Why go West?
Why did people migrate to the colonies?
People migrated to the colonies for a number of reasons; especially oppurtunity. These reasons include push and pull factors; both counter-balanced by intervening obstacles. The push factors that repelled the migrants from Europe to the colonies; and the pull factors that attracted them to America consist of the following.
The industrial revolution and economic opportunity were two primary reasons for migrating to America.
The industrial revolution was created when the steam engine was discovered. Many factory owners could now build machines that did much of the previously manual work automatically.
The consequences of this resulted in many thousands of factory workers' loss of jobs. In America however , there were many jobs and oppurtunities that had not been affected by the industrial revolution.
In Europe if you were born poor then you'd be poor for the rest of your life no matter how hard you tried.
United States
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United StatesIn America however, there was no fixed class system and so you could do well no matter where you came from with no regard to creed, colour, religion and especially previous economic background.
These are the economic factors that led people to migrate to the colonies.
In Europe, you could be persecuted if you did not follow the religion that ruled at the time and many followers of different relgions fought each other for supremacy and power over the country. Immigrants hoped to build a land where you could practise any religion and so many Catholics fled to Maryland, Quakers to Pennsalvanyia and Mormons to Utah.
In the 1600's and 1700's europe had been strictly ruled by a monarch and the public had little say in who ruled them. The monarchy was free to pass laws, start wars, increase taxes and kill...