Throughout the history of the United States, especially during the 19th century, there have been many changes, caused by the tremendous industrial growth in the country. I will be discussing the changes in American life that came about because of Industrialization caused a number of positive and negative changes life in America.
People moved from the rural areas to the cities to find work in industry. This increased urbanization had both positive and negative aspects but it was a result of Industrialization that offered more job opportunities. A negative effect was that cities became over crowded because of the increased a number of people who moved to the cities. People from the country side moved to the cities along with immigrants from Europe. This was all because of factories that were opening in the cities and new jobs were available. Many immigrants came to the U. S. A when they heard about this. Also religious freedom motivated people to come to the cities and caused an economic boom. Factories using machines made work easier. Since so many people came to the cities the apartments became overcrowded. Landlords started to take advantage of those poor immigrants. People started sleeping the street and in the stairways. The government had no help for all those new lower classes. They were working for long hours and getting paid little money. Worker exploitation caused wages to go down.
A positive effect of urbanization is that it created more opportunities for women. they had jobs in factories, become servants, started small businesses and also they started demanding more rights. There was an exchange of ideas, customs, food, language, etc. resulting in cultural richness. Urbanization created greater efficiency. People could travel greater distances, share ideas and improve cultural richness, by going to church, visiting museums and social clubs.
In the the late 1800s through the mid- 1900s the United States experienced major waves of immigration. Many of them came to America seeking greater economic opportunity, while some, were looking for religious freedom. The Europeans were the largest group of immigrants to "set their eyes on the New World" (History.com Staff) , that immigrated to the United States during that time period .The majority of these newcomers hailed from Northern and Western Europe. That was because of famine and religious persecution in their homeland.
In the 1840s, almost half of America’s immigrants were from Ireland alone. Most of those people settled on the East Coast. "On January 1, 1892, Annie Moore, a teenager from County Cork, Ireland, was the first immigrant processed at Ellis Island. She had made the nearly two-week journey across the Atlantic Ocean in steerage with her two younger brothers. Annie later raised a family on New York City’s Lower East Side." ( History.com Staff). Mrs. Wonders' great grandparents immigrated from Prussia to escape from religious persecution. Like Annie Moore Mrs. Wonders' great grandparents came to New York City, but not through Ellis Island.They came through Castle Garden. They also settled on Lower East Side. Unlike the Irish they had to learn English.
Another example of change caused by industrialization was the increase of immigrants not only to the USA, but other countries as well, which continues to this day. For example, in Kenya a place called Dadaab. "Dadaab is a semi-arid town in Garissa County, Kenya. It is the site of a large UNHCR base hosting 329,811 people in five camps as of October 2015, making it the largest refugee camp complex in the world. Dadaab is located approximately 100 kilometres (60 mi) from the Kenya–Somalia border. The nearest major town is Garissa, which is the headquarters of the North Eastern Province" (Wikipedia contributors).
Behind these numbers are individual stories. One such story is about Fatuma. Back in the 1970s Mrs. Fatuma and her family were living in Somalia peacefully even though they didn't have much. Mrs. Fatuma was the oldest in her house so she had to help her parents and drop out of school. In late 1980s a civil war broke out in Somalia. Mrs. Fatuma was young at that time and she was around the age of ten. When the government of Somalia collapsed and the people started suffering from the civil war and humanitarian crisis, they had no choice but to leave.
They left everything behind and immigrated to another place and became refugees there. "Mrs. Fatuma also said that she remembers walking at night and sleeping in the day because it was hot and they didn't have any food." When they made it to the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, it wasn't easy for them or anyone. "They had no help, no money, nor a place to shop," she said. At that time she was 13 years old and didn't really know what was really going on.
Many years later Mrs. Fatuma had her own family and was working everyday to support them. Things were going a little better in Dadaab refugee camp because so many countries were helping those people. Even though Mrs. Fatuma and her family went through all that, she knew something big was missing. She wanted a better life and opportunity for education for her kids. In 2009 Mrs. Fatuma and her family came to the USA and started a new life. She can't be thankful enough and hopes that one day her children will make it big and help others because she knows what it feels like to be in need.
many changes in lives in America resulted of industrial growth. Many people immigrated to the USA from other countries to find jobs and religious freedom. those are positive evidence growth of immigration.With more people coming from the south, plus immigrants, the cities began to grow and this brought more money and opportunities in the cities. But there were also negative effects such as the overcrowd tenements and lack of safety place to live like unscrupulous and land lords who over charged people for a chance to live in crowed. and factorial though Industrialization has changed many life it is still changing life of many people to day.
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