[3] In the early-to-mid 16th century, Mennonites began to flee to the Vistula Delta region in the Kingdom of Poland in order to avoid persecution in the Low Countries—especially Friesland and Flanders—seeking religious freedom and exemption from military service.

Today Plautdietsch is the distinct Mennonite language that developed over a period of 300 years in the Vistula delta region and south Russia.

Frederick William II of Prussia ascended the throne in 1786 and imposed heavy fees on the Mennonites in exchange for continued military exemption.

Mennonites from the Vistula delta region sent delegates to negotiate an extension of this manifesto and, in 1789, Crown Prince Paul signed a new agreement with them.

[6] Two Mennonite settlements on the Vistula near Warsaw, Kazuń Nowy and Nowe Wymyśle, came under Russian control after Mazovia was annexed by Russia at the Congress of Vienna (1815).

By 1911 the eight largest Mennonite-owned factories produced 6% of the total Russian output (over 3 million rubles), shipped machinery to all parts of the empire and employed 1744 workers.

[13] The annual output of Lepp and Wallman of Schönwiese was 50,000 mowers, 3000 threshing machines, thousands of gangplows in addition to other farm equipment.

[18] Because being part of a Mennonite congregation was required to enjoy the special benefits the Russian government provided to colonists, excommunication had broader implications.

Mennonites were particularly alarmed at the possibility of losing their exemption from military service and their right for schools to use the German language, which they believed was necessary to maintain their cultural and religious life.

A similar attempt the next year was also unsuccessful, but were assured by the Tsar's brother Grand Duke Konstantin that the new law would provide a way to address the concerns of the Mennonites in the form of noncombatant military service.

[19] The most conscientious Mennonites could not accept any form of service that supported making war, prompting their community leaders to seek immigration options.

This group consisted of Leonhard Sudermann and Jacob Buller of the Alexanderwohl congregation representing the Molotschna settlement; Tobias Unruh from Volhynia settlements; Andreas Schrag of the Swiss Volhynia congregations; Heinrich Wiebe, Jacob Peters and Cornelius Buhr from the Bergthal Colony; William Ewert from West Prussia; Cornelius Toews and David Klassen of the Kleine Gemeinde and Paul and Lorenz Tschetter representing the Hutterites.

Meeting with community leaders, he exaggerated the difficulties that would be encountered in North America and offered an alternative national service that would not be connected in any way to the military.

The settlement of Mennonites, primarily in the central United States, where available cropland had similarity to that in the Crimean Peninsula, coincided with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.

[24] The Mennonite congregations were responsible for funding these forms of alternative service, as well as supporting the men's families during their absence, a burden of 3.5 million rubles annually.

It is also rumored that Makhno himself had served on a Mennonite estate in childhood and harbored negative feelings based on treatment he received while employed there.

Hundreds of Mennonites were murdered, robbed, imprisoned and raped during this period,[25][26] and villages including (and around) Chortitza, Zagradovka and Nikolaipol were damaged and destroyed.

[27][28][29][30] Based on the tragedy unfolding around them, some of the avowed pacifist Mennonites turned to self-defense and established militia units (Selbstschutz) to ward off raiding forces with the help of the German Army.

Even though Mennonites who emigrated to North America experienced drastically less violence and the privilege of land ownership, many still showed very high levels of psychological distress.

First through third generation Mennonites in North America were found to have high levels of depression, hysteria, psychasthenia, post traumatic stress disorder, ego strength, anxiety, repression, and over-controlled hostility.

The Istanbul group, mainly Goshen College graduates, produced three volunteers, who at great risk entered Ukraine during the ongoing Russian Civil War.

[34] A group of Mennonites from western Siberia who subsequently settled along the Amur in unrealized hopes of better living conditions, escaped over the frozen river to Harbin, China.

These new villagers soon controlled the local government, further confiscating land and rights from the Mennonite majority by labeling landowners and leaders kulaks and sending them into exile.

The Russian Mennonites, many of whom were also known as being part of the one million or so Volga Germans living in their own established communities, were approached by the Soviet authorities and issued new standards and expectations.

The hostilities of World War I had increased tensions with ethnic Ukrainians, and Mennonites with family members living abroad were targeted during the Great Purge.

The following year the Mennonites, who had experience with dry land farming in Russia, quickly took advantage of its characteristics, resulting in rapid expansion of the milling industry in the state.

[47] The more conservative Old Colony, Bergthal Mennonites and Kleine Gemeinde went to Canada which promised privileges equal to those previously held in Russia (no conscription into military service and German language private schools) and a large tract of land divided into two "Reserves".

[54] The emigration from Canada to Mexico and Paraguay in the 1920s was a reaction to the introduction of universal, secular compulsory education in 1917 requiring the use of the English language, which the more conservative Mennonites saw as a threat to the religious basis of their community.

Worsening poverty, water shortages and drug-related violence across northern Mexico have provoked large numbers of Mennonites living in the Mexican states of Durango and Chihuahua to relocate abroad in recent years, especially to Canada and other regions of Latin America.

An important task was to convince the government that Mennonitism was an established religion and not a sect, a label applied to small religious groups who were regularly mistreated within the Russian empire.