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“In 1839, when the Opium War between China and Great Britain broke out , Tao Chi’en was sixteen years old.” 200 “Between 1839 and 1842, British forces fought a war in China that benefitted drug smugglers. Their subsequent victory in the conflict opened up the lucrative Chinese trade to British merchants.”
https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842#:~:text=Between%201839%20and%201842%2C%20British,Chinese%20trade%20to%20British%20merchants. -
“To top it off, rich veins of silver and gold were discovered in the north” (Allende 65). “The California Gold Rush was sparked by the discovery of gold nuggets in the
Sacramento Valley in early 1848 and was arguably one of the most significant events to shape American history during the first half of the 19th century”
https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/gold-rush-of-1849#:~:text=On%20January%2024%2C%201848%2C%20James,Nevada%20Mountains%20near%20Coloma%2C%20California -
“That was the year of the floods, which were immortalized in school children’s textbooks and in their grandparents’ memories...and when finally the storm abated and the waters began to recede, a series of minor temblors, which came like God’s wrath, finished destroying everything that had been softened by the pouring rain.” (Allende 38-39). “The great earthquake and tsunami of 20 February 1835, with epicenter near Concepción, Chile, was among the largest seismic events in Latin.” -
"This treaty, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the war between the United States and Mexico."
“The yellow pellet that unleashed the madness was found nine days after the war between Mexico and the United States had ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.” (145) Allende uses personification to get her idea across the reader about the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Photo from National Archives. -
“Between April 1849 and January 1850, nearly 40,000 argonauts arrived in San Francisco by sea. They had survived, and opportunities were plenty in California.” “By that time there were more than 100,00 argonauts, and more kept arriving, scattered all through the mother lode, turning the world upside down, verizing rock, displacing tons of sand, and digging monumental pits.” (329) Isabel Allende uses imagery to show you how the argonauts were. Photo from Maritime Museum -
“As news spread of the discovery, thousands of prospective gold miners traveled by sea or over land to San Francisco-- by the end of 1849, the non-native population of the California territory was some 100,000.” "Tao Chi’en’s and Eliza Sommers’s feet first touched the soil of San Francisco on a Tuesday in April of 1849, at two o’clock in the afternoon.” 269
Allende uses imagery to put create picture in our heads to show Tao Chi'en and Eliza fist time at San Francisco
Photo from 1849 handbill