Just as happened in the nineteenth century, however, politicians are frightened by the entrepreneurial forces these opportunities unleash. Entrepreneurs are using the Internet and other technological breakthroughs to create new wealth, build new business empires, and revolutionize communications.

During the next half century, western miners, cattlemen, and others built new institutions that challenged the existing structure of government. Gold and cattle became important influences in shaping modern America, creating hundreds of millions of dollars of wealth, new businesses (like Wells Fargo & Co.) that shaped the decades that followed, and revolutions in transportation and communications, exemplified by the transcontinental railroads and telegraph. Thousands of individuals and tens of millions of dollars of capital quickly flowed into the region to create the range cattle industry. Similarly, after the Civil War, Americans discovered that the “Great American Desert” in the central west was perfect for raising cattle. Tens of thousands of individuals from all parts of the globe flocked to California, beginning almost 50 years of western mineral rushes.

California, previously a distant, sleepy Mexican province whose economy was based on trading cattle hides and tallow for manufactured goods, was actually brimming with gold. In 1848 Americans received the startling news that the vast territory they had just acquired from Mexico included tremendous riches.

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