Spanish to discover the Lost Cities of Gold.
Not really. You had pretty heavy missionary involvement at the time and several crown-funded exploratory expeditions into inland California and the Pacific Northwest. You could have one of the expeditions find gold and bring word of it back to San Francisco.
 
Not really. You had pretty heavy missionary involvement at the time and several crown-funded exploratory expeditions into inland California and the Pacific Northwest. You could have one of the expeditions find gold and bring word of it back to San Francisco.

But were there any settlements?
 
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