The Melting Pot

In the early 18^th century, there was a vast wave of immigration from northern Ireland. The Irish had been migrating to America from around 1600, but the main movements too place during 1720s, when around 50,000 Irish and Scot-Irish immigrant arrived. Many stayed along the coast, especially in the area of Philadelphia, but most of theme moved inland through the mountains in search of land.

But they were not the only newcomers in America. An important aspect of American life, its cosmopolitan character, was present from the beginning, and this had linguistic consequences too. The Spanish had occupied large areas in the west and southwest of the country. The French were present in the northern territories and throughout the middle regions (French Louisiana). The Dutch were in New York and the surrounding area. Germans began to arrive at the end of the 17^th century, setting mainly in Pennsylvania.  And there was also an increasing number of blacks in the south, as a result of the slave trade from Africa, which dramatically increased in the 18^th century.

During the 19^th century, immigration increased, with many people fleeing the results of the revolution and famine in Europe. Large numbers of Irish came following the potato famine in the 1840s. Germans and Italians came, escaping the consequences of the failure of the 1848 revolution. Also Central European Jews came, especially fleeing from the pogroms of the 1880s. In the decades around the turn of the century, the United States welcomed five million Germans, four million Italians and two and a half million Jews.

America, since its inception, has been a country of change, dynamism and mobility. Their mentality compare with that of Britain´s was also fundamentally different. Since many immigrants were coming to America to escape persecution, poverty or other hardship, or were merely trying to make a “fresh a start”, they expressly wanted to leave the old life behind and work out new ways of living and new ways of prospering.