Week 24
Between 1820 and 1920, over 2.1 million Scandinavians immigrated to America. They were driven primarily by severe overpopulation, land shortages, and widespread rural poverty at home. They were pulled to the United States by the promise of cheap fertile land, industrial jobs, and glowing reports from family. Part of the problem was a Scandinavia population boom. This was similar to all European nations in the 19th century. There was a dramatic improvement of life expectancy due especially to new health protocols dealing with childbirth. More babies were surviving and more mothers were surviving what had been so dangerous just 25 years earlier. But these dramatic improvements in the lives of the Scandinavian citizens put a strain on their economic health. There was no new land for all these new citizens and therefore the pressure to emigrate grew stronger and stronger all during the century. Better health caused rapid population growth, straining small farming economies. Land was scarce. Strict inheritance laws meant only oldest sons inherited family farms, leaving younger children without land or prospects. And there were many crop failures which ruined subsistence farmers. While all these pressures were building at home, the outlook in the USA looked bring. The Homestead Acts of 1862 offered 160 acres free federal land in the American West and Midwest to anyone willing to farm it. The upper Midwest offered a cold climate, timber, and land resembling Scandinavia. Letters and prepaid travel tickets from earlier friends and relatives made moving easier.