2.
Immigration
Why?
A chance to improve
“Rags to Riches”
Golden opportunity
NYC=“Golden Door”
Free land
Homestead Act
School, no forced time in
military, could take part
in democracy, increased
freedom
Who?
EXAMPLES:
Potato famine in Ireland
(1845-1852)
Ireland loses 25% of its
population
Germans from Russia
Pogroms, violent massacres
of Jews, in Russia (1880s)
2 million emigrated
Italy, fleeing rural poverty &
high taxes
More than 4 million came to
U.S. between 1880 & 1924
3.
Immigration
Old Immigration (Thru 1880)
Northern or western
Europe
Irish & German
Literate & skilled
Mostly families
Quick to assimilate
Experience w/
democracy
New Immigration (1880-1920)
Southern or eastern Europe
Fewer Protestants; more
Catholics & Jews
Many were illiterate &
unskilled
“Birds of passage”
Young, single men, planning
to return
Less willing to assimilate;
more “clannish”
Often poor
4.
1882—Chinese Exclusion Act
1886—Statue of Liberty put in place in NY Harbor
1890—Roughly 10 million immigrants have arrived
since the end of the Civil War
1892—Ellis Island opens
70% of immigrants came thru NYC
1892—Gov’t requires all immigrants to pass physical
exam
1910—Mexican Revolution leads to increased # of
immigrants from Mexico
Immigration
18.
The “Great American Desert”
“Rain follows the plow”
New states
Kansas (1861), Nebraska (1867), Colorado (1876), North
Dakota & South Dakota (1889), Montana (1889), Oklahoma
(1907)
Land taken from Indians through war & declared “public
domain”
Buffalo Soldiers
Little Bighorn, AKA “Custer’s Last Stand (1876)
Indian Wars are over after Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)
Turner Thesis declares that frontier is closed (1893)
23.
Results
BY 1900:
U.S. population triples between 1850 & 1900
23 million to 76 million
Frontier closed; Indians forced to assimilate
Increased diversity in the Plains & West
Looking for a new frontier
Increased urbanization leads to problems….
Overcrowding, tenements, sanitation issues, crime, corruption, poverty
Nativism/anti-immigration
Push for assimilation
Salad bowl or melting pot?
U.S. becomes industrial giant, but…
Low wages, long hours, increase in strikes/protests
Need for reform
Lack of government involvement/regulation; “laissez-faire”