USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Between 1870 and 1900, the largest number of immigrants continued to come from northern and western Europe including Great Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia. But “new” immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were becoming one of the most important forces in American life.

Detailed explanation-2: -Most immigrants in the early 1800s were coming from western and northern European nations like Britain, Ireland, and Germany. Later in the century, more and more were coming from southern and eastern European nations like Italy, Poland, and Greece.

Detailed explanation-3: -The principal source of immigrants was now southern and eastern Europe, especially Italy, Poland, and Russia, countries quite different in culture and language from the United States, and many immigrants had difficulty adjusting to life here. At the same time, the United States had difficulty absorbing the immigrants.

Detailed explanation-4: -In the 1880s and early 1890s, as Irish and German immigration began to slow, Italians, Poles, Slovaks and other immigrants from southern and eastern European countries began to arrive in the United States in greater numbers.

Detailed explanation-5: -Most Southern European immigrants were motivated by economic opportunity in the United States, while Eastern Europeans (primarily Jews) fled religious persecution.