Question

Why did the Americans pass the Chinese Exclusion Act?

Answer 1

The Chinese Exclusion Act was largely economic as well as racial. It began in the late 1840s, during the California gold rush, Chinese began immigrating to the West Coast for the promise of a better life. China was in complete decay at the time, with the Qing dynasty in conflict with Britain and France, and with civil wars like the famous, "Tai Ping Rebellion." So immigration from China was large, and these Chinese immigrants also would become workers, and would work on the Transcontinental Railroad project. But Americans living on the West Coast feared the growing Chinese immigration would take away jobs from American citizens, as well as the thought that the Chinese were inferior, made President Arthur at the time, sign the Act into existence.