Immigration: an Historical Overview

The rapid increase in immigration during the early to late 1800’s caused some conflicts.  In this essay I will explain why some of those conflicts took place.  During this timeframe, many things were happening in Europe.  Some of these things helped Europe immensely, although, others helped to change the course of history in the United States. 

During the early to late 1800s many Religious and political changes were taking place in Europe.  Revolutions were happening in virtually every country; people wanted everything to be new and different.  But, unfortunately for the people that lost the revolutions, many were forced to leave their homelands.  These people would be persecuted or killed if they remained.  Also, due to new advances in medicine and in sanitation fewer people were dying due to disease.  This caused many of Europe’s cities to become overcrowded and many of the extra people emigrated from their native countries and immigrated to the U.S.  Additionally, many changes in agriculture were taking place.  This resulted in many less people necessary to work farms.  Also during this time, many crop failures occurred – the most notable being the potato famine which caused millions of Irish people to immigrate to the United States.  Another major change in Europe was the Industrial Revolution.  This revolution destroyed all of Europes Guilds because many guildsmen/women left their homelands and immigrated to the United Stated. 

The immigrants came to the U.S. for a variety of reasons.  The top three reasons were:   1. Freedom; Europeans often times the lacked religious or political freedom,  2; Economic opportunity;  In Europe there were no new factory jobs like there were in the United States,  and, 3. Abundant Land; unless you were royalty in Europe, or you were exceptionally well off, you could not buy any land.  In the U.S., land was abundant and could be bought rather cheaply.

Finally, some immigrants faced heavy prejudice.  This was due to the fact that some Americans thought that the new immigrants were inferior to them because they were too poor to afford much of anything.  Also, because many of the new immigrants were Catholic, many Protestants were worried that the Catholics might try to take over America and abolish democracy.

In conclusion there were many push-pull factors that caused many immigrants to come to the U.S.  Although, some people were rather cruel towards the immigrants, many immigrants fed America’s rapid growth.  Without them, America would likely not be the great country that it is today.