ipl-logo

How Did The Chinese Immigration Affect The Economy During The Gilded Age

559 Words3 Pages

The Gilded Age was a time of rapid industrialization, internal improvements, acquisition of new land, and population growth. The Civil War left the United States in a fragile state, but this time period improved the nation significantly. Cities in the east were growing rapidly and the economy needed to keep up. Major and notable corporations sprung up during this era between the 1870s and 1900s and a railroad was being built to connect and east and west coasts. This all led to the United States becoming the world’s leading industrial nation at the time. On the other hand, not everything was so great during this time, hence the nickname: “gilded”. Corruption was rampant in business and politics, and the gap between the rich and poor widened. Additionally, cities were overpopulated and unsafe for some to live in. With the …show more content…

Many Chinese people came to America to seek work on the railroad and other places. The cheap labor they provided angered the European immigrants, and tensions grew between the Americans and Chinese-Americans. An act was passed that stopped the immigration of Chinese people to America and the government forced them to wear identification badges at all times. It was very difficult to be of this race during this time period. Therefore, Chinese immigrants faced many adversities through discrimination in the work force, government, and daily life.
Chinese people came to America for opportunities to support their families in the 1800s. It all started when slavery was abolished. The sudden lack of labor created a shortage of workers in the nation’s economy. The immigrants rushed into the country to fill the empty positions at plantations. Many of them came as indentured servants, which were men who recruited workers and paid for their transportation in exchange for a period of labor with little to no profit. Years later in 1849, about ten thousand Chinese

Show More
Related
1931 Words | 8 Pages

Asian Americans came to America with hopes and dreams of a better life in the 19th and 20th centuries. In Ronald Takaki's book, “Strangers From a Different Shore,” he mainly focuses on Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Indian, Korean, and Southeast Asian immigrants. The mass Asian immigration began due to the desire for cheap labor. Plantation owners needed more workers in Hawaii, while labor demands in the mainland came from industrialization and railroad work. As a result, many Asians came to America for the better life and began looking for jobs.

Read More
99 Words | 1 Pages

On May 6, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed a federal law prohibiting Chinese laborers to immigrate. This U.S. federal law was called The Chinese Exclusion Act. During the California Gold Rush, many Chinese immigrated to North America. As gold became harder to find, hostility built up towards Chinese immigrates. A combination of racism and misunderstanding of another culture cause fear that turned into hate.

Read More
678 Words | 3 Pages

As a result of European dominance over China after the Opium War, many Chinese immigrated to the United States for a better life. Upon arriving, the Chinese worked in mining and constructing railroads, they faced discrimination from workers in the American economy, and the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to limit the future of Chinese immigration into the United States. Due to all these obstacles that they encountered, the immigration to the United States for a better life did not go as planned for the Chinese. When the Chinese first came to the United States, they had to scramble to find a way to earn a living wage. However, an extensive majority of the immigrants had very little education and work experience.

Read More
316 Words | 2 Pages

The Chinese men’s goal was to gain abundant riches and return to China wealthy men. At first the Chinese were welcome in California and praised for their work and lifestyle when the gold was plentiful and easy to find. Once the gold mining became more difficult the Americans

Read More
267 Words | 2 Pages

In the second half of the 19th-century migration to California increased due to railroad-inspired land boom. However, migration to California was not welcoming and tolerant to one specific group of migrants, and this group was the Chinese. As new rails were being built there was a demand for workers to build railways throughout California and eastward to connect the Transcontinental Railroad with Union Pacific (Textbook, 269). Big railroad industries, such as Central Pacific hired Chinese immigrants as part of their workforce. The Chinese worked tirelessly and through tough environmental conditions and earned low wages.

Read More
778 Words | 4 Pages

Even though they were not slaves, Asians did not have it easy in this country at first. China was going through both political and economic unrest in the 1840s and that together will the gold rush in California and building of the transcontinental railroad brought many Chinese to

Read More
436 Words | 2 Pages

Many Chinese died during that time. No Pain No Gain, they chose to have a possible to get a better life. " A number of them became entrepreneurs in their own right.

Read More
65 Words | 1 Pages

After the Civil War, railroads were built to the West for economic development. There were white settlers that were transferred from the East to Mississippi so they could work on mines, farms, and ranches. Another group of settlers were African-Americans who came from Deep South with the promise that they will find prosperity in the West. Later on, Chinese workers also contributed with railroad

Read More
772 Words | 4 Pages

The American industrial workers kept America progressing and expanding industrially in the late 1800’s. The life of one was difficult in the conditions in factories and cities. However, what of the influences that impacted the American industrial worker such as, immigration, labor unions, and technology changes. Immigration barely affected the American industrial worker of the 1850’s, but at the end of the Civil War, the greatest influx of immigrants yet was just beginning.

Read More
1285 Words | 6 Pages

Chinese Immigration When Chinese people started immigrating from a vast number of small cities in China to the United States, it was for a better life and better job opportunities. Chinese immigrated mostly for the same reason, to find freedom. Immigration not only changed the lives of those moving away from China, but the American citizens themselves who already had their lives put together. Hard working Chinamen move to the US to work for a small amount of money to provide for their families. Companies in the US were in need for cheap laborers, this made Chinese immigrants a prime group of people as they had the values, and desire to work hard for their families no matter the risks they took, or the extra hours they had to work.

Read More
399 Words | 2 Pages

By taking the chance in travelling to the United States, Asian immigrants also had to sacrifice leaving their families. Recruitment of temporary labor lead to a split family because for the Asian immigrants it was their way of

Read More
938 Words | 4 Pages

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, known for being one of the most racist pieces of immigration in American history, was passed due to the racial environment in California, and white union activities, and racist political campaigns by opportunistic politicians. Before it was passed, Anson Burlingame, the first American minister plenipotentiary, created a treaty, the 1868 Burlingame Treaty, which recognized free immigration between China and the United States, along with providing more opportunities and protection for American merchants and missionaries, and guaranteed favorable treatment to the recent immigrants and permanent residents of the two countries. After the Burlingame Treaty was in commission, California went through an economic recession,

Read More
1082 Words | 5 Pages

4. The change of population 4.1 The huge influx of Chinese The immigration and Nationality act of 1965 results in the booming of Chinese population in America. The number of Chinese in America was 237,292 in 1960, and it grew to be 435,062 by the end of 1970, and 806,027 in 1980.

Read More
330 Words | 2 Pages

This act imposed numerical limitations on the number of immigrants allowed in the United States; This quota determined that any particular nationality was allowed to have 2% of their foreign-born individuals become a resident within the continental Americas as determined by the US census of 1890 with a minimum quota of any nationality being 100, but Asians were entirely excluded from immigrating or being factored in this act. The annual quota for any nationality from 1st July 1927 onwards, was ascertained to bear the same ratio to 150,000 as the number of inhabitants in America in 1920, with a minimum quota of any nationality being 100. With the first World War concerns over national security were raised which led the U.S. Congress to enact the immigration law in 1917, which was widely restrictive in nature. A series of legislative acts thereafter culminated into the 1924 Act, one of which was the legislation of a literacy test effective from 1917; This required any immigrant over the age of 16 years old to demonstrate comprehension and understanding in a particular language.

Read More
943 Words | 4 Pages

The movement of Chinese immigrants into America is thought to have started in conjunction with the California gold rush, which proved fruitless for the belated majority that had arrived long after the gold mines were exhausted. Before long, the Chinese found themselves unwelcome not only in California, but wherever they chose to settle as well. Viewed as economic rivals, these immigrants quickly became the bane of America, accumulating scorn and exclusive immigration laws that barred them from citizenship. Despite Denver’s welcoming aura, the many Chinese immigrants that moved to the city found it all but impossible to surmount the racism, discrimination, and hypocrisy they experienced.

Read More

More about How Did The Chinese Immigration Affect The Economy During The Gilded Age

Related Topics

Open Document