Slide US history The Making of the Nation

Doan Thi Thu Trang
American Studies, HULIS, VNU


CONTENTS
• General facts
•
•
•

Major waves of immigrants
Native Americans
Issues related to immigration



GENERAL FACTS
• A nation of immigrants
• Admitted more immigrants
than any country in history,
more than 50 million


GENERAL FACTS
• Still admits between 500,000
and 1 million persons a year.
• Immigrants come for wealth,
land, and freedom.
• An image of ‘a melting pot’

CONTENTS
• General facts
•
•
•

Major waves of immigrants
Native Americans
Issues related to immigration


MAJOR WAVES OF
IMMIGRANTS
2.1 First immigrants
2.2 Old immigrants
2.3 New immigrants/Southern Europeans
2.4 Recent Immigrants


FIRST IMMIGRANTS
Who

Spanish
explorers

French
fur
traders

English

Others:
German
farmers,
Swedes,
Dutch,
etc.

Why

New
World’s
gold

Wealth

Colonizat
on, profit,
religious
freedom

When

About
1500s

About
1500s

1600s
Soon
and1700s after that


OLD IMMIGRANTS
• were northern and western Europeans
• arrived before Civil War, between 18401880
• Immigrated to escape poor harvest,
famines or political unrest


OLD IMMIGRANTS



NEW IMMIGRANTS/
SOUTHERN EUROPEANS

• began in the late 1800s (after Civil War)
• were Latin, Slavic, Jewish people from southern
and eastern Europe (Italy, Hungry, Russia,
Rumania, etc.)
• headed to largest cities (New York, Chicago)
• formed ethnic neighborhoods – ‘Little Italys’,
‘Chinatown’


NEW IMMIGRANTS

NEW IMMIGRANTS/ SOUTHERN
EUROPEANS

Chinatown in NY City


RECENT IMMIGRANTS
Recent
Immigrants

Refugees
Mexico, Latin America
(Cuba), Asia (Vietnam,
Cambodia …)

Illegal aliens

fled from poverty, war in
Mexico, Latin America.


Illegal Aliens


CONTENTS
• General facts
•
•

•

Major waves of immigrants
Native Americans
Issues related to immigration


NATIVE
AMERICANS
• Columbus (1492) discovered ‘New World’ with 1.5
million, called Native Americans ‘Indians’
• During the next 200 years, Native Americans
suffered from the influx of Europeans


NATIVE
AMERICANS
• To the Indians:
– Europeans are unwanted trespassers.
– Had their own civilization
• Poverty and unemployment among Native
Americans still exist today.




CONTENTS
• General facts
•
•

•

Major waves of immigrants
Native Americans
Issues related to immigration


ISSUES RELATED TO
IMMIGRANTS
4.1 Assimilation process
4.2 Immigration restriction
4.3 Identity crisis