The Transcontinental Railroad, when completed, was 1776 miles long, stretching the expanse of the newly formed USA. The two sides of the rails were united in 1869 in Promontory, utah, by a golden spike truck into the ground by Leland Stanford. The TRR shaped the united states by uniting the sections of the east, west, north, and south. The social impact was enormous, by encouraging immigration to distant places in the newly settled west. Sadly, there were also negative effects of the uniting, such as the impact on Native Americans, and the racial discrimination against the Chinese immigrants.
One of the positives of uniting the sections by the Transcontinental Railroad, was the increase in activity in the recently acquired west. With the new land, and the Homesteading Act still in action, it was a good cultivation for “pleasure seekers”, or young men who were wanting to own land of their own. It also …show more content…
As the railroad, was being built, there was a surplus of jobs, both for building the rails, and in the towns popping up in the towns next to the rail. Yet, there were hundreds of people being fired, or loosing their job. The white Americans were blaming this on the Chinese, who were given most of the brutalist jobs, such as mining for materials for the rails, and digging deep in the coal mines. The white Americans wanted the Chinese gone. Following the outbreak of accusations, were a series of propaganda against the Chinese, and their ways. The propaganda became so common that they were even in ads for the newly invented washing machine (Document I). This brutal anti-Chinese semitism lead to the first ever Anti-Immigration Act, forbidding Chinese immigration for 10 years. The impact of balant segregation because of jobs on the rails, was a stepping stone of racial segregation for years, and still years to
One of the positives of uniting the sections by the Transcontinental Railroad, was the increase in activity in the recently acquired west. With the new land, and the Homesteading Act still in action, it was a good cultivation for “pleasure seekers”, or young men who were wanting to own land of their own. It also …show more content…
As the railroad, was being built, there was a surplus of jobs, both for building the rails, and in the towns popping up in the towns next to the rail. Yet, there were hundreds of people being fired, or loosing their job. The white Americans were blaming this on the Chinese, who were given most of the brutalist jobs, such as mining for materials for the rails, and digging deep in the coal mines. The white Americans wanted the Chinese gone. Following the outbreak of accusations, were a series of propaganda against the Chinese, and their ways. The propaganda became so common that they were even in ads for the newly invented washing machine (Document I). This brutal anti-Chinese semitism lead to the first ever Anti-Immigration Act, forbidding Chinese immigration for 10 years. The impact of balant segregation because of jobs on the rails, was a stepping stone of racial segregation for years, and still years to