Why Were There Mass Migrations?
Migrations were encouraged by imperial and colonial powers. It was encouraged in efforts to use natural resources and agricultural products.
European Migration
- European migrants usually went to temperate lands around the world
- They worked as free cultivators or industrial laborers
- 50 million migrants sought opportunities overseas
- Left Italy, Russia, Poland, Britain, Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia to go to the United States
- Provided labor that drove US industrialization in the 1860s
- All migrants were able to find opportunities in temperate regions due to European and Euro-American imperialism
Indentured Labor Migration
- Migrants from Asia, Africa, and Pacific Islands moved to tropical lands
- They worked as indentured laborers on plantations or manual laborers for mining enterprises
- 2.5 million indentured laborers left homes to work in distant parts of the world
- Indentured laborers traveled mostly to tropical lands in the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, and Oceania
- Majority of Indentured laborers came from India
- Large numbers of Indian laborers went to work on sugar plantations in the Indian Ocean islands
- Indian laborers also worked on rubber plantations in Malaya
- Great amount of Chinese laborers went to sugar plantations in Cuba
- Indentured laborers from Africa also went to sugar plantations in Guiana, and Caribbean Islands
Empire and Migration
- These mass migrations reflected the global influence of imperial powers
- European migrations were only possible because of European settler colonies in temperate regions
- Indentured worker travel was only possible because of officials recruiting workers and dispatching them to far off lands
- The migration greatly influenced society by putting different ethnic groups together in one place