What do we call people who come to a place from a different country?
immigrant
Push factors are things which drive people from their country to another country. What push factors caused people to immigrate to the Untied States?
Religious and political persecution caused many people to come to the Untied States. They looked for someplace where they could live free. Some people came because they faced economic hardships. For example, many Irish people came over during the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840’s. People also left their homelands because they were unable to get land there.
Pull factors are things in the United States which drew immigration to the country. What pull factors brought immigration to the United States.
The United States was known as the land of the free. This applied to both politics and religion. This brought many immigrants to the United States. There was also cheap or free land, especially in the west. The Industrial Revolution also brought the promise of jobs for the immigrants. Family also told the immigrants how great America was.
What were ethnic groups?
Ethnic groups were people from the same country. They made life better for immigrants because they explained how America worked. They provided safe places for the immigrants to stay in. Areas with same ethnic groups were called ghettoes. They often provided shelter and money until the immigrant was able to get a job.
What symbol of freedom awaited immigrants in New York harbor?
Statue of Liberty
What was Ellis Island?
Ellis Island was the first place many European immigrants came to in the United States. They faced a medical examination here. Often their name became changed or Americanized because it was too difficult to say.
What was Angel Island?
Angel Island was the equivalent of Ellis Island for the West Coast of the United States. It was located in San Francisco. Many Asian (Chinese, Japanese) immigrants came through here. Because of the dislike for these groups of people, many waited on Angel Island for long periods of time.
What were the waves of Immigration?
The first wave of immigrants came during colonial times. They were mostly seeking religious freedom and economic freedom. Most came from Western Europe (England, Germany, France).
The second wave of immigration came for economic opportunities and cheap land. They came form Most came from Western Europe, especially Ireland after the potato famine. Germans came to escape political problems. The discovery of gold and the transcontinental railroad brought many Chinese immigrants.
The third wave of immigration lasted form People came from around the world, especially from Southern and Eastern Europe. This was the greatest period of European immigration.
The fourth wave lasted from 1945 until today. Cubans fled Fidel Castro. The largest immigrant group has been Mexicans, legal and illegal, who came looking for economic opportunities, especially on farms. Southeast Asians have fled political problems.
Where did most immigrants settle?
Most settled in cities, especially in ethnic ghettoes.
What is assimilation?
Assimilation was the goal of many immigrants. This was the process of adopting the American culture. This included the customs, the language and the total way of life.
What is xenophobia?
Xenophobia is the fear of foreigners.
What was the Know-Nothing party?
The Know-Nothing party was a political party that didn’t like immigrants. They specifically didn’t like Catholics
Who were nativists?
People who wanted to restrict immigration and keep America for native born citizens.
How was immigration restricted?
The Chinese faced the most discrimination regarding immigration. The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) shut down Chinese immigration. The Quota Act limited immigration to 350,000 people a year. A countries immigration was limited based upon the percentage of people from the country already in the United States.
Why was immigration encouraged up to 1880?
There was plenty of land for immigrants. There were more than enough jobs. In fact, many companies recruited people form other countries to fill the need for jobs during the early stages of the Industrial Revolution.
Why were people against immigration after 1880?
There were fewer jobs and the immigrants competed to take the jobs that were available. Land was no longer available in the west so people settled in the cities. The cities were overcrowded and the immigrants made it worse.
Why did people move to cities?
Many farmers moved to the cities to enjoy the attraction offered there. It was much more exciting than life on the farm. There were also jobs to be found in the cities.
What was life like in the cities?
Life was lousy in the cities. People lived in tenements without plumbing. Tenements were small apartments without heat, plumbing and windows. There was no sewer systems in many areas. Disease was spread due to unsanitary conditions and overcrowding.
There were also many cool things happening in the cities. Sports such as baseball, football and basketball, developed by James Naismith were popular. Vaudeville, a song-and- dance show was popular. Ragtime was a popular musical style. Circuses came to the cities. Skyscrapers started to do the horizon. Shopping at department stores such as Macy’s became popular.
How was technology affecting the cities?
Public transportation such as the el train and subways made getting to places easier. Skyscrapers, built with light-weight steel frames allowed more people to live in smaller places. Elevators allowed people to live in the upper floors of these skyscrapers.
How did people try to help the poor in cities?
Settlement houses were established to help the poor. These were community centers providing help for the poor. The most famous settlement house was Hull House which was run by Jane Addams. The Salvation Army offered food and shelter to the poor. Young Men’s Christian Associations (YMCA) held dances and organized team sports.
What was school like in the early 1900’s?
Public schooling to 6 th grade was mandated in many states. Many children still did not attend school so they could work to support their family.
Why did newspapers become more popular in the early 1900’s.
Many newspapers started to practice yellow journalism or sensationalizing the news. They used scandal, cartoons and gossip to increase their circulation at a tremendous pace. The New York World published by Joseph Pulitzer and the New York Journal published by William Randolph Hearst were the leading newspapers of the day.
What were dime novels?
These were the new paperback books that became very popular. Most were thrilling adventure stories that were cheap to buy. They were especially popular with young readers.
Who were realists?
Realists were artists and writers who wanted to portray life as it really was.
What book was realist write Stephen Crane most famous for writing?
The Red Badge of Courage.
What was realist author Jack London most famous for?
He wrote The Call of the Wild as well as many stories about the hardships faced by miners on the West Coast.
Who was the most famous author of this time period?
Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. He wrote many books, the most famous being The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.
Who was Winslow Homer?
He was a realist artist who painted gory scenes of Civil War battlefields. He was also known for his realistic pictures of New England.
What was the process of becoming a citizen called?
naturalization
What was the difference between the Salad Bowl and the Melting Pot theories of Americanization?
The Melting Pot theory was that all immigrants brought their culture from their own country and the best of all cultures was mixed into a single American culture. The Salad Bowl theory was that there was some shared culture, such as democracy, but each immigrant maintained much of the culture from the country they came from.