Chapter 20: Immigration

-challenges faced by immigrants between 1865 and the early 1900s -significant contributions to American society by immigrants

Between 1865 and the early 1900s, growing numbers of immigrants made the journey to the United States. The tide of newcomers reached the peak in 1907 when yearly 1.3 million people came to America.

Large groups of “new” immigrants arrived from eastern and southern Europe. Greeks, Russians, Hungarians, Italians, Turks, and Poles were among the newcomers. By 1907 only about 20% of the immigrants came from Northern Western Europe, while 80% came from southern and eastern Europe many of the newcomers from eastern and southern Europe were Catholics or Jews.

Mostly came from rural areas and were too poor to buy farmland so had to move to industrial cities. Little to no education when

Many of them did not speak English and because of this they did not blend into American society as easily as the “old” immigrants had. (Language Barriers) felt like outsiders

Trouble finding work or working in hazardous positions/places with low pay and long hours.

American-born resentment towards immigrants. Ethnic, religious, and racial differences contributed to tensions between Americans and the new immigrants. They argued that with their foreign languages, religions, and customs, they did not fit into American society.

People found it easy to blame immigrants for problems in American society, such as: increasing crime, unemployment, and other issues. Nativist movement - had opposed immigration since the 1830s and gained strength in the late 1800s

Some communities passed laws banning immigrants from holding certain jobs and denying them other rights, Example; Jewish immigrants were denied admission to certain universities,

They also faced physical ***in 1880, white citizens of Denver, Colorado, attacked Chinese residents and destroyed many of their homes and businesses.

Contributions by Immigrants,

While immigrants faced many challenges during between 1865 and the early 1900s, they contributed greatly to society. People such as Grace Abbott and Julia Clifford Lathrop recognized that the United States was a nation of immigrants and that they made lasting contributions to their new society. For example, new immigrants supplied the country’s growing industries with the workers needed for economic growth. Simultaneously, new immigrants and their children helped shape American life. They gave the nation its major religious groups; Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. They enriched society with their own customs, cultures, language, and literature while becoming a part of the society around them. The flow of immigrants was one of the factors that transformed America’s cities in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Chapter 21: Progressive Movement

-women's suffrage

After the Civil War and the 15 amendment had been passed, (which gave freed men the right to vote), some leading abolitionists became suffragists and fought for women’s suffrage.

Suffragists formed organizations to promote their cause. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association. They called for a constitutional amendment allowing women to vote in national elections.

In 1890, the National Woman Suffrage Association joined the American Woman Suffrage Association to form the National American Woman Association. (Led by Anna Howard Shaw, a minister and educator, andCarrie Chapman Catt, an educator and newspaper editor) this organization grew to more than 2 million members by 1917.

Some people, both men and women, protested the idea of giving women the vote. They claimed that women suffrage would upset society’s “natural” balance and lead to divorce and neglected children.

However, when respected public figures such as Jane Addams spoke out in support of the vote for women the suffrage movement gained strength

Wyoming led the nation in giving women the vote. Between 1910 and 1913, six other states adopted woman suffrage. By 1919 women could vote in at least some elections in 39 of the 48 states.

Alice Paul, a Quaker and forceful leader of the suffrage movement, sought greater economic and legal equality as well as suffrage. She used methods used by suffragists in Great Britain to call attention to their cause. She failed to win President Woodrow Wilson’s support for women’s suffrage and responded by leading women protesters in front of the White House

By 1917, the national tide was turning in favor of women suffrage. New York and Illinois gave women the vote that year. Congress had also begun debating the issue, and President Wilson agreed to support an amendment to the Constitution.

In 1919 Congress voted in favor of the Nineteenth Amendment, which allowed women suffrage.

Finally, this amendment was passed in 1920.

-other contributions by women during the Progressive Era

In 1879, Frances Willard became head of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and led a campaign to educate of the dangers of alcohol. She turned the WCTU into a powerful organization with chapters in every state, and it was the larger so women’s organization ever in the United States by 1911. They supported prohibition, prison reform, women suffrage, improved working conditions, and world peace. Through this organization, thousands of women combined their traditional role as guardians of the family and home with social activism.

Ida Tarbell wrote for the McClure’s and laid bare the unfair practices of the oil trust. Her articles led to the public pressure for more government control over big businesses. In 1904, she wrote a book where she warned of the giant corporation’s power.

Jane Addams established the Hull House, a settlement house, in Chicago and helped poor people.

Mother Cabrini was an Italian nun who came to the United States to work with the poor.

Chapter 23: World War I

-events leading up to America's involvement in WW I

World War 1 began due to tensions in Europe that went back many years. Tensions grew as European nations grew in imperialism, militarism, nationalism, and formed alliances.

When Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Serbian nationalists, Austria-Hungary, with Germany on board, declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. However, Europe’s system of alliances caused the war to spread greatly. By 1915, the war, the “Great War”, consisted of the Allied Powers of Great Britain, France, Russia, Japan, and Italy, and the Central Powers of, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.

Propaganda was mainstreamed from both sides of the war in order to gain support from Americans. Germany counteracted Great Britain’s blockade of German ports with its U-boats. These U-boats prevented supplies from reaching Great Britain. U-boat attacks on ships at sea affected the United States greatly because of the United States continuing to trade and supply with the Allied Powers. Because of Germany’s determination to cut off supplies from Great Britain, German U-boats sunk the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland. When another unarmed French passenger ship was sunk several months later, the US denounced the attack as a violation of international law and threatened to end diplomatic relations with Germany. Germany, fearing that the US would enter the war, offered compensation to Americans injured in the attack.

The United States then took steps to strengthen its military forces. Congress passed legislation that doubled the size of the army and provided funds to build new warships.

Weeks after Germany reversed its policy on submarine warfare, the Zimmerman telegram was intercepted by the British government. Arthur Zimmerman had sent the telegram to Mexico with an offer to the Mexican government in exchange for waging war on the United States.

-the war at home and how Americans were affected

After declaring war on Germany in 1917, Americans immediately focused their energies on getting ready to fight a war. The war provided a boost for the economy, but also had harmful effects on American society. The government silenced dissent towards the war in the interest of “unity”. Racial and other tensions remained, and many Americans became intolerant of those who they deemed as “different”.

Many African Americans that had left towards North in the Great Migration did find jobs, but their lives were not considerably easier. Often, they would have to live in tiny, crowded apartments in segregated neighborhoods, and they found continued racial prejudice. This was made especially clear when expanding African American neighborhoods pushed against white neighborhoods and ended in violence.

African Americans whom had left North in the Great Migration found continued hardships and prejudices up North. They often had to live in tiny, crowded apartments in segregated neighborhoods. During the war years, terrible riots took place in several Northern cities. For example, in East St. Louis, Illinois in July 1917, a white mob attacked an African American neighborhood; burning down houses and firing on residents. Thousands of African Americans lost their homes and as many as 40 lost their lives.

Socialists opposed the war because they believed the war would only help rich business owners and hurt working people.

The Women’s Peace Party provided some of the strongest anti war sentiment. They continued to voice their opposition against the war even after America had entered the war.

The Committee on Public Information began trying to silence dissent and portrayed people against the war as unpatriotic. The Sabotage Act, passed in 1918 by Congress, made it a crime to say, print, or write almost anything perceived as negative about the government and acts such as these would be considered sabotage to damage the war effort. Suspicion on disloyalty led to spying on neighbors, opening mail, and even outbreaks of violence by vigilante groups. People became suspicious of German Americans and persecuted them; even xgoing as far as banning German music and teaching the language in schools.

Chapter 25: The Great Depression

-life for different groups of Americans during the Great Depression

The Great Depression fell especially hard on the minority groups who were already on the lower rungs of the American economic ladder. In general, most Americans had to deal with and have less during the Great Depression.

African Americans

In the south, more than half of the African American population had no jobs. African American urban workers found their jobs taken by white people who had lost theirs. The collapse of farm prices crushed African American farmers.

Seeking more opportunity, about 400,000 African American men, women, and children migrated to Northern cities during the decade. They did not fare much better there, however. The jobless rate for African Americans remained high.

African Americans did make some political gains during the Depression. President Roosevelt appointed a number of African Americans to federal posts.

African Americans continued to fight against prejudice.

Native Americans

The 1930s brought a few benefits to Native Americans. John Collier, head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs introduced a set of reforms known as the Indian New Deal. In doing so, Collier halted the sale of reservation land, got jobs for 77,000 Native Americans in the Civilian Conservation Corps, and obtained Public Works Administration funds to build new reservation schools. Most importantly, he restored traditional tribal government and provided money for land purchases to enlarge some reservations.

Hispanics

At the beginning of the 1930s, about 2 million people of hispanic descent lived in the United States, mostly in California and the southwest. Many had emigrated from Mexico. They worked as farmers, migrant workers, and laborers. As the Great Depression deepened, resentment against Mexican Americans grew. Many lost their jobs. Politicians and labor unions demanded that Mexicans be forced to leave the United States. The government encouraged Mexican immigrants to return to Mexico. Authorities gave them one-way train tickets to Mexico or simply rounded them up and shipped them south across the border. Many Mexicans left the United States in the early years of the Depression, involuntarily.

-FDR's New Deal and its impact on Americans

The new laws the congress passed during the Hundred Days came to be called the New Deal. New Deal laws and regulations affected banking, the stock market, industry, agriculture, public works, relief for the poor, and conservation of resources. These laws changed the face of America dramatically. There were many accomplishments. These accomplishments put people back to work. It saved capitalism. It restored faith in the American economic system, while at the same time it revived a sense of hope in the American peoplLe.