>>105096709American immigration was as high or higher during the early 1900s as it is currently, but the American population was 2/3 smaller.
So proportionally the immigration of the 1880-1920 period was much larger to the point where 3/8s of people in the USA in 1920 were of recent immigrant descent.
>>105096720>these racist slaveowners who believed blacks were literal property weren't THAT racistThey respected the indians because they formed complex social structures such as the iroquois republic and were largely self-sufficient, well able to defend themselves and adapt to the changes Europeans brought with the exception of disease.
Also white people fetishized natives as being the noble savage- a near supernatural kind of human in touch with his inner beast living at peace with nature. A stereotype which continues to this day in the form of the "natives used every part" myth.
>>105096730Irish immigration had been a thing for a long time, Catholics formed at least 10% of the colonial population at time of revolution. The riots of the know-nothings were primarily in response to ongoing anti-vaticanism in the united states in which protestants feared that continued irish migration (which spiked during a short period in the 1840s, along with german immigration, both driven by upheaval in Europe in the form of famine and revolution) would undermine the republic and subject it to clerical rule.
This was a real fear as Latin republics such as mexico fought more than one war between pro-church and anti-church forces, the influence of the catholic church in French, Spanish, Latin American and other catholic states cannot be understated.
Also the laws were passed as the people became aware of large numbers of immigrants, as a reaction to the phenomenon to large numbers of immigrants. The fact that the immigration act of 1925 happened 45 years after the beginning of the 1880-1920 wave is the culmination.
