American Society in Transition. Copy the following EQ on page 2: What economic, social, and political changes did urbanization bring to American cities?

American Society

in Transition

Copy the following EQ on page 2:

What economic, social, and political changes did urbanization bring to

American cities?

UrbanizationWhat impact did urbanization have on American cities?

• Accelerating industrialization contributed to the process or urbanization – the movement of people from the countryside to towns and cities.

• Demography – study of population, where people live

• 1865 only two US cities actually had populations of more than 500,000 – New York and Philadelphia

• 1900 that number had risen to 6 – NY, Chicago, and Philly reached more than a million inhabitants

• 1900 40% of Americans lived in cities

UrbanizationWhat impact did urbanization have on American cities?

• Introduction of Cyrus McCormick’s reaper – cut and bundled grain – reduced the number of farm jobs

• Farmers sought work in towns and cities• Rise of industry had created many new

job opportunities – factories, mines, workshops, transportation

• Americans were attracted to cities by their cultural opportunities, popular entertainment and rich variety

• Urban growth fueled unprecedented levels of immigration

Cities Face New ProblemsWhat impact did urbanization have on American cities?

• Urbanization led to physical changes in the landscape• American cities developed so quickly that municipal

(city) authorities were often unable to deal w/ all the new problems.

• Streets were often not wide enough to bear the increased traffic

• Horse drawn cars crowded streets• Factories and trains polluted the air• Sewage sometimes contaminated drinking water and

spread disease• Cities lacked ability to deliver essential services –

clean water, garbage collection, and public schools• Whole families crowded into tenements – single

room apartments w/out lighting or heating – shared a single toilet

Inadequate Public Services: Cities lacked the ability to deliver increased public services – hospitals police forces, schools, fore departments, street cleaning, and garbage collection.

Transportation: horse-drawn coaches and later electronic trolleys were needed to transport workers to their jobs. To eliminate the pollution created by coaches and trolleys, New York City built a subway in 1900. By 1930, New York City had the world’s largest subway system.

Overcrowding: Families were crowded into tenements (small apartment buildings). These tenements often lacked daylight, heat, fresh air, and adequate plumbing.

Social Tensions: in cities, rich people lived next door to the poor. Seeing the luxuries of the wealthy distressed poor people and increased social tensions and crimes.

THE PROBLEMS CREATED BY GROWING CITIES

Political MachinesWhy did political machines develop?

• City governments were often run by corrupt “political machines” – leaders were known as political “bosses”

• Either the boss or a small group told the workers and supporters of the machine what to do.

• Machines provided jobs and services to immigrants and poor in exchange for their votes.

• Power of the political boss depended on his ability to dominate voting and to control the agencies of municipal government

• Machines often had support of local business leaders.


• By controlling elected officials in local gov political bosses were able to hand out gov “patronage” jobs to reward loyal workers

• Bosses used control of “city hall” to make illegal profits on city contracts by collecting bribes

• Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall (NY) controlled 1000s of city workers and influenced the operation of schools, hospitals, and other city-run services.

• Tweed controlled and bribed lawmakers to pass laws favorable to his interests

• Tweed often overpaid himself on construction projects and land sales, stealing millions from the city.


• Political machines were corrupt but played a useful role

• Helped immigrants settle into their new homeland, find housing, and obtain jobs

• Helped immigrants become naturalized citizens and provided $$ to help them through hard times

• Political machines were often the ones to get a street paved, extend a water pipe, or approve construction – but these came @ a high price

ImmigrationHow did immigration impact America?

• Immigrants have always come to the US for a variety of reasons – two main reasons are “push” and “pull” factors

• Escape oppression, poverty, religious discrimination = push factors

• Freedom and economic opportunity and relatives = pull factors

• Immigrants saw the US as a land of opportunity and those escaping oppressive regimes wanted to live in a democratic society

Shifting Patterns of ImmigrationHow did changes in immigration impact America?

• Patterns of immigration changed in the 1880s

• Railroads and steamships made the voyage to America more accessible

• “New Immigrants” came from Southern and Eastern Europe – Poland, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Greece, and Russia

• Often Catholic, Jewish, or Orthodox Christian rather than Protestant and spoke no English

• Faced great hardships staring with their passage to America

Answer the following in 4 – 5 sentences on page 1, include two pieces of evidence/proof

(highlight) and explain your evidence (underline).

What economic, social, and political changes did urbanization bring to American cities?


What were the experiences of immigrants in the late 19th century?

Copy the below Graphic Organizer on Page 3


• Traveled in steerage – open room below the water line with all their possessions in a single bag

• Most arrived first in New York – were processed at the vast government center on Ellis Island

• Those with tuberculosis or other diseases were sent back

• Some stayed in NY while others travelled to join relatives

• Most settled in cities – usually poor and dressed differently from Americans and unfamiliar w/ the customs


• Worked at unskilled jobs, low wages and long hours

• Faced hostility and discrimination from native-born Americans and other immigrant groups

• Maintained a strong spirit because what they had already survived was far worse

• Immigrant usually settled w/ relatives and others of the same nationality in neighborhoods known as ethnic ghettos

• Felt more comfortable w/ people who spoke the same language and who followed the same customs


• Some of these communities published newspapers

• Living in these ghettos isolated the immigrants from mainstream America making it harder to adapt to new customs

Shifting Patterns of ImmigrationWhat was the process of Americanization?

• Some adult immigrants attended night school to learn English

• Many were too busy working so it was left to the children to learn English and become “Americanized” – learning to dress, speak, and act like Americans.

• Immigrant children eventually became “assimilated” – similar to other Americans

• America was seen as a “melting pot” – immigrants were “melted” down and reshaped.

• Americanization was often accompanied by conflict

• Immigrant parents may want an arranged marriage for their children but the children want to find their own marriage partner.

Rise of NativismWhat is Nativism?

• As the number of immigrants grew, hostility towards immigration also increased

• Nativists – those born or native to the US – wanted to restrict immigration

• Believe that people of other races, religions, and nationalities were inferior to white protestant Americans – New Immigrants even MORE inferior.

• Feared the new immigrants could never fully be absorbed into American society since they lived in ghettos and spoke their own languages

• Argued immigrants working for low wages were taking jobs away from other Americans

Early Restrictions on ImmigrationHow did America restrict immigration?

• There were no limitations on immigration for most of the 19th century

• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) – first federal law to restrict immigration to the US

• In California political leaders blamed unemployment and decline of wages on Chinese workers

• Temporarily banned immigration of Chinese workers and placed new requirements on Chinese residents already living in the US

• State and federal courts were denied ability to grant citizenship to Chinese residents

• US leaders negotiated carefully with Chinese leaders to enforce this ban

Early Restrictions on ImmigrationHow did America restrict immigration?

• In U.S. v Wong Kim Ark (1898) – the US Supreme Court ruled that the children of Chinese immigrants born in the US could not be denied citizenship –violated the 14th Amendment

Complete the following Graphic Organizer on Page 3


What factors contributed to the settlement of the Great Plains and Far

West?

The Last American FrontierHow did American frontier change?

• America’s rapid population growth transformed the last American frontiers.

• Frontier – generally defined as the line separating areas of settlement from “unsettled” wilderness

• Others saw it as a dividing line b/t where Native Americans lived and areas settled by more technologically advanced peoples.

• Since the arrival of the 1st colonists the American frontier had shifted steadily west

The Last American FrontierHow did American frontier change?

• Even before the Civil War, settlers had been drawn to the California “gold rush” of 1848 – 1849

• 1896 – gold nuggets were found near Canada’s Klondike River near Alaska - set off most turbulent gold rushes in history

• Within months 100,000 gold-seekers set out for the Yukon

• Voyage was long, hard, and cold – only 30,000 completed the trip

• Other discoveries of gold and silver were made in Alaska, Rocky Mountains, and the Black Hills

• 1000s of prospectors and adventurers moved to these areas in hopes of striking it rich

• Ready-made mining towns sprang up over night and collapsed just as fast when the minerals ran out or larger mining companies took over.

The Indian WarsHow were Indians impacted as the west was settled?

• After the Civil War Union troops defeated several tribes on the Great Plains and Southwest during the Indian Wars and moved them to reservations

• After discovery of gold in the Black Hills of North Dakota in 1875 the Sioux were asked to move from their sacred grounds

• The following year Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse defeated General George Custer and killed 264 soldiers @ Little Big Horn

• W/in 2 years Crazy Horse was captured and killed & most of the Sioux were forced onto reservations

• Unrest among the Sioux in 1890 led to the slaughter of 300 unarmed Sioux men, women, and children by machine gun at Wounded Knee, South Dakota

The Impact of the RailroadsHow did railroads impact westward expansion?

• The Transcontinental Railroad completed in 1869 reduced the travel time from NY to San Francisco from 6 mos to 10 days

• Soon the US led the world in the miles of railroad tracks

• Railroads attracted an increased number of settlers to the west

• Settlers could now ship their crops by rail to distant Eastern markets

• Railroad tracks often ran through Native American territory causing new conflicts

• 1870-1890 herds of buffalo were destroyed by sharp shooters to force the Plains Indians to leave

The Availability of Cheap LandWhat is the Homestead Act?

• Before the Civil War the federal gov had sold unsettled land from its vast public domain for about $1.25 an acre.

• After the Southern states seceded the remaining states passed several bills that the South had previously blocked – encouraging expansion of the west

• President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act (1862) – stated that any citizen could occupy 160 acres of gov land

• Settler must improve the land by making a home and growing crops, after 5 yrs the homesteader would own the property

• Many immigrants were attracted tot his offer – 1,400,000 homesteads were granted under the Act

The Cattle IndustryWhat changes were made to the cattle industry?

• At the end of the Civil War there were several million wild longhorn cattle grazing on the Great Plains of Texas

• Some Texans decided to drive these cattle northward to the rail lines in Kansas to be shipped to Chicago to be slaughtered.

• Beef was then shipped by refrigerated rail cars to cities in the East

• Took 3 mos to drive the herds north across Indian Territory

• On this “long drive” the cattle grazed on the grasses on the open range – unfenced lands not belonging to anyone


• Cowboys, who learned to ride, rope, and brand from Mexican vaqueros kept the herds moving northwards

• Romantic image of the cowboy has become a symbol of the individualism of the American spirit.

• Western Music celebrates the cowboy life and as many as 1 in 5 were African American

• Late 1870s & 1880s the herds were driven farther north a year before they were ready for slaughter

• Fattened themselves grazing on the grasses of Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas.

• 1886 overgrazing had destroyed much of the grass• Sheepherders and farmers had bought up most of

the open range


• Sheepherders and farmers had bought up most of the open range and enclosed it with barbed wire fences

• Two severe winters and very hot summers killed millions of cattle b/t 1886 & 1887 finally ending the long drives

• Cattle ranchers remained, breeding cattle on the “closed range” and sending their cattle eastwards by train each year to be fattened by eastern farmers

Read the below excerpt and answer the question on page 5.


What political and social pressures forced immigrants and Native Americans to assimilate to the

American way of life?

Farming on the Great PlainsWhat challenges did farmers face on the Great Plains?

• Railroads led farmers to occupy the Great Plains• Homestead Act and the sale of railroad land-grants

stimulated the movement of farmers westward• Railroads made it possible for farmers to ship their

crops to the East• ½ the settlers were immigrants from Europe, the

other half were the children of farmers from the East and Midwest

• These farmers faced the hostility of both Indians and cattlemen.

• The cattlemen formed associations and hired men to commit acts of violence against the early homesteaders


• The farmers won this conflict b/c they came in greater numbers & were able to enclose their lands w/ barbed wire

• Farmers faced many natural obstacles on the Great Plains

• Great Plains had little rainfall, few trees, tough soil, extreme temperatures, plagues of grasshoppers, and personal isolation

• During winter months families might be snowed in for months on end


• They were able to overcome some obstacles – to make up for the lack of trees they built sod-houses from clumps of grass and soil

• They used barbed wire to keep cattle and other animals off their farms

• Used steel plows to turn the soil • Drilling equipment to dig deep water

wells and windmills to haul water• Used harvester and threshers to farm

more acres with fewer workers

The Fate of the Native AmericansHow did the US respond to Indian conflicts?

• Native American Indians occupied all of the present US

• Composed of many different groups, spoke hundreds of different languages

• Advancing of settlement and exposure to European diseases like smallpox severely reduced Native American population and pushed them westward

• 1830-1890 the US government systematically followed a policy of pushing Native Americans from their traditional lands onto government reservations in the West

• When a Native American tribe submitted to federal authority its members were settled on a reservation

Forced Removal: In 1830, Congress ordered the removal of all Native American Indians to the west of the Mississippi. Nearly one-quarter of the Cherokees perished on the journey westward , known as the Trail of Tears.

Flood of Settlers: Large number of settlers overwhelmed the Native Americans. In 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was completed. Along with the Homestead Act, the continuation of railroad lines made Native Americans lands even more desirable.

Warfare: The technological superiority of the U.S. government made resistance futile. The Indian Wars, which pitted settlers and federal troops against Native Americans, lasted from 1860 to 1890.

Destruction of Natural Environment: Competition between settlers, miners, and farmers for the land led to the destruction of the natural environment on which Native Americans depended for their livelihood.

FACTORS ERODING NATIVE AMERICAN CONTROL OF THE WEST


• Reservation lands were smaller than the lands from which the tribe was removed and often consisted of undesirable land

• Federal gov promised food, blankets, and seed but this policy clashed with tribal customs, since Native Americans were traditionally hunters not farmers

• Many reformers urged that the Native Americans undergo Americanization – adopting the culture of other “mainstream” Americans.

• The Dawes Act (1887) sought to hasten their Americanization – officially abolished Native American tribes

• Every family was given 160 acres of reservation land as its own private property


• Private property was expected to replace tribal land ownership and each Native American would become a farmer

• Those who adopted this life were promised US citizenship and the right to vote

• Before the Dawes Act Indians still controlled about 150 million acres

• 20 yrs later 2/3 of this land was sold• White settlers bought up much of the “Indian

Territory” that became the state of Oklahoma• The Dawes Act nearly destroyed surviving

native American Indian culture

American Indian Citizenship Act (1924)How did Native Americans become citizens?

• 1924 – Native Americans held a unique position under federal law

• Some had become citizens by marriage to a US citizen others were granted citizenship by serving in the US military or through special treaties

• Most were not US citizens and they were actually blocked from the normal process of naturalization open to foreigners

• 1924 – the US Congress therefore passed the American Indian Citizenship Act

• This Act granted immediate US citizenship to all native American Indians born in the US

• Indians did not need to give up tribal lands or customs to become citizens as they did under the Dawes Act

American Indian Citizenship Act (1924)How did Native Americans become citizens?

• Some historians see the act as a reward for Native Americans enlistment as soldiers in World War I

• Native Americans Indians had served the nation in wartime and they deserved to be given American citizenship

• 10 yrs later the Dawes Act was replaced by an act guaranteeing tribal self-government

Threatened Tribal Ways: Assimilation threatened Native American culture. The act encouraged individual farm ownership, opposing the tradition of sharing tribal lands.

Hunters, Not Farmers: Many Native American Indian tribes had never farmed the land, since they were hunters by lifestyle and tradition.

Infertile Lands: the lands given to Native Indians were often infertile. The government also never provided farm equipment or assistance in learning how to farm.

Reservation Life: These reservations often suffered from malnutrition, poverty, and untreated health problems. Reservation schools provided an inferior education.

SHORTCOMINGS OF THE DAWES ACT

Answer the following in 4 – 5 sentences on page 7, include two pieces of evidence/proof

(highlight) and explain your evidence (underline).

What political and social pressures forced immigrants and Native Americans to

assimilate to the American way of life?

Documents

American Society in Transition. Copy the following EQ on page 2: What economic, social, and political changes did urbanization bring to American cities?