Dissertation Information for George Byron Kooshian Jr.NAME: - George Byron Kooshian Jr.
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2002)
ADVISORS: - Richard G. Hovannisian
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Barisa Krekic - S. Peter Cowe
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: The Armenian immigrant community of California: 1880--1935
Abstract: This study recounts aspects of the history of the Armenian immigrants to California up to the early 1930s, concentrating on settlement and economy, religion, and political and organizational life. It has relied mainly on printed materials in English and Armenian, making heavy use of contemporary newspaper and periodical reports.
Armenians began to come to the United States in appreciable numbers after 1875, having been influenced by contact with American missionaries and by worsening economic and political conditions in the Ottoman Empire. They first settled in New England and New York. In 1881 two Armenians moved to Fresno. After generalized massacres of Armenians in Turkey in 1894-1896, many more emigrated, some of whom found their way to California. The growing community spread south into the fertile farmland of the San Joaquin Valley, where many Armenians engaged in grape cultivation. Another center sprang up in Los Angeles. Some Armenians also came from the Russian Transcaucasus, primarily to southern California. The lack of an established manufacturing industry precluded the formation of an urban working class and the immigrants found opportunities in small business and trades which could be entered with little capital. Gradually, they began to climb the economic ladder to material success. Like other immigrants, they attempted to reestablish their familiar religious and political organizations. Many had already adopted Protestantism, but most still held to the traditional Armenian Apostolic Church. Philanthropic and political organizations were founded, which raised money and volunteers for relief and for the hoped-for liberation of the homeland. But the genocide of the Armenians of Turkey, together with the failure of Armenian political aspirations, poisoned the climate. The community permanently split into two camps with the assassination of Archbishop Ghevont Tourian in 1933. These factions led entirely separate organizational lives, even as the people continued with their normal economic, social, and religious activities. This situation lasted as long as the immigrant generation remained and only ameliorated with the rise of the second generation, to whom the old quarrels seemed distant and unfathomable.
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MPACT Scores for George Byron Kooshian Jr.A = 0
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calculated 2008-08-18 13:24:24
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