The Realities of Urbanization

Immigration
1. Chinese Exclusion Act-1882. The act stopped immigration from China; in 1887, the American Protective Association formed to urge the government to reduce immigration because they worked for less which took away jobs from many Americans.
  1. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of immigrants, first from Germany and Ireland during the 1840s and 50s and then from Southern and Eastern Europe, changed the face of the city. They settled in distinct ethnic neighborhoods, started businesses, joined trade unions and political organizations and built churches and social clubs.
  2. The city was a magnet for European immigrants—at first Germans, Irish and ScandinaviansThey were all absorbed in the city's powerful ward-based political machines. Many joined militant labour unions, and Chicago became notorious for its violent strikes, and high wages.
2. In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States. Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U.S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity.
  1. Nearly all Italian immigrants who arrived in America in the late 1800s came from southern Italy and passed through the new immigration facilities at Ellis Island, New York. This wave of Italian immigrants were primarily farmers and unskilled laborers who settled the downtown sections of New York City. For these immigrants, the biggest challenge was their lack of marketable skills. Women often were employed doing piece-work from home and sometimes went days without seeing sunlight. Men took the work of unskilled laborers on municipal projects. Low wages afforded these immigrants the lowest tier of housing -- tenements. In some cases, a dozen or more people shared one or two rooms, in buildings plagued by infectious disease and vermin.
  2. The 1840 potato famine in Ireland left many Irish with two choices: immigrate to America or starve in Ireland. A majority of Irish immigrants settled in Boston, where the population of Irish increased from 30,000 to more than 100,000 in a year's time. The Irish were treated poorly and often were caricatured in newspapers as illiterate drunks. Boston's English Americans looked upon Irish people as a servant race. Although more than 70 percent of Boston families' domestics were Irish, many Irish immigrants seeking jobs in any industry were met by signs reading "Irish Need Not Apply."
Calls for Reform
1. Small farmers created three protest movements: the populists, grangers, and greenbacks. Grangers fought monopolies over grain transport and storage, greenbacks were anti-deflation and anti-monopolist and populists were radical and fought for a wide range of social reforms.
  1. New York was a center for trade and contained active markets thanks to high availability of goods supplied local land.
  2. Development of the refrigerated railroad boxcar, dredging and expansion of the city's harbor, and the establishment of the corn and livestock belt expanded the agricultural prosperity and reputation of the city.
2. Tenement housing emerged as a way to accommodate a growing population during the 1900s. The Tenement House Act of 1867 legally defined a tenement for the first time and set construction regulations; among these were the requirement of one toilet (or privy) per 20 people.
  1. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 led to restrictions on building wood-frame structures in the center of the city and encouraged the construction of lower-income dwellings on the city’s outskirts. They tended to cluster around centers of employment, such as stockyards and slaughterhouses.
  2. During the infamous New York draft riots that tore apart the city in 1863, rioters were not only protesting against the new military conscription policy; they were also reacting to the intolerable conditions in which many of them were living. Tenements were highly concentrated in the poorest neighborhoods of the city.
High Population Density
1. Establishment of corrupt and inefficient systems for managing new cities. Mayors were met with plenty of demands, to cope there were little resources and manpower for government officials. Many political bosses made corrupt deals if they could increase their power bases, they tried to appeal to immigrants due to their sheer numbers and rewarded neighborhood leaders for loyalty so that the bosses reelection would be insured. The people and institutions the Boss controlled were called the political machine.
  1. The Haymarket Affair was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day, the day after police killed one and injured several workers. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they acted to disperse the meeting, and the bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; dozens of others were wounded.
  2. New York stock exchange had to close and unemployment soared. In Tammany Hall, Boss Tweed was the most Notorious boss, he was the third largest land-owner in New York City, and was a director, board member or president for numerous companies.
2. Spread of slums, a city needs a transport network, clean water, sanitation, policing, schools, utilities, housing, and streets. The first thing to be built in a US city was often a factory, poor housing followed by an influx of labor. The slum, which was overcrowded and polluted became the dominant feature of the majority of cities.
  1. Chicago went from 30,000 inhabitants in 1850 to over a million in 1890, became the fifth largest city in the world. (Chicago had more factories than most due to it being located near the great lakes and the workforce migrated there.)
  2. By 1900, New York had 3.5 million people, the second largest city in the world.

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The Realities of Urbanization

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