[13] At the time, approximately twelve hundred Croatian Protestants, whose ancestors had left the Austrian Empire after unsuccessful peasant revolts in 1573 and anti-Reformation edict of 1598, arrived in the American colony of Georgia.

[14] In 1683, a Croat Jesuit, named Ivan Ratkaj (Juan Ratkay) established a mission in northwest New Spain.

In 1746, another Jesuit, Ferdinand Konšak (Consago Gonzales), drew the first dependable map of Baja California.

Beginning in 1783, Joseph Kundek, a Croat missionary, helped to develop several midwestern towns, including Ferdinand and Jasper, both in Dubois County, Indiana.

Many of them, mostly single young men but, often, married women with or without their families, settled in small towns in Pennsylvania and New York as coal miners or steelworkers.

Many also settled in factory towns and farming areas in Midwestern states such as Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa.

[13][15][17] Within a comparatively short period of time, Croatians could be found all over the United States from New York to California, from New Orleans to Minneapolis-St.

[15] As it went through its most rapid expansion during the time of the 1890-1914 Great Migration and shortly thereafter from the onset of the First World War to the general clampdown on immigration in 1924, Croats and other South and West Slavs and members of other groups peaking in influx at the time were prominent in the history of the mining industry in the Iron Range of Minnesota; much the same is the case with the forestry-related industries there, elsewhere in Minnesota and in much of Wisconsin.

In private life, Perpich was a dentist and after leaving office in 1991 assisted the post-communist government of Croatia.

These were mostly political refugees, including orphans whose parents had been killed during the war, individuals and families fleeing Yugoslavia's communist authorities.

[21] The first recorded Croatian immigrants to the United States arrived in 1850, often via the resettlement from nations that are presently known as Austria, Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal, and southern France.

During this period many Croats, who were employed in manufacturing the maritime sector of the Mediterranean states, began emigrating to the Americas.

[23] It is estimated that more than 35,000 Croats live in Los Angeles metropolitan area today, making it the biggest Croatian community on the Pacific coast.

[15][24] Tadich Grill in San Francisco is an example from the era, the oldest continuously running restaurant in the city.

[15] An unspecified number of Croats also settled in Washington state and Oregon, particularly metropolitan areas of Seattle and Portland respectively.

The settlement especially started developing after World War I and Chicago became the center of all Croatian cultural and political activities.

Croats form a large community in Indianapolis in Indiana since the 1910s, as well in Gary, Fort Wayne and South Bend.

[15][16] While at first New York City served merely as a station on arriving settlers' way elsewhere into the United States, mainly the Midwest, East Coast saw an influx of Croatian and other European settlers in early 19th, before and following First World War; mainly the cities of Hoboken and New York, the latter of which is the site of SS.

[15] The diaspora is considered to have played a pivotal role in securing Croatia's victory in Croatian War of Independence by providing substantial financial aid and advocating for American involvement in the conflict.

[30] Croatians first started founding charitable, cultural, educational, religious, business, political, sporting or athletic organizations.

Most of early settlers did not speak English and held low-paid jobs, which created an inferiority complex.

[15] Often, the priests were the only educated members of the Croatian colonies, and thus they had to assume leadership roles; moreover, they were among the first to learn English well and often served as translators and interpreters.

Thus, at the beginning of this century there were Croatian churches in Pittsburgh and Steelton, Pennsylvania, New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Saint Louis and other cities.