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4. American Expansionism and Economic Revolution
UNIT
4.
AMERICAN
ECONOMIC REVOLUTION
EXPANSIONISM
AND
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
1783
1787
1803
1804
1819
1823
1829
1845
1846
1848
1849
1859
1862
1864
1865
1866
1867
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
Peace treaty was signed (September)
Northwest Ordinance was passed by Congress; restructured territorial
government
Chief Justice John Marshall ruled on Marbury versus Madison, setting precedent
for judicial review (February)
Louisiana Purchase was concluded with France (May)
Lewis and Clark explored the Northwest
Adams-Onís Treaty ceded Spanish territory to the United States
Monroe Doctrine was proclaimed
Inauguration of Andrew Jackson
The term, "Manifest Destiny," appeared for the first time in the expansionist
magazine the Democratic Review, in an article by the editor, John O’Sullivan
Texas joined the Union as the twenty-eight state
Congress approved a declaration of war with Mexico
Feminists gathered at Seneca Falls, New York, and founded the women’s rights
movement
The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ended war with Mexico
The United States gained land including present day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
and California
Gold drew prospectors to California
More gold discoveries were made in Colorado and Nevada
Congress passed the Homestead Act, encouraging western settlement
Nevada was admitted to the Union. Colonel John Chivington led a massacre of
Indians at Sand Creek, Colorado
Sioux fought white miners and the U.S. Army in the Great Sioux War
“Long drive” of cattle touched off cattle bonanzas
William Sylvis established the National Labour Union
Horace Greeley urged Easterners to go west. National Grange of the Patrons of
Husbandry was founded to enrich farmers’ lives
Policy of “small reservations” for Indians was adopted
Rutgers and Princeton play in the nation’s first intercollegiate football game
Cincinnati Red Stockings, baseball’s first professional team, was organized
The first Transcontinental Railroad was completed.
Knights of Labor was organized
Riots against the Chinese took place in San Francisco
The Standard Oil Company of Ohio was incorporated in Cleveland
It was the beginning of Rockefeller’s great oil ventures
Race riots erupted in Los Angeles against the Chinese
The Credit Mobilier scandal erupted in the press
Congress passed the Timber Culture Act
Joseph F. Glidden invented barbed wire
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4. American Expansionism and Economic Revolution
1876
1877
1879
1881
1882
1883
1884
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1892
1893
1894
1896
Discovery of gold in Dakota Territory sets off Black Hills Gold Rush
Women’s Christian Temperance Union formed to crusade against evils of liquor
Colorado was admitted to the Union
Custer and his men are defeated and killed by the Sioux at Little Bighorn
Johns Hopkins University opened the first separate graduate school
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone
Centennial Exposition was held in Philadelphia
Mark Twain published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, setting off a major change
in American literary style
The Great railroad went on a strike
Thomas A. Edison invented the incandescent lamp
Henry George analysed problems of urbanizing in Progress and Poverty Salvation
Army arrived in the United States
Samuel Gompers founded the American Federation of Labour (AFL)
Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company became the nation’s first trust
Edison opened the first electricity generating station in New York
Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, which excluded Chinese immigration to the
United States
Metropolitan Opera opened in New York
The world’s first true "skyscraper" was completed in Chicago
Haymarket Affair
Statue of Liberty dedicated
Railroads cut workers’ wages, provoking a bloody and violent strike
Disputed election of 1876 results in the awarding of the presidency to Republican
Rutherford B. Hayes
Congress passed the Dawes Severalty Act, making Indians individual landowners.
Hatch Act provided funds for the establishment of agricultural experiment stations
Republican Benjamin Harrison won the presidential election
Jane Adams opened Hull House in Chicago
National Farmer’s Alliance and Industrial Union was formed to address the
problems of farmers
Washington, Montana, and the Dakotas were admitted to the Union
Oklahoma Territory was opened to settlement
Idaho and Wyoming were admitted to Union. Teton Sioux were massacred at
Wounded Knee, South Dakota
National American Woman Suffrage Association was formed to work for women’s
right to vote
Workers went on a strike at the Homestead steel plant in Pennsylvania
Young historian Frederick Jackson Turner and delivered his address, “The
Significance of the Frontier in American History” at the Columbian Exposition in
Chicago and analysed the closing of the frontier
Financial panic touched off a depression that last until 1897
Sherman Silver Purchase Act was repealed
Immigration Restriction League in formed to limit immigration from southern and
eastern Europe
Supreme Court decision in Plessy versus Ferguson established the
constitutionality of “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites
John Dewey’s Laboratory School for testing and practice of new educational
theory opens at the University of Chicago.
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4. American Expansionism and Economic Revolution
1897
1907
1908
1911
1912
1913
Gold was discovered in Alaska
Japanese immigration was restricted in the United States
Oklahoma was admitted to the Union
William Howard Taft was elected president, and James S. Sherman is vice
president
Henry Ford introduced his famous Model T
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City killed 146 people
Arizona was admitted as a state
Woodrow Wilson was elected president, and Thomas R. Marshall was vice
president
Henry Ford adopted the conveyor belt system used in the meat-packing industry
Indian Wars with the Modoc Indians of Oregon
The Modoc leaders were captured and hanged; the rest were transferred to a
reservation in the Dakotas
1. WESTWARD EXPANSION
1.1 Policy on American Expansionism in the West
This aspect of expansionism in the west had several phases. Between 1783-1890, the US
expanded mainly from east to west, destroying indigenous North American cultures and
creating the enduring myths and symbols of the US frontier. The “frontier” became identified
with the western area, and the term was applied to the unsettled land outside the region of
existing settlements of Americans. From the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 that prohibited
slavery in the Northwest Territory, to 1912, the United States grew from 13 to 48 states.
In 1783 the United States was an immense territory, covering an area of approximately
800,000 square miles. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson bought Louisiana from France,
an area of 827,000 square miles. The Louisiana Purchase was important because it
encouraged the vision of continental destiny and fuelled American expansionism. It incited
America to take a leap westwards and look out to the ocean. The method of purchase was
new and set a precedent. In the future, the US would use this method several times. West
Florida was taken by force during James Madison's administration, and East Florida (60,000
square miles) was acquired by compulsory purchase, during the presidency of James
Monroe.
There was an interest in exploiting the Far West and a policy of expansionism was embarked
on. The United States planned to be neutral in wars between European powers and in wars
between a European power and its colonies, and expected Europe to stay out of the affairs of
America. In short, Monroe was declaring that the Americas were no longer open to European
colonization.
John Quincy Adams, the Secretary of State, arranged with England for the joint occupation of
Oregon and obtained from Spain the cession of the Floridas. His fervent advocacy for an
independent foreign policy for the United States would have an influence on future
administrations.
By 1820 the frontier had crossed the Mississippi. And by 1840, it had reached the 100th
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4. American Expansionism and Economic Revolution
meridian. A second set of acquisitions in the period 1843-53 completed the contiguous area of
the continental United States. Negotiations for the territory of Oregon (285,000 square miles)
finally ended in a compromise in 1846. The Texas republic (390,000 square miles) was
annexed in 1845. Finally, there was the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, by which the United
States purchased territory from Mexico in order to have control over a promising railroad
route.
One of the most important phases of American expansionism in the west was Texas. In 1821,
Mexico became engaged in a war to gain independence from Spain. In 1823, the Mexican
government gave permission to a man called Stephen Austin to take American pioneer
farmers who were Roman Catholics to settle in Texas.
In 1825 president Adams offered the Mexican government a million dollars for Texas and later,
President Jackson raised the offer to five million.
A revolution took place in Mexico in 1832, after which General Antonio López de Santa Ana
came to power. The Mexican president soon adopted very strong dictatorial measures. In
1835, he abolished all constitutional privileges for the Texan Americans and he even
threatened to exterminate them if they continued to show open hostility towards the Mexican
government. This led the Americans of Texas to declare their independence in 1836. This was
the beginning of a war between them and Mexico. For the United States, this was a very
delicate problem. According to the Monroe Doctrine, their interference was not legitimate.
However, Texas asked to become a state of the Union.
At the beginning of the war there were two important battles: the Alamo and the Goliad.
These were clear victories for Mexico. Santa Ana was defeated and captured by Sam
Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto, thereby ensuring Texan independence. A treaty was
drawn up whereby Santa Ana was forced to recognize Texas as part of America, and Rio
Grande as the frontier. Texas was recognized as an independent republic by the United
States and began its own political life. Texas wanted to join the United States but it was
rejected because it was a slave state.
When the United States annexed Texas, Mexico broke off diplomatic relations with the United
States and in 1845, the policy of expansionism increased. Another important phase was the
annexation of the Oregon Territory. In 1818 there had been a treaty between the United States
and Great Britain to mark a frontier between the Unites States and Canada; at that time the
frontier was fixed at 49ºN but this division reached only as far as the Rocky Mountains. The
territory between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific was called the Oregon territory and it
was not explored. According to the treaty, it could be occupied jointly.
California soon became morally associated with Oregon. The southern transcontinental
railway was meant to reach San Francisco and this was one of the definitive factors, which
led American public opinion to consider the annexation of California. There had been a
number of different attempts to buy California but they had failed.
There was a plan in the middle of the 1840s to try to stir up the Spanish-speaking population
and make them rebel against the Mexican government in California. However, the plot did not
succeed and in 1846 John Fremont declared California to be independent. In 1848, the treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, by which Mexico gave the United States the Southern
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4. American Expansionism and Economic Revolution
Border States, including the present States of California, Nevada, and Utah, a large part of
Arizona and New Mexico, and part of Colorado. In exchange, the United States gave Mexico
$15,000,000 in addition tot, the payment of claims of American citizens against Mexico
amounting to $3,250,000.
In 1853, a new treaty was negotiated between the United States and Mexico by which the
United States bought a relatively small territory south of the River Gila for the construction of
the Southern railway. At that time, James Gadsden was minister to Mexico and negotiated the
transfer. This marked the end of American expansionism until the purchase of Alaska in 1867
and the war with Spain in 1898.
During the 19th century, there was a great movement of population westwards, from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and, particularly after the Civil War; there was the most
widespread movement of population in the history of the United States.
1.2. The Railroad
In the nineteenth century, the railroad became one of the major icons associated with mobility.
Apart from affecting industry and agriculture, the Railroad interacted with western migration
and produced a great change, which had an enormous influence in creating a firm economy
and organising the territory politically, since it brought a permanent farmer population to the
west. The technology for steam locomotives came from England, and in 1830 and 1831, two
American railroads started to function. During the 1840s and 1850s the railroads spread
westward and in 1869 the first transcontinental railroad was completed. The construction of
the railway was crucial to the state-making process in the west.
The railway had a great influence in the development of the cities.
The Midwest, with its boundless prairies and swiftly growing population, flourished. Europe
and the older settled parts of America provided a market for its wheat and meat products. The
great improvement in transportation facilities provided an important stimulus for western
prosperity; from 1850 to 1857 the Appalachian Mountain barrier was traversed by five railway
trunk lines linking the Midwest and the East. These links established economic interests in the
different parts of the American nation. Initially, the expansion of the railway network, affected
the South far less. It was not until the late 1850s that a continuous line ran through the
mountains connecting the lower Mississippi River with the southern Atlantic seaboard.
By 1883 there were three other transcontinental lines that reached the Pacific: The Northern
Pacific, the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe.
1.3. The Suppression of Native Americans
Most Indians were confined to reservations by 1880s, in areas of the West that were not very
attractive to white settlers. The white settlers were able to do that with the help of the army
and the slaughter of the buffalo that roamed the plains. In addition to this, farmers introduced
new tools and methods of farming and irrigation to adapt to the new environment, and the
railroad was used to take the crops to the market. The advance of the mining due to the gold
rush in California, the invasion of cattlemen and the destruction of buffalo all threatened the
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4. American Expansionism and Economic Revolution
American Indians way of life.
Before 1800, a million Indians lived north of the Rio Grande, speaking 2,000 languages and
subsisting in small villages on maize, game and fish. By the 1820s, the European colonists
and American-born settlers of European origin had co-existed with the indigenous population
for two centuries. These relationships had ranged from the benign and often mutually
beneficial relations of the Plymouth community with the local tribes, to open warfare, with
massacres of women and children on both sides. Moreover, up to and including the war of
1812, the great powers of Europe and, later, the independent American government had
struck up strategic alliances with American Indian leaders for military purposes.
The new cotton kingdom, stretching across the soil of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, was
highly appealing to settlers. Only the Indian tribes of the region stood in their way.
The Removal Act of 1830 authorised the president to transfer Eastern Indian tribes to the
western territories, which were promised (falsely) to them "in perpetuity". Under Andrew
Jackson, a massive deportation of eastern Indians was carried out. Theoretically, they were
being sent to reservations in the west. Despite the opposition of the Supreme Court, some
50,000 Cherokee were collected in concentration camps and sent on a winter march to
Oklahoma in 1836. Many died because they offered resistance. The actual relocation
culminated in 1838, in a forced march known as the "Trail of Tears", and was one of the most
disgraceful occurrences in the history of United States domestic policy.
“Removal” further west was presented as being for the tribes’ own welfare; there, they were
promised, they could live in peace. However, the American tribes soon found that the lands
they were being offered, largely in what is now Oklahoma, had very little water and it was
virtually a desert, unlike the lush lands they were being told to abandon. Not surprisingly,
most of them refused. Others rebelled openly and went on the warpath.
Jackson’s “Indian Removal” policies succeeded, on their own terms, with the largely
sedentary Southeastern tribes. But as settlers moved even further west, they would
encounter the warlike, nomadic tribes of the Great Plains, with their formidable guerrilla
cavalry tactics and a whole new chapter in the Indian question would begin.
Most frontiersmen thought that the only good Indian was a dead Indian. Indians and millions
of buffaloes were slaughtered on the Great Plains. Between the years of 1872 and 1874, the
buffaloes were hunted to near extinction. These hunts kept the Indians on their reservations
and cleared the way for the American development of the west. The buffaloes were used to
supply the Indians with food, shelter, bedding, clothing, shields, ropes, saddles, and other
needs. Cattle replaced Buffaloes and led to a flourishing cattle industry. There were long
drives of cattle until the cattle boom reached its peak in 1885, after which, it began to decline.
In 1850 there were 100,000 Indians in California and in 1860 there were only 35,000. From
1861 to 1887 there was constant warfare on the Plains after the invasion of miners and white
settlers. Large areas of Indian land were acquired by treaty or by sale. In 1876, Chief Crazy
Horse, Chief Gall, and Chief Two Moons at the Battle of Little Bighorn defeated General
Armstrong Custer. The nation was so revolted by the defeat that it tacitly concurred in the
extinction of the Sioux nation. The army campaign was savage and successful, and by 1877,
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the Sioux were confined into reservations.
There was an ineffective policy towards Indians, but in 1887 the Dawes Severalty Act was
passed by Congress, an erroneous law that established Indian policy for the next half century
and was hailed as an Indian Emancipation Act. Each Indian family was provided with 160
acres of land, which was often unfertile. However, this was not always respected.
In 1924, Congress passed a law granting citizenship to all Indians. However, injustice
remained. By 1934, Indian land properties had been reduced from 56 million hectares to 48
million. It was then, under the government of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that the American
Indians got “a New Deal”.
2. THE GILDED AGE
2.1. Economic expansion and Industrial Growth
In the period from the end of the Civil War to World War I, that has been called the Gilded
Age, the United States experienced enormous economic growth. After 1900 the wage earner
was on a par with the modern industrial nations and by 1913, the United States had become a
leading industrial power in the world; more than one third of the world’s industrial production
came from the United States” as a result of the economic revolution that took place.
The railway network favored the formation of a national market, by providing transportation
links between different parts of the United States, rising business activities and spreading
settlements. Moreover, the constructions of railroads created a demand for coal, iron and
steel, helping to support and expand heavy industries. The greatest thrust in railroad building
came after 1862, when Congress set aside public land for the first transcontinental railroad,
which was completed in 1869.
There was a period of enormous growth between 1870 and 1914, and between 1870 and
1900 the population doubled from 38,6 million people to 76 million people. This growth came
mainly from immigrants from Europe. The nation was quickly urbanized and in those decades
that the population doubled, the nation’s factories and mills quadrupled their production. Old
industries expanded and many new ones emerged, including petroleum refining, steel
manufacturing, and electrical power. In addition, new trusts appeared.
Americans saw an increase in their standard of living and experienced an industrial revolution
that radically changed the ways of life of millions of people. Some of these changes resulted
from a technological revolution. There were new technologies and products. There were
important inventions.
However, working conditions were often unsafe and workers got subsistence wages. At the
turn of the twentieth century, most of them worked in a large-scale mechanized system of
production. Enormous plants substituted small stores so that workers would start to join
unions to defend their safety and wages.
Industrial growth transformed American society. It produced a new, well-off middle class. It
also produced a huge blue-collar working class. Between 1870 and 1929 the production of
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4. American Expansionism and Economic Revolution
American industry increased fourteen times. This growth generated a demand for workers.
The labour force that made industrialization possible was made up of millions of immigrants
and, especially before World War I, American industry depended a great deal on workers who
came from other countries. Labour came from two main sources: there were large numbers of
migrants from rural areas, since young people and their children moved from farms to the city
to look for better opportunities, and there was a flow of immigrants from different parts of the
world. American society became more diverse than before.
Between 1880 and 1900, cities in the United States grew at a spectacular rate.
Thus, industrial expansion and population growth radically changed the cities. They became
noisy, with traffic, slums, air pollution, and health problems. Trolleys, cable cars, and
subways, were built, and skyscrapers began to overlook city skylines. New communities,
known as suburbs, started to be built just beyond the city.
Many of those who lived in the city lived rented apartments. Immigrants often lived together in
ethnic neighbourhoods that were often the centre of community life and were demarcated by
religious, language and cultural differences. There, many immigrant groups attempted to hold
on to and practise their customs and traditions.
During the final years of the 1800s, industrial cities had to face all the problems brought on by
rapid population growth and lack of infrastructure to support such a growth. In spite of that,
cities were laying the foundation for the multiethnic and multicultural American society.
2.2. Workers and Unions
As the factory system grew, workers started to form labour unions to protect their interests.
Workers had low wages and they wanted to have better working conditions.
In 1869, a national labor organization was founded by a group of Philadelphia clothing
workers, the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor. It combined all workers in one big
union of both skilled and unskilled workers. Members tried to ensure secrecy to protect them
from losing their jobs, by using secret codes and signs. But their activities reached the press
and they began to operate openly but without revealing the name of any member to an
employer.
There was a great increase in membership after the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, which led
many workers to join this national labor organization. In 1881, as the Knights of Labor shrunk
after strikes were unsuccessful, a new labour organization, the American Federation of Labor
(AFL), was formed.
The AFL started with a nucleus of six craft unions; the Cigarmakers’ Union, the Glassmakers’
Union, the Steel Molders’ Union, the Iron Molders’ Union, the Carpenters’ Union and the
Printers’ Union. Although in the beginning, the AFL and the Knights of Labor battled and
invaded each other’s territory, the AFL imposed and increased membership and power. By
1904, the AFL had become the nation’s dominant labour organization.
In 1905, another labour organization was founded in Chicago by Eugene V. Debs: the
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). This was a revolutionary union that wanted to beat
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capitalism through strikes and boycotts. It was popular among migratory farmers,
lumberjacks, dockworkers and textile workers. In 1917, the union was prosecuted and by
1918, it had almost vanished.
In the first decades of the twentieth century, a number of important Parliamentary Acts
concerning employment were passed. The Progressives were very much concerned about
employment problems and tried to improve working conditions. They and the AFL pressured
state governments to establish laws to protect women and children.
3. A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF IMMIGRATION TO THE U.S.
Population increased, tripling between 1860 and 1920. An important source of population
growth in the United States was the arrival of immigrants. In the three decades surrounding
the turn of the twentieth century approximately twenty million people moved to the United
States, and thirty five million between 1850 and 1930. In 1880, the population had reached
50,100,000, of whom 6,600,000 were foreign born. By 1920, almost a quarter of the
population of the United States had been born someplace else.
After the Civil War, most immigrants arrived from northern and Western Europe. During the
1870s and 1880s most of them came from Germany, Ireland and England but the number
decreased after 1890. The number of immigrants who arrived from Scandinavia also
diminished after 1910. In the 1870’s new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe
arrived. Among them there were Poles, Serbs, Italians, Hungarians, Austrians and Russians.
In 1910, they made up 38 per cent of the foreign-born population whereas in 1860 they were
only one per cent.
Most immigrants entered the United States through New York, which was the largest port of
entry during the late 1800s.
The appearance of large numbers of Jews, Slavs, and Italian immigrants led many Americans
to consider some groups such as the Irish and the Germans an asset, and hostility shifted
from the Irish to the new nationalities. Between 1849 and 1882, there was also a large flow of
Chinese who migrated to the United States attracted by the California gold rush. After the gold
rush, they worked mainly on the railway construction and in farms. Immigrants were usually
less paid than other workers.
The foreign-born enriched the United States but, in spite of that, there were voices who
wanted immigration to be limited or ended totally, particularly of Orientals, Chinese and
Japanese, and from southern or eastern Europe.
Legal limits to reduce immigration expanded after 1880, and there was discriminatory
legislation against those groups. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act that
excluded Chinese labourers for a period of ten years, but really finished Chinese immigration
for almost a century. In the same year, for the first time, Congress restricted immigration on a
selective basis. The policy of exclusion was extended in 1890 and 1902, and finally it became
permanent. In 1924, Congress banned Japanese immigration completely.
In general terms, from 1776 to 1920s the US encouraged immigration and had a generous
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4. American Expansionism and Economic Revolution
policy. In the 17th and 18th centuries, there was an important flow of European immigration to
North America and to the USA. The majority of them were British immigrants, indentured
servants who immigrated there voluntarily and involuntarily. The destinations were the
following: the “Spanish" settled in Florida, Gulf coast, Texas, New Mexico and California; the
French Catholics went to St. Lawrence, Louisiana - the French Protestants (Huguenots) to the
South Coast and other English colonies; the Dutch to the Hudson valley, New York; the
Swedish to lower Delaware; the Germans to Pennsylvania, the North Coast, and other
English colonies and British to all the Atlantic seaboard.
Attitudes towards immigrants were essentially very positive, welcoming, even encouraging.
In the 19th century, there was a demographic explosion in Europe. Economic, social, and
political dislocations, conflict, revolutions were "push" factors and at the same time, there
were "pull" factors that attracted people to the USA, which was seen as a land of hope,
freedom and opportunity, with an expansive economy, manpower shortage, agricultural land
available, higher wages than in Europe.
And so, between 1783 and 1913, there was large-scale European emigration to the USA.
From 1815, when the Napoleonic wars ended, European governments relaxed restrictions on
emigration. Added to this, with growing domestic problems of over-population, emigration was
a means of alleviating tensions at home, and of getting rid of politically undesirable and
subversive elements. With the growth of emigration organizations, and the construction of
railways in Europe and America, fast, cheap means of transport were available to take large
numbers of people over long distances.
There was great increase in trans-Atlantic trade. US ships exported cotton, wood and grain,
etc. i.e. Bulky, heavy goods, and import manufactures and passengers to fill the empty space
on board. This enabled them to offer passenger tickets at low prices. In addition, railway
companies, land companies, large industrial employers and western territorial governments
mounted publicity campaigns to encourage people to go to the US. Many immigrants signed
work contracts in their countries of origin, in exchange for a passage to USA
As a result of this, from 1815 to 1930, approximately 38 million immigrants entered the United
States, which constituted 1/3 of the total US population growth. The vast majority were
Europeans (Atlantic migration). Most were for economic reasons, a few for political and
religious reasons
In the 19th century, traditional, favourable, liberal, and generally encouraging attitudes
persisted but there were occasional manifestations of antagonism towards Germans, Irish,
Catholics, Jews and Asians immigrants. The 'new' immigrants (mostly Latin and Slavic
peoples) settled in ethnic districts of North East industrial centres and were more "visible".
They were different in physical appearance, food, dress, customs, languages, and especially
in religions (Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Jews).
From the 1870s to the 1920s, a radical change of attitudes and policy regarding immigration
can be observed, due mainly to the following factors: the WASP’s (White Anglo-Saxon
Protestants) feared cultural and 'racial' degradation. The 'new' immigrants were generally
associated with slums, poverty, illiteracy, alcoholism, violence, delinquency, and crime, and
these were all greatly increased in urban areas. There was fear of social conflict and growing
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U.S. working class hostility towards unskilled immigrant workers.
Legal limits to reduce immigration were strengthened after 1880, and constituted clearly
discriminatory legislation against certain groups.
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