Chinese exclusion act 1882 band chinese workers first

The land railroad receives goes up in value.
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), band Chinese workers.
 First to be targeted by immigration laws.
 All men. Known as colony of bachaelors. Most end up settling in the US.
They would work less than a white worker would. Less wage than white
working class. Nonchristian. Chinese mainly in the north and san
Francisco. Dominate laundry business because it was open to them and
requires little capital.
B.
Homestead Act of 1862 spur westward settlement. 1862

 Designed to get ppl to settle in the west.
 Gov would give you 160 acres of land provided that you live there for 5
years and you improve the land (farm or graze). Make it productive.
 400,000 families push westward
 Plots usually end up in the hands of big business.
 A lot of them were immigrants thinking this was the American dream to
get a homestead plot.

By 1880, 1 in 9 acres would be owned by the homestead act. The rest
would be sold off. Number of successful homesteaders were low. Went
back to the east after trying the frontier.
C. Boom & Bust Cycles: Mining/ Cattle/ "Agribusiness"
 1848 gold rush. The biggest strike after gold rush was the Comstock lode
(1858) in Nevada. Silver strike. Virginity city was born after the news
spread overnight. Dirt to populated 20,000 ppl. 4 men to every 1 woman.
Women were prostitutes. Sorta like the wild west.by the end of 1870’s,
virginia’s population went back down to 1,000.
 Ranching is going to be big with railroads. Link from texas to Chicago.
1860s and 1870s, Chicago became the slaughter house. With the railroad,
it was easy to get cattle. Huge business. Peek 1880s and then disappears.