Agreeing to cooperate with a policy unilaterally adopted by Congress six years earlier, China approves a treaty forbidding Chinese laborers to enter the United States for 20 years.
In the 1850s, large numbers of Chinese immigrated to the American West. Most came from the Pearl River Delta region of South China, where famine and political instability made if difficult for them to support the large extended families thought to be essential to happiness and success. When exaggerated reports of the California Gold Rush reached China, thousands of Chinese men booked passage for California. In contrast to many of the other immigrants to the American West, few of the Chinese immigrants intended to settle permanently in the U.S. They planned instead to work in the gold fields only until they had saved enough money to return to China and support their families.
Few Chinese, however, found wealth in the U.S. In order to pay for their passage across the Pacific, many Chinese immigrants became indentured servants. Arriving in America with a heavy load of debt, they were forced to work until they had paid back their debt. Chinese and Anglo employers alike took advantage of their plight, paying the immigrants just enough to keep their hopes alive but not enough to free them from debt.
By 1880, just over 100,000 Chinese lived in the United States, the majority of them in California. Most came in hopes of striking it rich in the gold fields, but they quickly learned to make money in whatever way they could. Despite the prevalence of local and state laws prohibiting them from owning certain mining properties or entering into specified businesses, many Chinese succeeded in finding niches. Groups of Chinese immigrants would occasionally band together and transform old mining claims, abandoned by Anglos, into paying operations. Others prospered in businesses like laundries or restaurants, which most Anglo men considered menial “women’s work.”
Inevitably, the success and distinct culture of the Chinese immigrants made them an easy target for xenophobic Anglos. Wherever they went, however, the Chinese were treated with growing resentment. By the 1880s, many working-class Anglos began to accuse the Chinese of depriving them of jobs and undermining early efforts to unionize the western mining industry. Blatant racism fed Anglo hatred. One San Franciscan argued that God intended the Chinese to remain only in China, for “they are not a favored people, they are not to be permitted to steal from us what we have.”
The American government responded to these fears by limiting Chinese immigration with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first time that the U.S. excluded immigrants based on race and nationality. Significantly, the Exclusion Act only excluded Chinese laborers. The U.S. continued to welcome merchants, who promised to help Americans maintain lucrative trading ties with the vast Chinese population, and professionals who offered valuable skills. Immigrants from no other nation received such discriminatory treatment.
Six years later, the Chinese government agreed to the fundamental principles of the Exclusion Act. Under pressure from the U.S., the Chinese signed a treaty on this day in 1888 agreeing not to allow any laborers to immigrate to America. Only in 1943, when China became a valuable ally in the war against Japan, did the U.S. finally abandon this blatantly racist policy.
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Talk about butchering history. The immigration act of the very first US Congress limited immigration to white people of good character. It was well understood and desired, up until 1965 that is, that the country was a nation of white European stock and a primary reason for its profound prosperity. The only way the 1965 change in immigration managed to pass was through fraudulent misrepresentation that the change wouldn’t affect the racial makeup of the country.
History would be a wonderful thing, if only it were 100% true. I was watching Oliver Stones version of history the other night and seen the thousands upon thousands of Chinese heads mounted on wooden posts and/or thrown into a pile. As I understand, this was the European response to the Boxer rebellion. Smedley Butler was sent in to help insure the industrialist didn’t lose the great prize. He, Mr. Butler, claims he was appalled how the Europeans treated the Chinese, but I ain’t buying his claims. He may have felt guilty and even appalled, but he still took the orders from the top and loyally followed them.
As I was watching this atrocity, it dawned on me how upset everyone was when ISIS started to cut off the heads of Europeans on camera. Me thinks that we Americans are certainly not given the full account of history in school, and to our great disadvantage, the rest of the world will never forget the full account of history.
The terrible part about all of this is we Americans still prefer the lies over the truth, because the truth is just too awful to accept responsibility for. Understandably so. In my mind, I really am not responsible for what happened 100 years ago, but if I allow the lies that are being invented today to go unchallenged, then I begin to feel that the whole thing, from start to finish, rests on my shoulders. As in the days of old today’s army are nothing but mercenaries, just like Smedley. I do think we tend to forgive those in the military that empower the dysfunction at the top too easily. If they would just stand to the side and let us hang them all on the nearest tree we would be far more better off in the long run. But they won’t and for that I have no respect to give any of them. How can people allow their misplaced loyalty to continue in the face of all the clear facts.
A just war is a war when the commanding officer cries attack, everyone turns around and shoots the commanding officer. One causality and everyone goes home.
You’ll be wanting to stay away from the history channel all together!