The History Book

250

AMERICA IS

GOD’S CRUCIBLE,

THE GREAT

MELTING POT

THE OPENING OF ELLIS ISLAND (1892)

B

y the mid-19th century, the

world was experiencing an

unprecedented boom in

population, particularly in Europe.

This increase would continue into

the 20th century and beyond. It

was partly due to improvements

in health, backed by more ready

access to food as a consequence

of improved agricultural methods. It

was also a result of industrialization

and urban growth, as well as the

affluence and improved living

standards that both produced.

Political stability played a role, too.

After the defeat of Napoleon in

1815, Europe enjoyed almost 100

years of largely unbroken peace.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Mass migration and

population growth

BEFORE

1840s The Irish potato famine

leads to mass emigration.

1848 The failure of liberal

revolutions sparks large-scale

German emigration.

c.1870 Major emigration of

Jews from Russia begins as

they flee persecution.

1882 Restrictions are placed

on the entry of Chinese into

the United States.

1880s Mass emigration from

Italy begins.

AFTER

1900 The population of

Europe reaches 408 million;

the United States, 76 million.

1907 The largest number of

immigrants in a single year

enters the United States: more

than 1 million.

1954 Ellis Island closes.

Industrialization, urban growth, and lower infant

mortality boost European populations.

Steamships make ocean voyages to distant lands

safer, faster, and cheaper.

Political and religious freedoms and economic

opportunities in young countries such as the US

attract millions of immigrants.

An immigration station on Ellis Island opens

to process arrivals to the United States.

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251

See also: The signing of the Declaration of Independence 204–07 ■ Bolívar establishes Gran Colombia 216–19 ■

The 1848 revolutions 228–29 ■ Russia emancipates the serfs 243 ■ The California Gold Rush 248–49 ■ The Irish famine 264

CHANGING SOCIETIES

Nature also had a hand in the

increase in migration. The Irish

potato famine of the 1840s,

resulting from a failed crop, may

have been the last major European

famine, but it brought suffering on

a startling scale: up to 1 million

people died. It provoked among

survivors a vast wave of emigration

of over 1 million, almost all to the

US. The population of Ireland in

1841 was 6.5 million; by 1871, it had

dipped to 4 million.

Urban underclass

Industrialization produced a similar

paradox. Whatever the civic pride

and bombast of the immense new

urban centers of the Industrial

Revolution, especially in Britain, a

new urban underclass was being

created, desperately impoverished

and living in extreme squalor.

For the citizens of continental

Europe, the lure of new lands in

which to be free and prosper would

prove irresistible. Substantial

numbers of Germans, Czechs, and

Hungarians left central Europe after

the suppression of the nationalist

revolts of 1848. From 1870, huge

numbers of Russian and Polish

Jews—1.5 million in 1901–10

alone—similarly emigrated,

fleeing anti-Semitic pogroms.

The numbers involved in this

huge transfer of populations were

remarkable. From the mid-19th

century to 1924, 18 million people

emigrated from Britain, 9.5 million

from Italy, mostly from its deprived

south, 8 million from Russia,

5 million from Austria-Hungary, and

4.5 million from Germany. Between

1820 and 1920, the US attracted

33.6 million immigrants, where

they often found themselves in

poor living conditions in rapidly

expanding cities such as Chicago

and New York, aiding the growth

of American industry with their

cheap labor. Over the same period,

3.6 million Europeans settled in

South America, and 2 million in

Australia and New Zealand.

Unwelcome guests

This process of relocation was

not exclusively European. Indians

settled in South Africa, Chinese

migrants spread across the East

Indies, and Japanese migrants

settled in California; many found

themselves unwelcome.

There were also victims of

enforced emigration. Unknown

numbers of black African slaves

were still being shipped around

the world.

By 1910, more than one in seven

of the US population had been born

outside of the United States. ■

Ellis Island

Opened on January 1, 1892, Ellis

Island, along with the Statue of

Liberty, became a symbol of the

vast stream of immigrants that

poured into the United States.

This immigration center processed

perhaps 12 million people, and

it is claimed that as much as

40 percent of the immigrant

population of the United States

has at least one relative who

was fed through this immense

bureaucratic machine. Built on

nothing more than a nondescript

sandy island, close to the New

Jersey shore in New York

Harbor, Ellis Island had at its

heart a vast, echoing hall. Here,

shuffling forward, the newly

arrived immigrants, speaking

a dazzling array of languages,

would be processed. They were

examined medically before

being subjected to a series of

simple questions to establish

their eligibility. The great

majority would then become

accepted as citizens of the

United States, with scarcely

2 percent turned away. Ellis

Island finally closed its doors

on November 12, 1954.

In its first 30 years, Ellis Island

saw 80 percent of United States’

immigrants passing through—

almost 12 million people.

I had always hoped that

this land might become a safe

and agreeable asylum to the

virtuous and persecuted part

of mankind, to whatever

nation they might belong.

George Washington

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