Describe The Historical Event That You Selected. Why is This Event Significant?
Immigration is a valuable part of each country’s history because it influences the culture, economy, and society by forming new traditions, providing a workforce, and building connections between people. The arrival of the Irish to the United States is a bright example of foreigners’ assimilation, and its outcomes are still notable in modern America. Nearly four million Irish people arrived in the United States during the nineteenth century. Emigration was their attempt to escape poverty, and starvation occurred in Ireland due to the famine disease (Collins & Zimran, 2019). In the 1840s, half of the immigrants in the United States were Irish, and their adaptation affected the subsequent historical events.
The period of Irish immigration coincided with the Market Revolution when the United States desperately needed a workforce to build railways and spend many hours in factories performing monotonous production tasks. Although the migrants came from a rural country, poverty forced them to quickly get used to industrial life and labor (Collins & Zimran, 2019). The Irish’ immigration and assimilation are significant because that historical event changed the American nation’s culture, assisted in economic development, and affected the social structure.
Based on Your Review of Primary and Secondary Sources, Develop a Research Question Related to The Historical Event You Selected. In Other Words, What Would You Like to Know More About?
Irish immigration to the United States is a historical event that can be viewed and analyzed via multiple lenses because it affected society, economy, culture, and politics. A review of primary and secondary sources revealed how significant was the impact of Irish migrants on American industrialization, thus I would like to expand my knowledge in that section. Primary sources like factories’ wages showed that many Irish men and young women were involved in manufacturing. At the same time, secondary articles described how their economic value helped the migrants become accepted in society. I developed the research question: “How did the Irish immigration impact the Market Revolution and industrial development of the United States in the nineteenth century?”
Reference
Collins, W. J., & Zimran, A. (2019). The economic assimilation of Irish Famine migrants to the United States. Explorations in Economic History, 74, 101302. Web.