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American Civilisation: An Introduction – David Mauk and John Oakland
Gvt(s). = government(s) | Terms in blue squares at the end of each chapter in the book are important and will come on the exam: see my document ‘glossary’ with all
the terms & their definitions & relevance to the US
Chapter 3: The people - Settlement and immigration
Mother of The New Poem inside the base of the Statue of Liberty from Emma Lazarus; embodies Americans’ &
exiles Colossus immigrants’ core idealism, pride & naivety
Social Conflicts; mixing of cultures; discrimination; economic exploitation; anti-foreign movements; debates
disorder over equality etc. Is American society a unitary culture, a cultural pluralism glossary p. 2 or a
multiculturalism?
Early First Mutual incomprehension & conflict (mainly about landownership: own land/nature nature = a
encounters encounter in great mother)
between
Europeans and the late Diseases & epidemics (mostly for indigenous peoples); exchange of animals & plants
Native 1400s
Americans 1800s Population growth: European & Asian immigrants to the US; potato played a key role in this
population growth
The First settlers Established colonies; created customs, laws & institutions to which later arrivals (first immigrants)
Founders had to adjust
1607 First permanent settlement of the English (Jamestown, Virginia) Colonisation of America as private
commercial enterprises
1619 Scarcity of plantation labour Colonists imported first African labourers as indentured servants
1630s Lord Baltimore established Maryland as a haven for Catholics (persecuted minority in ENG)
1620 Pilgrims (separatists from the Church of ENG) founded first of Northern colonies at Plymouth,
Massachusetts
1630 Puritans established Massachusetts Bay colony: “city on a hill” to show how English society could be
reformed
By the 1830s Southern settlers drove the Native Americans from today’s South
The Dutch New Netherlands fell to English fleet in 1664 The Dutch maintained their culture Set precedent
of toleration; English authorities continued the tolerant traditions of the Dutch when dominant
culture in New York & New Jersey became English
The first After 1660 The Crown opposed emigration from ENG & W but encouraged it from other nations This made
wave: first wave possible
colonial 1662 King Charles II licensed Royal African Company as supplier of slaves to English colonies
immigration, After 1680 The Scots-Irish left N-IR because of economic discrimination by the English Most paid their passage
1680-1776 by becoming indentured servants Once their service was finished, they took their “freedom dues”
(a small sum of money & tools) Settled on cheap frontier land
Immigrants Largest group (voluntary newcomers): Scots-Irish as indentured servants Difficulty preserving
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cultural heritage
Largest non-English speaking group: Germans Preserving religion & culture
Convicts & poor people as indentured servants Quickly Americanised
Irish immigrants Assimilated rapidly
The Scots Preserving culture
The French: Catholic French enclave persisted, but French Huguenots & Jews assimilated
African American slaves: majority in large parts of southern colonies
By 1776 English dominance had decreased to 52% Diversity of the peoples Thomas Paine: “nation of
nations” First wave played a major role in bequeathing America a tradition of pioneers on the
frontier & a vision of itself as a diverse, religious tolerance
The second 1776 – late Immigration slowed
wave: the 1820s American War for Independence (1776-1783) Declaration of Independence (1776)
“old” Founding of the nation Americanised colonies’ diverse peoples Most ethnic groups assimilated
immigrants, 1820s Second wave therefore gathered strength unsuspectedly
1820-90 During Industrial revolution & international trade boom spread, but hit different regions at different times
1800s Stage migration: moving first to city and after some years to a foreign country
Pull factors News of boom times in the US, land giveaways, e.g. Homestead Act of 1862, & the discovery of gold
in CA brought peaks in rising immigration
Settlement Where? Mostly in manufacturing centres, farmlands & frontier cities
patterns and 1830s Irish suffered discrimination from anti-Catholic bigots, who burned convents & churches (anti-
nativism Catholicism)
1840s & Huge numbers of Irish immigrants after potato rot in IR Little money Stayed where they landed
1850s
1850s Anti-foreign agitation (nativism glossary p. 1) reached its first peak: making it harder for non-British &
Irish immigrants
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
The third Around 1890 North-western Europe immigration declined; southern & eastern Europe immigration rose: Italians,
wave: the Jews, Poles, Hungarians, Mexicans, Russians, Czechs, Greeks, Portuguese, Syrians, Japanese,
“new” Filipinos…
immigrants, By 1907 4/5 newcomers were “new” immigrants, but the push & pull factors remained the same
1890-1930 By late Falling train & steamship ticket prices The poor, the young & the sojourners glossary p. 1 could
1800s migrate too
Around 1890 Closing of the frontier: end of gvt. land giveaways; -- employment in agriculture; ++ need for factory
workers (but poorly paid)
Renewed Various Reformers established “settlement houses” & charities to help immigrants adjust & to
immigration reactions Americanise them
debate & Ghettos as important buffer zones where immigrants could gradually adjust to the US
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immigration Ghettos proved that gvt. had to restrict immigration
restriction Pluralists Founding fathers: national motto “e pluribus unum” Naturalisation Act of 1790: only white
foreigners could become citizens
1908 Israel Zangwill’s play The Melting Pot popularised idea that diverse groups in US would fuse many
races & cultures through intermarriage and become a new people
Until 1875 Only local authorities were asked to count immigrants; foreigners could become citizens in 5 years &
vote (if applied for citizenship)
1875 Federal gvt. began listing banned groups (< The National Quota Acts; influence of eugenics,
patriotism & Americanism)
1891 Federal gvt. took responsibility for regulating immigration
1892 Opening of Ellis Island glossary p. 2
From 1910 Federal gvt. operated detention centre to interrogate Asian immigrants before they entered through
San Francisco Bay
1920s Severely restrictive, racist immigration laws: National Quota Acts
1921 First general limitation on immigration: Emergency Quota Act (reducing annual number of European
newcomers) + introduction nationality quotas (each European nation’s allotment of immigrant visas per
year equalled 3% of the foreign-born in US from that country)
1924 Asian Exclusion Act (ended immigration from Asian nations) + National Origins Quota Act glossary p. 2
1929 National origins quotas glossary p. 2 went into effect
Wartime Difficulty Quota Acts didn’t function as intended: it ended new immigration; arrivals of “old” immigrants fell
policies & sharply, but immigration from UK also declined; millions of arrivals from “non-quota” nations weren’t
the search anticipated
for principle 1930s Depression put a stop to mass immigration
in Half a million Mexican Americans forcibly deported
immigration Nazi & fascist regimes caused an enormous flow of refugees, but gvt. was unwilling to put aside
policy national origins quotas
WWII & Cold Contrasting shifts in policy:
War Import of temporary farm labour from Mexico under “bracero programme” due to wartime labour
shortages glossary p. 2-3
Ban on immigration from China lifted because it became America ally
Yet out of fear for foreign spies: Japanese Americans confined in “internment camps”
After war Federal law provided for the entry of families formed by US service people abroad
Acts of Congress admitted displaced persons (those so uprooted by war that they had no homes
to return to)
1948-1959 Cold War refugees from communist countries came
1939-1959 Total of non-quota immigrants reached 750,000, which made a mockery of the national origins
quotas
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1952 McCarran-Walter Act: race no longer a reason for refusing immigrant visas
“Brain-drain” to US: people with needed skills left for the US glossary p. 3
But law kept national origins principle; gave Third World countries tiny quotas;
communist/socialist associations
Until 1965 Anglo-American definition of national identity was framework for immigration
1965 The Immigration Act: glossary p. 3
Replaced national origins quotas with hemispheric limits to annual immigration
System of preferences set principles for selecting immigrants: family reunification > skilled
people > refugees
1970s Legislation made national limit & preference system global
Consequenc Hoping for reappearance of “new” immigrants, but by 1980, family preferences benefited people
es from other nations much more. Expecting Western nuclear families, American lawmakers did not
anticipate how students from Third World countries would adjust their legal status upon graduation &
use family reunification clauses to bring extended families
The fourth Late 1990s Highest immigration totals in American history
wave: 1965 2007- Important shifts in migration:
to the 2012/13 2007: Mexican immigration fell sharply
present By mid-2012: Asian Americans replaced Hispanics as largest & most rapidly growing racial group
Socioeconom Minority: highly skilled workers, professionals, & entrepreneurs with capital
ic groups Majority of legal & illegal immigrants: above average educationally & economically at home but
below average in the US (commercialisation & industrialisation have disrupted their traditional
economies)
Socioeconomic bottom: refugees from wars & disasters (1970s & 1980s: refugees from SE-Asia
because of Vietnam War); people who obtain visas through skilled immigrant relatives; Latino
women as live-in domestic servants & nannies, who then bring their families & forge the links in
“chain migration”
Attitudes to 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA): glossary p. 3
immigrants: Reduce illegal immigration while expressing acceptance & giving rights to people already inside
the US
contemporar Fines & penalties for employers hiring illegal aliens
y debate Prevent employment discrimination
“Amnesty” (legal immigrant status) for illegals who had stayed in US for 4 years & for many
temporarily resident farm workers
Asians Label of “model minority”, but this ignores Asian immigrants with little money & education; wartime
traumas, & discrimination
1990 Immigration Act:
National policy became more liberal, despite reactions against (illegal) immigration in the 1980s
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