Review article
Emigration from Slavonia into America from 1905 to 1910
Ivan Balta
Abstract
The description of the emigration from Slavonia into America is based on the documents and the periodicals (newspapers and journals) stored in the State Archive in Osijek, the Croatian State Archive in Zagreb, the Slavonian Museum in Osijek and the published historiographical material and research done on emigration. Emigration from Slavonia to America at the end of the XIXth century reached its peak from 1905 to 1910. The causes of emigration were economic and political in nature: the weak return on working the land and on small holdings, industrialization and the rise in the number of wage earners, the rapid growth of the population, the enhanced attempt to Hungarise Slavonia by way of the railways and through education, party conflicts and the ideological and political stratification of the Slavonian population. In the beginning the Slavonian emigrants in America as a rule headed for the mining regions of Pennsylvania and Ohio, the agricultural fields of Kansas and Michigan and the large trading and industrial cities: New York, Chicago, San Francisco… The difficult and strenuous labour conditions in which the emigrants worked if they were fortunate to find work was the cause of numerous accidents. Many disappointed emigrants returned back to the home country. The emigrants who remained in America organized themselves, frequently with the help of Catholic missions, not only for the purpose of cultural-entertainment gatherings but also to promote their political interests in numerous organizations set up for the purpose of mutual material and financial support.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
12139
URI
Publication date:
19.9.2003.
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