How Chinese Immigration Shaped America

The Chinese who arrived in America well into the 20th century endured a multitude of injustices. One can’t help but admire their ability to forgive, forget, and remain willing to establish relationships with any American country. In fact, the story of America in the context of Chinese laborers of the mid-19th century is one of resilience, exploitation, and the quest for opportunity. The role of Chinese immigration was significantly pivotal as it shaped America during the mid-19th century, leaving a lasting impact on the country’s social, economic, and cultural landscape.

Early Waves of Chinese Immigration (17th-18th centuries)

The first waves of Chinese (we won’t discuss the 1421 hypothesis today) to reach the New World would have landed in Acapulco in the early 17th century. Apparently, most of them came from the Philippines, where tensions between the Spanish Empire and the Chinese Empire resulted in various massacres against the indigenous population of the latter. Faced with such a scenario, some decided to flee to America, and there were even those who did so by taking advantage of the silk trade for silver.

This migratory flow increased thanks to the entry permit for oriental artisans granted by the Spanish Crown, and by the mid-17th century, there was already a Chinatown in Mexico City.

Moreover, as early as 1636, some conflicts caused by competition between Chinese and Spanish hairdressers were documented, although the authorities ended up favoring the European guild, as would happen in many disputes across the South, Center, and North of America in the coming decades and centuries. But in those times, there were also many Chinese who were not so “lucky” and who suffered discrimination in sectors much more subjected to slavery, such as agriculture, mining, or textile manufacturing.

However, the arrival of Chinese to America was not really significant until the second half of the 19th century. That was the period when the colonization of the continent converged with processes of rapid modernization and industrialization.

Chinese Immigration in the 19th Century: Cuba, Peru, and the United States

As many American historiography experts have noted, Cuba and Peru were among the places that received the most Chinese immigrants. During that period, the journey across the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic still lasted a daunting 110 to 150 days, and the overcrowded conditions (with only two cubic meters per passenger) and mistreatment claimed numerous lives.

About 150,000 Chinese arrived in Cuba, where they mainly worked in the sugar plantations of Havana and Matanzas. Initially, these Chinese were free men, but their contracts obliged them to work until they reimbursed the cost of their transportation, and they suffered the same prison-like regime as African slaves. Furthermore, it was paradoxical that the slaves were in charge of instructing the Chinese in their tasks, and the teaching methodology they used was what they learned from the Spanish: the whip.

This situation led the Chinese to rebel on numerous occasions and become increasingly interested in freeing themselves from colonial oppression, making them an important subject in Cuban emancipation.

On the other hand, Peru also received more than 100,000 Chinese workers in the third quarter of the 19th century, but the horrible conditions of exploitation in sugar crops and guano extraction only left one-tenth of them alive.

Anti-Chinese Sentiment and Legal Restrictions

Let’s discuss the United States now. The first destination of thousands of Cantonese during the California Gold Rush was the North American country. Moreover, the main workforce hired for building the western section of the first transcontinental railroad was the Chinese (1863-1869). All these factors contributed to a significant increase in the Chinese population from 25,000 in 1852 to more than 100,000 in 1880.

Although many Chinese immigrated to the United States to work under trying conditions, a good number of them were able to save money and start their own businesses, hence the tension between them and the so-called locals. In 1882, the United States government enacted the first statute in America to stop the area’s immigration of a given ethnic or national group—the Chinese Exclusion Act. Due to these tensions and anti-Chinese feelings, the situation was made worse because such laws did not remain in force until 1943.

Struggles and Resilience of Chinese Communities

Mexico also experienced a substantial increase in Chinese immigrants starting in 1876. Most of these also came from Canton and, as in the United States, many of them worked on various railway projects. Additionally, Mexico would receive a good number of Chinese workers expelled from the neighboring country starting in 1882.

In those years, Mexico’s relations with the weak Chinese Empire were somewhat better and facilitated the arrival of more people from Canton, Macau, and Hong Kong. However, that did not mean that the workers enjoyed better conditions, as only 1 or 2 out of every 10 were engaged in business, and a large part of the rest suffered harsh and precarious working conditions that proved fatal in too many cases.

As we suggested earlier, one of the biggest problems for Chinese workers throughout America was that many were forced to work for several years due to the contractual obligation to pay for their transportation from China. As a result, they had no choice but to work harder and accept tasks rejected by others.

Moreover, even after the abolition of slavery and its abusive contractual conditions, the Chinese, who managed to escape labor exploitation, suffered all kinds of abuses from European settlers, which pushed them to create their own colonies. Besides, Chinese immigration also influenced the history of education in America during the period by which both educational policies and societal attitudes towards diversity were shaped.

Not surprisingly, the economic conditions of the Chinese improved everywhere as they gathered in colonies and neighborhoods. According to the data presented in most articles and studies, in 1919, the Sonora colony was the largest in all of Mexico and one of the largest in all of America, where no less than 74.4% of the nearly 6,000 Chinese were engaged in trade. This gives us an idea of the enormous capacity of the Chinese to improve their living conditions once liberated from exploitation and slavery.

However, as had happened in the United States, the fact that the Chinese prospered and almost exclusively hired their peers led the “native” population to pressure the government to take action. The low prices of goods and services offered by the Chinese also generated many tensions that worsened after the Great Depression of 1929, a time when illegal but effective measures were implemented that are reminiscent of those applied by the Nazis against the Jews.

The 1930s marked the beginning of the expulsion of thousands of Chinese from Mexico, some of whom had to leave within ridiculous timeframes that led to the loss of much of their fortune.

Diplomatic Challenges and the Rise of China

There were also thousands of Chinese who worked and died in the construction of the interoceanic railroad and the disastrous “French project” of the Panama Canal. But after the latter convinced Imperial China to recognize it as an independent state from Colombia, it showed its gratitude to the Chinese by prohibiting them from entering its borders.

As you can imagine, much of the misfortune of the Chinese in the American continent has a lot to do with the weakness of the Chinese state well beyond World War II. Chinese residents in the Americas simply lacked the necessary diplomatic support to prevent discrimination and excesses perpetrated against them.

Fortunately, this situation would improve throughout the second half of the 20th century. Consequently, the rise of China as a political and economic power has facilitated the fact that all American countries have to treat Chinese immigrants the same as the rest.

However, today’s America again requires attention as highlighted in a book “Secession – Dividing The States” written by Spencer M. Wertheimer, a trailblazing attorney, advocate, and literary mastermind. In his book, he called readers’ attention toward America’s 250-year-old Constitution, which is also questionable, putting the survival of a democratic country at stake. Reading this book will help you know the history of the Chinese Exclusion Act 1882, enabling you to understand major challenges to America already facing polarization.