Industrial Revolution: The Impact Of Irish Immigration To The United States

The Irish Impact on the American Economy The Great Famine of the mid 19th century caused a mass exodus of Irish immigrants to the United States. According to Kevin Kenny, roughly 2 million immigrants traveled to the Americas within 10 years. This massive influx of immigrants had various sociopolitical effects, but arguably the largest impact was on the American economy, which was prime for the industrial revolution. Manifest Destiny was a major domestic policy at the time, where the United States was looking to expand their borders westward to the pacific, and Irish workers were ready to take on that challenge. In addition, Irish workers forever changed the workplace by causing the rise of unionism and changing the rights of workers forever.
In order to fully grasp the events of an Gorta Mór – or the Great Hunger - and how it affected America, it is important to understand the reasons why it happened, and other pull effects to leave Ireland. Just before the famine occurred, the population of Ireland was roughly 8 million, in which a population boom was underway. It can be argued that the dominant reason for the mass emigration and famine was because of this. There were far too many people attempting to live off too little land. The very economics of land in Ireland was the first factor to issues in food. A vast majority of land was owned by a very small minority of people, and most people lived as tenants on land, mainly due to the system developed by British colonial rule, a system very similar to feudalism of the middle ages, where peasants work the fief for a knight. In addition, the Irish were very reliant on a single crop, the potato. Despite being very high in nutrient
In the late 19th century, the political machine known as Tammany Hall arose to mass fame and power. The leaders of Tammany Hall, most notably known to be run by “Boss” Tweed, realized that in order for the Irish to gain popularity and to be treated as first class citizens, they needed to be present in the politics, and with the large population of Irish immigrants, they could receive a majority/plurality in a vote to keep them in office. Thus a campaign began to win over the Irish vote: the Naturalization Bureau was opened to give support to immigrants in need of gaining citizenship to the United States, and provided jobs to those who could not get them. This in turn caused Irish immigrants to come closely affiliated with the democratic party. Despite many corruption scandals and coverups, the help and influence that Tammany Hall had on its Irish compatriots was enough to keep Tammany Hall alive for decades. The power of this single organization boosted the popularity of the democratic party, and forever had an impact on American