2 ms·

> From what I've seen, the opposite is true, at least for a subset of people who prefer to travel and explore. These people usually move again after their new l

by danans 7y ago

> From what I've seen, the opposite is true, at least for a subset of people who prefer to travel and explore. These people usually move again after their new land is fully established. They just like the frontier. Most of the European migration to the United States was by people who were either refugees (the first Puritan settlers, Jews fleeing persecution), starving (Irish and Southern Europan immigrants), or forcefully evicted from their homes (Scottish peasants after the Highland Clearances [1]). Even within the US, groups that we think of as pioneering westward, like the Mormons, were fundamentally fleeing persecution. According to the Latter Day Saints' history (as explained to me by the tour guide at the Church's HQ in Salt Lake City's), it was legal in NY state to kill Mormons in the early days of their community - thus triggering their series of migrations west ultimately to what we call Utah today. Others westward American pioneers were landless and destitute as the arable lands of the eastern seaboard were all held by wealthy estates. Their options were to stay in near-serfdom or move west. Among them no doubt were a few who migrated just for the sake of adventure. But most people were moving just to survive. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances

P_I_Staker 7y ago
So basically they didn't have many other good options? Stay and be killed, otherwise persecuted, or starve. Flee and worst-case scenario, you just die anyway, but there's a chance of something better.
cafard 7y ago
It was "legal" to kill Mormons in the sense that a jury might decline to convict the killers. They had a pretty brutal time at Nauvoo, Illinois, as well. Much the largest part of Scottish emigration to America was from the Lowlands--there were just a lot more people in the Lowlands than in the Highlands. And the German emigration mostly wasn't of refugees or the starving.
- danans 7y ago
  > Much the largest part of Scottish emigration to America was from the Lowlands--there were just a lot more people in the Lowlands than in the Highlands. The Highlands were much more populated before than after the Clearances. They were cleared to make space for industrial scale sheep farming. Many of those evicted Highlanders spent a time in the oversubscribed Lowland cities before moving on to the American colonies. > And the German emigration mostly wasn't of refugees or the starving. > And the German emigration mostly wasn't of refugees or the starving. I'm not so sure about that. From https://www.deutschland.de/en/usa/us-immigration-americas-german-roots https://www.deutschland.de/en/usa/us-immigration-americas-ge... : "German emigration to the USA began at the end of the 17th century when Germany was suffering from the after-effects of the bloody religious conflicts of the Thirty Years’ War, and Christian minorities were being persecuted. Many farmers lived in poverty, their very existence threatened by failed harvests and land shortages, so many decided to leave for a country that appeared to offer both freedom and prosperity. That country was America." "The situation in Germany worsened when the start of industrialisation caused the population to grow dramatically. In the mid-19th century, around three quarters of farmers did not have enough land to make a living, hence they began migrating in huge numbers from 1816 – the start of official German mass emigration to the USA."

by danans 7y ago

P_I_Staker 7y ago

So basically they didn't have many other good options? Stay and be killed, otherwise persecuted, or starve. Flee and worst-case scenario, you just die anyway, but there's a chance of something better.

cafard 7y ago

It was "legal" to kill Mormons in the sense that a jury might decline to convict the killers. They had a pretty brutal time at Nauvoo, Illinois, as well. Much the largest part of Scottish emigration to America was from the Lowlands--there were just a lot more people in the Lowlands than in the Highlands. And the German emigration mostly wasn't of refugees or the starving.

danans 7y ago
> Much the largest part of Scottish emigration to America was from the Lowlands--there were just a lot more people in the Lowlands than in the Highlands. The Highlands were much more populated before than after the Clearances. They were cleared to make space for industrial scale sheep farming. Many of those evicted Highlanders spent a time in the oversubscribed Lowland cities before moving on to the American colonies. > And the German emigration mostly wasn't of refugees or the starving. > And the German emigration mostly wasn't of refugees or the starving. I'm not so sure about that. From https://www.deutschland.de/en/usa/us-immigration-americas-german-roots https://www.deutschland.de/en/usa/us-immigration-americas-ge... : "German emigration to the USA began at the end of the 17th century when Germany was suffering from the after-effects of the bloody religious conflicts of the Thirty Years’ War, and Christian minorities were being persecuted. Many farmers lived in poverty, their very existence threatened by failed harvests and land shortages, so many decided to leave for a country that appeared to offer both freedom and prosperity. That country was America." "The situation in Germany worsened when the start of industrialisation caused the population to grow dramatically. In the mid-19th century, around three quarters of farmers did not have enough land to make a living, hence they began migrating in huge numbers from 1816 – the start of official German mass emigration to the USA."