10.4 Communities in Diaspora

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Compare the experiences of European and Asian emigrants in the mid- to late-nineteenth century
• Analyze the response of Africa and the Americas to the immigration of Europeans and Asians in the mid- to late-nineteenth century

As the world transformed in the second half of the nineteenth century, large numbers of people found themselves displaced by the changes. A series of wars, political upheavals, and natural disasters drove people from their homes in southern and eastern Europe, East Asia, and India, while at the same time industrialized nations sought people to work in mines and factories, and countries that had developed export economies needed hands to work in their forests and fields. These forces combined to promote a mass migration of people across the face of the earth, assisted by new industrial technologies.