Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Texas, December 19, 2017.

Tuco Benedicto Ramirez has just been

elected president of Mexico.

Emerging victorious from an unprecedented electoral battle.

He is finally free to launch his flagship project,

build a great wall to protect his country

from American illegals.

Since the discovery of gold in California

at the end of the 19th century,

Mexico has become the richest

and most powerful country in the world.

For millions of Americans in search of a better life,

the border city of Dallas has become

the entry point into El Dorado.

Dodging the Mexican surveillance patrols,

people smugglers charge sky-high prices for their services.

For the newly elected president,

it's high time to put a stop to it.

But none of this ever happened.

In 1848, a tiny grain of sand

would decide the fate of California

and tip the balance in America's favor.

Our history is no more than a series of incredible events.

Every one of us can influence its course.

(mid-tempo riveting music)

The most infinitesimal of our decisions

can influence the future of humanity.

To know the past is to foresee the future.

1846, the American congress votes the annexation of Texas.

The United States declares war

on the neighboring state, Mexico.

January 24, 1848, at the foot of the Californian Mountain,

James Marshall discovers gold nuggets of the American River.

On February 2, 1848, California officially becomes

a territory of the United States.

These three intimately connected events

are the key moments of the Gold Rush.

They will decide the future of California

and of the United States.

16th century, somewhere off the west coast

of the North American continent,

Francisco de Ulloa,

and explorer for the Spanish crown,

observes this vast territory stretching out before him.

He has just provided the proof

that this is not an island, but a peninsula.

Who knows?

Those mountains could well conceal rich and fertile lands,

and maybe even El Dorado.

But for the moment,

the only thing known about this region

is its name, California.

Ever since the arrival of Christopher Columbus

in the Caribbean in 1492,

the conquistadors of the kings of Spain

have sailed to conquer the American continent.

Braving the unknown,

attacking the mighty pre-Columbian empires,

they have carved out an empire

with the points of their rapiers

and the fire from their muskets.

But the glory of the Spanish kingdom

was not their only motivation.

The conquistadors were thirsty, thirsty for gold.

Feeding off the myth of El Dorado,

many of them ended up bristled with poisoned arrows

on the banks of the Amazon

or the rocky slopes of the Andes Cordillera.

For centuries, the Spanish explore again and again.

That is how they will discover California.

In the 19th century,

Spanish California is a far vaster territory

than the current America state.

It covers the north of the Mexican peninsula,

but also Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.

A mountainous region,

it stretches from the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean.

But in 1810, the Mexico colony rebels

against the Spanish crown.

10 years later, it gains its independence.

California is a part of this new state.

Far from the major cities,

it is home mainly to large land owners, the Californios.

Raising cattle, they cohabit peacefully

with the Indian tribes.

The province doesn't seem to interest many people.

- [Narrator] Welcome to the memory of humanity.

Here, we can control time, analyze, and compare

billions of events and alter them

to rewrite history endlessly.

All the events in our history,

however minute they might be,

are memorized and interconnected.

It only requires one to be changed

for all the others to be shaken to the core.

For example, let's go back 15,000 years.

At this period, around 5,000,000 people

inhabit the earth, mainly in Africa and Asia.

The America continent is entirely empty of human life.

The earth then undergoes an ice age.

Waters are trapped in huge glaciers.

The sea level falls.

In the north, the Bering Straight is dry.

The first migrants use it to walk across.

For the first time in their history,

men set foot on the soil of America.

These nomadic Asiatic tribes were moved

to follow the venison they hunt.

Progressively, they will colonize the entire continent,

and establish great societies,

such as that of the Olmec and the Maya.

When Christopher Columbus discovers the continent,

he believes he's reached Asia.

In error, he calls the inhabitants Indians.

Which is partially true,

their distant ancestors did, in fact,

come from that region.

Let's continue.

- [Narrator] California, now Mexican,

doesn't appear to interest many people.

And yet, on April 25th,

on the Rio Grande, an American calvary patrol

intrudes onto Mexican land.

For several months, relations between

the two countries have been strained.

The least clash could set the powder keg alight.

At the beginning of the 19th century,

the young United States is still a small country.

Nothing in comparison to the one we know today.

Wedged in between the Atlantic to the East,

Canada to the north, French Louisiana,

and California to the west,

the Americans very soon implement a policy of expansion.

War, colonization, buying territories.

In 1803, they doubled their land surface

with the purchase of Louisiana from France.

A few years later, the annex Florida, then Texas and Oregon.

These huge territories hold a promise,

a promise of rich and generous land, still virgin,

and just asking to be discovered and exploited.

The west in the minds of Americans,

rapidly becomes the wild west.

An idea emerges, that of a frontier,

separating the civilized world from the savage world.

This frontier will constantly be pushed back ever further.

This is the conquest of the American frontier.

Very quickly, a conviction grips the United States.

Conquering these vast territories,

is their manifest destiny.

In the early 1840s, thousands of settlers

will set out on a formidable human adventure.

Aboard their heavy wagons, whole families will leave

everything behind them to set out

upon the assault of the great plains.

Traveling thousands of miles, subject to foul weather

and attacks from bandits,

these pioneers will forge the American spirit.

Americans of course, but also Irish,

German, French, or even Chinese will shape

the multi ethnic face of the United States.

Gradually, they reached the west coast,

and the Mexican territory of California.

Confrontation between the former Spanish colony,

and the young American nation is inevitable.

The Mexican American war of 1846 is very short.

Mexico is quickly forced into seeding half of its territory.

California becomes an American territory

on February second, 1848.

But history has an irony of fate in store for Mexico.

A few days earlier in the heart of the Sierra Nevada,

at a place called Sutter's Mill,

a man has just made a discovery.

While out inspecting the progress of work on a saw mill,

James Marshall notices some shiny flecks

on the bed of the stream, in barely six inches of water.

He picks up several of them at random.

- [Narrator] We have just reached a turning point.

A turning point is a key event across roads in our history,

where the world swings one way or the other.

In almost simultaneous fashion,

California becomes American, and they discover

one of the largest deposits of gold ever seen.

What would have happened if James Marshall

had made his discovery several days,

or several weeks earlier?

The news would soon have reached the ears

of the Mexican government, which would probably

have refused to abandon this new El Dorado.

The war could have lasted for months,

and ended with an American defeat.

California would then have remained a Mexican territory.

Today, California has become the sixth

richest state in the world.

If it were Mexican, the balance of power

on the world chess board would be totally reversed.

We can imagine the construction of a great wall

along the Mexican American border

to prevent American illegals from sneaking onto the soil

of the most powerful country in the world, Mexico.

- [James] Gold, Gold, there's gold in them there hills!

- [Narrator] At once, workers at Sutter's Mill

abandoned their posts and go looking for gold.

It's first come, first serve.

They try to keep the information secret,

but the rumor spreads like wildfire.

On March 15th, the newspaper The Californian carries

the headline that large quantities of gold

have been discovered at Sutter's Mill.

Samuel Brannan, a businessman gets wind of the information.

He rushes to acquire the maximum of land

on the site of the discovery.

He knows that the money will soon be flowing in.

On May 12th, holding a bottle

of gold dust in his hand, he announces the news

to the neighboring city of San Francisco,

which is soon emptied of its population.

California has only just been associated with United States.

It has no authority yet, no law, no army.

For the moment, the gold is out of control.

It belongs to whoever can grab it.

The first to arrive hit the jackpot.

We even see one man take our 50 pounds of gold in a week.

You just need to bend down and turn over

a few rocks on a riverbed to fill your hat with nuggets.

Brannan's announcement creates a sensation.

All activity in California not related

to prospecting for gold, ceases.

From schools to carpenter shops, it's all abandoned,

except for the manufacture of picks and shovels.

There are soon 6,000 Americans, Californios,

and Indians panning the riverbeds

in search of the precious nuggets.

Makeshift camps soon become villages.

On August 19th the New York Herald publishes the news.

In December, the president

of the United States himself confirms it.

The real rush begins.

By 1849, the whole world is aware.

From all over the United States,

but also from South America, Europe and China,

thousands of people leave their homes

to try their luck and become gold prospectors.

The journey itself is an adventure.

By land from the east coast of the United States,

you have to cross the 2,000 miles of the great plains

and the Rockies in covered wagons.

By boat, you have to brave the fury of Cape Horn,

or hack through the jungle on the Panama Isthmus.

Once anchor is dropped in San Francisco harbor,

the sailers desert to become gold prospectors.

Even the sails are recycled into tents.

The region soon turns into a huge construction lot.

Everywhere they're panning, digging,

turning over, crushing and raking.

For hours on end, standing in freezing water,

they shovel tons of mud to extract a few ounces of gold.

Millions of dollars are ripped out of the mountainsides,

in the form of flecks, dusts, or nuggets,

73 tons of gold are extracted in less than two years.

There's not one square foot of ground that isn't

turned over and inspected, even several times in a row.

The area swarms with hundreds of thousands

of prospectors of every type.

From the American farmer of the great plains,

to the Californio cattle breeder.

From the Amerindian trapper,

to the impoverished German doctor.

From the Chinese cook, to the French wine grower,

all have abandoned their former lives

in the hope of a better future.

They've all caught gold fever.

- [Narrator] What is rare is precious.

Over thousands of years, gold appears to have

fascinated human beings.

Whether a bargaining chip, or an offering to the gods,

the yellow metal has always been the object of greed,

in both west and east alike.

Why?

Unchanging, incorruptible, dense,

easy to work, an electrical conductor.

Gold is a metal with extraordinary properties.

It's as equally suited to the creation of jewelry,

as to the manufacture of electronic components.

Its other advantage is that it is rare,

difficult to obtain, and everybody agrees

in saying that it's precious.

So, it can be used as currency.

For a long time, national currencies were indexed to gold,

which means that they only had value

if the states that issued them possessed

the equivalent in gold reserves.

Even today in the age of virtual money and speculation,

states still cling jealously to their stock of gold.

In case of a financial crisis,

gold remains a safe investment.

- [Narrator] Hiram Pierce was a blacksmith.

In 1849, he was living modestly

with his wife and seven children.

To improve life for his family,

he decided to try his luck in California.

A year later, suffering from scurvy and fatigue,

he realizes the reality.

He came too late.

The man who thought he could send money

to his family regularly, finds himself piling up debts.

He will return home, ruined, and worn out.

His story is far from being an isolated case.

For gold, like any resource, is not inexhaustible.

If the first to arrive only had to bend down,

the more time passed, the deeper you needed to dig

to find a mere few crumbs.

Wild stories of success give way

to real stories of bankruptcy.

Disappointment and frustration exacerbate

the lowest instincts of men who are weary and far from home.

Alcoholism, theft, racism, murder.

Faced with the flood of new arrivals,

and the seam running out,

the prospectors grouped together by nationality.

Very quickly, the American consider that the foreigners

are stealing their gold.

Raids and intimidation force the Californios

and the Amerindians to abandon their concessions.

Weapons normally used for protection against wild animals

now become the means to settle scores.

Subject to harsh living conditions,

the men find a little comfort in alcohol at the saloons.

In San Francisco, there are 137 saloons

against a mere 12 churches.

With a population that is 97% men, prostitution explodes.

A prostitute can make as much as

five times the earnings of a miner.

To survive, the prospectors form

themselves into mining companies.

In numbers, they can divert rivers and dig even deeper.

A lot of money is invested, often in vain.

The California Gold Rush lasts for eight years.

Of the 300,000 prospectors, only a few thousand appear

to have covered their expenses.

And yet, more than $600,000,000 in gold was gathered.

So where did this money go?

As they said at the time, gold digging is for idiots.

Levi Strauss made a fortune by selling his sale cloth pants.

Brannan made as much as $2,000,000 current dollars

per month from his businesses.

The big winners of the Gold Rush are not those

who swung the picks, but above all, the men who sold them.

- [Narrator] Mushroom towns.

In 1848, San Francisco is a tiny coastal town

of barely 850 residents.

The following year, it numbers 20,000.

To house the new arrivals, makeshift lodgings

are hastily constructed.

Sometimes using parts of the ships deserted by their crews.

Other towns see spectacular growth.

They call them, mushroom towns.

In the beginning, they looked like refugee camps.

In our day, they would be the shanty towns

on the outskirts of certain major cities,

like Deli and Johannesburg.

A poor population living in a mish mash of dwellings

built of whatever is to hand,

and fueled by a subsistence black market

that operates outside the law.

A far cry from the American dream.

- [Narrator] Before 1848,

California was a distant Mexican province.

Less than 10 years later, it has become one of the richest

states of the United States, and its gold provides

massive finances for the union forces during the civil war.

Thanks to the Gold Rush, its population explodes,

its villages become cities.

Small concessions give way to large mining businesses.

To make crossing the continent faster,

they begin construction of a railroad line

linking east to west.

It's the Transcontinental.

The invention of repeater weapons means

they can slaughter ever more bisons to feed the workers.

The wild west is tamed with picks and revolvers.

Nature is seen as a resource.

The territory's as virgin...

But the problem, is that they're not.

When the Europeans arrive,

the North American territory has a population

of 7,000,000 Amerindians divided into 350 different tribes.

After the early peaceful contacts,

relations between the peoples rapidly deteriorate.

In California, during the 20 years following

the discovery of gold, 4/5 of the Amerindian population

are massacred or die of disease.

And this is only the beginning.

December 29th, 1890, Wounded Knee camp.

A few years earlier, gold was discovered here,

in the black hills, right in the middle

of sacred Indian territory.

Gold prospectors rapidly flooded in.

War was inevitable.

Today, surrounded by a large number of American soldiers,

the last resistors are handing over their weapons.

- [Man] Kill them all!

- [Narrator] The massacre at Wounded Knee

is the last act in a tragedy.

The near annihilation of the Native Americans.

But that is another story.

- [Narrator] Gold forms in the heart of dying stars.

When they explode, they scatter the gold

into the immensity of space.

A tiny part falls upon the earth.

In 2010 it is estimated that 173,000 tons of gold

has already been extracted.

Exploitable reserves are estimated at 51,000 tons.

At the current rate of extraction,

these will be totally exhausted within 16 years.

The California Gold Rush is one of the key moments

in the building of the United States.

A formidable human adventure, it was also one of the drivers

of the near disappearance of the local Indian tribes.

During eight years of gold fever,

hundreds of thousands of prospectors

ended up poorer than when they set out on the adventure.

Dreams were shattered, families destroyed.

But California still embodies the American dream today.

Because after enduring war, colonization,

and the massacres of populations,

California, in 2017 is modern, multiethnic,

and one of the most tolerant of the United States.

From Silicon Valley, to Hollywood,

it is a beacon to the world.

A wild land that became the world's

sixth most powerful economy.

A place where anything is possible.

(adventurous music)