Civil War Immigration Analysis

In the years following the Civil War, America saw a boom in immigration that helped to shape its future as well its major cities. This increase in immigration coincided with the reconstruction of the south, as America began to undergo a shift from a more rural agrarian society to a more industrial based economy. This economic shift lead to large cities forming in and around centers of industry and manufacturing. This would eventually lead to the era known as the industrial revolution. In the time leading up to the industrial revolution in America, most of the populace grew up in towns that were connected by horse travel or waterways. This required most communities to be self-sufficient for food, shelter, clothes, and other desired goods.

Correlation between industrialization and immigration, along with innovation and natural resources, lead to growth in wealth and manufacturing in America at a rapid pace. This correlation lead to the expansion of highways and railways that furthered expansion west along with strides in public education and social reform (Carpenter 30). Due to mass immigration and industrialization, major changes were required in the organization of the economy and the structure of employment (creating the position of middle management, for example). Moving goods from plants to consumers also required an expansion in transportation and a supportive institutional structure for the expansion of business, and an increasingly urban society. A governmental bureaucracy was needed to build roads, manage cities, and to educate the population for employment in factories and

Railroad and railway companies and manufactures accounted for 2 million workers by 1920, or roughly 5% of America’s total workforce. Many of those workers were first, second, or third generation immigrants (Carpenter 42). The railroad boom was so extreamly rapid, in part by a ready immigrant workforce, that by 1899 every major city was connected to a national rail line (Carpenter 4). Many immigrants were drawn to the rail industry because, even though the work was tough and conditions poor, the wages were higher than those of urban factories or docks. The creation of the railroads also pulled immigration west. Many immigrants who worked on the rail decided to remain in major cities like San Francisco vice return east to New York or