AP US History 6.5-6.6: Immigration and Urbanization

What role has immigration played in the history of the United States?

Immigration has been a major source of U.S. population growth and cultural change. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, immigration contributed heavily to industrial growth and urban expansion.

How many Europeans migrated to the United States from 1836 to 1914?

More than 30 million Europeans migrated to the United States during that period.

When did European immigration to the United States reach its historical peak, and how many people entered that year?

European immigration peaked in 1907, when approximately 1,285,349 people entered the country.

Who were the "new immigrants" of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?

They were immigrants who arrived primarily from Southern and Eastern Europe, including Italy, Poland, Russia, Greece, and the Balkans. They differed from earlier immigrants, who had come mainly from Northern and Western Europe.

Why did many immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe come to the United States?

Many sought economic opportunity, escape from poverty or political and religious persecution, and access to industrial jobs. Poverty, crime, social or political collapse, and environmental degradation could all motivate migration.

What was the Page Act of 1875?

The Page Act restricted Chinese immigration by barring Chinese women under the stated justification that many were entering for prostitution. It was the first major U.S. federal law restricting immigration.

What did the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 do?

It prohibited virtually all immigration from China. The law remained in effect until its repeal in 1943.

What was the Asiatic Barred Zone Act of 1917?

Also called the Immigration Act of 1917, it prohibited immigration from much of Asia and also excluded categories such as homosexuals, people with intellectual disabilities, and people holding anarchist views.

What was nativism?

Nativism was the belief that native-born Americans should receive political, economic, and social preference over immigrants. It often expressed hostility toward newcomers because of their ethnicity, religion, language, or perceived competition for jobs.

Why did nativism intensify during the era of new immigration?

Many native-born Americans feared that large numbers of Southern and Eastern European immigrants would take jobs, lower wages, increase urban crowding, and weaken traditional Protestant and Anglo-American culture.

What was the Emergency Quota Act of 1921?

It temporarily limited immigration from the Eastern Hemisphere by setting each nation's quota at 3% of that nation's foreign-born population counted in the 1910 census. The policy especially restricted immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe.

What was the National Origins Formula established by the Immigration Act of 1924?

It replaced the temporary quota system with national quotas designed to preserve the existing ethnic composition of the white U.S. population. Quotas were based on national-origin proportions measured using the 1920 population, while Western Hemisphere countries were not subject to the same quota restrictions.

What was the demographic purpose of the National Origins Formula?

The formula was intended to preserve a population composition dominated by ancestry from Northwestern Europe. It reduced immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe and excluded or severely restricted many non-European groups.

How did the quota system treat immigration from the Western Hemisphere?

The national-origins quota system generally left immigration from countries in the Western Hemisphere unrestricted, unlike immigration from many Eastern Hemisphere countries.

How did immigration contribute to urban growth in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?

Immigrants supplied labor for factories, mines, construction, and service industries, encouraging people to settle near industrial jobs. Their arrival helped cities grow rapidly and made urban populations more ethnically and culturally diverse.

Why did immigrants tend to settle in cities?

Cities offered factory and service jobs, transportation connections, established ethnic communities, and access to relatives or co-nationals who could help newcomers find housing and work.

What were tenements?

Tenements were densely crowded, inexpensive urban apartment buildings in which many working-class immigrants lived. They often had inadequate ventilation, sanitation, light, and space.

What problems characterized tenement life?

Overcrowding, disease, fire hazards, poor sanitation, unsafe water, and inadequate ventilation were common. Families often shared small apartments, and residents faced difficult working and living conditions.

What were political machines?

Political machines were urban organizations that maintained power by exchanging jobs, services, and assistance for votes. They often relied heavily on immigrant neighborhoods and controlled local elections and government services.

Why did many immigrants support political machines?

Machines provided practical help such as jobs, food, housing assistance, legal aid, and help with naturalization. In return, immigrants were expected to vote for the machine's candidates.

What were the benefits and costs of political machines?

Machines helped immigrants adjust to urban life and supplied services when government welfare was limited, but they also depended on patronage, bribery, corruption, and election manipulation.

How did reformers respond to urban poverty and tenement conditions?

Progressive reformers investigated urban problems, promoted housing and sanitation regulations, and created settlement houses and other social services to assist immigrants and the urban poor.

What share of the white U.S. population in 1920 was classified as postcolonial immigrant stock?

Approximately 56.5% was classified as postcolonial immigrant stock, while 43.5% was classified as colonial stock.