Urban Communities Between 1880 And 1900

In the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century, America was dominated by change. Expansion, urbanization, immigration, and capitalism swept the nation from coast to coast affecting every class, race and religion. The United States economy changed dramatically, as the country transformed from a rural agricultural nation to an urban industrial giant, the leading manufacturing country in the world. As this economic growth proliferated, Chicago was the epicenter in America. Travelers from Europe flocked to Chicago in search of opportunity. Meatpacking and steel were especially attractive for unskilled laborers from Europe.

With the growth of industry in the United States, the population of cities began to grow substantially (Tovanche Lecture). They started providing job opportunities in factories, offices, and other places as well. The cities became the main center of wealth and also poverty. A huge class of the impoverished lived in slums. Some even lived underground in the sewers, and a huge percentage of the poor came from newly arrived immigrants who were coming to America in large numbers from poor

The drive for suburbanization reached its acme in England in the inter-war period. Whereas in the nineteenth century it had remained essentially a middle-class phenomenon, after the First World War, fuelled by a major government housing drive and a powerful reaction against high-density inner-city living, it also became the model for British working-class housing. The pace at which rural land was transformed into suburbia during 20 or so years between the two worlds were far outstripped that of any previous period. Outside the English speaking world, although the tradition of living in tenements continued, suburbanization quickened but was still slow compared with that in England and was to remain

Back in the 1800s most of America was in the majority a rural and agriculture nation. While both the North and the South had small farmers in their communities, the South was much more of an agricultural society whereas the North was rapidly becoming much more modernized and was slowly leaving their farming roots behind. The North, in particular, housed many of the nation’s first industrialized cities. These cities were known to attract several northern European immigrants who were in search for work in their factories.

In the 1860’s Central and Northeastern America housed a majority of the U.S population. The Northeastern part of the U.S, was Home to many big cities such as New York and Philadelphia, both with a population greater than 500,000. This made the Northeastern part of the U.S. the economical stronghold of America during

During the 1880s, a dramatic transformation in the patterns of immigration occurred and continued decades after. There were many new immigrants coming from all over the world, but United States was the most popular place for immigrants (Industrialization, 10). As a result, in the late 19th century, the United States witnessed great urban growth. This period is usually known was the “Age of the Cities”. There are several reasons account for that growth, most of which relate to scientific discoveries and technological advances.

During this time America saw some of its most rapid increase of immigration and population, not to mention westward expansion. Between 1880 and 1900 many cities grew in the hundreds of thousands, making work, shelter, and life a little more competitive. Much of this was

The United States grew at a dramatic rate between the years 1880 and 1900, within the cities. U.S. cities grew by approximately 15 million people in the two decades before 1900. Many historians claim that most of the population growth was due to the expansion of industry. It is also believed that the majority of the population explosion was immigrants that were arriving from all over the world. A good amount of people from the rural areas of America also moved to the cities during this period in the search of work. Between 1880 and 1890, it is suggested that almost 40 percent of the townships in the United States lost population because of migration.

In addition to this major shift from rural to urban areas, a new wave of immigration increased America’s population significantly, especially in major cities. Immigrants came from war-torn regions of southern and eastern Europe, such as Italy, Greece, Poland, Russia, Croatia. This new group of immigrants

The manufacturing jobs promised by large corporations brought many people to the cities and effected widespread immigration and urbanization during the Gilded Age. Living conditions were harsh and the familiarity of small towns disappeared in the crowds of the cities. Technological advances in architecture allowed for taller buildings and higher concentrations of people. Upper and middle class families escaped to suburbs as an influx of immigrants and lower class workers flocked to the cities to find employment. The flood of “new immigrants” from southern and eastern Europe resulted in the creation of many anti-immigration groups (Digital History).

As a larger number of immigrants began to move to the United States from eastern and southern Europe, cities began to increase. Due to these patterns of global migration, between 1870 and 1900, cities increased by at least eleven million people from these immigrants (p.507). While the idea of a growing city benefits big businesses in hiring low-waged workers, this opportunity for work in large industries opened the flood-gates for multiple waves of immigrants. The first wave, those known as the skilled workers “…criticized the newcomers. One Irish worker complained, ‘There should be a law…to keep all the Italians from comin’ in and takin’ the bread out of the mouth of honest people’” (American

1. The American city was changed drastically in the first half of the 20th century with the beginnings of the industrial revolution and the ongoing flow of foreigners into an already crowded United States.

After World War II, the United States of America became a much wealthier nation. As America gained wealth and the populations in urban cities and transportation technology increased, many Americans spread out, away from the urban cities, to fulfill the common dream of having a piece of land to call their own. The landscape constructed became known as the suburbs, exclusive residential areas within commuting distance of a city. The popularity and success of the suburban landscape caused suburbs to sprawl across the United States, from the east coast to the west coast and along the borders between Canada and Mexico. By the 1990s, many suburbs surrounding major urban cities developed into being more than merely exclusive residential areas.

An outburst in growth of America’s big city population, places of 100,000 people or more jumped from about 6 million to 14 million between 1880 and 1900, cities had become a world of newcomers (551). America evolved into a land of factories, corporate enterprise, and industrial worker and, the surge in immigration supplied their workers. In the latter half of the 19th century, continued industrialization and urbanization sparked an increasing demand for a larger and cheaper labor force. The country's transformation from a rural agricultural society into an urban industrial nation attracted immigrants worldwide. As free land and free labor disappeared and as capitalists dominated the economy, dramatic social, political, and economic

This migration flow contributed to rapid urban growth, population concentration, and territorial expansion of these large cities. This process took place in relatively large cities with a significant consumer market together with a relatively good infrastructure and equipment.