The Chinese Exclusion Act was a turning point in American foreign policy because it specifically restricted people from a certain geographic region. Before the Chinese Exclusion Act (which was in 1882), immigrants faced discrimination from nativists within the US. However, there was never a specific law targeting Irish, German, or Italian immigrants up until this point.
This is law is going to result in the steady decrease of the Chinese American population as well as tensions between the two nations.
