Lecture 4: A nation of immigrants: Settlement and immigration

Immigration is a central aspect of US history. It is a major reason that the nation's total population
grew to 303 million by 2008. Believing in the American Dream, many tens of millions of people
have come to live in the USA. They thus changed their homelands, America and their family
histories forever. They strengthened the nation's commitment to ‘the dream’ and to its ideal of
being a refuge for the poor and oppressed, a nation of nations.
Americans’ (and the immigrants’) core idealism, pride, and naivety are embodied in Emma
Lazarus's sonnet ‘The New Colossus’, which is displayed inside the base of the Statue of Liberty.
For most of the foreign-born, life in the USA has meant an improvement over their situation in the
‘old country’, the realization of modest hopes for land or homeownership, for example. Later
generations have enjoyed more significant socio-economic progress, though ‘rags to riches’
careers are rare indeed.
Early encounters between Europeans and Native Americans
• When European explorers and settlers encountered Native Americans in the late 1400s, a
long history of mutual incomprehension and conflict began.
• They caught disease from each other
• Europeans survived better but in the 17th century half of them died from difficulties in
adjusting to the new environment; the Native American fared far worse, epidemics annihilated
entire native cultures. The population of 10 million shrank to between 2 to 3 million.
• They exchanged food & animals. Horses, donkeys, pigs, cows were alien to Native
Americans. Potatoes, maize and tobacco were discoveries to Europeans.
• Potatoes were a key role in the growth of European population and Asian immigrants in
1800s.
 European societies were so diverse that Spaniards and the English could hardly imagine
living in the same place in peace. Europeans and Native Americans couldn’t imagine living
together. Thus, all Europeans tended to look alike to Native Americans, and most
Europeans seemed incapable of seeing Native Americans as anything but a single people.
To Europeans, Native Americans seemed lazy and wasteful of nature's potential.
 From the first European settlement until today, the main focus in conflicts between these
continental culture systems has been land ownership.

The founders

The people who established the colonies are considered founders rather than immigrants because
they created the customs, laws and institutions to which later arrivals (the first immigrants) had to
adjust.
• The Spanish: occupied coastal Florida, southwest and California in the 1500s and 1600s.
After trying to enslave the natives, they worked to convert them to Christianity, farming and sheep-
herding. Because many natives rejected this way of life, the Spanish colonies faced border attacks
for over 200 years.
• The English: established their first permanent in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. The Crown
legalized companies that undertook the colonization as private commercial enterprise. Tobacco
provided a profitable export. Because of lack of plantation labor, the first African laborers were
imported as indenture servants.
  Maryland (1630) was established by Lord Baltimore as a heaven for Catholics. Maryland’s
leadership remained catholic, but later resembled Virginia more in its economy and
population. English aristocrats financed Georgia and Carolinas as commercial investments
and experiments in social organization. The southern settlers warred with the natives within
a few years of their arrival and by the 1830s drove the Native Americans from today's
South.
• Pilgrims: = were radical separatists from the Church of England who founded first of the
Northern colonies at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Puritans wanted to purify the Church of
England and wanted to create a “city on a hill” to show how English society could be reformed.
To that end, over 20,000 emigrated in around ten years. By the latter 1600s, the bay colony had
expanded to the coast of present day Maine, swallowed up Plymouth, and spawned the colony of
Connecticut. New England colonies became the shippers and merchants for all the British
America.
• The Dutch and the Swedish of middle colonies (New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania)
were first New Netherlands along Hudson river and along York bay and New Sweden along the
Delaware river. Dutch annexed New Sweden (1683-1655) and English annexed Dutch colonies
1664. The Dutch maintained their culture in rural New York and New Jersey for over 200 years.
They also set the precedent of toleration for many ethnic, racial and religious groups in New
Amsterdam. Before it became New York, the city had white, red, brown and black inhabitants;
institutions for Catholics, Jews and Protestants; and a diversity that resulted in eighteen different
languages being spoken.
 Pennsylvania's founders were Quakers who flocked to the colony after Charles II granted
the area to William Penn in 1681 as a religious refuge. As with the Pilgrims and Puritans,
official English tolerance took the form of allowing persecuted minorities to emigrate.

Colonial Period
As mentioned above, most people who came to the British colonies in the 1600s were English.
Others came from The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, France, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
By 1690, 250,000 people lived in the New World. By 1790, there were 2.5 million people. People
came for different reasons. Some left their homes to escape war. Others sought political or religious
freedom. Some had to work as servants to pay back the cost of their trip before gaining their
freedom. Some, like black Africans, arrived as slaves. In time, the 13 colonies developed within
three distinct regions.
The first settlements were along the Atlantic coast and on rivers that flowed into the ocean. In the
Northeast, trees covered the hills and stones filled the soil, but water power was available. The
Northeast was called New England, and it included Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
The economy was based on timber, fishing, shipbuilding, and trade.
The middle colonies included New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.
The weather was milder and the countryside was more varied. People worked in industry and
agriculture. The society was more diverse and sophisticated. People living in New York came from
all over Europe.
The Southern colonies included Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina and South Carolina. The
growing season was long and the soil was fertile. Most people were farmers. Some owned small
farms that they worked themselves. The wealthy farmers owned large plantations and used African
slaves as workers.
The relationships between settlers and Native Americans (also called Indians) were good and bad.
In some areas, the two groups traded and were friendly. In most cases, as the settlements grew
bigger, the settlers forced the Indians to move.
As time went on, all the colonies developed governments based on the British tradition of citizen
participation. In Britain, the Glorious Revolution of 1688–1689 limited the power of the king and
gave more power to the people. The American colonists closely observed these changes. Colonial
assemblies claimed the right to act as local parliaments. They passed laws that limited the power
of the royal governor and increased their own authority.
Disagreements between the royal governors and the assemblies continued. The colonists realized
that their interests often were different from Britain’s interests. At first, the colonists wanted self-
government within a British commonwealth. Only later did they want independence.

THE WAVES OF IMMIGRATION:

THE FIRST WAVE: COLONIAL IMMIGRATION, 1680-1776
The founders’ descendants gave the first wave of European newcomers a warm welcome only if
they were willing to conform to Anglo-American culture and supply needed labor. The reception
varied to the location, from extremes of largely hostile New England to more tolerant middle
colonies. It was with mixed rural New York settlements of north-west Europeans in mind that St.
Jean de Crévecoeur, an immigrant farmer from France, first stated in 1782 the idea that in America
‘individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of man’.
 This first wave was possible only because after 1660 the English Crown opposed
emigration from England and Wales and encouraged emigration to other nations and
supplied African slaves to English colonies. During the next century about 140,000
Africans arrived after surviving the appalling conditions and brutal treatment on slave
ships.
• Scots-Irish: were largest group, who left due to economic discrimination by the English.
With encouragement from the English, their ancestors left Scotland for Northern Ireland in the
1500s. Yet, roughly a quarter of a million of them left Northern Ireland for the American colonies
after 1680 because of economic discrimination by the English. Most paid their passage across the
Atlantic by becoming indentured servants. When their term of service was finished, they usually
took their ‘freedom dues’ (a small sum of money and tools) and settled on the frontier where land
was cheapest
• Germans immigrants (200.000 at the time): believed their descendants had to learn German
if their religion and culture were to survive in the North America. They developed German
speaking towns (in the middle colonies) with little interest in colonial politics, successful farming
and renowned for their hard work, caution and concerned for their property. They were too
successful, according to their envious neighbors. Benjamin Franklin expressed what many feared
when he said they might ‘Germanize us instead of us Anglicizing them’.
-Other smaller groups in the first wave showed the contrasting ways in which immigrants could
adjust to new and varied conditions. England sent some 50,000 convicts and perhaps 30,000 poor
people as indentured servants to ease problems at home.
• Ireland sent single male Irish catholic servants who assimilated even more rapidly than the
Scots-Irish, because of religious discrimination and the difficulty of finding Catholic wives.
• The Scots, perhaps because of their hatred of English attempts to suppress their culture at
home, followed a pattern more like that of the Germans, using compact settlement, religion,
schooling and family networks to preserve their culture for generations in rural areas.
• French Catholic: settled in port towns in South Carolina. English colonists limited their
rights and sometimes attacked their churches and synagogues, as result, their community nearly
vanished.
The first wave changed the demography of the colonies. By 1776 English dominance decreased
from 4/5th to a bare majority (52%) of the population. The diversity of people led Thomas Paine,
the colonies’ most famous political agitator, to call the U.S. “a nation of nations” at its founding.

Historical events during the first wave of immigration

THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
The ideas of liberalism and democracy are the basis of the U.S. political system. As the colonists
built their new society, they believed more strongly in these ideas. Britain’s 13 colonies grew in
population and economic strength during the 1700s. Although ruled by a distant government, the
colonists governed many local affairs.
After Britain won a costly war with France in the 1750s, the colonists were asked to help pay for
the war, and for Britain’s large empire. These policies restricted the colonists’ way of life.
For example, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 restricted the colonists from settling new land. The
Currency Act of 1764 made it illegal to print paper money in the colonies. The Quartering Act of
1765 forced the colonists to provide food and housing for the royal soldiers. The Stamp Act of
1765 taxed all legal papers, licenses, newspapers, and leases.
The Stamp Act united the colonists in an organized resistance. The main problem was that they
weren’t allowed to participate in the government that taxed them. In October 1765, 27 delegates
from nine colonies met in New York. They passed resolutions saying that the individual colonies
should have the right to impose their own taxes. This satisfied most of the delegates, but a small
number of radicals wanted independence from Britain.
One of those people was Samuel Adams of Massachusetts. He wrote newspaper articles and made
speeches. The groups he helped to organize became a big part of the revolutionary movement.
By 1773, colonial traders, who were angry with British regulation of the tea trade, were interested
in Sam Adams’s ideas. In December 1773, a group of men sneaked on three British ships in Boston
harbor and threw the cargo of tea overboard. This event became known as the Boston Tea Party.
The British Parliament punished Massachusetts by closing Boston’s port and by restricting local
authority. Colonists called these new laws the Intolerable Acts and united to oppose them. All the
colonies except Georgia sent representatives to Philadelphia in September 1774 to talk about their
“present unhappy state.” It was the First Continental Congress.
Colonists were angry with the British for taking away their rights, but not everyone agreed on the
solution. Loyalists wanted to stay subjects under the king. Moderates wanted to compromise and
build a better relationship with the British government. The revolutionaries wanted complete
independence. They began collecting weapons and getting men ready—waiting for the fight for
independence.

THE REVOLUTION
The American Revolution and the war for independence from Britain began with a small fight
between British troops and colonists on April 19, 1775. The British troops left Boston,
Massachusetts, planning to take weapons and ammunition from revolutionary colonists.
At Lexington, they met armed colonists who were called Minutemen because they could be ready
to fight in a minute. The Minutemen planned to protest silently and not shoot unless the British
shot first. The British ordered the Minutemen to leave. The colonists obeyed, but as they left,
someone fired a shot. The British troops attacked the Minutemen with guns and bayonets.
Fighting broke out in other places along the way as the British soldiers in their bright red uniforms
returned to Boston. More than 250 “redcoats” were killed or wounded. The Americans lost 93
men.
Colonial representatives hurried to Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress. More than
half voted to go to war against Britain. They decided to form one army from the colonial forces.
George Washington of Virginia became the commander-in-chief.
At the same time, they sent King George III a peace resolution to try to avoid a war. The king
rejected it. On August 23, 1775, the king said the American colonies were in rebellion.
The desire for independence increased in the next few months. Thomas Paine, a radical political
thinker, argued for independence and against hereditary monarchy in his pamphlet Common Sense.
He described two possible conditions for America. The people could remain unequal citizens under
A king, or they could live in an independent country with hopes of liberty and happiness.
The Second Continental Congress created a committee to write a document that outlined the
colonies’ complaints against the king and explained their decision to separate from Britain. The
reasons were based on French and British ideas. Thomas Jefferson was the main writer of the
Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence told the world of a new nation and its beliefs about human
freedom. It argued that political rights are basic human rights and are universal.
The Second Continental Congress accepted this document on July 4, 1776. The Fourth of July
became Independence Day in the United States. The colonies and Britain went to war. British
soldiers defeated General Washington’s forces in New York and took control of Philadelphia,
forcing the Second Continental Congress to flee. The Continental Army won at Saratoga in New
York and at Princeton and Trenton in New Jersey. George Washington had problems getting the
men and materials he needed to fight the war. In 1778, France recognized the United States as an
independent country and signed a treaty of alliance. France helped the United States as a way to
weaken Britain, its long-time enemy.
There were battles from Montreal, Canada, to Savannah, Georgia. A huge British army surrendered
at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. The war ended when a peace treaty was signed in Paris on April
15, 1783. In this treaty, Britain and other nations recognized the United States as an independent
nation. The Revolution affected more than North America. The idea of natural rights became
stronger throughout the Western world. Famous men, such as Thaddeus Kosciusko (Poland),
Friedrich von Steuben (Prussia), and the Marquis de Lafayette (France) took the ideas of freedom
to their own countries.
The Treaty of Paris turned the 13 colonies into states, but the job of becoming one nation remained.

THE SECOND WAVE: THE “OLD” IMMIGRANTS, 1820-90

Between 1776 and the late 1820s, immigration slowed to a trickle. The struggle for independence
and the founding of the nation Americanized the colonies’ diverse peoples. The dominant Anglo-
American culture and time weakened the old ethnic communities. Dutch and German areas of
influence remained locally strong, but most ethnic groups assimilated.
A number of factors pushed the Europeans from their homelands:
• Religious persecution: drove many German Jews to emigrate
• Political unrest – forced out some European intellectuals and political activists,
but
• Economic push factors were decisive for most of the so-called “Old” Northwestern
immigrants.
Europe’s population doubled between 1750 – 1850. In Ireland and parts of Germany rural people
depended on potato. Rapid growth of industrial cities and revolutions encouraged farmers to large
scale production and elimination of smallholdings, so a large population could not make a living
in countryside. So, they left homes to follow the routes of early immigrants. They settled to the
destinations of their friends and relatives.
Stage immigration – (moving first to the city and after some years to a foreign country) became
common. Steamships and trains made migration abroad safer, faster and cheaper. During the ‘old’
immigration, 15.5 million people made America their home.
The largest immigrant groups, in order of size, were Germans, Irish, Britons and Scandinavians,
but many other peoples, including French, Canadians, Chinese, Swiss and Dutch, also came in
large numbers.
The factors that pushed most people were unlimited land, work. U.S. needed skilled and unskilled
laborers.
News of boom times in the USA, land giveaways such as the Homestead Act of 1862 and the
discovery of gold in California brought peaks in the rising immigration.
Settlement patterns and nativism
• Newcomers settled mostly in the manufacturing centers, farmland and frontier cities of the
Midwest and Pacific Coast. (Found work as domestic servants, factory, miners, loggers, sailors ...)
they came with funds and were able to travel to places where countrymen could help them to adjust
to the American society.
• After the potato rot in Ireland, huge number of immigrants arrived 1840-1850 with little
money and stayed where they landed until they improved their situation.
• British settlers were nearly invisible because they spoke English and the Anglo-American
culture was much like theirs. Germans were welcomed for their technical knowledge and industry.
• Nativism: Dislike of foreign people and things. Germans were stereotyped as Prussian
marionettes. German Jews were excluded from education and professions; Irish suffered from
discrimination, were stereotyped and dirty, violent drunks. Anti-Catholics bigots burned convents
and churches 1830. There were attempts to Americanize Irish Children at school. Anti-foreign
agitation reached its peak in 1850: Know Nothing or American Party believed that not only the
Irish, with their alleged loyalty to the Pope in Rome, but also all non-British immigrants threatened
the U.S. Know nothing won → lots of support and seats in Congress. Internal divisions and the
coming of the Civil War defused this nativist movement. Another movement arose in 1860s. It
achieved its goal, the Chinese Exclusion Act, which ended Chinese immigration in 1882.

Historical background during the second wave of immigration

Early years, westward expansion
George Washington became the first president of the United States on April 30, 1789. He had been
in charge of the army. As president, his job was to create a working government.
With Congress, he created the Treasury, Justice, and War departments. Together, the leaders of
these departments and the others that were founded in later years are called the cabinet.
One chief justice and five (today eight) associate justices made up the Supreme Court. Three circuit
courts and 13 district courts were created. Policies were developed for governing the western
territories and bringing them into the Union as new states. George Washington served two four-
year terms as president before leaving office. (Only one U.S. president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, has
served more than two terms. Today, the Constitution says that no one may be elected president
more than twice.) The next two presidents—John Adams and Thomas Jefferson —had different
ideas about the role of government. This led to the creation of political parties.
John Adams and Alexander Hamilton led the Federalists. Their supporters included people in trade
and manufacturing. They believed in a strong central government. Most of their support was in the
North.
Jefferson led the Republicans. Their supporters included many farmers. They did not want a strong
central government. They believed in states having more power. They had strong support in the
South.
For about 20 years, the United States was friendly to other countries and neutral toward their
disputes, but France and Britain again were at war. The British navy seized American ships going
to France. The French navy seized American ships going to Britain. After years of unsuccessful
diplomacy, the United States went to war with Britain in 1812. The battles took place mostly in
the Northeastern states and along the East Coast. One part of the British army reached Washington,
D.C., the new U.S. capital. Soldiers set fire to the president’s mansion. President James Madison
fled as the White House burned.
The Americans won important battles on land and sea. Weakened and in debt from its recent war
with France, Britain signed a peace treaty with the U.S. in 1815. The U.S. victory made sure that
Britain wouldn’t establish colonies south of the Canadian border.
By 1815, many of the new nation’s problems had eased. Under the Constitution, the United States
had a balance between liberty and order. The country had a low national debt. Much of the
continent was left to explore. The country had peace, prosperity, and social progress.
An important addition to foreign policy was the Monroe Doctrine. President James Monroe’s
announcement of solidarity with newly independent nations in Central and South America was a
warning to Europe not to seek colonies in Latin America.
The U.S. doubled in size when it bought the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 and Florida
from Spain in 1819. From 1816 to 1821, six new states were created. Between 1812 and 1852, the
population tripled.
As the country grew, differences among the states became more obvious. The United States was a
country of civilized cities and lawless frontiers. The United States loved freedom but also tolerated
slavery. The differences began to create problems.

Conflict within the United States

In 1850, the United States was a large country, full of contrasts. New England and the Middle
Atlantic states were the centers of finance, trade, shipping, and manufacturing. Their products
included lumber, machinery, and textiles. Southern states had many farms that used slave labor to
grow tobacco, sugar, and cotton. The Middle Western states also had farms, but they were worked
by free men.
In 1819, Missouri asked to become a state. Northerners were against this because 10,000 slaves
lived there. Because the Constitution allowed each new state to elect two senators, new states could
change the political balance between “free” and “slave” states. Congressman Henry Clay
suggested a way to make the North and South happy. Missouri would become a state with slaves.
Maine would become a state without slaves. The Missouri Compromise was accepted.
In the following years, each side held its beliefs more strongly. Many Northerners thought slavery
was wrong. Others saw it as a threat to free workers. Most white Southerners considered slavery
part of their way of life.
Thousands of slaves escaped to the North with help from people along secret routes called the
Underground Railroad. In 1860, however, one-third of the total population of slave states was not
free.
Most Northerners did not care about slavery in the South, but they did not want slavery in the new
territories. The Southerners believed that these territories had the right to decide for themselves
whether slavery would be allowed.
A young politician from Illinois believed that this was not a local issue, but a national one. His
name was Abraham Lincoln. He agreed that the South could keep its slaves, but he fought to keep
slavery out of the territories. Lincoln thought that over time slavery would end. “A house divided
against itself cannot stand,” he said. “This government cannot endure permanently half-slave and
half-free.” The South threatened to leave the Union if Lincoln became president. After Lincoln
won the election, some Southern states began leaving the Union before he started working as
president.
Civil war and post war reconstruction
The American Civil War started in April 1861. The South claimed the right to leave the United
States, also called the Union, and form its own Confederacy. President Lincoln led the Northern
states. He was determined to stop the rebellion and keep the country united. The North had more
people, more raw materials for producing war supplies, and a better railway system. The South
had more experienced military leaders and better knowledge of the battlefields because most of
the war was fought in the South.
The war lasted four years. Tens of thousands of soldiers fought on land and sea.
September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest day of the war. The two armies met at Antietam Creek in
Maryland. Gen. Robert E. Lee and his Confederate Army failed to force back the Union troops led
by Gen. George McClellan. Lee escaped with his army. The battle was not decisive, but it was
politically important. Britain and France had planned to recognize the Confederacy, but they
delayed. The South never received the help it desperately needed.
Later in 1862, President Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that freed all
slaves in the Confederate states. It also allowed African Americans into the Union Army. The
North fought to keep the Union together and to end slavery. The North began winning important
battles. Gen. William T. Sherman left a path of destruction (known as the scorched-earth policy)
as his army marched across Georgia and South Carolina in 1864. In Virginia in April 1865, Gen.
Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. The Civil War was over. More Americans died
in the Civil War than in any other U.S. conflict.
Less than a week after the South surrendered, a Confederate sympathizer killed President Lincoln.
Vice President Andrew Johnson became president with the job of uniting the country. Johnson was
a Southerner. He gave pardons to many Southerners, giving them back their political rights.
By the end of 1865, most of the former Confederate states canceled the acts of secession but
refused to abolish slavery. All the Confederate states except Tennessee refused to give full
citizenship to African American men.
In response, the Republicans in Congress would not let rebel leaders hold office. The Union
generals who governed the South blocked anyone who would not take an oath of loyalty to the
Union from voting. Congress strongly supported the rights of African Americans.
President Johnson tried to stop many of these policies. The House of Representatives impeached
Johnson, but the Senate was one vote short of the two-thirds majority required to remove Johnson
from office. He remained president but began to give in more often to the Republican Congress.
The Southern states were not allowed to send representatives to Congress until they passed
constitutional amendments barring slavery, granting all citizens “equal protection of the laws,”
and allowing all male citizens the right to vote regardless of race. For a time, these reforms led to
real advances for African Americans in the South. When the North withdrew its army from the
Southern states, especially during the late 1870s, white Southerners regained political power and
began to deprive Southern blacks of their new rights. Southern blacks were free, but the local laws
denied them their rights. They had the right to vote, but the threat of violence made them afraid to
use it. Southern states introduced “segregation,” a system that required blacks and whites to use
separate public facilities, from schools to drinking fountains. Not surprisingly, the “black”
facilities were not as good as the “white” facilities. The races lived separately in the South for the
next 100 years. In the 20th century, this would become a national issue.
Growth and transformation
The United States changed after the Civil War. The frontier became less wild. Cities grew in size
and number. More factories, steel mills, and railroads were built. Immigrants arrived in the United
States with dreams of better lives. This was the age of inventions. Alexander Graham Bell
developed the telephone. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. George Eastman made the
moving picture, later called a movie. Before 1860, the government issued 36,000 patents. From
1860 to 1890, the government issued 440,000.
Separate companies merged to become larger companies, sometimes called trusts. This happened
especially in the steel, rail, oil, and communications industries. With fewer companies, buyers had
fewer choices and businesses had more power. An antitrust law was passed in 1890 to stop
monopolies, but it was not very effective.
Farming was still America’s main occupation. Scientists improved seeds. New machines did some
of the work that men had done. American farmers produced enough grain, meat, cotton, and wool
to ship the surplus overseas.
The Western regions still had room for exploration and for new settlements. Miners found ore and
gold in mountains. Sheep farmers settled in river valleys. Food farmers settled on the Great Plains.
Ranchers let their cattle graze on the vast grasslands. Cowboys drove great herds of cattle to the
railroad to ship to the East. The “Wild West” pictured in many cowboy books and movies lasted
only about 30 years.
When Europeans first arrived on the East Coast, they pushed the native people west. Each time,
the government promised new land for the native people so they would have a home. Each time,
the promises were broken while white settlers took the land. In the late 1800s, Sioux tribes in the
Northern plains and Apaches in the Southwest fought back. Although they were strong, the U.S.
government forces defeated them. Many tribes would live on reservations, which are federal lands
administered by Indian tribes. Today there are more than 300 reservations. Toward the end of the
1800s, European powers colonized Africa and fought for rights to trade in Asia. Many Americans
believed that the United States should do the same. Many other Americans did not like any action
that seemed imperialistic.
After a brief war with Spain in 1898, the U.S. controlled several Spanish colonies—Cuba, Puerto
Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Officially, the United States encouraged them to become self-
governing. In reality, the United States kept control. Idealism in foreign policy co-existed with the
desire to prevent European powers from acquiring territories that might enable them to project
military power toward the United States. Americans also sought new markets in which they could
sell their goods. By the end of the 19th century, the U.S. was beginning to emerge as a growing
world power.

THE THIRD WAVE: THE NEW IMMIGRANTS, 1890-1930

The ‘new’ immigration marked a change in the origin of most immigrants. Northwestern
immigration declined and arrivals of southern and eastern Europe rose, a million annually. In
numerical order the largest “new” group were: Italians, Jews, Poles and Hungarians, but also
others: Mexicans, Russians, Czechs, Greeks, Portuguese, Syrians, Japanese and Filipinos. For
Americans, the immigrants were not like them at all. The religions, languages, manners and
costumes of the Slavic peoples were exotic and incomprehensible to them. But this tidal wave of
people was in several ways similar to its predecessors. The basic economic push and pull factors
had not changed. The new immigrants had the same dream of bettering their own and their
children's future. Like the Puritans, eastern European Jews emigrated because of religious
persecution, chiefly the bloody Russian pogroms.
By the late 1800s falling train and steam-ship ticket prices (often prepaid by relatives in America)
made migration affordable even for the very poor and the young.
Many new immigrants were sojourners, ‘birds of passage’, who stayed only long enough to save
money to buy land or a small business in the old country.
In general, the new immigrants were younger, more often unmarried, and more likely to travel as
individuals rather than in family groups. The opportunities in America had changed too. The
closing of the frontier around 1890 signaled the end of the era of government land-giveaways.
Four-fifths of immigrants went where the jobs were: to the industries in the big cities of the north-
east and mid-west. America had an enormous need for factory workers, but, due to mechanization,
most jobs were unskilled and poorly paid.

Historical events during third wave

Discontent and reform

By 1900, the United States had seen growth, civil war, economic prosperity, and economic hard
times. Americans still believed in religious freedom. Free public education was mostly accessible.
The free press continued. On the negative side, it often seemed that political power belonged to a
few corrupt officials and their friends in business. In response, the idea of Progressivism was born.
Progressives wanted greater democracy and justice. They wanted an honest government to reduce
the power of business.
Books by Upton Sinclair, Ida M. Tarbell, and Theodore Dreiser described unfair, unhealthy, and
dangerous situations. These writers hoped their books would force the government to make the
United States safer and better for its citizens. President Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) believed
in Progressivism. He worked with Congress to regulate businesses that had established
monopolies. He also worked hard to protect the country’s natural resources.
Changes continued under the next presidents, especially Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921). The
Federal Reserve banking system set interest rates and controlled the money supply. The Federal
Trade Commission dealt with unfair business practices. New laws improved working conditions
for sailors and railway workers. Farmers got better information and easier credit. Taxes on
imported goods were lowered or eliminated.
During the Progressive Era, more immigrants settled in the United States. Almost 19 million
people arrived between 1890 and 1921 from Russia, Poland, Greece, Canada, Italy, Mexico, and
Japan.
By the 1920s, citizens worried that the immigrants might take their jobs and change the culture of
the United States. Although the government created quotas to restrict immigration, it relaxed those
restrictions in the 1960s, assuring that the United States would remain a nation in which many
different people and cultures could forge an identity as Americans.

World War I, 1920s Prosperity and the Great Depression

In 1914, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey fought Britain, France, Italy, and Russia. Other
nations joined the conflict, and the war reached across the Atlantic Ocean to affect the United
States. The British and German navies blocked American shipping. In 1915, almost 130 Americans
died when a German submarine sank the British ocean liner Lusitania. President Woodrow Wilson
demanded an end to the German attacks. They stopped but started again in 1917. The United States
declared war. More than 1,750,000 U.S. soldiers helped to defeat Germany and Austria-Hungary.
The war officially ended on November 11, 1918, when a truce was signed at Versailles in France.
President Wilson had a 14-point peace plan, including the creation of a League of Nations. He
hoped the League would guarantee the peace, but in the final Treaty of Versailles, the victors of
the war insisted on harsh punishment. Even the United States did not support the League of
Nations. Today, most Americans accept the United States taking an active role in the world, but at
that time they believed otherwise.
After the war, the United States had problems with racial tension, struggling farms, and labor
unrest. After Russia’s revolution in 1917, Americans feared the spread of communism. This period
is often known as the Red Scare.
Yet, the United States enjoyed a period of prosperity. Many families purchased their first
automobile, radio, and refrigerator. They went to the movies. Women finally won the right to vote
in 1920.
In October 1929 the good times ended with the collapse of the stock market and an economic
depression. Businesses and factories shut down. Banks failed. Farms suffered. By November 1932,
20 percent of Americans did not have jobs.
That year the candidates for president debated over how to reverse the Great Depression. Herbert
Hoover, the president during the collapse, lost to Franklin Roosevelt.

The situation before the fourth wave

The New Deal and World War II

President Roosevelt believed that democracy had failed in other countries because of
unemployment and insecurity. In the early 1930s, he proposed a “New Deal” to end the Great
Depression. The New Deal included many programs. Bank accounts were insured. New rules
applied to the stock market. Workers could form unions to protect their rights. Farmers received
financial aid for certain crops. The government hired people to plant trees, clean up waterways,
and fix national parks. Skilled workers helped build dams and bridges. The government provided
flood control and electric power for poor areas. The Social Security system helped the poor,
disabled, and elderly. Many Americans were uneasy with big government, but they also wanted
the government to help ordinary people. These programs helped, but they didn’t solve the
economic problems. The next world war would do that.
The United States remained neutral while Germany, Italy, and Japan attacked other countries.
Although many people wished to stay out of these conflicts, Congress voted to draft soldiers and
began to strengthen the military.
As Japan conquered territories in China and elsewhere in Asia, it threatened to seize raw materials
used by Western industries. In response, the United States refused to sell oil to Japan. Japan
received 80 percent of its oil from the United States. When the United States demanded that Japan
withdraw from its conquered territories, Japan refused. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the
American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The United States declared war on Japan. Because
Germany and Italy were allies of Japan, they declared war on America.
American industry focused on the war effort. Women built many of the 300,000 aircraft, 5,000
cargo ships, and 86,000 tanks while the men became soldiers. The United States fought with
Britain and the Soviet Union against the German Nazi threat in Europe. From the time that
Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in 1939 (Germany invaded the Soviet Union in
1941) until the German surrender in 1945, millions of people died. Millions more were killed in
the Holocaust, the Nazi regime’s mass murder of Jews and other groups.
Fighting continued in Asia and the Pacific Ocean even after the war ended in Europe. These battles
were among the bloodiest for American forces. Japan refused to surrender even as U.S. forces
approached the Japanese home islands. Some Americans thought invading Japan would cause
larger numbers of U.S. and Japanese deaths. When the atomic bomb was ready, President Harry
S. Truman decided to use it on two Japanese cities— Hiroshima and Nagasaki—to bring the war
to an end without an invasion.
World War II was finally over in August 1945. Soon the world would fear nuclear weapons far
more powerful than the bombs used against Japan.

THE FOURTH WAVE: 1965 TO PRESENT

The 1965 law ushered in the fourth major wave of immigration which rose to a peak in the late
1990s and produced the highest immigration totals in American history. In addition to many
immigrants allowed by hemispheric limits (changed to a global total of 320.000 in 1980) the wave
has included hundreds and thousands of immediate relatives and refugees outside those limits and
millions of illegals who crossed the borders without paper or on a student / tourist visas and then
overstayed.
Until 2010 more than 34.5 million people secured legal permanent resident status in the U.S. The
Census Bureau estimated 10.8 million were undocumented or illegal immigrants in 2010.
From the 1965 Act benefited third world immigrants. In 2007 no Europeans were in the ten largest
immigrant groups. The wave is predominantly Latino and Asian but it has also the most diverse
wave the U.S. has seen.
The Situation During the Forth Wave: The Cold War, Korean Conflict and Vietnam
After World War II, the United States and Great Britain had long-term disagreements with the
Soviet Union over the future of Europe, most of which had been freed from Nazi rule by their joint
effort. Each wanted to establish governments friendly to its own interests there. Russia had been
invaded twice in the past 40 years, and the United States twice had been dragged into European
wars not of its making. Each believed that its system could best ensure its security, and each
believed its ideas produced the most liberty, equality, and prosperity. This period of disagreement
between the United States and Russia often is called the Cold War.
After World War II, many empires fell, and many civil wars occurred. The United States wanted
stability, democracy, and open trade. Because it feared that postwar economic weakness would
increase the popularity of communism, the U.S. offered European nations including the Soviet
Union large sums of money to repair the war damage and help their economies. The Soviet Union
and the communist nations of Eastern Europe turned down the offer. By 1952, through a program
to rebuild Western Europe (called the Marshall Plan), the United States had invested $13.3 billion.
The Soviet military forced communist governments on nations in Central and Eastern Europe. The
United States wanted to limit Soviet expansion. It demanded Soviet withdrawal from northern Iran.
America supported Turkey and helped Greece fight against communist revolts. When the Soviets
blockaded West Berlin, a U.S. airlift brought millions of tons of supplies to the divided city.
In 1949, the communist forces of Mao Zedong took control of China. Communist North Korea
invaded South Korea with the support of China and the Soviet Union in 1950. The United States
got support from the United Nations, formerly the League of Nations, for military intervention,
and a bloody war continued into 1953. Although an armistice eventually was signed, U.S. troops
remain in South Korea to this day.
In the 1960s, the United States helped South Vietnam defend itself against communist North
Vietnam. All American troops withdrew by 1973. In 1975, North Vietnam conquered South
Vietnam. The war cost hundreds of thousands of lives, and many Vietnamese “boat people” fled
their nation’s new communist rulers. Americans were divided over the war and not eager to get
into other foreign conflicts.
Cultural Change
At home, some Americans began to have easier lives. Families grew and some moved from the
cities into outlying areas where they could purchase larger homes. Not all Americans were so
successful. African Americans started a movement to gain fair treatment everywhere. In 1954, the
Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for black children were not equal to those for white
children and must be integrated. President Lyndon Johnson supported the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr. in his peaceful fight for civil rights and voting rights for African Americans. Some black
leaders, such as Malcolm X, believed in less peaceful means to reform. New laws ended
segregation and guaranteed African Americans the right to vote. Many black Americans worked
toward joining the more prosperous middle class. While racial prejudice was not gone, African
Americans had a better chance to live freely and well.
During the 1960s and 1970s, many American women grew angry that they did not have the same
opportunities as men. Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem were leaders of a movement that worked
to change laws so women could compete equally with men in business and education. A proposed
constitutional amendment promising equal rights for women failed when not enough states ratified
it, but many new laws did grant equal rights.
Native Americans fought for the government to keep its past promises. They won back control of
tribal lands and water rights. They fought for assistance for housing and education. In 1992, Ben
Nighthorse Campbell became the first Native American elected to the Senate.
Hispanic Americans from Mexico, Central America, Puerto Rico, and Cuba were politically active
too. They fought against discrimination. They were elected to local, state, and national positions.
César Chávez organized a nationwide boycott of California grapes that forced growers to work
with the United Farm Workers union. Students protested the war in Vietnam, and President
Johnson began peace negotiations. Long hair, rock ’n’ roll music, and illegal drugs were visible
symbols of the “counter-culture” thinking of some young people during this time. Americans
became more concerned about pollution. The first Earth Day was designated in 1970. The
Environmental Protection Agency was created. New laws cut down on pollution.
American society was changing. Slowly, the United States was embracing its multicultural
population.
End of the 20th Century
The United States always has been a place where different ideas and views compete to influence
law and social change. The liberal activism of the 1960s–1970s gave way to conservatism in the
1980s. Conservatives wanted limited government, strong national defense, and tax cuts. Supporters
of President Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) believe his policies helped to speed the collapse of the
Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. American politics, however, can change quickly: In
1992, Americans elected the more liberal Bill Clinton as president. Politics became more bitter
than usual when the election was very close in 2000. A Supreme Court ruling about disputed
ballots in Florida ensured that George W. Bush won the election over Al Gore. President Bush
expected to focus on education, the U.S. economy, and Social Security. On September 11, 2001,
everything changed. Foreign terrorists crashed four passenger airplanes into the two World Trade
Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a rural field in Pennsylvania.
Bush declared war on worldwide terrorism and sent U.S. troops into Afghanistan and Iraq. At first,
most Americans backed President Bush, but many grew uncomfortable with his policies. In 2008,
Americans chose Barack Obama for the presidency. Obama became the first African American to
hold the nation’s highest office. He faces serious economic difficulties—the worst, many think,
since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The US is facing many challenges in the 21st century. Regardless, Americans know that theirs will
remain a land of freedom and opportunity.
Quiz:
1. How many original colonies were there?
A. 50 B. 13 C. 17
2. Which European country owned the colonies?
A. Spain B. The Netherlands C. Britain
3. Which act caused the greatest reaction from the colonists? A. The Currency Act B. The Stamp
Act C. The Quartering Act 2.
4. What did the colonists throw into Boston Harbor? A. Stamps B. British paper money C. Tea
5. What did moderates in the colonies wish for in their relationship to Britain? A. For everything
to stay the way it was B. To move to Britain and leave the colonies C. A compromise and a better
relationship with the British government
6. The British soldiers were also called what? A. Redcoats B. Minutemen C. Roundheads
7. Who was the commander-in-chief of the colonial army? A. Thomas Paine B. Thomas Jefferson
C. George Washington
8. What American holiday celebrates the colonists’ victory? A. Veteran’s Day B. Declaration Day
C. Fourth of July
9. Who was the third president of the United States? A. John Adams B. Alexander Hamilton C.
Thomas Jefferson
10. What did the British set on fire during the War of 1812? A. Executive mansion B. American
ships C. Supreme Court
11. What territories did the United States buy in the 1800s? A. Louisiana B. Florida C. All of the
above
12. Who proposed the Missouri Compromise and which states did it include? A. Henry Clay and
it included Missouri and Maine B. Henry Clay and it included Missouri and Kentucky C.
Abraham Lincoln and it included Missouri and Maine
13. What was the Underground Railroad? A. Trains that ran under the ground B. Secret routes for
runaway slaves C. A road system that connected mines
14. What did the Southern states threaten to do if Lincoln became president? A. Separate from the
United States B. Return to British rule C. Impeach Lincoln
15. When did the American Civil War start? A. April 1860 B. April 1861 C. April 1862
16. Who led the Confederate Army? A. George McClellan B. William T. Sherman C. Robert E.
Lee
17. What did not happen after the Civil War? A. President Lincoln was assassinated B. Southern
blacks had the right to vote C. All states except Tennessee granted full citizenship to African
American men
18. Who invented the telephone? A. George Eastman B. Alexander Graham Bell C. Thomas
Edison
19. What Native American tribes fought to save their way of life? A. Leni Lenape and the Sioux
B. Apache and the Cherokee C. The Sioux and Apache
20. The true Wild West era lasted how many years? A. 40 years B. It’s still going on today C. 30
years
21. How many immigrants arrived between 1890 and 1921? A. 3 million B. 14 million C. 19
million
22. What is the U.S. government office that regulates money and banking? A. The Commerce
Department B. The Federal Reserve C. The Federal Trade Commission
23. What did Progressive Era President Theodore Roosevelt not do? A. He wrote a book about
the unhealthy situations for children in the workplace. B. He worked with Congress to end the
practice of monopolies. C. He advocated laws to protect the country’s natural resources.
24. What did most Americans desire after World War I? A. The creation of the League of
Nations B. Allowing more immigrants into the country C. Isolationism
25. What event signaled the Great Depression? A. Women getting the right to vote B. The stock
market collapse of 1929 C. Herbert Hoover losing the presidency to Franklin Roosevelt (B)
26. What was Roosevelt’s plan called to help the country recover from the Great Depression? A.
New Way B. Real Deal C. New Deal
27. Why did the United States enter War World II? A. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor B.
The sinking of the Lusitania C. The attack on isolationism
28. What did Harry Truman do to end the war against Japan? A. Organized the building of
fighter planes B. Dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki C. Accepted the League
of Nations
29. What was the Cold War? A. A short-lived war against Canada B. The melting of icebergs C.
The disagreement between the United States and the Soviet Union about their systems of
government
30. The Marshall Plan A. Gave $13.3 billion to rebuild Western Europe B. Gave $13.3 billion to
rebuild Japan C. Gave $13.3 billion to rebuild Vietnam
31. Who regained control of tribal lands and water rights? A. Malcolm X B. Native Americans
C. Cuba
32. César Chávez led a nationwide boycott against what group? A. Environmental Protection
Agency B. Railroad C. California grape growers
33. Interest in reducing pollution led to the creation of what agency? A. Environmental
Protection Agency B. United Farm Workers C. Pollution Reducing Agency