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A Wave of Immigrants, 17891890s

Following the end of the American revolution and sparked by the Industrial Revolution and some European social circumstances, the greatest migrations of people in the history of the world occurred. Immigration in the United States throughout the nineteen century was mostly chacarterized at first by an Irish and German immigration an then in the next period , it was dominated by an English and scandinavian immigration. Immigrants, all obliged to relinquish ancestral dwellings, escaped from the religious and political strongulations without forgetting poverty ,the lack of jobs ,diseases and dispair as a result of the exraordinary increase in population caused by the industrial and agricultural revolutions in Europe toward the United States. The Irish were the first impoverished Europeans and the largest group to populate America in the nineteenth century followed by the Germans, British and Scandinavians in addition to the Spanish speakers after aquiring Florida in 1819 and the chinese who came to America after the discovery of gold in California in 1849. The physical and economic growth of the United States in the nineteenth century made it mandatory for Americans to turn to the new settlers for cheap labor. Arriving to the United States, most of the immigrants landed in New York state and Castle Garden remained the nations chief immigrant depot for more than 35 years, but in spite of that no area of America escaped from the immigrants intention . Wherever they went and whoever they were, the immigrants lived and worked under conditions that were far from idyllic, and the appalling overcrowded inhabitats and the lack of proper sanitation led to continual bouts with disease. The new comers were organized in communities sharing the same customs and religion and tryin always to preseve them from the nativists influences which created serious difficulties, among them, the nativists intolerance for ethnic, cultural and religious differences which contributed to the rise of violence . Although almost always rooted in and committed to their ethnic heritage, the next generations started feeling their selves more American and less ethnic and therefore, they fostered a new type of individual in the United States .

Book : Ethnic Americans : a history of immigration 4th ed. Chapter 2 : A Wave of Immigrants, 17891890s Authors : Leonard Dinnerstein and David M. Reimers. Edition : New York : Columbia University Press . Year of publication : 1999

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