-
Following the arrival of Christopher Colombus in 1492, violent settling, slavery and disease resulted in the death of rougly 55 million indigenous peoples, translating to roughly 90% of the indigenous population. Thus making the area uninhabited, and ripe for Westward expansion.
-
In the year 1492, Christopher Colombus embarked on a naval journey on behalf of the Spanish crown. The initial goal was to discover a shorter route to India, but what happened instead was much bigger. It was a discovery of 2 new continents, both ripe for picking. -
In the year of 1607, the first English settlement in North America was established by settlers arriving under the authority of the Virginia Company of London. The settlement named Jamestown, would mark the beginning of British colonies in America. -
It was about 1620, when the many British pilgrims, including religious minorities, arrived at the North American continent seeking religious freedom. Upon arrival, they would establish the first permanent English colony in New England, by the name of Plymouth. The mixture of religions and nationalities, would go on the become a melting pot of different ideas. -
Following the arrival of the Puritans, the English and the Dutch, immigration to North America started kicking into high gear. Initially, more than 90% of the early colonists became farmers and unskilled laborers, which caused a need for large families, in order to farm efficiently. This led to a remarkable population growth in the coastal provinces, causing new immigrants from Scotland and Northern Ireland to seek further inland. By the 1700's most of the settlements had formed into colonies.
-
Tobacco was a thriving industry, and a hugely profitable cash crop in the southern colonies, which caused many British people to settle there. While some farms grew, many started to take advantage of the thriving slade trade, in order to gain free labour for their Tobacco farms. Hundreds of thousands of African people were captured as slaves, and transported to North America by ship, leading to yet another growth in the population. In 1790, Africans made up the 2nd biggest group in America.
-
In the year of 1765, a revolutionary war broke out between the American colonies and the British. The war lasted roughly 18 years, and led to the independence of the American colonies to govern sovereignly.
-
Around the 1830's, sitting president Andrew Jackson signed the "Indian Removal Act", permitting the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi, in exchange for for Indian lands within existing state borders. This allowed states to claim native land lawfully, granting them unsettled lands west of the border in exchange. This initiated a forced relocation of thousands of native americans, freeing up 25 million acres of lucrative soil and cheap farmland. -
After World War I, sentiment toward anti-immigration laws started to grow in the USA. In the year 1921, the open-door policy that had initially brought millions of people to American ports, would begin to close. That same year, congress passed The Emergency Quota Act, effectively setting birthplace quotas meant to lock the current America's demographic makeup, and discourage immigration.