21) Immigration, Internal Migration, Urbanization

Question 1

New Immigrants - Post 1880s

Answer 1

• Prior to 1880, most immigrants to the US came from British Isles and Western Europe
• Beginning in 1880s, new wave of immigrants came to US
• Came from small towns and villages in southern and eastern Europe
• Italy, Russia, Poland, Austria-Hungary
• Settled primarily in large cities in the Northeast and Midwest
• Very few new immigrants settled in the South

Question 2

How did wave of immigration between 1870 and 1916 aid business and industry?

Answer 2

1. Number of consumers increased creating a greater demand for products and thus enlarging the markets for products
2. With increased production and expanding business, more workers were available for newly created jobs

Question 3

Shift from rural to urban

Answer 3

• The abundance of resources, together with growth of industry and the pace of capital investments led to the growth of cities
• Populations were shifting from rural agricultural areas to urban industrial areas
• By early 1900s, 1/3 of population lived in cities

Question 4

Urban conditions

Answer 4

• Frequently packed into dense tenements, often without adequate sanitation or clean water
• Led to health challenges that required cities to establish sanitation, water and public health departments to cope with problems and prevent epidemics

Question 5

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Answer 5

• First American law to exclude a group from America because of ethnic background
• Prohibited immigration of Chinese to America
• Working-class Americans who felt threatened by Chinese workers strongly supported the law
• Support was particularly strong in CA

Question 6

Nativist Opposition to New Immigrants

Answer 6

• Nativists had previous opposed Irish and German Catholic immigrants
• Reasons why they opposed new immigrants:
  1. Immigrants were heavily Catholic and Jewish
  2. They spoke different languages and practiced different cultural traditions
  3. They did not understand American political traditions
  4. They threatened to take away jobs because they were willing to work for low wages

Question 7

Social Darwinism

Answer 7

• The belief that the fittest survive in both nature and society
• Wealth business and industrial leaders used Social Darwinism to justify their success
• Believed that industrial and urban problems are part of a natural evolutionary process that humans cannot control

Question 8

Tammany Hall

Answer 8

• A political organization within NYC’s Democratic Party between 1860s and 1990s
• Headquarters of New York’s machine politics where political bosses distributed political patronage in exchange for votes and large amounts of cash

Question 9

Machine politics

Answer 9

• A political organization is controlled by a ‘boss’ or smaller leadership group which can motivate a large ‘get out the vote’ effort
• The boss commands enough votes to maintain political control of a city, country, state
• Due to their electoral control, political bosses can distribute government positions and government construction projects, often in exchange for bribes or political support

Question 10

Gilded Age

Answer 10

• 1870s - 1900
• Mark Twain coined
• Satirized an era of serious social problems masked by a thin gold gilding

Question 11

Great Migration (African Americas)

Answer 11

• Relocation of more than 6 million AAs from the rural south to the cities of North, Midwest, and West
• 1916 to 1970
• Driven from their homes by unsatisfactory economic opportunities and harsh segregationist laws
• Black populations grew by large percents in Northern cities - NYC (66%), Chicago (148%), Philly (500%), Detroit (611%)
• Many new arrivals found jobs in factories, slaughterhouses and foundries where working conditions were arduous and sometimes dangerous