1. Immigration & Urbanization in the Gilded Age

2. Immigration

3. By the late 1800s, most European states made it easy to move to America. By the 1890s, eastern and southern Europeans made up more than half of all immigrants. Of the 14 million immigrants who arrived between and 1900, many were European Jews.
Why?
employment
few immigration restrictions
avoidance of military service
religious freedom
chance to move up the social ladder.

4. Ellis Island
served as a processing center for most immigrants arriving on the East coast after 1892.

5. Angel Island
Asian immigrants, mostly young men and boys, waited sometimes for months for the results of immigration hearings.

8. Look back at your notes and answer the following question:
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.

9. Nativism Increase in immigration leads to rise in Nativism
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.

10. American Protection Association
500,000 members by 1887
Founded by Henry Bowers
Against catholic immigrations

11. Workingman’s Party of California
Created by Irish immigrant Denis Kearny
Wanted to stop Chinese immigration

12. Chinese Exclusion Act Passed in 1882
barred Chinese immigration for 10 years
prevented the Chinese already in America from becoming citizens.

13. Urbanization

14. The urban population of the United States grew from about 10 million in 1870 to over 30 million by 1900.
Immigrants moving into cities
Farmers moving back into urban areas for better quality of life

15. Home Insurance Building
Chicago, IL
William Le Baron Jenney
1884
10 stories

16. Wainwright Building St. Louis, MO
Louis Sullivan “father of skyscrapers”
10 stories
Steel framed

17. Look back at your notes and answer the following question:
What were some differences between the social classes?
The social classes differed in their level of income and the area in which they lived.
The wealthy lived in the heart of the city in elaborate homes. The middle class lived away from the central city and used commuter lines to get to work.
The working class lived in cities in tenements.

18. Urban Problems
The growth of cities resulted in an increase in crime, fire, disease, and pollution. From 1880 to 1900, there was a large increase in the murder rate.
Native-born Americans blamed immigrants for the increase in crime.

20. Urban Problems Alcohol contributed to crime in the late 1800s.
Contaminated drinking water from improper sewage disposal resulted in epidemics of typhoid fever and cholera.

21. Gilded Age Politics

22. Political Machines
A new political system was needed to cope with the new urban problems. The political machine, an informal political group designed to gain and keep power, provided essentials to city dwellers in exchange for votes.
Party bosses ran the political machines. George Plunket, an Irish immigrant, was one of New York City’s most powerful party bosses.

23. The party bosses had tight control of the city’s money
The party bosses had tight control of the city’s money. Many of the politicians became wealthy due to fraud or graft—getting money through dishonest or questionable means.

24. Tammany Hall One of the most powerful political machines in New York
William “Boss” Tweed

25. Although corrupt, political machines did supply important services and help assimilate the ever- expanding population of city dwellers.