How did the discovery of gold affect the settlement of the west?

Explanation:

The discovery of gold in the helped to speed development in the west, with hundreds of people a year moving westward in hopes of finding riches and gold. Though most were unsuccessful, in the end when people finally stopped moving westward, roughly 300,000 people had moved there (which was a lot of people for that time). This famous " Gold Rush" as its called lasted about 40 years in total

lots of people lost money in both