In the middle half of the nineteenth century, more than one-half of the population of Ireland emigrated to the United States. So did an equal number of Germans. In the 17th & 18th century English and British governments enacted a harsh series of penal laws against Catholics and Protestants dissenters. Most of them came because of civil unrest, severe unemployment or almost inconceivable hardships at home. This article provides insight about the immigration of the Irish and German population. It gives the number of how many immigrants came to the United States during that time period, and why they left their home country. It also talks about how the Germans had only a little choice to choose from and that is why they choose the United States, because it was one of their only option.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/25f.asp
This is an interesting article, there were a few facts that stood out as things I was aware of. The first being that Germans immigrants were typically wealthier than others, which is the reason they immigrated to the Midwest, rather than staying where they landed on the east coast. The other fact that stood out was that Ireland's population in the 1840s was roughly double what it is now. And furthermore that there are more Irish Americans than Irish Nationals now.
ReplyDeleteI very interesting read. The part about the harsh laws against Protestant dissenters is something I have never heard of. I thought they would only have harsh laws against Catholics but not Protestants. The enormous size of German immigrants is also fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI found this article to be interesting as well, I had no idea that Germans were one of the wealthier groups to settle, because I thought they were all primarily farmers. In class we talked about how there was not a potato famine that pushed the Irish out of their own country,but people were in fact starving how can there be so many people there if there is not enough food to go around? good job finding this article.
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