Explore histories of migration, citizenship and belonging in Germany and the U.S. over the centuries.
The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad was an effort that relied heavily on Chinese and Irish migrant labor and also resulted in the physical divide of many Native American Territories. When completed, the Transcontinental Railroad greatly increased westward expansion fueled by both native-born and immigrant settlers, shortening what had previously been a journey of many months into just several days.
In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Bill, spurring a competition between the Central Pacific Railroad Company and Union Pacific Railroad to complete the Transcontinental Railroad. With a massive demand for workers, the two companies heavily recruited migrant labor to complete the dangerous and grueling tasks. Many of the Chinese workers had come to the U.S. earlier, pushed by the British Opium Wars and drawn by the California Gold Rush’s economic opportunities. However, anti-Chinese laws (see also: Chinese Immigrants Face Exclusion, 1875-1882) and decreasing amounts of gold forced Chinese miners out. By the 1860s, ninety percent of Union Pacific Railroad workers were Chinese, forced to work for lower wages than their European counterparts. The Central Pacific Railroad started track-work in Missouri and relied primarily on Irish immigrants to supply labor.
The railroad construction cut through many Native American territories, breaking up communities and decimating a primary food source, buffalo. The break-up of Native territories paved the way for the Indian Appropriation Act (see also: Native Americans no longer independent, 1871), which no longer recognized Native American nations as separate from the United States.
History.comScott Alan Carson. Chinese Sojourn Labor and the American Transcontinental Railroad. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE) / Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft. Edition Vol. 161, No. 1. March 2005. Pages 80-102. Date accessed: August 31, 2015.
The Transcontinental Railroad. Calisphere. 2015. Date accessed: August 31, 2015.
Transcontinental Railroad. History.com. A+E Networks, 2010. Date accessed: August 31, 2015.
Workers of the Central Pacific Railroad. Date accessed: November 30, 2014.
Immigration, Railroads, and the West. Date accessed: November 30, 2014.
