Colonization & Persecution
To get things going, we'll start with the period of colonization and persecution. When speaking of colonization, all one needs to do is open up any American History textbook and read page upon page of European powers establishing colonies in the Americas.
For example, the late 15th century saw Columbus sailing the ocean blue, which rather quickly led to the rush toward colonization. With this rush toward colonization, the 1600s saw the English, the Dutch, the Germans, and several other European powers migrating to the Americas. Not simply limited to the Americas, the period of colonization also saw European powers colonizing Africa, parts of Southeast Asia, and even Australia.
However, migration across the Atlantic was not the only human movement occurring during this time period. Internal migration was also occurring in Europe as people moved from their European countries of origin to other European countries.
According to historians, one of the main catalysts for internal European migration was religious and racial persecution. This is known as forced migration, in which people are coerced away from their home regions. Excellent, yet tragic, examples of forced migration were the Atlantic slave trade systems and the thousands of Jews and Muslims who fled Spain during the infamous Spanish Inquisition. The time period also saw Eastern Europeans moving westward to escape the ever expanding Ottoman Empire of modern day Turkey.
Industrialization
With this brief summary of colonization and persecution, we move our way up to industrialization, the process in which a society moves from a mainly agricultural society into one centered on the manufacturing of goods and services.
Being usually linked to the late 18th and 19th centuries, industrialization was a huge catalyst for labor migration, people moving from their home regions in search of employment. An excellent example of this was the influx of Irish immigrants into the United States, most of whom were looking for work after the devastating 19th century Potato Famine which devastated their lands.
The industrialization of the global economy also saw migration greatly affected by urbanization, the movement from rural to urban areas. In other words, thousands upon hundreds of thousands of farm workers left their fields and moved to the cities in search of employment. According to many historians, the process of urbanization had its origin in the United Kingdom and then spread throughout the world.
20th Century
With this we come to the 20th century. According to many sources, the late 19th and 20th centuries saw unmatched levels of human migration. For instance, it's estimated and rather well documented that this time period saw millions of European immigrants coming to the US. In addition, immigrants from Asia also made their way to the American shores.
Turning our eyes away from migration to America, it's recorded that internal migration also occurred in Asia during this time period. For instance, the region of Southeast Asia saw immigrants coming from places like India and Southern China.
Lesson Summary
Migration is defined as the movement from one place to another. Since the 1500s, human migration can be discussed in the time frames of colonization and persecution, industrialization, and the 20th century.
When speaking of colonization and persecution, the 1600s saw many Europeans migrating to the Americas. This general time frame also saw Europeans moving into Africa, Southeast Asia, and Australia. As for persecution, this same time period also saw many examples of forced migration, in which people are coerced away from their home regions.
Industrialization, the process in which a society moves from a mainly agricultural society into one centered on the manufacturing of goods and services, was another catalyst for human migration. This was seen in the form of labor migration, or people moving from their home regions in search of employment, and urbanization, the movement from rural to urban areas.
The 20th century saw unprecedented levels of migration as millions upon millions of Europeans and Asians came to the shores of America. However, it also saw internal migration occurring in Asia.
Learning Outcomes
After completing this lesson, you should be able to:
- Define migration
- Describe how colonization and persecution affected migration
- Recognize the movement of populations due to industrialization
- Identify the immigration of cultures during the 20th Century
