Immigration and Urbanization

Immigration and Urbanization Chapter 15

Rise in Immigration • Beginning in about 1890, huge waves of immigrants came to America • Instead of coming from Great Britain, however, they came from eastern Europe • They were Catholic and culturally very different

Rise in Immigration • The new Europeans came for new reasons • Religious persecution • Increased population • Regional wars • Russian pogroms • Population in 1850 – 23.2 million • Population in 1900 – 76.2 million

Rise in Immigration • Immigrants who came with money, like the Germans, moved west and bought farmland • Poorer immigrants moved to cities and factory towns to take non-skilled, low-paying jobs • People from Latin America settled in the east and southwest

Ellis Island • Immigrants were given physicals for diseases, tests for intelligence and a criminal background check • About 17 million immigrants came through Ellis Island • Asians entered through Angel Island

Immigration to the United States, 1870-1900

Nativism • The new immigrants were not as eager to become “Americanized” as earlier immigrants • Nativists believed that Anglo-Saxon Protestants were superior to all other ethnic groups • The Immigration Restriction Act, 1897, required literacy tests in English before entry into the US

Nativism • Nativist treatment toward Asians was more insulting • The Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882, forbid all Chinese admittance except a few select groups

Nativism • T. Roosevelt agreed to the “Gentlemen’s Agreement” – urging California to lessen its discriminatory policies toward Japanese (they were made to attend segregated schools)

Urbanization • Unskilled immigrants moved to large cities, like NY and Chicago, settling in ethnic neighborhoods • Groups attempted to “Americanize” them by offering classes in English, child rearing and citizenship

Urbanization • Farmers who could not compete moved to northern industrial cities to find work • New arrivals faced tenement housing and low paying jobs • Often, the entire family worked long hours only to end up poor

Urbanization • They moved to divided homes and apartments of the wealthy who moved to the suburbs • Some tenements housed over 4,000 people per city block • Some apartments were so small, they did not have windows

Tenement Living • NYC passed a law requiring that every bedroom have a window • Tenements were still crowded, unsanitary and filled with disease

Dumbbell Apartments

Dumbbell Apartments • The apartments did have the required bedroom window – which was only feet away from the neighbor’s window and barely allowed for ventilation

Tenements and the Problems of Overcrowding • Tenement problems • inadequate sanitation • poor ventilation • polluted water • Urban problems • poor public health • juvenile crime

Dumbbell Apartments • Jacob Riis wrote “How the Other Half Lives” where he photographed tenement dwellers

Fire!! • Fire was a major problem for several reasons • Wooden construction • Closely spaced buildings • Kerosene heaters and candles • Lack of water • Lack of firemen

Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow • A cow was blamed for the Chicago fire which burned more than 3 square miles of the city in 1871 • After an earthquake shook San Francisco, the most devastating damage was caused by fire

Social Gospel Movement • Ministers preached that it was up to good protestants to help the poor • Some, like Jane Addams, set up settlement houses that fed, clothed, found jobs for and offered education for the poor and the immigrants

The Gilded Age • Mark Twain coined the term “gilded age” • Gilded is a thin layer of gold covering a cheap frame • Twain mocked the greed and indulgences of the new, wealthy industrials

Immigration and Urbanization