what grade would you give this- ww1 a key factor for us decision restrict immigration.
it is accurate to say to a far extend that world war 1 was a key factor in the us decision to restrict immigration. However it was not the most important factor as the main reason for the restriction of immigration were because attitudes of the south, the kkk and red scare.
The first world war heightened nationalism and suspicion towards foreigners as the bolshevik seizure of power seemed to pain an international conspiracy of left wing activists determined to overthrow capitalism.The war strengthened the intolerance of foreigners and quickly patriotism turned into prejudice,which suggests that world war 1 was a key factor as the war stimulated 'Americanism' which provoked a backlash against recent immigrants as the war associated immigrants with the threat of sabotage, which thus led to the atmosphere of fear and intolerance which contributed to the anti-immigration legislation as the world war gave the federal government more power and were able to create the legislation like the 1918 immigration act and the 1918 sedation act which both allowed deportation of immigrants which could be said to be reason also for both the 1921 and 1924 quota acts, which greatly suggest that to a far extent ww1 was a key role.
however the atmosphere of fear and intolerance started long before world war as the open door policy changed to a closed one where immigrants were only allowed if they could read and write also, the kkk existed before www and believed in white supremacy and would and hated immigrants as it went against their ideology as WASPS. This demonstrates that although ww1 was a key factor it was not the most important,however it was truly the red scare and the help from ww1 that ignitnited the reemergence of the kkk as the red scare was the perfect breeding ground for bigotry as the klan itself symbolised that and intolerance and with the growth of nationalism from the war the klan received a lot of support by 1921 having 1000 and they were being funded by subscription.They felt challenged by the immigrants especially those from eastern europe as it was felt they went against 'Americanism'. these factors being a reason why infact the attitudes and actions of the kkk actually being the key role in the decision to restrict immigration as the the kkk grew immensely, which could suggest the reason for the government legislation. in 1921 and 1924 the quota acts were established immigration firstly by 3% of each each nationality which limited immigration to 357,000, it went even further in the 1924 quota act which limited immigration to 2% being at 164,000.
Nonetheless red scare was undoutebly the most significant key factor to a far extent towards the decision to restrict immigration as red scare existed before ww1 and also was a huge factor that drove the kkk, However red scare was dramatically heightened by the russian revolution in 1917 causing also post war red scare, as immigrants were being increasingly linked with violent left wing politics, which led to growing fear and intolerance as it was considered a threat to capitalism in the us, especially German Hungarians and countries like Italy and eastern europe were largely associated with left wing politics. This fear of communism was maid apparent in the 1919 palmer raids where large Italian communities were raided in pursuit of anarchists and communist,this resulted in over 800 arrests, However this fear was highlighted also in the Sacco and Vanzzeti case where 2 robberies took place resulting in 2 police officers dead, suspicion immediately fell on the immigrant community , leading to the arrest of two Italian males , with little proof resulting in their death, with 22/35 witnesses saying these two men were not involved, This demonstrates that The red scare was in fact to a great extent the most important key role in the decision to restrict immigration as it demonstrated the huge fear America had and the extremes they would go to get rid of it.
In conclusion although ww1 was a key factor to a far extent it was not the most important as the the kkk and reducer existed before , ww1 just put pressure on tensions that was already there, which all ultimately comes down to red scare as being the most important key factor for the us discussion to restrict immigration.