One of the most notable times during the late 19th century was the Gilded Age. There were many things that led up to this period of time which included poor farming conditions, massive immigration, and economic opportunity in cities. The Gilded Age was in many ways the culmination of the Industrial Revolution, when America and much of Europe shifted from an agricultural society to an industrial one. The rise of big farming led to small farmers losing their land. Many gravitated to urban areas looking for jobs. Millions of immigrants and struggling farmers arrived in major cities looking for work which hastened the urbanization of America. Socially, there was a rapid increase in population mainly due to immigrants; culturally, new religious …show more content…
The immigrants had many reasons as to why they wanted to flee their countries. Land by mechanization of farm work caused many displaced farm workers to fall into poverty. Europe experienced overcrowding and joblessness due to a population boom that they weren’t prepared for. The United States had many factors that attracted these immigrants. The United States was exceptionally known for its reputation in having political and religious freedom. Economic opportunities presented by settling on the Great Plains and abundance of industrial jobs in U.S cities were quite vast. With the invention of large steamships and relatively inexpensive one-way travel in ship’s steerage, it was possible for millions of poor Europeans to immigrate. The immigrants were seen as two different groups: “Old” immigrants and “new” immigrants. “Old” immigrants came from Northern and Western Europe and were mostly Protestant. They mainly came for economic reasons. “New” immigrants came from Southern and Eastern Europe and were mostly Catholics. They mainly came for religious freedom. Old immigrants were able to adapt to the American lifestyle more easily because …show more content…
Politics in the Gilded Age were characterized by scandal and corruption, but voter turnout reached an all-time high. During this era, voters turned out at a higher rate than at any other time in American history. However, the two major political parties (Democrats and Republicans) were both riddled with corruption and scandal. Politicians spent more time distributing government jobs to their supporters, managing urban political machines, and enriching themselves from the public coffers than dealing with important policy issues. Political machines were unofficial organizations designed to keep a certain political group or party in power. Those who ran the machine, known as Political Bosses, were picked by others to help them win, and they would in turn help in handing out city jobs and contracts. William Magear Tweed, also known as “Boss Tweed,” was an American politician and one of the most popular bosses. He was known for being the “boss” of Tammany Hill, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City. Immigrants were often used by political machines. They would be picked up and fed in exchange for voting the way the machine wanted. In the Women’s Suffrage movement, Wyoming granted women’s suffrage in 1869, and by 1900 some states allowed women to vote in local elections. This was a big step up in
In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States. With hope for a brighter future, nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1900. Immigrants entered the United States through several ports. Those from Europe generally came through East Coast facilities and West Coast centers. Immigrants living in America have to endure the close scrutiny, remarks and questions raised by the native-born Americans.
Immigrants wanted to find wealth and desired a better life. Furthermore, immigration was at an all time high because of the fertile soil and the promising economic opportunity. According to pbs.org,"….agriculture provided the primary economic structure, large families to walk the farms were an asset. The US population grew
While America welcomed these immigrants with open arms, Americans rejected them. These new immigrants brought with them new ideas that conflicted with the old ideology causing some masses to question and change their religious life and others
Immigrants were coming from all around the world for a better life and better opportunity in the new nation. “A working Man’s Recollections of America” by Knights Penny Magazine (1846), mentions that “ The new emigrant, again, has heard of the successes of some of his acquaintance who went out years ago, and be looks for equal success in his own case, losing sigh of the multitudes who left their homes with the same views and have been miserably disappointed. That means immigrants come for a better life but they find out that they have to working out of their power to achieve their dreams, they find it difficult to keep pace with the stirring rivalry around them, plus the income was not high as they expected when they left their country. The immigrants expected to go through life with less working and less difficulties and basically an easy life, but they ended finding that they have to work harder than they used to work in their own country to dream of getting a comfortable life. However some were quite happy about leaving and immigrating to the United States as John Doyle’s letter to Fanny explains how he was when he moved to the new nation.
During the late 19th century and early 20th century there were many rumors that America was the “land of opportunity”. Millions of people emigrated from Europe and Asia to America. However, the Chinese were banned from entering the country in 1882 due to the Chinese Exclusion Act. There was a difference between the old immigrants and the new immigrants. Old immigrants came from northern or western Europe, they assimilated quickly, they were Protestant, and they arrived with some money.
During 1860, most white people were still just working on farms instead of in factories. But immigrants coming into the United States would work for anyone even for little pay, so primarily they came to factories or ended up laying down railroad tracks for money. Bar graph, ¨American Immigration by Decades, 1860-1900s' ' displays how in the 1860s there were around 2.3 million immigrants but in the 1900s there were around 8.8 million immigrants. The large number of immigrants caused even more to come to try and work in their new life, undoubtedly causing a large amount of change and work to be done in the country, through creation in factories and being the new cause of mobility by laying down railroad tracks. Some of the immigrants were also genius workers and unexpected leaders.
By the end of the industrial revolution, over 25 million immigrants were in America. Many people had traveled from across the world to be in the “land of the free”. Many of these immigrants came from parts of Europe such as Germany, England, Scandinavia, and Ireland as well as from Asia like China, India, and Vietnam. For immigrants that managed to get into America, many if not all used trains and railroads to go across a variety of places in Americas to start a new life whether it was with their family or by
In the 1800's and 1900's there was a major immigration era for America. Between 1880 and 1920 America was becoming more industrial and urban, and because of this more than 20 million immigrants came to America. Between 1815-1865 most immigrants came from Northern and Western Europe. A great deal of immigrants came from Ireland because of the Irish Potato Famine.
During the Industrial period in America, Many opportunities started to develop all throughout the country. Other countries, especially the ones in Europe, were not on the same upward economic trend that America was. The vast amount of opportunities that America had to offer attracted many immigrants from Germany and Ireland. Over time, European immigrants ended up making significant impacts in their new home country. German and Irish Immigrants chose to come to the United States so that they could have a chance at a better life and because of all of the opportunities that could be found there.
1). “New immigrants” were ridiculed and criticized by native-born Americans, as they believed that newly arrived immigrants were making little to no attempts to fit into American society. Fuel would only be added to the fire as many immigrants at the time were not willing to become citizens of the United States, with a study showing that “28 percent of Poles and Italians and 16 percent of Greeks and Portuguese [having] obtained American citizenship.” (Barkan, par. 5). This hesitation in becoming a citizen may have been brought on by the prejudice and hostility that immigrants had to deal with.
Most immigrants who came to the U.S had high expectations that they would find wealth but once they arrived they realized their expectations weren’t what they expected. Although, they were disappointed in not finding wealth the conditions in which the U.S was in by the late 1800s were still a lot better than the places they all had left behind to come. The majority of the immigration population anticipation was to find profitable jobs and opportunities. When the large numbers of immigration were migrating to the U.S, it was during the “Gilded Age”, which was the prime time for the country’s expansion of industrialization. This rapid expansion of new industries led to the need of workers which motivated people from other countries to come to
During the early 1900s, over 27 million immigrants came to America. With a majority coming from Europe but also some coming from Canada. New York City was the main port for immigrants to come through. Because of this, many homes on the East Coast became known to have populations like Jewish and Italian. Immigrants came to American due to the job opportunities that it had to offer.
After the Spanish- American war, immigrants from the south also came up to the United States for better opportunities, the majority of immigrants were white. 85 percent of the immigrants were from northern and western Europe, with Germans, Irish, English, and Scandinavians which were known as the "Old immigrants. " Then more ships came and that included south and east Europeans, Italians, Jews, Hungarians, Turks, Russians, Poles, Armenians, and other Slavic people accounted for 80% of the immigrants which were known as the "NEW" immigrants. With the U.S becoming a more industrialized country and creating so many jobs and products, made the U.S desperate to get rid of their excess products. Industrial and mercantile expansion required new markets.
With the hope of a new life, they encountered difficulty on their journey and getting started in their new country. While they were looking forward to many opportunities, they faced many challenges along the way. During this time period, the Italian immigrants coming to the United States were made up of Slaves, Jews, and Italians. While the “Old Immigrants” were Irish,
The migration of immigrants back then, were mainly because they wanted to find a better work experience. Some would even move to seek a new and improved religion. In the 1800-1880s, one of the main reasons immigrants moved, was because of the rising of taxes in their area which made them want to escape from that. Today, in modern day America, we still move in search for better jobs. Because the world has changed in so many ways, we constantly move, however, one of the main reasons is because of natural disasters that may have occurred in a particular area, which causes groups of families to move out of their old homes into a new location.