Immigration and Urbanization
Millions of new arrivals reshaped where America's cities grew and who was welcomed once they got there.
4 topics · 13 questions
Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.
New Immigration by Origin, Decade by Decade
- How it worksShow me immigration shifting from mostly Northern and Western Europe to mostly Southern and Eastern Europe by decade.
- Worked exampleTrace annual immigration climbing from about 200,000 a year in the 1860s to over 1 million a year by 1907.
- Going furtherWhat happens to a city's neighborhoods once a quarter million new immigrants arrive there in a single year.
- Ties togetherHow does the shift toward Southern and Eastern European immigrants connect to the nativist backlash that follows in the same decades?
Your turn1 of 2
Annual immigration to the United States climbed from about 208 thousand a year in the 1860s to over 1.195 million a year by 1907. About how many times larger was annual immigration in 1907 than in the 1860s?Ellis Island and Angel Island
- How it worksWalk me through the medical and legal inspection every immigrant had to pass at Ellis Island in New York harbor.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't Angel Island simply a west coast copy of Ellis Island rather than built to enforce exclusion.
- How it worksCompare the hours-long inspection most immigrants faced at Ellis Island with the weeks or months held at Angel Island.
Your turn1 of 2
An immigrant arriving at Ellis Island in New York harbor typically passed through inspection in a few hours. An immigrant arriving at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay could be held for weeks or months of interrogation. Why did the exact same journey to America feel so different depending on which coast you landed on?The Growth of Tenement Cities
- Going furtherWhat happens to a city's death rate from disease once reformers force landlords to add windows and plumbing.
- How it worksShow me a Lower East Side tenement floor plan packing multiple families into rooms with almost no windows.
- How it worksHow did Jacob Riis's photographs of tenement life push cities to pass their first housing reform laws.
Your turn1 of 2
By 1900, New York's Lower East Side packed more people into some blocks than almost anywhere else on earth, many crowded into one-room tenement apartments with almost no windows. Why did families in the fastest growing country on earth end up crammed into housing like this?Nativism and the Chinese Exclusion Act
- How it worksWalk me through how the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 became the first US law to ban immigration by nationality.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't nativism in the 1880s and 1890s a new reaction rather than a repeat of hostility earlier immigrants faced.
- How it worksHow did nativist groups blame immigrants for wage competition and use it to push for entry restrictions.
Your turn1 of 2
In the 1860s, railroad companies recruited tens of thousands of Chinese laborers to build the transcontinental railroad. By 1882, Congress had banned nearly all Chinese immigration. Why did the same country that recruited these workers later exclude them?