Effects of Westward Expansion on Chinese during the 19th century

Multiple Choice

A _______ source is an account created by someone who participated in or witnessed an event.

• Secondary

• Primary

Multiple Choice

Second-hand information that has been digested, analyzed, reworded or interpreted

• Primary source

• Secondary source

Poll

You are going to discuss political, economic, and/or social effects of the development of the West on Chinese. (Choose the best response to explain your task.)

• You will study something carefully and consider in great detail.

• You will judge and/or determine the significance.

• You will make observations about something using facts, reasoning, and argument and present in some detail

Multiple Choice

Which invention made it possible for people and goods to travel across the country in just one week?

• Covered Wagon

• Transcontinental Railroad

• Cars

Multiple Choice

What was the effect of the Transcontinental Railroad?

• Became a more efficient form of transportation for settlers
• Increased trade between the east and west and boosted the economy
• Polluted the air and the natural environment
• All of the above

Multiple Select

Where did the Chinese workers go to work once they arrived (choose two)

• The Donner Pass Tunnels

• The Chinese restaurant

• The Central Pacific Railroads

• Selling fruit

Chinese immigrants first flocked to the United States in the 1850s, eager to escape the economic chaos in China and to try their luck at the California gold rush. When the Gold Rush ended, Chinese Americans were considered cheap labor.

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IMPACT: Chinese immigrants were particularly instrumental in building railroads in the American west

​Why did the Chinese leave China in the 19th century?​

Multiple Choice

The many Irish immigrants worked on the _____ Pacific and mostly Chinese immigrants worked on the _______ Pacific train lines

• Union, Central

• Central, Union

Open Ended

Why were immigrants used to build the Transcontinental railroad and not Americans?

Multiple Choice

How did the Chinese travel to the U.S.?

• By airplane

• By horse

• By Steamships

• By huge row boats

Multiple Choice

The Chinese only traveled by horseback over the 100 miles to Donner Pass Tunnels.

TRUE/FALSE

• TRUE

• FALSE

Fill in the Blanks

Poll

What did the Chinese use to create Bloomers Cut though naturally cemented gravel?

• bulldozers

• shovels

• picks

• black powder

• Between 1864 and 1869, thousands of Chinese migrants toiled at a grueling pace and in perilous working conditions to help construct America’s first Transcontinental Railroad. 

• The Central Pacific released Chinese workers in April 1869 with the completion of the railroad at Promontory, Utah.

• In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act that barred future Chinese immigration and denied naturalization for those already in the U.S. The Act stood in place for 60 years until President Franklin Roosevelt repealed it in 1943 during World War II.

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Multiple Choice

Cause:

Racial tensions increased in the West as the workers returned to California in search of employment.

Effect:

• Chinese people opened their businesses in China Town

• Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act that barred future Chinese immigration and denied naturalization for those already in the U.S.

• Chinese only did business with other people of Asian descent.

• Chinese packed up and returned to china.

Poll

Chinese migrants toiled at a grueling pace and in perilous working conditions (choose words with the same meaning as the underlined words)

• ATE, SLOW, SAFE

• WORKED, TIRING, DANGEROUS

• DANCED, DIFFICULT, CLEAN

• COOKED,EASY,HARD

Economic, Social and political issues

Why did the Chinese laborers immigrate to the United states?

Most Chinese laborers who came to the United States did so in order to send money back to China to support their families there. At the same time, they also had to repay loans to the Chinese merchants who paid their passage to America. These financial pressures left them little choice but to work for whatever wages they could. Non-Chinese laborers often required much higher wages to support their wives and children in the United States, and also generally had a stronger political standing to bargain for higher wages. Therefore many of the non-Chinese workers in the United States came to resent the Chinese laborers, who might squeeze them out of their jobs. 

Evaluate the impact the Chinese had on Westward expansion, Examine the issues faced by the Chinese, Integrate your knowledge of the immigrant experience with what you learn about the Chinese.

Draw

Why did non-Chinese workers in the United States feel bitterness towards the Chinese workers? (Highlight the evidence in the text)

Open Ended

Why did the Chinese immigrants work for such low wages in such dangerous conditions?

Open Ended

Can you identify and connect political, economic, or social issues experienced by immigrants today and Chinese immigrants? Discuss similarities shared amongst immigrants then and now.