Immigration Period

During this period, immigration to Gotham from overseas (particularly Italy and China) grows.

• Emigration to other parts of the world from China accelerated in the 1860s with the signing of the Treaty of Peking (1860), which opened the border for free movement.
• Gotham's Chinatown is created when authorities call for forced relocation of Asian immigrants to a single district.
• Italians fleeing grinding rural poverty in Southern Italy and Sicily came once the flow of asians slowed.
  • By the late 19th century, the peninsula of Italy had finally been brought under one flag, but the land and the people were by no means unified. Decades of internal strife had left a legacy of violence, social chaos, and widespread poverty. The peasants in the primarily poor, mostly rural south of Italy and on the island of Sicily had little hope of improving their lot.
  • Diseases and natural disasters swept through the new Italian nation, but its fledgling government was in no condition to bring aid to the people. As transatlantic transportation became more affordable, and as word of American prosperity came via returning immigrants and Gotham recruiters, Italians found it increasingly difficult to resist traveling to Gotham to win their fortune.
  • These immigrants brought crime along with them. Both the Moroni Family and the Falcone Family are the descendants of the crime bosses of Southern Italy and Sicily. Neither family cares for the other, and both do their best to recruit from the children of immigrants who are suffering through the crushing depression who form the East Siders gang.