Why so many Slovaks came during the early 1900s? I think I read somewhere, someone compared, now I can't remember, was it Hungarian taxes going up? Or maybe it was the increasing number of men drafted into the Hungarian army over those years? And as those numbers increased, the number of people leaving Austria-Hungary increased across all ethnic groups. If I can find it, I'll send it to the list. - Elaine ================================================ Original message Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 8:20 AM From: "jeanie stout" <msjbostian@yahoo.com> To: HUNGARY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: I am new ... I know they must of came to America between 1900-1910 and it appears many did come. I wonder can any one please tell me what as going on why so many Slovac people coming in those early years to New York census below Thank you Jeanie

There are numerous reasons both men and women left Hungary. Some for political reasons, some to avoid the draft, some came for opportunity. It was not only Eastern Europeans who migrated, people from all over the world came to the US or went to other countries. Elizabeth V. Cardinal evc1369@comcast.net

The great period of immigration between 1890 and 1914, when vast numbers of immigrants came from Southern and Eastern/Central Europe (Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia, and Italy), was fueled by conditions both in Europe and America. The peasant economy, based on farming as had been practiced in Europe for centuries, was coming to an end. Increasing population and division of the land among heirs meant that most could not feed their families on their small plots. Many of these small plots were then bought up by commercial farmers who were better able to supply food to the exploding populations in the cities. This not only decreased the land available to individual families, the price of land also increased to where it was beyond the grasp of most peasant families. Crop failures due to drought and floods only added to the problem. At the same time, America was undergoing enormous industrial expansion which required cheap labor. Peasants who were faced with great economic hardship at home were lured to America by the promise of jobs. Although we look back and see that there were no streets paved with gold for these millions of immigrants, most of them still were far better off than they had been. You can see this when you look at successive immigrants from a village. Word would get back to the village that life was better in America, and more would follow. By far most of the immigrants came from rural villages, hit the hardest by economic conditions, not the larger cities. I hope this helps. Janet