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Timeline
This is a timeline showing the events that affected the life of a poor Chinese immigrent between 1860-1916. -
Treaty of Tien-tsin
Several documents known as the "Treaty of Tien-tsin" were signed in Tianjin (Tientsin) in June 1858, ending the first part of the Second Opium War. Could have somewhat slowed the immigration from China, as the country was now safer. -
Pacific Railway Act
This was a landmark law that authorized the federal government to financially back the construction of a transcontinental railroad. -
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Transcontinental Railroad Construction
The Central Pacific had laid 690 miles of track and the Union Pacific 1,087 miles of track. -
The Great Race
By 1866, the great race was on between the Central Pacific Railroad, which was charged with laying track eastward from Sacramento, and the Union Pacific Railroad, which started laying track westward from Omaha, to see which railroad company could lay the most miles of railroad track before the two railroad lines joined up. -
Chinese Employment on Railroads
Over 12,000 Chinese immigrants were employed, comprising about 80 percent of the Central Pacific's workforce. -
The Burlingame Treaty
The Burlingame Treaty, also known as the Burlingame-Seward Treaty of 1868, between the United States and China, amended the Treaty of Tientsin of 1858 and established formal friendly relations between the two countries. This gave chinese immigrents an easier time coming into the U.S. -
Major Railroad Accomplishment
The meeting of the two railroads and the completion of the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah was a major national achievement that could not have occurred without immigrant laborers. -
The Naturalization Act of 1870
This act restricted all immigration into the U.S. to only "white persons and persons of African descent," meaning that all Chinese were placed in a different category, a category that placed them as ineligible for citizenship from that time till 1943. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur. It was one of the most significant restrictions on free immigration in U.S. history, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers.
