estimated 20 million people to North
America, South America, and theWest
Indies. Other captive migrants included
criminals who were shipped off to a
colony as punishment. European countries
transported more than 150,000
convicts to Australia between 1788 and
1867.
History
Prehistoric and Ancient Migration
Many scientists believe that the earliest
humans lived in Africa. From there
humans eventually started moving out.
They reached Europe and Asia first.
From Asia they spread to North America
between 60,000 and 20,000 years ago.
During the
1900s, more
than 6 million
African Americans
moved
from farms in
the South to
cities in the
North.
126 Migration, Human BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
They may have crossed from Russia to
Alaska over a strip of land that is now
underwater. Over thousands of years,
people spread across North, Central, and
South America.
Other prehistoric migrants set out from
Asia in boats. They reached Australia
about 40,000 years ago. Gradually, they
reached all the large islands in the Pacific
Ocean. New Zealand was settled last,
about 1,200 years ago. Frozen Antarctica
is the only continent that migrants never
settled.
Later migrations are recorded in history.
In one of the earliest historical migrations,
the ancient Hebrews moved from
slavery in Egypt to freedom in Palestine
in the 1200s BC. Later, in the AD 300s
and 400s, a number of European tribes
invaded the mighty Roman Empire. The
invaders, whom the Romans called barbarians,
included people called Huns,
Goths, and Vandals. In 476 these
migrants brought down the Roman
empire in theWest.
Migration in the Middle Ages
Wars and conquests made people move
during the Middle Ages, from about AD
500 to about 1500. Some peoples
fought wars in order to take over new
lands. Others were forced from their
lands by the invaders. In the 600s armies
united by the religion of Islam left the
Arabian Peninsula to spread the religion.
They conquered northern Africa, western
Asia, and Spain. In the 700s a European
tribe called the Franks drove the
Saxon tribe into northern Europe.
Between the 800s and 1000s northern
Europeans called Vikings raided and
settled in western Europe. Some Vikings
who settled in France became known as
the Normans. Normans conquered
England in 1066. Starting in about
1200, a central Asian people called the
Mongols conquered much of Asia and
eastern Europe.
According to many scientists the earliest humans lived in Africa. From there humans
spread first to Europe and Asia and later to the Americas.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Migration, Human 127
Migration to the Americas
The European explorer Christopher
Columbus arrived in the Americas in
1492. Migrations from Spain, Portugal,
France, England, and the Netherlands
followed his voyage. However, the number
of immigrants from Europe was
small before 1800. The largest immigrant
group by far was enslaved Africans.
Europeans brought millions of
Africans to the Americas.
After 1800, overpopulation, wars, and
natural disasters in Europe led to a great
migration to the Americas. This was
known as the Great Atlantic Migration.
Millions of Europeans moved to Canada
and South America, but most of the
migrants went to the United States.
Germans migrated to Illinois, Missouri,
andWisconsin beginning in the 1830s.
Norwegians and Swedes arrived in the
next few decades in Minnesota,Wisconsin,
and the Dakotas. In the 1840s a
failure of the potato crop in Ireland
brought many Irish people to the United
States. Italians, Greeks, and eastern
Europeans came later. Between 1880
and 1910 about 17 million Europeans
entered the United States.
Early in the 1900s immigration to the
United States was so great that the government
began setting quotas, or limits.
These quotas limited the number of
immigrants from specific countries. The
United States used these types of quotas
until 1965.
Modern Migration
In the late 1900s many people from
Latin American countries wanted to
move north to the United States. Some
crossed U.S. borders without government
permission and became illegal
immigrants.
Early in the 21st century, Europe had
even more immigrants than North
A Muslim woman and her children make a
new home in Germany.
A great number of Europeans, such as this
Italian family, migrated to the United States
in the 1800s and early 1900s.
128 Migration, Human BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
America. Many came from African or
Middle Eastern countries. They brought
cultural change to Europe.
Meanwhile, the most common kind of
migration throughout the world was
internal migration, mainly from farming
regions into cities. As a result, cities grew
very rapidly in much of the world after
WorldWar II. This was especially true
in developing countries.
#More to explore
Nomad • Refugee • Slavery
MilkyWay
On a dark, clear night, it is usually easy
to see a dusty white band of stars
stretching across the sky. This is part of
the MilkyWay galaxy, a massive collection
of stars, dust, and clouds of gas.
The MilkyWay contains hundreds of
billions of stars. It is only one of billions
of galaxies in the universe.
The sun is one of the stars in the Milky
