History Discussion

please follow the question. 

Please answer the following questions by posting your answers below. Respond to each of the following questions with a few sentences per answer. Your analysis should be well thought out, finely edited, and informative. Think of this as weekly practice for your examination writing. Grading rubric found in upper right-hand corner of this assignment by clicking the “three dots.”

Chapter 5: (20 points with standard rubric)

1) By reading the Italian experience of migration, in what ways did the Italian community retain their culture, and in what ways did they adopt an Italian-American ethnicity? Discuss.

2) The Greeks, Jews, and Armenians are called the diaspora people throughout history, migrating away from their homelands due to various factors and pressures around them. Focusing on the Greeks and Armenians from this chapter, what events prompted these people to rethink their circumstances? Once they decided to migrate, did they retain their culture and heritage within their community? 

3) European immigrants had to live in a duality, between Old World traditions and their New World  surroundings. In what ways did these people have to redefine their ethnic identities? 

Primary Source Mini-Assignment: (10 points for participation/analysis)

After reading the PDF file titled “Crossroads to be Faced,” a primary source memoir of an individual who is calling out to the world to consider whether to come to the United States, please answer the following questions. Answers do not have to be large paragraphs for these questions, however must analyze and answer the questions meaningfully.

1) How does the author describe the “Old Country,” the way of life, taxation, forms government, overall lifestyle, etc.?

2)  In contrast, how does the author describe their current view of the United States,  its taxation system, job opportunities, freedom of religion, and governmental checks and balances?

3) After reading this excerpt, do you feel that the author truly believes their own words and is writing from overflowing patriotism,  or is perhaps writing for a newspaper/journal of some sort to spread U.S. exceptionalism throughout the world as propaganda? Essentially, do you believe this is a personal memoir or a promotional public piece?

Note: Please use evidence from at least TWO articles, primary sources, or videos posted in this week’s Canvas module to supplement your answers. Two sources for all questions may be used, not necessarily two per question. Please either bold or cite your sources within your answers!

Ch. 5 Age of New
Immigrants

Topics to Consider

1. Reasons for leaving Europe and immigrate to the United States.
2. Immigrant experiences through Ellis Island and the East Coast.
3. Old World & New World: How Communities Form

a. Focus on Italian Americans.
4. The Diaspora Groups: Armenians, Greeks, and Jews

a. Focus on Armenians.

Western Europe Immigrants

•

Late 1800s – early 1900s, the Iberian Peninsula, encompassing Spain and Portugal, saw a

tremendous amount of economic and agricultural hardship.
• Economic

− With low wages, increased competition with textile industries, living in that area
became increasingly problematic.

• Agricultural
− Arguably ties into the economic portion of the argument.
− The climate turned dry, making the soil more infertile. Agricultural devastation swept

through the peninsula.
• Result → 140,000+ Spaniards left Iberia for America.

• Ellis Island – a historical site that opened in 1892 as an immigration station, a purpose it
served for more than 60 years until it closed in 1954. Located at the mouth of Hudson
River between New York and New Jersey, Ellis Island saw millions of newly arrived
immigrants pass through its doors.

Immigrants at Ellis Island | History

Italian Immigrants
• Northern Italy

− Traditionally more industrial than the South. Enjoyed work as doctors, businessmen,
lawyers, artists, merchants, plasterers, carpenters, glassblowers, stonecutters, etc.
Professions that the U.S. wanted to import!

• 1880-1924 around 80,000 northern Italians came to America. The northerners
were lighter skinned, educated, and adjustable people. Came to U.S. for higher
wages and better life.

• Southern Italy
− More agricultural, less educated, darker skinned, and did not hold as many coveted

professions for the U.S. to openly accept.
− Moved due to various social traumas in Italy. American propaganda, emigration, and

returning cash to families sparked a hunger to emigrate.
− Preserving heritage was important, as they were forced to leave Italy during

agricultural plagues, wine/citrus industry hits, and cholera epidemics.
• Between 1890-1924, around $1 billion was sent to Italy from Italian-Americans’ wages.

•

•

Italian-Americans
• By the early 1900s, more Italians realized that they had more opportunities in the U.S. than back

home. Began to migrate with their families for permanent residence.
• East coast & interior U.S. saw many bustling Italian communities.

− New York, Boston, Norfolk, Chicago, etc.
• Communities thrived

− Some worked with push carts, organ grinders, parades, religious festivals, food markets,
etc.

− Others worked in industry performing jobs in mills, wharves, mines, factories, and in
smelters.

− Some became businessmen and opened grocery stories, restaurants, pharmacies, etc.
• Community Values

− La famiglia – security within the family with extended friends, neighbors, and spirit of
commitment to one another through bloodline’s history.

− Institutions within economic, political, and religious were second to the family bond.

Italian Americans “La Famiglia”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_katzLipgJI

•

Godfather 2 Vito Andolini
Corleone New York Arrival Scene

Italian-Americans Pt. II
• Italians were suspicious of anyone other than their own. Centuries of invasion, discrimination

by northern Italians, and the signori (upper classes), left them to fend for themselves.
• Catholic Church was also suspect to this relationship due to their major landowning in Italy,

leaving many of these newfound American immigrants poor and/or homeless.
• Patron Saints

− Since God was a far-away figure religiously, only looking after the macro-level of society,
many small villages worshipped individual saints. This way, they were the intermediary
between themselves and God.

• Clientelismo – use of saints as intermediaries to God.
• Malocchio – the evil eye must be averted or disaster will befall you.
• Festa – once a year Italians celebrate their patron saint.

• Work Ethic – any hard work, laboring or white-collar, was respected. Money was spent on the
family, loyalties were not averted to large companies, and most tended to work only within
family circles or by themselves to avoid strangers.

The Godfather – Part II – Murder Of Don
Fanucci (Warning: Graphic Content at End)

– Pay special attention to
the festival activities in the
video and the patron saint!
– Notice the street’s
immense festivities,
inclusion of religious icons,
and very “Italian”
neighborhood that has
been created here by
immigrants.

Eastern European Immigrants

• Most spoke a Slavic language.
• From political instability, warfare, religious persecution, or other reasons, more than 6+

million Eastern Europeans migrated to the U.S. between 1867-1914.
• Peasants comprised most of the population, being acquainted with industry work through

their many travels in big cities.
− Many did not want to initially stay in the U.S., used to being migratory and finding

temporary work in industrial jobs. Over time, they stayed due to better economic
opportunity for themselves and their families.

• Most stayed in the big cities where they could hear their Old World languages, read of news
from Europe, and worship in their churches (Eastern Orthodox or Catholic)
− Eastern Orthodox (Constantinople Patriarch)
− Roman Catholicism (Ukrainian and closer to central Europe)

• One group we will focus on today, but whose experiences echo to Greeks & Assyrians too.
− The Armenians.

Diaspora Immigrants
• Fall of the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922) led the semi-autonomous peoples within the empire to

ruin. What was once a prosperous, multi-ethnic, culturally diverse, and lenient empire turned into a
radical authoritarian state due to the losses in WWI and overall decline.

•

The Armenian Genocide

– the systematic mass murder and expulsion of 1.5 million ethnic
Armenians carried out in Turkey and adjoining regions by the Ottoman government between 1914
and 1923.

• Armenians:
− Between 1894-1915 over a million Armenian Christians were massacred in genocide, uprooting

their lives economically. Pragmatic/survivalist people.
− Searched for new homes throughout the world (Middle East, Russia, Europe, U.K., South

America, Australia, and the U.S.)
− Became integrated into the local countries, prided education and white-collar jobs, and heavily

retained their culture due to generations of persecutions.
• Greeks:

− Similar to the Armenians, Greeks uprooted themselves after the Ottoman Empire fell.
Economic hardship befell them, and the U.S. seemed promising! By 1924, over 100 Greek
communities existed in the U.S. Cultural Preservation.

− Proud of heritage, language, culture, and history. Centuries of Ottoman stifling.

The Armenian Genocide

Migrations: A Tribute to the
Armenian Genocide of 1915

The New ‘Armenian’ Diaspora in
LA

For Next Week:

Remember discussion
question deadlines.

Look at online articles and
materials.

Stay safe!