Europeans in the history of the world
The place of Europe in
populating the earth
History of Migratory Movements in
Europe
Peopling North America:
Population Movements & Migration
European migration across the Atlantic, beginning in the late
fifteenth century, was not an anomaly within the European
framework. For centuries prior to their arrival in the New
World, Europeans had participated in extensive migrations
throughout their continent and Asia. They were a mobile
people, accustomed to the concepts of movement and
migration. In many ways, the initial arrival in the New World
by the Europeans and the advent of trans-Atlantic migration
served to extend the migratory patterns that were already
present in European society.
http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/migrations/F2.html
The place of Europe in populating the
Earth
• Introduction
– Since Ancient Greece to the mid 18th c.,
European population 40 -140 m (x3.5) vs.
World population 230 - 650 m (x2.8)
– From the 19th c.
European population increases considerably
great migratory flows of people
I. What was the role of Europe
in populating the Earth
from Antiquity to the 19th
century?
A. Regular phases of demographic expansion
explain the successive migrations
1st Phase
1. The colonization of the
Mediterranean basin in Ancient
Greece and Rome
a. Role
of the Greeks around the Mediterranean
sea (like frogs around a pond) : transferring of the
city elsewhere
(e.g. Nice and Agde)
b. Role of the Romans: conquests in the West and
East and the creation of colonies (e.g; Nimes,
Arles, Orange)
2nd Phase
2. End of Ancient World - 1000 A.D.
new population movements
shake Europe before it begins
expanding again in the
Mediterranean
a. Barbarian invasions lead to the fall
of the Roman Empire
b. Advances of Islam, from the 8th c.
A.D. hold back Christianity
3rd Phase
3. 11th and 13th centuries:
most important European movements occur
when demographic growth reappears
Crusades and Reconquista
Crusades and Reconquista
4th Phase
4. 14th Century: Black Plague ravages Europe
between 1348 and 1352 marks a break by
dramatically slowing down the fragile growth
25 M dead – 1/3 of the population
5th Phase
5. Great discoveries of the Renaissance to the
Colonization of other continents
Discovery of America (15th century)
colonies in North America, Asia and Africa
European Colonization: several
consequences
1. Setting up of colonies and slave trade
2. Building of Empires and civilizations (15th19th C)
3. Exploitation of resources
4. Imposing languages, religion
5. Coherent societies form
progressively
detach themselves from the mother country
Causes of Colonization
• In the 19th century, the colonization of Africa
and Asia has a political aspect and responds
to an increased need for land due to the rapid
demographic growth since the end of the
18th century.
Video: Opportunity beckoned in the New World
B. How can we explain this growth?
• For a long period, limited growth
• Traditional democratic regime
characterized by a high mortality rate
(famine, war, epidemics) and a high birth
rate to compensate
Change in 18th century: decrease in
mortality rate
due to agricultural technology reducing
famines and progress in hygiene and
medecine which reduce the number of
epidemics
Why did population growth in the world
and particularly in Europe increase so
rapidly in the 19th century?
• Population Growth
Since the birth
rate remains high,
demographic
growth is high
Key term: malthus = malthusian, malthusianism
Definition:
demographic behaviour which aims to limit
population growth due to fear of scarcity of
resources/wealth to be shared
Malthus (English scholar) observed that
sooner or later population will be checked by
famine and disease.
That the increase of population is necessarily
limited by the means of subsistence, that
population does invariably increase when the
means of subsistence increase (and vice versa)
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II. European migration in the 19th century
Why do Europeans
migrate in the 19th
century?
Why do Europeans migrate in the
19th century?
I. Multiple Reasons for Migrating
• Related to industrialization
A. In the 19th c, old seasonal migrations
and border crossing migrations continue
– for agricultural purposes
– Up to several hundred km for harvesting
– Migrations of skilled workers increase with urban
expansion
Why do Europeans migrate in the
19th century?
B. Industrialization of cities favors rural flight,
attracting inhabitants of overpopulated rural areas
- New farm machinery destroys employment in
the countryside.
Why do Europeans migrate in the
19th century?
– People migrate first toward large cities then
emigrate toward another country
(seemingly the only solution possible)
European phenomenon with
multifarious causes
1. Political migrations develop
- after the revolutions of 1831 and 1848
- Germans, Italians and Poles seeking refuge
- Various states intervene to accelerate or
hinder certain migrations
2. Religious migrations due to persecution
After 1880, pogroms push Jews in the Russian
Empire to emigrate
Def: pogrom= a violent massacre or persecution
of an ethnic or religious group, particularly
one aimed at Jews. The term, of Russian
origin, originally entered the English language
to describe 19th and 20th-century attacks on
Jews in the Russian Empire; similar attacks
against Jews at other times and places also
became retrospectively known as pogroms.
Immigration
numbers
reached
their peak in
late 1850’s
Why do Europeans migrate in the
19th century?
2. Europe unequally affected by migrations
Economic migrations which increase with
unemployment
e.g. Irish emigration after
Great Famine
An emigration of poverty: Irish
emigration in the 19th Century
A. Ireland: Land of Exodus
1. Product of British colonization
• Colonized in 17th Century by Great Britain and annexed
to United Kingdom in 1800
• Population majority Catholic to whom is imposed
protestant colonizers from England and Scotland
An emigration of poverty: Irish
emigration in the 19th Century
2. A Poor Country which the Irish flee
•
•
•
•
Middle Ages: religious migrations of monks to
evangelize the continent
Modern Era migrations for religious and military
reasons (e.g. Barry Lyndon), 18th century for economic
reasons
Up to 1815, around 11,000 people per year emigrated
to Great Britain but also towards America
Between 1815 and 1848, 1 million Irish cross the
Atlantic and 500,000 leave for Great Britain –
Beginning of the “great emigration of paupers”
An emigration of poverty: Irish
emigration in the 19th Century
2. A Poor Country which the Irish flee (cont’d)
• Irish immigrants of first half of 19th Century :
proletariats doing the hardest labor (terracing,
drainage, building mining galleries…) (e.g. Erie Canal in
Great Lakes region)
• Vast majority wind up in packed urban ghettos – their
arrival is very poorly viewed by the Anglo-Saxon
population (in U.S. and U.K.)
An emigration of poverty: Irish
emigration in the 19th Century
B. The Great Irish Exodus (1845-1890)
1. Why does emigration increase?
• From 1845-1854, around 2.3 M leave Ireland, more
than 200,000/year for 5 yrs
• Potato Blight (food staple of Irish population) causes a
famine which leads to 1 million deaths and incites more
than a million Irish to emigrate to the U.S. (the poorest
flee to G.B.)
Potato Production during the Great
Famine 1844-1857
An emigration of poverty: Irish
emigration in the 19th Century
Emigration
continues over
the years, despite
the depopulation
of the Island
Due to a series of bad harvests, evictions multiply, generating
numerous departures which remain significant until the 1890’s.
• eviction of 300 tenants by Mrs. Gerrard from the village of
Ballinglass, Co Galway, on March 13, 1846
Immigrants arriving in New York Harbor
Arrival in Ellis Island, NY harbor
An emigration of poverty: Irish
emigration in the 19th Century
2. Irish Integration in U.S. society
•They swell the ranks of urban
proletariats and their social ascension
is slow
•Poorly viewed by Anglo Saxon
Protestants who reject them
• Like Italians, the Irish are accused of
threatening the basis of the
American nation because of their
Catholic faith (loyal to the Pope,
Political Machines…)
Populate urban slums called tenements where misery,
lawlessness and poor hygienic conditions reign
Dilapidated Golden Flats
Tenement slum housing
Squalid Living Conditions
Cramped living quarters
Gangs of New York
Rioting in New York
An emigration of poverty: Irish emigration
in the 19th Century
• Circa 1870 Irish immigrants have settled in large
Northern cities (New York, Boston, Chicago);
• obtain social integration thanks to trade union
movement and political life (Democratic Party)
• In 1880, New York elects its first Irish Catholic mayor
• Some success stories (e.g. Ford)
• In 1960, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the first Catholic
President descendant from Irish immigrants, is
elected
• Today 15-20 million Americans have Irish origins