The policies of the colonizers
Spanish policy
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
Colonial policies strongly affected the evolving human patterns of North America. It often
is stated that Spanish interests centred around God and gold—the Christianizing of the Indians
and quick wealth from precious metals—but this is an overstatement. The Spanish also were
deeply involved in the land, which they developed into huge haciendas (estates) that were
worked by tenants or by direct labour in the form of serfs or peons. As a result of this policy, few
European settlers were drawn to the lands ruled by Spain, although it did introduce a competent
entrepreneurial and professional group into North America—mine owners and operators,
proprietors of the haciendas, merchants, administrators, and priests—but few members of the
middle and working classes. Little manufacturing was established; and, even though towns were
important, they functioned mainly as centres for trade and services. Descendants of the Spanish
remain as an elite class in the area colonized by their ancestors.
French policy
The policy of France was much the same, even though the physical conditions of their
territories prevented creation of large estates or mining operations. The first Frenchmen on the
continent were mostly entrepreneurs interested in the lucrative fur trade who hired Indians to
collect and carry furs from the hinterland to the French trading posts. The French opposed,
sometimes forcefully, extensive European agricultural settlement. The royal government,
however, believed it essential to have a strong European population base in its new holdings.
Consequently, it gave large seigneuries, or grants, to landed proprietors who promised to bring in
settlers, clear the forest, and develop the country. The seigneurs arrived with the traditional
French ideas of tenant farming, a system under which the seigneury was divided into small
parcels, each paying rent for the land. Like the Spanish, few of the French wished to live in the
New World under Old World conditions. As a consequence, when the British took over from the
French in Canada in 1763, there were only about 80,000 French settlers in Acadia and Quebec,
whereas the British on the continent then numbered between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000. The
French, however, had been there for more than 150 years; and, since their language, religion,
school system, and laws were tolerated by the British, the French Canadians were able to retain
their identity. The people of French origin now account for about one-fourth of Canada’s
population and are firmly entrenched in the province of Quebec, with sizable communities in
New Brunswick and Ontario and smaller outliers in the western provinces. They form a
distinctly Latin element within the Anglo-American realm, and, indeed, a number of Québécois
yearn for an independent French-speaking nation based in Quebec.
British policy
British policy promoted, with considerable success, the large-scale settlement of its
colonies in North America by freemen seeking land of their own, businessmen trying to found
new enterprises, mill owners, craftsmen, professionals, and workers eager to make the most of
their own skills, as well as political and religious refugees and landlords intent upon exploiting
their grants. The British colonies, therefore, attracted many settlers from the British Isles
(including the Irish) with a wide range of competence. The British also opened their colonies to
non-British Europeans, notably the Dutch and Swedes and such religious minorities as the
French Huguenots and the Mennonites and other dissenting groups from Germany. Under the
Hanoverian regime in Britain, many German mercenaries also were settled. In the 19th century
the British opened the Canadian west to Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, and Poles on a
large scale and later accepted Chinese, South Asians, and other settlers.
U.S. policy
The newly independent United States continued and expanded British colonial
immigration policy. Provisions for landownership were even more generous, and—especially
after the Southern plantation system and chattel slavery were abolished—opportunities for
capitalist manufacturing and trade increased dramatically. The country welcomed virtually all
immigrants from Europe in the belief that the United States would become, at least for whites,
the “melting pot” of the world and thus in a sense develop what the historian Frederick Jackson
Turner called a “new race of men.” A major influx did not materialize until the 1830s, when
massive numbers of British, Irish, and Germans began entering, to be joined after the Civil War
by streams of Scandinavians and then groups from eastern and southern Europe and the Russian
Empire; in addition, small numbers came from the Middle East, China, and Japan.
A decline in immigration from northwestern Europe and concerns over the problems of
assimilating so many people from other areas prompted the passage in the 1920s of legislation
restricting immigration. Beginning in 1970, however, there was a liberalization in immigration
policy and a striking change in the demographic makeup of the new immigrants. By the early
21st century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the United States came from Latin
America, the West Indies, East and South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; smaller numbers
also come from Europe and Canada. The number of documented (legal) and undocumented
(illegal) immigrants may exceed 1 million per year, the great majority of whom are destined for
urban centres. In total, somewhat more than 50 million people migrated to the United States in
the span of two centuries, which far outnumbered population movements to any other part of the
world.
The African heritage
North Americans of African descent originally were brought to the continent involuntarily
as enslaved persons. The entire question of the transatlantic slave trade and its turbulent legacy is
still fraught with deep emotions—a not unexpected development—since this tragic episode set in
motion forces and counterforces that molded much of European and African, as well as North
American, society over the course of nearly four centuries. Enslaved persons were not widely
used in Canada or in most sections of New England and the Middle Atlantic states, areas where
plantation agriculture never developed, or in Mexico or Central America, where Native
American labour could be coerced, but enslaved persons were imported in great numbers to the
Caribbean islands and to the Southern states of the United States, where they toiled on tobacco,
cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. The importation of enslaved persons to the United States
became illegal in 1808, but illicit traffic and natural increase produced a steady growth in the
Black population. These people lived under conditions that not only were physically difficult but
also created social and psychological problems for families and individuals.
The abolition of slavery in 1865 through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution gave Blacks, in theory if not in practice, freedom to work and live where they
chose. Many, however, saw no alternative to staying on plantations as impoverished tenants or
sharecroppers. Economic and technological developments in the 20th century—notably the
mechanization of farming—sent large numbers of African Americans to the Northern cities,
where they became concentrated in ghettos and had to face new problems of discrimination in
addition to those present in the South. The resulting social polarization struck at the very roots of
American society and challenged the validity of its professed egalitarianism. Although the
struggle to win full equality made some progress, especially from the 1950s, the cause of African
Americans remains far from won. Even with the triumphs of the American civil rights
movement, issues related to access and equity remain. Partly because of this systematic
exclusion from mainstream American society, the African contribution to the life of the country
has given rise to a rich and unique African American culture.
African Americans have been the usual and longest-standing victims of racial prejudice in
America, but they have not been its only victims. Racism has complicated relationships with
peoples from other cultures and continents as well. Hawaii nevertheless, has become something
of a model as a multiracial society, and attitudes on the mainland have matured as the influx of
Mexicans, Chinese, Koreans, Southeast and South Asians, and others has continued. The United
States increasingly continues to become a polyglot nation. The resulting rich ethnic mix,
although generating certain problems, also is one of that country’s greatest assets.
