IMMIGRATION. Immigration into the United States viewed historically is but a con tinuation of the movement of peoples from the far east into southeastern Europe, then into Europe proper, and finally over seas to the two Americas and Australasia. Peoples, races and groups have been in movement as far back as history records; they have drifted from place to place as the result of wars, conquests, famines, the opening up of new lands, and the changing of climatic and economic conditions. The wandering of the peoples following the incursion of the barbarians into Italy was an immigration movement. It differed from im migration to-day in that the wandering of tribes was a movement of races rather than of indi viduals and families.
Early Immigration to America.—Immigra tion to America differs from the migrations of early peoples in that it is a movement of fami lies and individuals rather than of nations, races and clans. It has been so from the very beginning. And the character of American immigration has changed with changing condi tions in Europe on the one hand, and the changing industrial and economic conditions in America on the other. The first immigrants to New England were driven to this country by religious intolerance. They made the first set tlement. And the early settlers in New Eng land, inspired as they were by religious mo tives, have profoundly affected the subsequent migrations of the same people out of New Eng land to the middle and the far West. We can trace the ethical influences of early Puritanism as far west as California; and individuals and groups made their way to Ohio, Iowa and even distant California.
But the primary motive of immigration to America is not religious. Only a handful of immigrants have been driven to this country in the search for either religious or political free dom. The overwhelming majority of immi grams have come to this country as a result of economic forces; economic forces at work in Europe, or the greater economic opportunities which America afforded. This is almost ex clusively true of all immigration since the 17th century.
For nearly three centuries the immigration to America was almost exclusively from the British Isles, Germany and Scandinavia. There were Swedish settlements in New York and Delaware; Dutch settlements in New York; south German settlements in Pennsylvania and the South. But the great bulk of immigration
up to very recent years has come from Great Britain and Ireland, the Scandinavian coun tries and Germany. The migration from Ger many was particularly strong from the revolu tions of 1848 down to shortly after the Franco Prussian War. There has been but little French immigration to America, and relatively few immigrants from Switzerland and Holland.
This is the gold immigration ,p so called. This is the immigration that gave America its Anglo-Saxon quality. It was unmixed with Latin, Slavic or Oriental peoples. From the very beginning it was a peasant immigration. It came in search of a new home in a country where free land could be had for the asking. And it built an agricultural civilization. For two centuries and a half civilization of the United States was predominantly agricultural, Just as it was predominantly Anglo-Saxon.
incoming ncoming waves of immigrants moved west just beyond the line of settlement. They picked up small farms of from 30 to 60 acres; only such farms as an individual could himself cul tivate. Each oncoming generation moved west ward, settling New York, Ohio, Indiana, Ken tucky, Tennessee. Illinois, Michigan and Wis consin. Only a small portion of the immi grants settled in the towns or cities. Up to the Civil War, and even as late as 1880, our immi gration was not only predominantly of Anglo Saxon, Scandinavian and Germanic stock, it was also predominantly agricultural.
During the three decades which followed the Civil War the American West was rapidly peopled. Kansas, Nebraska, Texas and the northwest were taken up by homesteads, or were divided into great estates as a result of the Pacific railway aid grants. In a few years' time western America was appropriated, and by the end of the last century the public domain and practically all of the free land in America had been appropriated. All over the West, even in California, Oregon and Washington, great stretches of land were held by the railroads, divided into great timber or grazing preserves, and by 1890 the possibility of absorbing immi gration on the land, Which had existed for three centuries, had come substantially to an end.