Oppression of Ethnic Minorities in California during the 1850s and 1860s - Assignment Example

The Anglo-Americans feared, competing with the foreigners fairly. They feared that the well-equipped, skilled, and experienced Mexican miners would exploit their readily available gold too soon leaving them with none. Well, the Spanish-speaking miners interpreted the white men’s fear as the ‘jealousy of the white men. California policymakers made policies such that aliens became ineligible for citizenship.

The native Anglo-American citizens of California wanted to thrive economically although the presence of other ‘minority’ races and citizens of other nationalities obscured their pursuit of it. Legislatures then sought to benefit economically by charging all foreign miners a monthly 20$ license fee. The tax, being an unbearable burden, Mexicans would not manage. Consequently, of all the 15,000 miners who were in the region then, 10,000 of them chose to leave by1850 (Rawls, 1983, p. 141). The lesser number of miners left behind could not make as much contribution to the treasury as the one before. The significant effect that their exit had on caused on California’s revenue forced legislators to ease the tax burden. In 1852 there was a policy that was engineered in such a way as to make sure that aliens were ineligible for citizenship (Rawls, 1983, p. 147). It was particularly targeted at ridding the Chinese of California who had become so resilient against the previous tax enforcements. The policy was closely tied to economic benefits by seeking a 50$ head tax on every immigrant.