It all started when John Sutter and James Marshall were at a mill and suddenly John found a shiny nugget in the water. It was gold!! They had never seen it before. It was a discovery and a new era.
The word about the discovery soon got out and people from all around the world were on their way to California hoping to get lucky
The forty-niners were people who came from Europe (different cultures) and they would try to take over all of the lands so they can have the best chance of finding gold.