What was the motivation for Europeans to immigrate to the United States?

The answer comes from overseas Chinese immigrants in Qingdao: after Christopher Columbus "discovered" the new continent in 1492, in the following 200 years, people from many European countries followed Columbus' footsteps, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, explored America and set up trading posts and colonies.

Among the early immigrants in the United States, English was the dominant race, and English became the most popular American language. But other people of the same nationality soon poured in. The British successfully established the first colony in Jamestown, Gunia. A few years later, the English Puritans came to America to avoid religious persecution because they opposed the Anglican Church. 1620, Puritans established Plymouth colony in what later became Massachusetts. This is the second permanent British colony in North America and the first in New England.

1776, Thomas Paine, a spokesman for the colonial revolutionary cause, wrote: "Europe, not Britain, is the motherland of the United States. Immigrants come not only from Britain, but also from other European countries, including Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. But in 1780, three out of every four Americans are of British or Irish descent.

From 1840 to 1860, the United States ushered in the first wave of immigration. Throughout Europe, about 5 million people leave their homes every year because of hunger, crop failure, population growth and political turmoil. In Ireland, an epidemic resulted in the failure of potato granules, and 750,000 people starved to death on the streets. Many survivors emigrated. In l847 alone, the number of immigrants from Ireland to the United States reached 1 1, 8120,000. Today, there are about 39 million Irish Americans.

1848- 1849 The failure of the German Confederate Revolution led to many German immigrants. During the American Civil War (186 1- 1865), the federal government encouraged immigrants from Europe, especially those from German states, to recruit soldiers. In return for joining the federal army, immigrants can get land. By 1865, about one-fifth of the federal soldiers were wartime immigrants. Today, 22% of Americans have German ancestors.

Jews began to come to America in large numbers around 1880. During this 10 year, they were brutally persecuted in Eastern Europe. In the following 45 years, 2 million Jews moved to the United States, and the current Jewish population in the United States exceeds 5 million.