Immigrants from Northern and Western Europe

African-Americans

The British

The Native Americans

The American People

The United States has the third-largest population in the world (after China and India). In 1990, population of the United States passed the 250,000,000 mark.

The most distinctive characteristic of the United States is its people. As nineteenth-century poet Walt Whitman said the United States “is not merely a nation but a nation of nations”. People from around the world have come to the United States and influenced its history and culture.

The first people on the American continent came from Asia. They came across the Bering Strait from Siberia to Alaska at various times when the sea level dropped. The first migration might have been as early as 40,000 years ago. Once in America, these people migrated east across North America and south through central and South America. When Columbus arrived in the fifteenth century, there were perhaps 10 million people in North America alone. They had developed many different kinds of societies. These were the peoples that Columbus called “Indians”, in the mistaken belief that he had reached the East Indies.

The story of the westward growth of the United States was also the story of the destruction of the Native Americans, or Indians. Today there are about 1.5 million Indians in the United States. Western states have the largest Indian populations. About one-third of the Native Americans live on reservations, land that was set aside for them. Most of the others live in cities. Poverty and unemployment are major problems, especially on the reservations.

Beginning in the 1600s, the British settled the eastern part of North America. By the time of the American Revolution (1776), the culture of the American colonists (their religion language, government, etc.) was thoroughly British – with an American “twist”. In a sense, then, the British culture was a foundation on which America was built. Also over the years, many immigrants to the United States have come from the United Kingdom and Ireland.

From 1620 to 1820 by far the largest group of people to come to the United States came, not as willing immigrants but against their will. These people were West Africans brought to work as slaves, especially on the plantations, or large farms of the South. In all, about 8 million people were brought from Africa.

Beginning in the 1820s, the number of immigrants coming to the United States began to increase rapidly. Faced with problems in Europe – poverty, war, discrimination – immigrants hoped for, and often found, better opportunities in the United States.

During these years most immigrants were fr6m northwestern Europe – from Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, and Norway. The United States was expanding into what is now Midwest. There was a lot of land available for farming. Many new immigrants became farmers in the Midwest. To this day, German and Scandinavian influence is obvious in Midwestern foods and festivals.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11