During this time of mass immigration millions of people came to America for a better life. These immigrants had been persecuted in their homes and wanted a new start where they wouldn’t be persecuted anymore. Immigrants heard about these amazing things going on in America and decided to make the long grueling journey overseas to start anew. When the immigrants finally arrived in America some of them realized that those stories might have been exaggerated a little bit, because life in America during that time wasn’t a easy one but it wasn’t a bad one
The substantial increase in population due to immigration that occurs during this time goes on to affect the nation in positive and negative ways. Some of the adverse affects of such a rapid growth in population were overcrowding in cities, lack of jobs, and occasional food shortages. But the hard working spirit and work ethic that the immigrants brought, along with a determined will to succeed, were an overarching positive were crucial to the country becoming what it is today. In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and emigrate to the United States. Immigrants entered into the United States through several
However, this was not the case. Many Immigrants were flocking to America to escape from poverty, persecution and revolutions in their home countries. This created a lot of hostility as Americans feared that immigrants coming into the United States would have an effect on american society, socially, religiously, economically and politically. Historians have argued over what was the main cause was for growing hostility. Contributing factors are; the changing nature of immigration and entrenched WASP racism, pre-existing legislation before 1920s, WWI and isolationism, economic fears, social and religious fears, and political fears.
By the early 1800s, the number of immigrants increased drastically. America was becoming a melting pot of different ethnicities including Germans, Swedish, Bohemians, English, French, and Polish. After the civil war, coming into the United States was made easier due to the innovations in steam-based engines for ships, allowing for larger ships to bring in immigrants in mass numbers. (Diner, 2008: 1) This exponential increase in immigrants was considered a threat to the nation’s security, which resulted in forcing government legislation to place regulations on immigration. In 1912, the National Origins Act was passed which restricted the number of immigrants allowed to enter the United States and assigned slots according to quotas based on origins.
The annexation of Hawaii and Philippines in 1898 and 1899 convinced Secretary of State Hay that the US should have announced a China policy. 3. The relationship with China was plagued by the exclusionist immigration policy of the United States and by laws inhibiting citizens. Balancing Japan in the Pacific from California to Manchuria 1. Population pressures, war and a quest for economic opportunities caused Japanese immigration to the United States to increase dramatically around the turn of the century.
Dickenson and Franklin are on opposite sides. Franklin, supporting America and Dickenson, supporting Britain. Franklin believes the taxes are wrong and there is no reason for America to start paying them. He believes America can live without the support of Britain after a while. Dickinson believes that America should be forced to pay the tax.
He broke America off from the League of Nations. This lead to the Red Scare, higher tariffs, and new restrictive immigration laws. The US wanted to be separate, and paid the consequences. American business was expanding worldwide, and the rest of America was beginning to grow around the nation. After 1924, the US began to gradually join the rest of the world.
This increased the number of years required for immigrants to qualify for U.S citizens from 5 years to 14 years. The federalists adopted these laws because they wanted to stay in power, and since they were aware of the fact that many of the immigrants would vote for their opposing party, this act ensured that they couldn’t vote. George Washington thought that immigration could help unite the country as a whole if there was an intermixture of cultures. (Doc. A) What is ironic is that Jefferson, one of the men who was most apposed of the Alien and Sedition Acts, looked down on immigration.
The Progressive Era The decades between 1890 and 1920 was a period of vital reform activity that historians have called, The Progressive Era. In this era millions of Americans organized in voluntary associations to come up with solutions to the many problems. Industrialization, with all its increase in productivity and the number of consumer goods, created unemployment and labor unrest, wasteful use of natural resources and abuses of corporate power. Growing cities added to the problems of African Americans versus The Social Sciences American segregation was a bitter part of American history. Even worse, though, are the securing reasons for the need of segregation and the defense of the institution.
America was taking part of what was called the “Red Scare” resulting from the Palmer Raids in 1919 in which 6000 communists were wound up in America. This sense of anti-foreignism was mainly for the fact that communists were nothing but different and Americans were tired of dealing with different nations and at this time Americanism was trying to be found in everyone. One of the ways that this anti-foreignism was manifested was the radical arise of the 1920’s Klu Klux Klan. Unlike the KKK of the 19th century, this Klan wasn’t only anti-African American, but it was anti immigrants, anti-Catholic, and anti-communist and basically anti anything that wasn’t American. Hiram Wesly Evans describes in Document D that the Klan speaks for the