People migrated to the colonies for a number of reasons; especially oppurtunity. These reasons include push and pull factors; both counter-balanced by intervening obstacles. The push factors that repelled the migrants from Europe to the colonies; and the pull factors that attracted them to America consist of the following.
The industrial revolution and economic opportunity were two primary reasons for migrating to America.
The industrial revolution was created when the steam engine was discovered. Many factory owners could now build machines that did much of the previously manual work automatically.
The consequences of this resulted in many thousands of factory workers’ loss of jobs. In America however , there were many jobs and oppurtunities that had not been affected by the industrial revolution.
In Europe if you were born poor then you’d be poor for the rest of your life no matter how hard you tried. In America however, there was no fixed class system and so you could do well no matter where you came from with no regard to creed, colour, religion and especially previous economic background.
These are the economic factors that led people to migrate to the colonies.
In Europe, you could be persecuted if you did not follow the religion that ruled at the time and many followers of different relgions fought each other for supremacy and power over the country. Immigrants hoped to build a land where you could practise any religion and so many Catholics fled to Maryland, Quakers to Pennsalvanyia and Mormons to Utah.
The Essay on Access the significance of three factors which might limit economic development in developing countries
Developing countries tend to rely very heavily on primary goods, especially farming. The problem with a rural, agricultural economy is that there is low labour productivity and this leads to low income levels. Many LEDCs also suffer from uneven bargaining power during their trade in primary goods as they often lack knowledge of what the right price should be, and therefore are often exploit by ...
In the 1600’s and 1700’s europe had been strictly ruled by a monarch and the public had little say in who ruled them. The monarchy was free to pass laws, start wars, increase taxes and kill or imprison anyone they felt like. In the few places that these almost powerless parliments did exist then only people who owned land could vote which usually only meant 5% of the countries population.
People started to question the political situation in Europe and more people wanted more power and control over how they lived their lives. Such outspoken people were often killed.
Even in America, the Monarchy chose who represented each colony but by the mid 1700’s, the migrants had a nearly democratic political system; with only the landowners voting though.
If America had been right next to Europe then all of the European public would probably have migrated to America, but, there were a number of intervening obstacles that counter balanced the migration flow to America. These include: the long, expensive and often dangerous trip to America, the seperation from your family and home land and often going with out anything and the risk of getting there and failing to grow anything to eat.
People migrated to America for a number of reasons and there were more push factors that drove them out of Europe than there were push factors that steered them to America. Both of which were counter-balanced by the intervening obstacles.
