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Civil War Ends
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Chinese Population
Chinese American population in US is 34,933 out of a total population of 31.4 million. -
Period: to
Post Civil War Era
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Chinese Jobs
Central Pacific recruits Chinese workers to build a transcontinental railroad. -
Finishing Railroad
First transcontinental railroad is completed. -
Chinese Population Growth
Chinese American population in US is 63,199 out of a total population of 38.5 million. -
Chinese Jobs in America
The Union Pacific in Wyoming hires Chinese laborers for $32.50 a month rather than pay $52.00 a month to whites. From incidents like this one, white laborers across the West develop the opinion that Chinese immigrants are competing unfairly for jobs, a feeling that will lead to violent racial conflict and labor unrest in years to come. -
The Foreign Miners Tax stopped
This tax required a payment of three dollars each month at a time when Chinese miners were making approximately six dollars a month. Tax collectors could legally take and sell the property of those miners who refused or could not pay the tax. Fake tax collectors made money by taking advantage of people who couldn't speak English well, and some tax collectors, both false and real, stabbed or shot miners who couldn't or wouldn't pay the tax. -
Tension Rises
A quarrel over a woman between two Chinese men in Los Angeles escalates into a city-wide anti-Chinese riot, ending in the murder of at least 23 of the city's 200 Chinese residents. -
Limiting Chinese Immigration
-Advocates of immigration restriction succeeded in introducing and passing legislation in Congress to limit the number of Chinese arriving to fifteen per ship or vessel.
-Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes vetoed the bill because it violated U.S. treaty agreements with China -
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The Exclusion Act
-Required the few nonlaborers who sought entry to obtain certification from the Chinese government that they were qualified to immigrate. -New requirements were placed on Chinese who had already entered the country. If they left the United States, they had to obtain certifications to re-enter -
Chinese Immigration
Chinese laborers could not legally migrate. Nonetheless, Japanese settlers first began migrating to California in the late 1860s. By 1870, 33 of the 55 Japanese in the United States lived in California. By 1880, 86 Japanese lived in California. -
Scott Act
Congress took exclusion even further and passed the Scott Act, which made reentry to the United States after a visit to China impossible, even for long-term legal residents. The Chinese Government considered this act a direct insult, but was unable to prevent its from passsing. -
Chinese population is growing exponentially
Chinese American population in U.S. is 107,488 out of a total population of 62.9 million. -
Geary Act
Congress voted to renew exclusion for ten years in the Geary Act, and in 1902, the prohibition was expanded to cover Hawaii and the Philippines, all over strong objections from the Chinese Government and people. Congress later extended the Exclusion Act indefinitely. -
Court Decision
In Wong Kim Ark v. U.S., courts rule that anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen. -
Anti-American Boycotts in China
-In China, merchants responded to the exclusion acts by organizing an anti-American boycott
-It received unofficial support in the early months
-President Theodore Roosevelt called for the Chinese government to suppress it
- After five difficult months, Chinese merchants lost the impetus for the movement, and the boycott ended quietly. -
Chinese Population growth
After another ten years Chinese American population in U.S. is 94,414 out of a total population of 92.2 million. Angel Island Immigration Station opens to process potential Asian immigrants.
