The late nineteenth century was a period of change in the United States. Following the Civil war, there were new ideals forming and the reconstruction period brought changes to the society. This was also a time of industrialization and new economic opportunities, with new railroads being built, new immigrants coming in and a new American identity forming. All these changes had a great impact on the new immigrants, both positive and negative. Although the industrial revolution and the rise of diversity in the US population did not create a turning point in ethnic and racial segregation, they created big changes in the economy and immigration of Chinese immigrants in the United States in the late nineteenth century.
By the end of the nineteenth
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This act restricted the rights of Chinese immigrants within the United States and restricted further entrance of immigrants to the United States. People had to have special certificated to cross the border, and couldn’t live like higher class citizens in the United States. This phenomenon started well before this. For many years prior to this act being passed, ethnic groups have been segregated in the United States. Going back to1798, there were also laws passed to restrict immigrants' entrance to the United States. One of them being the Alien Acts. These laws were very similar to the Chinese Exclusion Act because they made it harder for new immigrants to come in and restricted the rights of immigrants who already lived in the United States by making it harder for them to become US citizens. Another example of this was the segregation of the Irish and German immigrants. Starting in the 1840’s, when the new immigrants from Germany and Ireland arrived in the United States, they were divided from society. Because of this they formed ethnic enclaves and built their own societies. There were …show more content…
Following the year 1865, and the end of the Cold War, the country was going through major changes. One of them being economic changes. This time period was known as the Industrial Revolution in the United States. One of the big parts of the Industrial Revolution was the creation of factories and the shift of jobs from farms to factories. The new factory systems required big numbers of unskilled, low wage laborers, which created new job opportunities for immigrants and other low class citizens. This was a big change because before this people believed that immigrants took away job opportunities for Americans but now the country needed those immigrants to keep up with its rising economy. Another big part of this revolution were the transcontinental railroads. In 1862, the Pacific Railway Act was passed. The document stated that it was “An Act To aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes'' . This act established new economic opportunities in the United States both directly and indirectly by creating a huge demand for labor. The building of the railroads increased the need for cheap labor which was mostly done by the new immigrants. This was done because many times new immigrants were being paid with land instead of
Industrial and Transportation Revolution During the late 1800s, the United States economy changed due to new inventions, remarkably rapid growth, and new forms of communication and transportation. Different factories were being built, and manufacturers had begun to reorganize the way of work. Factories and workers were going from hand production to machinery. The Industrial Revolution marked a turning point.
There are several different ways that the industrial revolution transformed the United States of America. There was an abundance of people along the way to help and support the buildup. At the same time, there were other people that did not support the changes and the huge transformation. Before the industrial revolution, many people worked in agriculture. They would make a living working on their farms with family members.
Corruption was rampant amongst railway tycoons and they weren’t ashamed to buy off the government and have their way on economic matters. Congress in response implemented the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 to try and reduce the control of the railway owners. The growing transportation system allowed for more raw materials to be transported to continually evolving plants to be refined and created into usable products. Inventors like Thomas Edison invented new devices that revolutionized daily life and moguls like Henry Ford took the concept of mass production and perfected it.
During the early twentieth century, the United States underwent a great amount of growth and expansion as a result of the ongoing Industrial Revolution. Throughout the Industrial Revolution, the United States experienced a shift from being a largely agrarian society to being an industrial one. Mass production in factories, as opposed to goods being mainly produced by individuals, became the norm, and this greatly transformed the lives of working-class Americans. Cities became places of high job availability and opportunity, and as a result, many Americans moved from their farms to the cities to find work in one of the many factories. In addition to that, many workers emigrated from European countries in order to find work in American factories.
Many Chinese people came to America to seek work on the railroad and other places. The cheap labor they provided angered the European immigrants, and tensions grew between the Americans and Chinese-Americans. An act was passed that stopped the immigration of Chinese people to America and the government forced them to wear identification badges at all times. It was very difficult to be of this race during this time period. Therefore, Chinese immigrants faced many adversities through discrimination in the work force, government, and daily life.
The early railroad was revolutionary to the transportation industry in America during the Industrial Revolution. It connected the country from the East to the West and changed the formation of the United States and other aspects of the country forever including its economy and population. It had a large impact on trade in the United States and boosted capital, especially in the West. With these railroads, people could travel much more quickly and more efficiently, as well as, transport goods and messages in a timely fashion to others miles away, when any other means would be unconventional or much slower, such as walking or by horseback. The railroad not only impacted the U.S. economy, but it also had a significant impact on social
During the late 19th century, after the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution marked a huge transformation in both the U.S. economy and
The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882. The act prohibited Chinese immigration in the United States, where the immigration population dropped from 40,000 to 23. There was many conflicts leading up to the act with the Chinese, they came to the U.S for cheap labor. Some of these conflicts consists of the Chinese coming to mine gold, Chinese employe to build a railroad, laws passed against the Chinese and a couple anti-Chinese violences. The Chinese Exclusion Act happened because the Chinese worked and had more money than Americans, other nationalities are jealous and the U.S was crowded with Chinese immigrants.
Trains and railroads reshaped life in America by encouraging rapid immigration and travel, paving the way for western modernization and settlement, as well as economically expanding the country
A door opened for many Europeans to come to America during the challenges immigrants faced after the 1880’s. The strong population of countries immigrated and almost all immigrants came into America through Ellis Island. “In the West, there were protests against Chinese immigrants, and in 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring immigration from China for the next 10 years.” (The ban was later extended and ultimately not repealed until 1943.) Immigrants coming to the United States faced many financial, social, and educational problems that made life more difficult than was expected.
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 The resentment of Chinese immigrants reached a highpoint once congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. According to Asian Americans by Pyong Gap Min, he states, “The Chinese Exclusion Act 1882, the first and only immigration act to specifically designate an ethnic, racial, or nationality group for exclusion. This act prohibited all Chinese laborers, whether skilled or unskilled, from entering the United States for ten years. All other Chinese entering the United States had to have identification certificates issued by the Chinese government.
During 1860, most white people were still just working on farms instead of in factories. But immigrants coming into the United States would work for anyone even for little pay, so primarily they came to factories or ended up laying down railroad tracks for money. Bar graph, ¨American Immigration by Decades, 1860-1900s' ' displays how in the 1860s there were around 2.3 million immigrants but in the 1900s there were around 8.8 million immigrants. The large number of immigrants caused even more to come to try and work in their new life, undoubtedly causing a large amount of change and work to be done in the country, through creation in factories and being the new cause of mobility by laying down railroad tracks. Some of the immigrants were also genius workers and unexpected leaders.
On May 6, 1882, the Exclusion Act was passed. It was the first law to restrict immigration to the United States. (Chinese Exclusion) It was passed by Congress, and signed by President A. Arthur.
During the 1920’s the feeling towards immigration and immigrants changed in the United States. Immigration became restricted, with lots of rules for immigrants to follow. Perhaps one of the biggest changes was that borders were shut down to mass migration in the 1920’s. Americans were concerned about immigrants taking their jobs for less pay. There was an overwhelming feeling of Nativism, opposing immigration in favor of natives to the country, across the land.
With the advent of the railroad, many of these issues disappeared. Railroads had a major impact on advancing the American economy, transforming America into a modern society, and improving an antiquated transportation system. The building of railroads created rapid economic growth in America. Railroad companies employed more than one million workers to build and maintain railroads. At the same time, coal, timber, and steel industries employed thousands of workers to provide the supplies necessary to build railroads (Chapter 12 Industrialization).