Timeline: Immigration
Along with the British, the Irish and German accounted for the bulk of the immigrants to the United States during this period. A devastating potato famine hit Ireland in the 1840s, causing a million to die in Ireland and a million to leave the country. Tens of thousands crossed the Atlantic seeking better conditions. Crop failures and economic depression also motivated waves of Germans to emigrate, along with the failed political revolutions of 1848. Unlike the Irish, the Germans immigration drew from all professions, classes, and religions. The Irish and Germans continued to immigrate to the United States in large numbers through the rest of the nineteenth century.
Review the timeline to learn more about how the immigration of large numbers of Irish and Germans affected American life.
