Overproduction threatened the U.S. economy, driving the U.S. government to seek new markets abroad. Intensified military capacities, developed to kill and remove Indigenous peoples, were used increasingly to establish U.S. global dominance. Economic crises were deeply affecting the working class, creating the conditions for populist uprisings and white nativist violence. Many Whites blamed immigrants (mainly Irish Catholics, southern and eastern Europeans, and Chinese) for the loss of security for white workers amid rapid industrialization, migration from rural to urban areas, and job competition.
Anti-Chinese racism continued to animate U.S. politics in this period, driving debates over race, citizenship, and America’s role abroad. In 1898, Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, delivers a speech titled, Imperialism—Its Dangers and Wrongs. In the wake of the Spanish-American War he warns that annexation of the Philippines would increase the numbers of “semi-savage†immigrant workers competing with white workers:
“If the Philippines are annexed what is to prevent the Chinese, the Negritos and the Malays coming to our country? How can we prevent the Chinese coolies from going to the Philippines and from there swarm into the United States and engulf our people and our civilization? If these new islands are to become ours, it will be either under the form of Territories or States. Can we hope to close the flood- gates of immigration from the hordes of Chinese and the semi-savage races coming from what will then be part of our own country?â€
Due to rapid industrialization, in less than 50 years, cities became central, and massive amounts of capital were pumped into industrial production. On the eve of the Civil War, 17 percent of the population lived in towns of 8,000 people or more. Thirty years later, that rose to 30 percent. In 1900, it reached 40 percent and continued to grow. The pressures of urbanization were intensified by large-scale immigration, mainly from Europe, driving the overall U.S. population from 31 million in 1860 to 92 million in 1910. By 1890, horses were leaving half a million pounds of manure per day on the streets of New York City. Industrial cities faced new demands for food and infrastructure.
Learn more about resistance in this time period.