To what extent was Racism the main reason for changing attitudes towards Immigration in the 1920s It can be argued that racism was the main reason for changing attitudes towards immigration in the USA in the 1920s. The three immigration acts put tighter restrictions on who was deemed worthy enough to live and work in the USA. Other factors included political fears of Eastern European ideologies such as communism and anarchism, economic factors such as jobs and housing, and social factors such as crime, religion and culture. All of these created much hostility and discrimination towards many hopeful immigrants. They were a precursor to violence and rioting in what was a fundamentally racist society.
Ideologically, Britian and the Americans had different views on everything. From their government to their religion. King James liked to think he ran the English churches which the English did not like. There were little things like economical views that were causing the American colonies to separate from the British. John Hughes and Benjamin Franklin came up with the Stamp Act which many people did not like.
Unlike her father and brother, Elizabeth had to cope with prejudiced male attitudes toward woman in authority, this meant she had to accept the role of supreme governor instead of supreme head. Many Protestants were offended and frustrated by the presence of catholic practices in the new church, many had believed that with a new queen and church the old would be gone completely. A consequence that hinded England the most was the fact that most of Europe were catholic, a big worry was Italy and the Pope. In the seventies the Pope excommunicated Elizabeth, telling his subjects that Mary queen of Scotts was the rightful queen and not Elizabeth. Many more plots popped up to de-throne Elizabeth the better known ones being the Mary Stewart focused Rdolfi, Throckmortin and Babington.
In order to remedy this and “serve” God, they attempted to convert Native Americans to Christianity. This proved to be a detrimental decision. All of the Native Americans’ religious practices and rituals coincided, in the Puritans’ minds, with the practices of paganism. However, conversion quickly became forced conversion, which obviously did not stand well with Native Americans. In attempts to fend off the whites from converting them, Indians began retaliating with violence.
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. Political fears did to an extent have an effect on the increasing hostility towards immigrants, however this was perhaps not the most significant factor. Until the 1880s the vast majority of immigrants were White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPS) They came from countries such as Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and Germany. The were mostly Protestants who spoke English, which came to be the official language of the United States. Their decendents thought themselves to be 'native born americans' and came to dominate American society.
The 1920s were filled with xenophobia, fundamentalism and extreme conservatism and so to say that this was an age of tolerance would be incorrect. Many immigrants and foreigners were discriminated against and unfairly treated. The revival of the vigilante group, the KKK, showed the lack of tolerance for those that were described as Un-American. (Unbelievers, bootleggers, those guilty of marital infidelity, criminals and the correct) This group was made up of immigrants, Jews, Blacks and Catholics. An example of how the 1920s were not an age of tolerance was how immigrants were treated badly; a demonstration of this was the case of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian-American men, who were arrested and charged with murder and robbery in Massachusetts.
After releasing news of this event the American public was shocked by the atrocity that had occurred. People began to lose faith in the war along with their soldiers and they felt that they could not support them. After President Johnson declined to run for reelection people were able to understand how bad the situation in the war had become (Doc J). These major three events were significant factors in undermining the American public’s support for the Vietnam War. As the war continued supporters became scarce, especially when they saw how hopeless it had become.
The festivity of the war masked the uprising nationalism of the American settlers.The British realized they had obtained a huge debt from the war and did not have a way to pay for it. Many government officials from Britain were already angry because of the lack of money given to them by America in order to help pay for the war. They also failed to provide large numbers of soldiers for battle. The British Parliament decided that American colonists should be taxed in order to help cover the huge debt England had obtained. Therefore many new taxes were introduced.
This was were many Americans were afraid that immigrants would bring in new ideas such as anarchism and communism. These ideas were considered anti-American and the supporters of anarchism and communism were prepared to use violence to change the system of the government. Many Americans were afraid revolution might break out. Throughout 1919
Not to mention that he also disliked the power that the bishops had in the church and many puritans disapproved of bishops appointing church ministers, they grew up to be threat to the throne and so Elisabeth ordered to build the Anglican Church. When James Stuart took the throne many puritans felt relieved, for many puritans worked under his rule, but later on when Charles I took his place things started to be unwanted by the puritans, because he married a catholic woman (Henrietta Maria), and so large numbers of Puritans were immigrated to North America. The civil war took place and the pertains took control of the land in the end ,however they lost control of government