5 million Irish to the United States by 1855. Failed Revolutions along with failed crops, also caused more than 1 million Germans to flock to the United States from 1848-1890. As Europe faced problems, so did the United States. During the 1890's America went through a great depression, which was rooted in an agricultural crisis which struck the South's cotton industry and trickled its way across the nation as railroads went bankrupt and unemployment among industrial workers surged to nearly 25%. This swell of economic depression across the world was a huge cause for immigration to the United States and also the hostile welcome that people received when arriving to the United States.
As the United States was flooded with immigrants, nativists began to form committees and groups campaigning against the newly arriving Americans. The Know-nothing Party of the 1850's a national political party, proposed strict restrictions on immigration as a way of solving this "eminent problem." Another group with nativist intent was the Workingmen's Party. This party which was founded in 1878 and lasted only until the year 1879, led a movement to have a new constitution written which banned Chinese from employment corporations or state government, and segregating them into so called "Chinatowns." There were not only groups that aimed there hatred toward immigrants, but also to nativists themselves. The Ku Klux Klan, was an anti-Catholic, anti-black and anti-immigration society who used terror and violence to harm their enemies. .
Although these groups had a large impact in effecting the lives of immigrants, the American Protective Association, was one of the most dominating and fascist forces in American nativism against immigration. With nearly 2.5 million members strong by the year 1846, the APA was founded in 1887. It became one of the largest anti-immigration and anti-Catholic organizations in America during the 19th century.
