European immigration to the Americas

[1] This mass immigration had as a backdrop economic and social problems in the Old World, allied to structural changes that facilitated the migratory movement between the two continents.

British people and Iberians continued to immigrate, but influxes from other parts of Europe, particularly Germany, Italy, Ireland, Austria-Hungary, the Russian Empire and Scandinavian countries also became numerous.

In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the decision by Spanish and Portuguese monarchs to take possession of the New World and establish crown-governed colonies required the transfer of large numbers of colonists.

The plundering of Native American societies and the Spanish discoveries of silver mines in Potosí, in Upper Peru, and Zacatecas, in Mexico, in the 1540s, provided a significant stimulus to immigration.

Brazil was followed half a century later by a new sugar plantation complex founded by the British and French (supported by Dutch merchants) on the islands of Barbados, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Martinique and Guadeloupe, in the West Indies.

[3] However, in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the character of Spanish emigration changed dramatically, with much greater numbers moving from the poorer north coast provinces[3] (Galicia, Cantabria and the Basque Country),[4][5] from the east (Catalonia) and the Balearic and Canary Islands.

[8] However, this was not the case in Great Britain, France and the Netherlands, nations that had difficulties in recruiting settlers and had to resort to forced or semi-voluntary immigration.

To populate Quebec and Louisiana, the French government had to recruit engages, soldiers and women in orphanages and asylums (the Filles du Roi).

The Netherlands had to recruit sailors from the East and West India companies (half of whom were not Dutch), as well as soldiers, forced laborers, orphans and foreigners to populate its colonies.

Of the latter, the vast majority were indentured servants (British), engages (French) and redemptioners (Germans), who added up to about half a million immigrants, between 1500 and 1800.

[3] Many of the British, French, Swiss and German settlers who immigrated during that period were bound by a employment contract, which normally required them to work for four to seven years, in return for the cost of passage, food and lodging, and certain payments called "freedom dues".

Freedom dues were paid by the master to the servant, upon completion of the term of service, and normally took the form of provisions, clothing, tools, land rights, money, or a small part of the harvest (tobacco or sugar).

However, in the 18th century, the origins of the settlers became more diverse, with many coming from the Celtic periphery and Germany (35% Irish, including Scots-Irish from Ulster, 12% Scots and 27% Germans).

[9] In Brazil, the Portuguese implemented a policy of preventing other Europeans from settling in their colony, by closing the ports and destroying any foreign vessel that tried to anchor in Brazilian lands.

Furthermore, in the 19th century there was an enormous population growth in the European continent, together with the progressive drop in mortality (a phenomenon known as "demographic transition"), which exerted pressure on the agricultural sector.

However, the impact of immigration on the host societies of Uruguay and Argentina was particularly significant, given the relatively small size of their populations at the time they experienced the influx of migrants, predominantly from Spain and Italy.

Thus, both temporary emigration and sending remittances formed a migratory strategy that presents high knowledge of labor markets and living conditions in the host countries on the part of immigrants.

[16] During the time of great immigration, the destination countries not only did not put up legal obstacles to the entry of foreign workers, but many of them carried out active policies to attract labor.

However, despite competition from the Brazilian government, between 1880 and 1930, Argentina had few rivals in attracting immigrants and became the main destination country for European emigrants heading to Latin America.

The entry of these young immigrants into the labor market, even when their professional qualifications were low, implied an import of human capital that brought net benefits, at the same time that the receiving society saved on costs, such as nurturing and education, due to their age group.

Being isolated in the Americas for millennia, Amerindians lacked biological immunity to Old World diseases, resulting in a demographic catastrophe unparalleled in history (with the possible exception of the medieval Black Death and the Spanish flu of 1918).

[31][32][33][5] The arrival of Europeans in the Americas is considered a turning point in human history,[35] marking the beginning of globalization and characterized by demographic, commercial, economic, social and political changes.

[36] Europeans brought to the Americas dozens of new plants and animals, as well as technologies that did not exist in the region and transformed fundamental aspects of everyday life on the continent, from eating and clothing habits to naming patterns, domestic architecture, work and leisure, land use, specifically the introduction of extensive agriculture, livestock and equestrian cultures.

Christianity and, specifically in Latin America, Roman Catholicism, served as a unifying and enduring element throughout the region, both in terms of beliefs and practices and as a public institution.

[5][37] Europeans also left deep genetic marks on the inhabitants of the Americas and most of today's Americans trace their ancestry wholly or partially to Europe.

The European percentage of gene background is around 84% in Uruguay; 79% in Argentina; 72% in Cuba; 71% in Brazil; 63% in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Colombia; 57% in Chile; 41% in Ecuador; 34% in Mexico; 26% in Peru; and 12% in Bolivia.