Immigration and Urbanization

Reasons to Emigrate

Religious persecutionIn search of better jobs due to population increase in Europe

Political disturbances

European Immigrants

Came to the US via Ellis Island in NY

Before 1890: western European immigration (Great Britain, Ireland, Germany)

After 1890: many arrived from eastern Europe (Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia)

Chinese Exclusion Act

1882 act that banned entry to all Chinese except students, teachers, merchants, tourists, and government officials

Why? Nativism 1873 depression – many Californians

feared Chinese would work for less

Chinese and Japanese Immigration

Came to the U.S. via Angel Island in San Francisco

Chinese: CA gold rush, railroadsJapanese: recruitment to Hawaii to work on farms

Urbanization

Definition: growth of citiesImmigrants flocked to the cities

Cheap rent and abundance of jobsThere were twice as many Irish

residents in NYC than there were Irish in Dublin, and the world’s largest Polish population wasn’t in Poland, but Chicago

Many southerners moved to northern cities

Urban ProblemsHousing

Row housing, tenements

Transportation Street cars, subways

Water Inadequate plumbing, no filtration to make water clean

Sanitation Sewage issue, trashed dumped everywhere – sewer lines out

in and sanitation departments created

Fire The Great Chicago Fire and The San Francisco earthquake

Crime

Skyscrapers

Growing cities were running out of room: solution was to build upwards

Why they could be built:Invention of the elevatorInternal steel skeletons