Timeline: Asian-American History, 1600s-1854

Updated July 22, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Asian immigration to America, 1600s to the present

by David Johnson
1600s 1700s 1800-1850 Next: Late 1800s

1600s

Spanish bring Chinese and Filipinos to Mexico.

1763

Filipinos desert Spanish ship in New Orleans, establish first Filipino community in U.S. in Louisiana bayou.

1830s

Chinese laborers brought to work in Hawaiian sugar cane fields. Chinese peddlers recorded in New York City.

1848

California gold rush attracts Chinese prospectors.

1850

California imposes tax on foreign miners, targeting Chinese.

1852

Presbyterian mission begins working with Chinese in San Francisco.

1854

Chinese in Hawaii begin to organize. In The People v. Hall, California Supreme Court rules that a Chinese man could not give testimony in court since Chinese were "inferior, and . . . incapable of progress or intellectual development beyond a certain point . . ." Yung Wing graduates from Yale University, becomes first Chinese to graduate from a U.S. college. Commodore Perry signs first commercial treaty with Japan since 1638.

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