American Political Culture, Importance of Geography & Immigration
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Overview
Defining the label American can be complicated. What makes someone an American? Citizenship status? Residency? Paying taxes, playing baseball, speaking English, eating apple pie? The United States is a nation of immigrants—almost every one of us has ancestors who came to America from other parts of the world, and immigrants continue to arrive today. Citizens and residents of the United States demonstrate tremendous diversity with regard to religion, culture, native language, beliefs, and tradition. As the old adage goes, America is one big melting pot. So, if we’re all different, how do we define our national identity? What does it mean to be American when Americans are so diverse?
Now that the United States stands as the world’s only superpower, defining “American” has become all the more important. Many of our leaders wish to export American ideas and values abroad, but which ideas and values are distinctly American? What are the basic factors that influence and define our political identity? Before turning to the finer points of American government, we need to explore the principles and core values that define America.
The Importance of Geography
The United States covers a large chunk of the North American continent, incorporating a variety of climates and bound on two sides by ocean. The country’s unique geography has given it a number of benefits:
- Isolation from conflict: For much of its early history, the United States was able to keep out of political and military entanglements with the rest of the world. Separated from Europe by one ocean and from Asia by another, America avoided the conflicts and wars among states in those regions. Peace provided a rich environment for the development and growth of the new nation.
- Vibrant trade: Although vast oceans separate the United States from much of the world, access to these oceans allowed for the development of lively trade routes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The United States traded regularly with Europe and increasingly with Asia as the nineteenth century wore on. America also possesses a number of long navigable rivers (including the Mississippi River) that allowed for extensive trade within the country.
- Rich farmland: Large parts of the United States contain excellent farmland. By producing more food than necessary, the United States could trade excess food to support a growing manufacturing economy.
- A vast frontier: Early white settlers were able to expand across the continent. Access to a vast frontier encouraged development as thousands of people pushed westward. The frontier also played a role in shaping the American character.
- Natural resources: The size and vastly different ecologies of the terrain have also provided Americans with an abundance of natural resources, such as timber, metal ores, coal, oil, and natural gas. Unlimited access to these resources allowed the United States to develop politically and militarily because it did not have to worry about acquiring the natural resources needed to sustain its citizens.
Manifest Destiny
In the nineteenth century, the American frontier loomed large in the public imagination. Many settlers moved west to make their fortunes, escape their unpleasant lives, or seek adventure. Many Americans believed that it was their manifest destiny from God to conquer and settle all the land between the two oceans. Although manifest destiny contributed to the frontier spirit that made America, it frequently resulted in excessive greed and cruelty to the peoples already living there.
The Importance of Immigration
The ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity brought by immigrants in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has shaped American history and politics.
Three Waves of Immigration
Political scientists divide immigration to the United States into three major waves:
- Early immigration (1700s–1850): Immigrants from western and northern Europe arrived in great numbers for economic, political, and religious reasons. Germans and Irish, in particular, came to the United States in the 1830s and 1840s. European settlers imported millions of African slaves as well.
- Second wave (1850–1970): Immigrants came primarily from southern and eastern Europe to escape violence and political instability in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Several million Jews also immigrated to the United States before and after World War II.
- Recent immigration (1970–present): Large numbers of people have come from Mexico, China, Korea, India, and the Philippines, as well as other parts of Latin America and Asia.
The New York Melting Pot
During a 2000 study, the New York State Comptroller discovered that close to 140 languages are spoken in Queens, which probably makes this borough the most diverse area of the United States.
The following chart lists the top ten countries of origin for American immigrants, from 1820 to 2000:
| Country | Approximate Number of Immigrants |
| Germany | 7 million |
| Mexico | 6 million |
| Italy | 5 million |
| Great Britain | 5 million |
| Ireland | 5 million |
| Canada | 5 million |
| Austria and Hungary | 4 million (total) |
| Russia (former Soviet Union) | 4 million |
| The Philippines | 2 million |
| China and Sweden | 1 million (each) |
Effects of Immigration
Immigration has profoundly shaped American politics and culture. Immigrants not only provided labor for the growing economy but also gave the United States a distinctly unique social and political culture. These effects continue today.
Example: The urban political machine is one example of how immigrants helped shape the American political system. Many immigrants in the late nineteenth century were welcomed by political parties and given homes and jobs; in return, the political parties asked for the immigrants’ votes and political support. This trading of votes for services is known as machine politics, which dominated many cities for decades.
Controversies over Immigration
In 2006, immigration became a hot topic as politicians debated about how to handle the large number of illegal immigrants in the United States. But these debates are nothing new. Historically, Americans have frequently scorned new arrivals, despite the fact that their ancestors were also immigrants. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, for example, Congress passed laws regulating how many immigrants could enter the United States from each country, excluding Asians entirely until the 1960s.
Example: The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first immigration law aimed at a specific ethnic group. Congress passed the act to keep Chinese laborers out for ten years but renewed the act in 1892 and finally made it permanent in 1902. The act was not repealed until 1965. Many Americans at the time favored the act because they resented the growing number of Chinese laborers working on the railroads in the West.
Prejudice in Language
Some of the prejudices against immigrants have found their way into American slang. The term paddy wagon, for example, was originally a jab at Irish Americans. Other terms—most of them racist and inappropriate and thus not listed here—can also be found in the American vernacular.
