Europeans Flood Into the United States Click the mouse button to display the information. By the late 1800s, most European states made it easy to move to America.  By 1900, eastern and southern Europeans made up more than half of all immigrants.  Of the 14 million immigrants who arrived between 1860 and 1900, many were European Jews.

Click the mouse button to display the information. America offered immigrants employment, few immigration restrictions, avoidance of military service, religious freedom, and the chance to move up the social ladder.  Most immigrants took the difficult trip to America in steerage, the least expensive accommodations on a steamship.  The 14-day trip usually ended at Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor. Europeans Flood Into the United States (cont.)

Click the mouse button to display the information. It served as a processing center for most immigrants arriving on the East coast after  Most immigrants passed through Ellis Island in a day.  However, some faced the possibility of being separated from family and possibly sent back to Europe due to health problems. Europeans Flood Into the United States (cont.)

Click the mouse button to display the information. Most immigrants settled in cities.  They lived in neighborhoods that were separated into ethnic groups.  Here they duplicated many of the comforts of their homelands, including language and religion.  Immigrants who learned English, adapted to American culture, had marketable skills or money, or if they settled among members of their own ethnic group tended to adjust well to living in the United States. Europeans Flood Into the United States (cont.)

What helped immigrants adjust to living in the United States? Immigrants tended to adjust well to living in the United States if they quickly learned English and adapted to the American culture. Skilled immigrants, those who had money, or those who lived among their own ethnic group also tended to adjust more successfully. Click the mouse button to display the answer. Europeans Flood Into the United States (cont.)

Click the mouse button to display the information. Asian Immigration to America Severe unemployment, poverty, and famine in China; the discovery of gold in California; the Taiping Rebellion in China; and the demand for railroad workers in the United States led to an increase in Chinese immigration to the United States in the mid-1800s.  In Western cities, Chinese immigrants worked as laborers, servants, skilled tradesmen, and merchants.  Some opened their own laundries.

Click the mouse button to display the information. Between 1900 and 1908, large numbers of Japanese migrated to the United States as Japan began to build an industrial economy and an empire.  In 1910 a barracks was opened on Angel Island in California.  Here, Asian immigrants, mostly young men and boys, waited sometimes for months for the results of immigration hearings. Asian Immigration to America (cont.)

Click the mouse button to display the answer. What caused the increase in Japanese immigrants between 1900 and 1910? Japanese immigration to the United States increased because Japan started to build an industrial economy and an empire. The economy of Japan was disrupted and caused hardship for the Japanese people. Asian Immigration to America (cont.)

Click the mouse button to display the information. The Resurgence of Nativism The increase in immigration led to nativism, an extreme dislike for foreigners by native-born people and the desire to limit immigration.  Earlier, in the 1840s and 1850s, nativism was directed towards the Irish.  In the early 1900s, it was the Asian, Jews, and eastern Europeans that were the focus of nativism.  Nativism led to the forming of two anti-immigrant groups.

Click the mouse button to display the information. The American Protective Association was founded in  The party’s founder, Henry Bowers, disliked Catholicism.  He wanted to stop Catholic immigration.  In the 1870s, Denis Kearny, an Irish immigrant, organized the Workingman’s Party of California.  This group wanted to stop Chinese immigration.  Racial violence resulted. The Resurgence of Nativism (cont.)

Click the mouse button to display the information. In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act that barred Chinese immigration for 10 years and prevented the Chinese already in America from becoming citizens.  This act was renewed by Congress in 1892, made permanent in 1902, and not repealed until The Resurgence of Nativism (cont.)

Click the mouse button to display the answer. Why did nativists oppose eastern European immigrants? Nativists thought the large influx of Catholic immigrants from Ireland would give the Catholic Church too much power in the American government. Labor unions feared that immigrants would work for lower wages and take work as strikebreakers. The Resurgence of Nativism (cont.)