Chapter 14.1 “Immigrants and Urban Challenges”KEY

MILLIONS OF IMMIGRANTS ARRIVE

  1. When did the immigrants come to the United States? Mid-1800s (1840-1860)
  2. How many were there? More than 4 million
  3. Where did they come from? Mostly from Europe—especially Ireland and Germany
  4. What pushed immigrants to leave their homelands? Fleeing economic and/or political troubles
  5. What pulled immigrant to the United States? Jobs, greater freedom and equality, abundant land

FLEEING THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE

  1. When and why did the Irish immigrants leave Ireland? They left in the mid-1840 due to starvation and disease
  2. Where did the Irish settle in the U.S.? cities in Mass., N.J., N.Y., and Penn.
  3. What types of work did they commonly do? Unskilled jobs
  4. Men - built canals and railroads
  5. Women - Domestic servants for wealthy families
  6. What were their lives like in the US? Low wages and poor housing, but they had afeeling of equality and respect

A FAILED GERMAN REVOLUTION

  1. What were the two main reasons for Germans immigrating to the U.S.?
  2. Escape persecution for political activities --freedom from government control
  3. Economic opportunities
  4. Where did most immigrating Germans settle? Rural areas of Midwestern states
  5. What were the main occupations of German immigrants? Farmers, tailors, seamstresses, bricklayers, servants, clerks, cabinet makers, bakers, food merchants

ANTI-IMMIGRATION MOVEMENTS

  1. What need did some immigrants fulfill? Cheap labor in towns and cities
  2. What were two causes of conflict between native-born Americans and immigrants? Losing jobs to immigrants willing to work for low wages, and conflicts between Catholics and Protestants.
  3. What organization did the nativists found and when? Know-Nothing Party -- 1849
  4. What were the goals of this organization? To support measures making it difficult for foreigners to become citizens or hold offices. They wanted to keep Catholics out of public office and make immigrants live in the US 21 years before granting citizenship.
  5. What issue split the KNP? Slavery

RAPID GROWTH OF CITIES

  1. What two things contributed to the rapid growth of American cities?
  2. New jobs in cities drew immigrants from other nations and people from rural areas in US
  3. Transportation revolution helped connect cities and made it easier for people to move to cities
  4. Cities located in which two geographic regions grew the most? North East & Middle Atlantic states
  5. What people made up the new middle class? Merchants, manufacturers, master craftspeople
  6. What did cities offer that rural areas did not? Entertainment and cultural life like libraries, clubs, concerts, bowling, boxing, etc.
  7. Why were cities at this time compact and crowded? People had to live close to the jobs so they could walk to work.

URBAN PROBLEMS

  1. What did cities lack? Public or private transportation, safe, affordable housing, clean water, public health regulations, human and animal waste disposal, Police force to fight crime, Fire protection, Sanitation and road maintanence
  2. What were the tenements like? Poorly designed, dirty, overcrowded, and unsafe
  3. What resulted from the filthy living conditions in the cities? Diseases spread quickly, Epidemics, criminal activity