Describe the waves of Irish and German immigration in the 1840s and their effect on growing American cities.
Beginning in the mid-1840s, large numbers of immigrants arrived in the United States from Ireland, fleeing the Great Famine (1845-1852), caused by a disease that destroyed the potato crop most of the rural poor depended on for food; roughly a million people died in Ireland, and roughly a million more emigrated, many of them to the United States. Around the same time, large numbers of immigrants arrived from the German states as well, some fleeing failed democratic revolutions in 1848, many more simply seeking economic opportunity or farmland.
Irish immigrants, often poor and facing real discrimination, settled heavily in growing East Coast cities like New York and Boston, building tight-knit communities even amid crowded, difficult living conditions. German immigrants, often arriving with more resources and trade skills, settled in cities such as Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Milwaukee, as well as farmland across the Midwest, bringing traditions still visible in American life today. Together, these waves of newcomers fueled rapid growth in American cities' populations and workforces during the 1840s, reshaping urban life even before the even larger immigration waves of later decades.
Mastery looks like: They can describe the causes of Irish and German immigration in the 1840s and name where each group tended to settle.
Common stumbles: Assuming all immigrants in this era had the same reasons for leaving or the same experience on arrival; not connecting immigration growth to city growth.