Original scientific paper
Slavonian Archival and Newspaper Articles on Croatian Emigrants in the USA in the Period from 1905 to 1910
Ivan BALTA
Abstract
Emigration from Slavonia into the USA from the end of the 19th
century reached its culmination in the period from 1905 to 1910.
The reasons for emigrating were of economical and political
nature: low cost-effectiveness of land-cultivation and
smallholding, industrialisation and the growth of wage labour,
rapid increase of population, intensified Hungarisation of
Slavonia through the Greater-Hungarian programme "Julian
Action" in the railway and schools, party conflicts and ideological
stratification of the Slavonian population (populism, Party-of Right
movement, Austrophiles, Hungarophiles, coalitionists, South-
-Slavism, social democracy...). Slavonian emigration in America
was first directed towards the mining areas of the states of
Pennsylvania and Ohio, the agricultural areas of the states
Kansas and Michigan and towards the great commercial and
industrial cities: New York, Chicago, San Francisco... The difficult and exhausting work of the emigrants caused numerous accidents,
if they could find a job at all. Many disillusioned emigrants
returned to their native country. Emigrants who remained in
America often organised with the help of Catholic missions not
only gatherings for cultural purposes and entertainment but also
for political reasons creating organisations for mutual financial
assistance. Several generations of Slavonian emigrants stayed in
their new country, obtaining citizenship and thus becoming full-
-fledged citizens of the United States of America.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
19314
URI
Publication date:
31.10.2003.
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