1.6 Social Divisions Flashcards
What immigration had there been before 1865?
The original Thirteen Colonies were populated by settlers from northern Europe. In the nineteenth century, new waves of immigrants landed in America, mostly Germans, Swedes, Irish, and Scots.
How many immigrants were there between the 1860s, after the civil war, and 1890?
More than 10 million.
What were the main pull factors that encouraged immigration?
There was empty land to be filled, expanding industries in need of a labour force, and, among most Americans, a willingness to welcome new arrivals to the ‘land of the free’.
What was a symbol of freedom in America?
the Statue of Liberty that dominated New York harbour from 1886.
How was immigration encouraged?
Many immigrants were actively recruited by shipping companies. Systems were put in place to facilitate entry to America, notably a reception centre for arriving immigrants at Castle Garden on the southern tip on Manhattan Island in New York.
Where did the immigrants settle?
The early waves of Scandinavian and German immigrants mostly settled in rural areas. Irish immigrants were more likely to settle in urban areas, such as New York, Boston, and Chicago. As industrialisation and urbanisation developed, more and more immigrants were sucked into the expanding towns and cities.
What were attitudes towards immigration within America?
Many Americans believed optimistically that the ‘melting pot’ of the United States would forge new American citizens, though there were also pessimists who worried about possible tensions between people of so many different languages and religions.
What caused the population to increase?
Immigration but also because death rates declined and more people lived longer.
What caused shifts in population distributions?
Industrialisation and improvement in transportation drew people into the expanding towns and cities.
What population patterns were there as a result of immigration?
Districts of big cities became ‘Irish’, or ‘German’ or ‘Chinatown’. The suburb of Over-the Rhine in Cincinnati in Ohio became a community of unmistakably German cultural traditions. Milwaukee in Wisconsin became a German American city of breweries and German-language newspapers.
How were New immigrants regarded?
they were often regarded with suspicion and hostility; they were seen as a threat to jobs, or to existing social and cultural norms. Nativism grew and there were tensions between these ‘new’ immigrants and those who had settled in the previous generation.
What internal tensions were there within immigrant individuals?
On the one hand they wished to be a good American, but on the other hand, they wanted to cling to their old ways.
What did tensions between immigrants and Americans cause?
class prejudices and racial or religious prejudices.
Which race was particularly targeted by these prejudices?
There was a particularly strong reaction against Chinese Americans, with newspapers and politicians campaigning fiercely to top the ‘Yellow Peril’ of Chinese immigration.
What did Chinese prejudice lead to?
Pressure pushed Congress into passing the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, stopping the immigration of ‘skilled or unskilled’ Chinese workers. It prevented Chinese people already in the US from gaining American citizenship, and made it hard for them to return if they visited China.
