Urbanization USHC 4.5

USHC 4.5 Explain the causes and effects of urbanization in late nineteenth-century America, including the movement from farm to city, the changing immigration patterns, the rise of ethnic neighborhoods, the role of political machines, and the migration of African Americans to the North, Midwest, and West.

City Growth Cities developed as a result of geographic factors: first as centers of trade then as transportation hubs finally, with the advent of electricity, as centers of industrial production in the nineteenth century

Contributing Factors of City Growth The cities were affected by technological innovations such as: elevator steel girders suspension bridges, electric trolley cars elevated tracks (‘els’) Subways These allowed cities to grow both skyward and outward

Contributing Factors of City Growth (cont.) City populations grew as people immigrated from abroad and migrated from the farm to the city Farm technology played a role as farmers in all regions produced more and sold it for less, defaulted on loans, lost their land, and moved to the cities to find work

Contributing Factors of City Growth (cont.) Others were attracted to the city because of its rich cultural life and excitement. Despite the phenomenal growth of cities, the majority of the American people still lived outside of urban areas before 1920.

Shifting Population Immigration patterns changed as more immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe rather than northern and western Europe. The Irish and the Germans who predominated prior to the Civil War had also been met with hostility and resentment from the native-born American population……

Shifting Population (cont.) Nativism increased as Italians and Poles, Jews and Russians, came to dominate immigration. A movement to restrict immigration through a literacy test was initiated but was not successful until the 1920s.

Ethnic Neighborhoods (ghettos) Many immigrants were too poor to move beyond the port cities where they landed Ethnic neighborhoods grew as immigrants looked for the familiar in a strange new land Churches, schools, businesses, and newspapers reflected the ethnicity of Little Italy, Greektown, or Polonia.

Political Machines Many established immigrants helped those who had newly arrived to find jobs and housing. This had a powerful impact on city politics. People voted for those who found them jobs and helped them through hard times.

Political Machines (cont.) Immigrants gave their votes to neighborhood and ward bosses in gratitude for the help they had received, not as a result of any direct bribery. Although many political bosses were corrupt and routinely used graft and bribery in awarding city contracts they also served an important role in helping immigrants to adapt to their new country.

Political Machines (cont.) The power that immigrant groups gave to the urban political machine allowed the bosses to solve important urban problems despite the abuses that occurred under city bosses such as New York’s Boss Tweed. Increasingly crowded city conditions led to problems with housing, sanitation, transportation, water, crime, and fire

Political Machines (cont.) Increasingly crowded city conditions led to problems with housing, sanitation, transportation, water, crime, and fire. The progressive movement developed as a result of the need to address urban problems and political corruption.

African-Americans and Industrialism Most freedmen had stayed in the South immediately after the Civil War. In the 1890s, the migration of African Americans from the South was the result of: poor cotton yields due to soil exhaustion and the boll weevil the discrimination of Jim Crow laws intimidation and lynching

African-Americans (cont.) As farm prices fell, African Americans joined other farmers in the move to the cities for job opportunities. However jobs in mill towns of the South were not open to them. So, African Americans headed to the West in search of land and to the cities of the North and Midwest.

African-Americans (cont.) African Americans found discrimination in the cities. They were the last to be hired and the first to be fired. Often used as strikebreakers, they suffered resentment of striking workers. They were relegated to the least desirable parts of the city in segregated neighborhoods.

African-Americans (cont.) This movement intensified during World War I as more jobs became available and the movement of African American culture to the cities of the North and Midwest would result in a cultural renaissance in the post World War I period.