Transcript Urbanization and Immigration

Urbanization and Immigration
• Prospect of good jobs and excitement lured millions
to cities
• Urbanization – growth of cities
• New technology let cities
expand vertically
– Radiator
• Heat from steam; no more
fireplaces
– Elevator
• Would you want to walk up 15
floors?
– Steel frame construction
• Where did the steel come
from?
• Other technology lets cities spread horizontally
• Cable Car & Subway aka Mass Transit
– Leads to growth of suburbs
– Economic segregation
• rich and poor no longer live close to each other
• Why did people
move?
– Electric lights,
streetcars, telephones,
department stores,
new amusements,
newspapers, and
thousands of other
things you couldn’t get
on a farm
• Cities aren’t paradise
– Especially in Northeast, they
become extremely cramped
• NYC builds “dumbbell”
tenements
– Overcrowded, poorly
ventilated, diseased, and
dangerous
Immigration
• Between 1860 and 1920
millions immigrated to the
U.S.
• In 1890 4/5 New Yorkers
were foreign born – higher
than any other city in the
world
• Push factors
– Persecution
– Poverty
– Political revolutions
• Pull factors
– American industry needed
labor
– Cheap land
– Freedom
• “New” Immigrants
– 1880 to 1920 many
immigrants came from
Southern and Eastern
Europe
• Different language
• Different religion
Statue of Liberty
• Given to America by France
to commemorate FrancoAmerican alliance & Dec. of
Independence – dedicated
1886
• Statue of Liberty was often
the first thing immigrants
saw of America
– Originally meant as a symbol
to inspire other Europeans to
adopt democratic/republican
values
– A famous poem by Emma
Lazarus changed the meaning
Colossus of
Rhodes
•
“The New Colossus”
Not like the brazen giant of Greek
fame
With conquering limbs astride from
land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset
gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch,
whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her
name
Mother of Exiles. From her
beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her
mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin
cities frame,
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied
pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your
tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to
breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your
teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless,
tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden
door!"
• Ellis Island
– As immigration to NYC soared,
Congress constructed new
reception center for newcomers
on island off Manhattan
– Average of 5,000 immigrants a
day passed through; over 1
million overall
– Old Italian saying -- “I came to
America because I heard the
streets were paved with gold.
When I got here, I found out
three things: First, the streets
weren’t paved with gold;
second, they weren’t paved at
all; and third, I was expected to
pave them.”
• Life for immigrants was
hard
– Long hours of work, living
in tenements
– Italian immigrants
• More male immigrants; many
intended to work a few years
& go back to Italy
– Jewish immigrants
• Fleeing pogroms; most
immigrated as entire families
• Set down roots quickly; more
likely to succeed
– Most immigrants lived in
ethnic communities in cities
where language & culture
was familiar
Angel Island
• West coast equivalent to
Ellis Island
• Processed immigrants from
China and Japan
– Asian immigrants were disliked
even more than “new”
immigrants on East coast
The Melting Pot
• Before it was a
restaurant, this was a
theory regarding
immigration
• Theory argued that
as more immigrants
came to the U.S.,
their culture would
mix with those
already here to
create a new
“American” culture
Nativist Response
• Many Americans resented
newcomers
– They worked for low wages
• “Immigrants work for almost
nothing”
– Numerous immigrants were
illiterate or didn’t speak
English
– Also, many Americans were
anti-Catholic or anti-Semitic
• Stanford professor called
immigrants “illiterate, docile,
lacking in self-reliance and
initiative, and not possessing
the Anglo-Teutonic
conceptions of law, order, and
government.”
• Not all Americans agreed:
New York Nation said the
Asians greatest sin was
perpetuating “those disgusting
habits of thrift, industry, and
self-denial.”
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
• Workingmen’s Party in California (led by an Irishman)
agitated to end Chinese Immigration
• Ended most Chinese immigration until 1943