Wednesday, January 6, 2016

How did German Americans become the largest ethnicity in America? Note for a lecture, "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps the United States United"


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6 Answers


Darrell Francis
Darrell FrancisSummer spent volunteering on a farm in Brandenberg. 2009
3k Views • Upvoted by Dan Holliday,
More information: United States immigration statistics

Between 1850 and 1890, the number of German immigrants increased rapidly, outnumbering the Irish by 1880. For the most part, the reason Germans came to the US were no different than any other group of immigrants (religious freedom, opportunity, etc), it's just that there happened to be a lot more Germans in general. There was already an established German community in the US even before the Revolutionary War, estimated at around 9% of the population (German American).

The uptick in German immigrants around 1850 coincides with the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, indicating that many Germans came to the US to escape political persecution. ...

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