One effect of the rapid population growth in California during the late 1840s on the sectionalism debate was that it intensified the debate over whether new states formed from the territory acquired from Mexico should be free or slave states. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 attracted a large number of people to the region, leading to its rapid population growth and hastening its path to statehood. The issue of whether California would be admitted as a free state or a slave state became a major point of contention between Northern and Southern states, as it would have shifted the balance of power in Congress. The debate ultimately contributed to the tensions that led to the American Civil War. R