CHAPTER 14 • SECTION 1
Why People Migrated What drew immigrants to America? Historians
factors These forces push people out
talk about ”push” factors and ”pull” factors.
of their native land and pull them toward a new place. One push factor was
population growth—a boom in population had made Europe overcrowded.
Another push factor was crop failure. Poor harvests brought widespread
hunger. Three main pull factors lured people to America:
More About . . .
German Immigrants
• freedom
• economic opportunity
• abundant land
From 1820 to 1900, more than 5 million
Germans immigrated to the United States.
Though they created settlements in many
areas of the country, a large number of
Germans chose the Midwest and many
pursued farming careers.
Germans Pursue Economic Opportunity The Germans were the largest
immigrant group of the 1800s. They settled in cities as well as on farms
and the frontier. Many were drawn to the fertile and newly available lands
of Wisconsin, which was organized as a territory in 1836. Thousands more
formed German-speaking communities in Texas.
Germans opened businesses as bakers, butchers, carpenters, printers,
and tailors. Some, like John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb, achieved great
success. In 1853, they started a firm to make eyeglasses and other lenses. Their
company became the world’s largest lens maker. Some German immigrants
were Jews, many of whom worked as traveling salespeople. They brought
pins, needles, pots—and news—to frontier homes and mining camps. In
time, some opened their own stores. Many German Jews settled in cities.
German immigrants strongly influenced American culture. Many things
we think of as originating in America came from Germany, such as kindergartens, gymnasiums, the Christmas tree, and the hamburger and frankfurter.
Germans’ cultural influence on America
during this period was considerable.
• They established Turner Societies,
organized clubs that promoted physical
fitness.
• They published about 800 Germanlanguage newspapers, including more
than 70 dailies.
• They introduced Americans to the German
tradition of singing societies and singing
contests.
• They founded many professional
musical organizations in America’s
major cities. Numerous symphony
orchestras throughout the country are
direct or indirect descendants of those
organizations.
COMPARING
Push and Pull Factors
The “push” factors of immigration pushed millions of people out of Europe and elsewhere
in the 1800s. “Pull” factors drew many of them to the United States.
PULL FACTORS
PUSH FACTORS
• Tolerance and freedom
• Religious and political
turmoil
• New markets for
artisans’ skills
COMPARING Push and Pull Factors
ANALYZING Point out that the push
factors represent problems, and the pull
factors represent solutions.
2. Make Inferences abundant and
affordable land
Unit 5 Resource Book
• Connect Geography & History, p. 161
452 • Chapter 14
• Overcrowding caused by
population growth
• Opportunity to start
over; healthy living
• Debt and hunger resulting
from crop failures
CRITICAL THINKING
CRITICAL THINKING ANSWERS
1. Problems and Solutions Possible
Answers: Religious and political
turmoil—tolerance and freedom;
artisans’ jobs lost in Industrial
Revolution—new markets for
artisans’ skills; overcrowding caused
by population growth—abundant
and affordable land; debt and
hunger resulting from crop failures—
opportunity to start over; healthy living
• Artisans’ jobs lost in
Industrial Revolution
• Abundant and
affordable land
1. Problems and Solutions Many of the push factors were problems. Which pull factors
were solutions to which problems?
2. Make Inferences Which pull factor probably attracted immigrants to the Midwest?
452 Chapter 14
DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION
English Learners
Inclusion
Key Academic Vocabulary
Draw a “Push/Pull” Cartoon
Read aloud this sentence from page
452: “Thousands more formed Germanspeaking communities in Texas.”
Discuss the word communities. Point
out that most people belong to several
communities. There is the community
where a person lives, but a person may
also belong to a community at school or
work. Have students brainstorm other
communities that people form.
Present a visual representation of the
“push/pull” factors. Draw an outline
of North America and Europe on the
board, labeled Pull and Push. Draw
an immigrant between the two. Draw
Uncle Sam, surrounded by presents with
blank labels, pulling the immigrant.
Draw several people, labeled European
Countries, pushing the immigrant. They
can carry blank placards. Have students
fill in the blank labels (e.g., jobs) and
placards (e.g., hunger).
CHAPTER 14 • SECTION 1
Immigrants Move Westward In the mid-1800s, public land in America
was sold for $1.25 an acre. The promise of cheap land lured thousands of
European immigrants, especially to territories in the Midwest.
Thousands of Scandinavians fled poverty in their homeland and moved to
Minnesota and Wisconsin. Like Scandinavia, these states had forests, lakes,
and cold winters. A high proportion of Scandinavian immigrants became
farmers. Meanwhile, land shortages in Great Britain motivated thousands of
British farmers to seek new opportunities in America. They, too, helped to
make the Midwest a region known for farming. Many British artisans who
felt squeezed out by the factory system also chose to emigrate.
The mid-1800s brought another major immigrant group: the Chinese.
Most of the first Chinese immigrants went to California after the 1849 gold
rush. By 1852, there were an estimated 25,000 Chinese in California. Most
were miners, but some worked in agriculture and construction.
More About . . .
Scandinavian Immigrants
Connect to the World
The Irish Flee Starvation Most Irish immigrants were Catholic. Protestant
The Potato Famine
In 1846, an Irish
newspaper described
famine victims “frantically
rushing from their home
and country, not with the
idea of making fortunes in
other lands, but to fly from
a scene of suffering and
death…”
Britain had ruled Ireland for centuries—and controlled the Catholic majority by denying them rights. Irish Catholics could not vote, hold office, own
land, or go to school. Because of the poverty produced by Britain’s rule, some
Irish had emigrated to America in the early 1800s.
In 1845, a disease attacked Ireland’s main food crop, the potato. This
caused a severe food shortage, or famine (FAM•in). The Irish Potato Famine
killed 1 million people and forced many to emigrate. By 1855, an estimated
1.5 million people had left Ireland. Most went to North America, although
some settled in Australia and Great Britain.
One of the best-known literary works
about Scandinavian immigrants in the
United States is 6GD'LHFQ@MSR, a fourvolume epic published between 1949 and
1959 by Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg
(1898–1973). The author weaves a story
about the experiences of 16 Swedish
emigrants who left their small community in
Sweden, eventually settling in Minnesota in
1850. )H@MSRNESGD'@QSG is a famous novel
about Norwegian immigrants in the Dakota
Territory by O. E. Rölvaag, who was himself
an emigrant from Norway.
Connect WRWKH World
The Potato Famine
Foreign-Born Population 1860
MAINE
Nations of Origin*
VT. N.H.
WISCONSIN
MASS.
MICHIGAN
N.Y.
CONN. R.I.
Great Britain
Ireland
Germany
Other
* for states with foreign-born
populations greater than
250,000
PENNSYLVANIA
OHIO
ILLINOIS
MD.
INDIANA
DEL.
VIRGINIA
MISSOURI
State
Foreign
born
% of total
population
N.Y.
998,640
26%
PA.
430,505
15%
OHIO
328,254
14%
ILL.
324,643
19%
WIS.
276,927
36%
MASS.
260,114
21%
N.J.
KENTUCKY
A New Spirit of Change 453
INTERDISCIPLINARY ACTIVITIES
CONNECT
to Civics
CONNECT
to Math
Research How to Become
a U.S. Citizen
Analyze the Effects of the Irish
Potato Famine
To be eligible for U.S. citizenship, foreign-born
individuals must pass a test on the English
language, the U.S. political system, and the
rights and duties of citizenship. Have small
groups of students discuss what questions they
would ask individuals seeking to become U.S.
citizens. Create a citizenship test using those
questions. Students can compare the tests they
have created to the actual U.S. citizenship test
by going to the Research and Writing Center
@ ClassZone.com.
Have students research the total populations of
Ireland and the United States during the 1800s.
Then ask them to answer these questions:
What percentage of the Irish population died
as a result of the famine? What percentage
emigrated to America? What percentage of the
entire U.S. population did this group represent?
What conclusions can you draw about the
impact of the Irish Potato Famine? Discuss
students’ conclusions in class.
Ask students to consider how people in
Ireland may have felt about leaving their
homeland because of the famine. Then
discuss current events that students have
experienced or heard about that have
caused significant changes in a country or
region. How did students react to these
events? Were they forced to change their
lives or were they able to help if they were
far away from the event?
Unit 5 Resource Book
• Economics in History, p. 156
Foreign-Born Population 1860
INTERPRETING MAPS Draw attention
to the map key, noting the colors used to
represent each country. Have students
explain why pie charts have been included
for only six states. 6GDRDRHWRS@SDRG@C
@ENQDHFMANQMONOTK@SHNMFQD@SDQSG@M
HM
• Which state had the highest number of
Irish immigrants in 1860? 0DV;NQJ
• Which nation had about the same
proportion of emigrants in each of the six
states? )QD@S$QHS@HM
Unit 5 Resource Book
• Skillbuilder Practice, p. 155
7HDFKHU·V(GLWLRQ• 453