"The two societies can be rather simply characterized: on the American side, as one that stresses individual enterprise, which is expansive; and on the Chinese side, as a society that stresses the collective social order, which is resistant."1 America is said to have been founded by the white settlers and capitalists. In truth, these presumed pioneers used immigrants to fulfill their needs and desires. Capitalists and businesses created deceptive propaganda in order to exploit the Asian and European immigrants to the American Dream.

The American Dream portrayed the Constitution's promise of equal opportunity to all immigrants. To the Chinese, America and most notably California, was known as the "Mountain of Gold or Gold Mountain." Gold Mountain was more of a myth than a fact the American advertisements proclaimed it to be. Advertisements spoke in propaganda of untold riches and stories: great pay, good food, large houses, and most of all, that the Chinamen were welcome. Unfortunately, the Chinese immigrant's dream was shattered when he went searched for Gold Mountain, but found himself washing someone else's dirty clothes.

The initial Chinese to arrive on U.S. soil were treated

During the early 1860s, Crocker advertised in Ireland newspapers to come to America and escape the depression their homeland was going through. These advertisements were similar to the Gold Mountain illusions that were promised to the Chinese. When the Irish first began coming to America, people said they were overrunning the country. Irish came because of rapid population growth and major agricultural depression. The European industrial depression was mainly due to the United States competition of the time. Irish were beaten and mobbed and for protection they joined together in the Land League. Irish laborers worked on the railroad for Union Pacific and so became rivals of the Chinese. It is no surprise then that the Irish attacked, beaten, and looted Chinese whenever they came in contact. The Irish and blacks worked in a segregated environment when working on the Brunswick canal in Georgia. The excuse for the segregation was that violence would break out between the two groups. In essence, this created competition and tension between the two groups. The Irish were Catholics, so they were shunned by Protestants, the group in power; but Irish had several advantages over the Chinese: they were white, could speak and understand a bit of English, and included women from their homeland. Other immigrants included the Germans, Englishmen, Italians, and Japanese. These different groups were separated by occupation. Italians worked in California agriculture and Greek laborers worked in Utah mining camps.

The lure of assured gold in 1849 was the sole reason Chinese began journeying to America. Congress prohibited parts of the Sierra Mountains from them and they were usually run off property when they found a likely stream for gold. Unlike other ethnicities, the Chinese dug into the soil for gold instead of panning in the streams. In this way, the Chinese did not compete with other nationalities, but they continued to receive ill treatment for reaping the land of it's resources. When they were assaulted or their claim was jumped by white miners, they were refused the ability to sue. In the Sierras, a Chinese had no protection from the whites because local districts constructed mining laws without the federal government's consent. The legislature launched a foreign mining tax designed to ostracize Mexican miners in 1850 and by 1852, another foreign mining tax was issued and this time directed specifically at the Chinese. Each non-citizen miner had to pay three dollars a month because of this tax, but the catch was that a 1790 federal law reserved natural citizenship for white people alone and denied the right to Chinese. These foreign mining taxes stayed till the 1870 Civil Rights Act where they were declared unconstitutional. By 1870, however, the California government had leeched five million dollars out of the Chinese and did not have to pay a cent back to anybody.3 For protection, Chinese joined into small groups and formed their own companies. Twenty to thirty Chinese inhabited restricted cabins with cramped conditions. The Cubic Air Ordinance was then passed saying each lodger must be provided at least five-hundred cubic feet or be fined five to ten hundred dollars. Constantly under pressure, the Chinese abandoned the gold fields as the profits slowly decreased. Wherever a dollar was to be made, a capitalist was to be found. Capitalists obviously did not have the desire to grant the Chinese what they wanted without reaping any profits, so they created laws to make the Chinese either leave their occupation or pay the tolls.

"Whenever any sizable group of people who share a language and cultural pattern different from the majority enter a country, they tend to congregate. They find a section of a city or a town and make it their own."2 Chinatowns formed in many parts of the United States. The largest, most important one was located in San Francisco. Daily life in the city life was competitive

Some common words found in the essay are:
China Chinese, Civil War, River Delta, Sierras Chinese, Exclusion Acts, American Dream, Else Chinese, San Francisco, Gold Mountain, Pox California, american dream, chinese labor, gold mountain, san francisco, central pacific, civil rights, six companies, chinese white, thousand chinese, asian women, central pacific railroads, foreign mining tax, pacific railroad completed, central pacific railroad, chinese six companies,
Approximate Word count = 4587
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page double spaced)