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American Immigration In The Late 1800s

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Numerous aspects influences Europeans to immigrate to the United States including unemployment, the seeking of refuge from religious prosecution, food shortages, and increasing threats of war. Hope that America would provide a new home with a new start encouraged 6.3 million people to enter the United States between 1877 and 1890. Prior to the 1880’s, most immigrants originated from Germany, Ireland, and England; however, the sources began to shift away from northern and western Europe in the 1880’s. An increase of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe quickly replaced those prior to the 1880’s. “New immigrants” from Italy, Greece, Austria-Hungary, Poland, and Russia practiced Catholicism and Judaism instead of Protestantism. Between …show more content…

In addition to railroads, Congress passed numerous acts and laws to encourage people to move west. One of the first acts was the Homestead Act of 1862. Which “gave 160 acres of land to anyone who would pay a $10 registration fee and pledge to live on it and cultivate it for five year” (Divine, Breen, Fredrickson, and Williams 502). Passing this law forged a “mass migration of land-hungry Europeans” (Divine, Breen, Fredrickson, and Williams 502), amazed that a country would relinquish millions of acres for free. Between 1862 and 1900, close to 600,000 families made their way west from free homesteads. However, the Homestead Act required farmers and labors to have the cash to move, buy equipment, and have patients for their farms to become self-sufficient, which was not always the case. Therefore, in 1873 the Timber Culture Act was passed to adjust the Homestead Act. Each homesteader was inclined to claim another 160 acres if within four years if they planted trees on a quarter of it. Successfully distributing 10 million additional acres, Congress continued to pass laws to encourage more to go west. The Desert Land Act of 1877 aided cattle ranchers by allowing them to obtain 640 acres if they promise to irrigate it. The prospect of finding gold and silver also brought in waves of people to the west. The California Gold Rush of 1849 holds the name of one of the most famous waves of miners to the west. Gold and Silver mines in Deadwood, South Dakota; Leadville and Silverton, Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; Sutter’s Mill, California; and Virginia City, Nevada attracted hundreds of people. The main motivation to move west included the hope of a better future in farming or

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“Our manifest destiny, is to overspread the continent allotted by providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” (O’Sullivan, 420) From 1841 to 1867 more than 350,000 men, women, and children migrated to California, and many others settled in territories along the way such as Texas and New Mexico. Nearly every migration was over 2,000 miles in a wagon, so the reasons for migrating were great. Originally it was for families to own more land, but once gold was discovered the number of migrants skyrocketed.

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During the “Gilded Age” period of American history, development of the Trans-Mississippi west was crucial to fulfilling the American dream of manifest destiny and creating an identity which was distinctly American. Since the west is often associated with rugged pioneers and frontiersmen, there is an overarching idea of hardy American individualism. However, although these settlers were brave and helped to make America into what it is today, they heavily relied on federal support. It would not have been possible for white Americans to settle the Trans-Mississippi west without the US government removing Native Americans from their lands and placing them on reservations, offering land grants and incentives for people to move out west, and the

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The mid-19th century saw an unprecedented wave of immigrants coming into the country. At its peak, Ellis Island, the main processing station for immigrants, handled an astounding 5,000 people every day. Because of the language and culture barriers faced by each group of people, they often settled amongst themselves. Very quickly, country-specific neighborhoods began popping up throughout New York and the surrounding area. This helped to alleviate the stresses with moving to a new country; however, most immigrants came to the United States penniless and lived in low-income housing as their jobs rarely supported themselves let alone their families.

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Americans had rarely accepted outsiders as equals, and that was the case with immigrants coming to the U.S in the 1840s to the 1920s. A time in America where immigrants were not considered inferior to native white Americans did not exist. The hatred of anything non-American, especially with the coming of World War I in 1914, would only cause more Americans to despise immigrants. Part of this was rooted simply in racism, which existed towards groups other than African Americans, but much of it was simply that Americans considered themselves the chosen people while everyone else was below them. Thus, despite immigrants being accepted into America, those immigrants were still treated far worse than white citizens between the 1840s and 1920s, for the prejudice against them was obvious even in the laws created.

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With the 1848 Gold Rush, traveling miners wanted temporary settlements while the settlers wanted permanent living. These mining camps were full of promiscuous behaviors and the miners moved out of the towns when the mines were emptied. The homes that were once occupied suddenly became vacant. These houses were sold for next to nothing and families moving west often find them as a safe haven.

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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

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In the early 19th century, millions of immigrants from Europe had traveled to the United States to escape difficulties faced in their native lands such as poverty and religious persecution. Italian, German, Irish, and many other eastern European immigrants sought the prosperous and wealthy lifestyle advertised in the land of opportunity, the United States. However, after settling down they often faced the difficulties they had fled from as well as sentiments of prejudice and mistrust from the American people. Most immigrants were discriminated against due to their religious beliefs as well as their language barriers which fostered the beliefs that they were intellectually inferior to Americans.

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Gold Rush The California Gold Rush which occurred between 1848 to 1855 was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848. The event was defined by when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. The sudden influx of gold cause; the money supply to reinvigorated the American economy, increased population which allowed California to go rapidly to statehood, in the Compromise of 1850, and accelerated the decline of population of Native Americans. Gold was discovered in California as early as March 9, 1842, at Rancho San Francisco, in the mountains north of present-day Los Angeles.

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America’s Diverse Population In the nineteenth century, rates of immigration across the world increased. Within thirty years, over eleven million immigrants came to the United States. There were new types of people migrating than what the United States were used to seeing as well. Which made people from different backgrounds and of different race work and live in tight spaces together; causing them to be unified.

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The California Gold Rush started in 1848 when a man named James Wilson Marshall found gold flakes in the American River near his job site in Colma, California. Marshall and his boss, John Sutter, tried to keep the gold a secret, but word traveled throughout the area. Townspeople began quitting their jobs in hopes the gold would make them rich. Then word spread to people all over America, and they began traveling to California to join the “quest for gold.” By the end of the first year of the Gold Rush, the population of non-native Californians grew by 80,000.

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People in America during this time seeking for opportunities out west that they did not think they had in the east. During this time, gold was discovered in California that attracted many people not just from America, but all over the world. Plus, the government encouraged people to go mining for gold by giving miners cheaper land to live on out west. As stated in the Homestead Act of 1862, United States Congress, a law providing free land for citizens of the United States in western territories. This act encouraged people to mine for gold in California so they could have cheaper land than they would anywhere else.

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