Abstract
A vast reservoir of knowledge already exists about how and why human beings migrated to different parts of the world. Historical records suggest that sometimes humans moved freely to improve their own lot and sometimes they were coerced to move to improve the lot of others. As they migrated as colonists, settlers, sojourners, travelers, invaders, preachers, traders, investors, slaves, serfs, indentured laborers, and free laborers along the way they altered languages and demographics, cultures and communities, ecologies and geographies, economies and technologies, arts and philosophies, and of course, earth and its civilizations. This chapter chronicles the fascinating migratory journey humans have taken over time.
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Notes
- 1.
The literature review on human migration, especially from the ancient to the early modern era, is largely based on Fisher (2014), Manning (1990), Pagden (2003), Potts (1990), Campbell (2004), Cavalli-Sfroza et al. (1994), Olson (2003), Diamond (1997), and Livi-Bacci (2012)—I am deeply indented to them.
- 2.
See Ancient History Encyclopedia, https://www.ancient.eu/article/1070/early-human-migration/, accessed on July 2, 2018.
- 3.
They are interchangeably described as Native Indians, Red Indians, Native Americans, and so on. In the United States, they are now officially described as Native Americans. More on this in Chapter 3.
- 4.
Some of the Roman emperors were not Romans by birthplace. For example, Septimius Severus (AD 145–211) was born in North Africa, Trajan (AD 53–117) was born in Spain, and Diocletian (AD 244–311) was born in Dalmatia.
- 5.
Constantine’s Byzantine Empire survived until the eleventh century, when Seljuk Turks seized Byzantine Armenia. Eventually the Ottoman Turks led by Sultan Mehmet II took over Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire in 1453.
- 6.
Saladin’s empire was founded by slave soldiers known as Mamluks—ethnic Turks from central Asia. Highly trained in martial arts, Mamluks formed the backbone of the military apparatus of Ayyubid rulers. They were the ‘ultimate slaves,’ like the familia Caesaris of the early Roman Empire and the palatine eunuchs of Byzantium and Imperial China (Clifford 2013; Patterson 1982, 299).
- 7.
It is uncertain whether Aztlan was a real or mythical place—some literature suggests it was located either in northwest Mexico or southwest United States, others doubt whether such a place ever existed.
- 8.
Presumably, Admiral He and one of his captains were Muslims who performed a pilgrimage to Mecca during one of their voyages (Manning 1990).
- 9.
The discovery of America, a hitherto unknown landmass of immense size and complexity, also shattered all previous notions of world geography and opened the possibility that there might be other undiscovered continents around the world. Such beliefs subsequently led Dutch navigator Abel Tasman to land in Tasmania and the South Island of New Zealand in 1642, and Captain Cook in Australia between 1772 and 1775 (Pagden 2003).
- 10.
Ovando led a fleet of 32 ships with 2500 soldiers, servants, artisans, and functionaries, of whom more than 1000 died and more than 500 fell ill (Livi-Bacci 2012, 32).
- 11.
In 1718, the British Government also authorized the transportation of European criminals to the American colonies. Over the course of half a century, 40,000–50,000 British convicts sailed to North America—shipments stopped only after the newly independent United States refused to take more British prisoners. Afterwards, the British Crown transported convicts to Australia (Fisher 2014, 61).
- 12.
From the seventeenth century onward, small populations of Amerindians (native Indians), Africans, and Asians also migrated to Europe—as intermediaries or employees of European businesses or wives of Europeans who ventured back to Europe. One of those wives was Pocahontas, brought to England by an Englishman. She was the daughter of Powhattan, an Amerindian headman living near the English colony of Jamestown.
- 13.
The discussion on land-based empires is largely based on Fisher (2014, 52–55).
- 14.
In 1792, Catherine II created a buffer zone in depopulated areas between Russians and semi-nomadic peoples to the east of the lower Volga, and offered potential migrants free transport and cash, 80 acres of free land, freedom of religion and administrative autonomy, 10-year interest-free loans to build homes and buy tools, a 30-year exemption from taxes, and perpetual exemption from military service. In 1871, Czar Alexander II however revoked the exemption of German settlers from military service, which prompted a wave of migration to the United States. In 1924, the Volga colonies became one of the autonomous republics of the former USSR. In 1941, Stalin dissolved the Republic and sent its inhabitants to Siberia—those who survived emigrated to Germany after 1980 taking advantage of the ‘Law of Return.’
- 15.
England also officially banned and deported Jews during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603).
- 16.
The numbers in parentheses show year of establishment.
- 17.
Among the Asian countries, Japan however was an exception. Anticipating disruptions that European colonialism might cause, in 1600, the Shoguns cut-off the country from the rest of the world to keep the sacred land of Japan pure and their subjects out of the reach of outsiders. In 1613, Japan promulgated the Closed Country Edict forbidding any Japanese ship to leave for foreign countries and any Japanese to go abroad, mandating the death sentence to any Japanese who returned home after residing abroad.
- 18.
As mentioned before, slavery was officially abolished in the British Empire in 1833, in the French colonial empire in 1848, and in the United States in 1865.
- 19.
Also, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, thousands of Indian soldiers fought in British wars in China, Southeast Asia, Africa, West Asia, and Europe, and tens of thousands of seamen, servants, clerks, merchants, laborers, and their wives and children moved to Britain.
- 20.
Between 1797 and 1906, the British rulers passed a series of laws decreeing that black Africans and Asians could not venture out of their restricted zones unless they carried a passbook that authorized such travel. These laws served as the foundation of African apartheid, which was eventually eliminated in 1994.
- 21.
The Berlin Conference (1884–1885) coincided with the emergence of Germany as an imperial power. Organized by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the Conference formalized the so-called scramble for Africa by eliminating the autonomy and self-governance of African countries and distributing most African land to European colonial powers.
- 22.
This section is largely based on Livi-Bacci (2012, 28–41).
- 23.
Both Catherine the Great and her husband Czar Peter II were German immigrants. Although the Russian Empire had at its core Slavic culture and the Russian Orthodox Christian Church, the rulers of the Romanov dynasty that ruled the Empire for more than 100 years were non-Slavs and non-Orthodox immigrants.
- 24.
Following the acquisition of Crimea in 1783, and the settlement of Germans in Volga, it is estimated that the Russian population in the New South grew from 1.6 million to 14.5 million between 1724 and 1859 (Livi-Bacci 2012, 41).
- 25.
Following the war, six great powers of the time—Russia, Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Germany—as well as the Ottoman Empire and four Balkan states—Greece, Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro—joined the Berlin Conference in 1878 and agreed to the major reallocation of territories propelling a massive cross-migration of people to new states.
- 26.
One of the descendants of Japanese indentured laborers, Alberto Fujimori, became president of Peru in 1990.
- 27.
The Great Depression, that lasted more than a decade from 1929–1939, was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world up to that point. At the depth of the depression in 1933, some 15 million Americans, about one quarter the labor force, were unemployed, about half of the country’s banks failed, and the country’s industrial production declined by a half. The economic woes of Americans soon spread around the industrialized world mainly due to global adherence to a fixed currency exchange regime called the Gold Standard.
- 28.
During WWII, Japan incarcerated about 130,000 captured civilians—the majority of them were Europeans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Americans. They also conscripted about 5.4 million Koreans as forced laborers and imported about 670,000 Koreans to Japan. During the war, the United States also deported more than 100,000 American citizens and permanent residents of Japanese ancestry (Manning 2005).
- 29.
The Israeli population grew from 806,000 in May 15, 1948 (since Independence Day), to 7.2 million at the end of 2007. With Israel’s annexation of Palestinian land following the 1967 war, about 5 million Palestinians are currently stateless.
- 30.
Britain still has 14 colonies—officially described as ‘dependent territories.’ France also has several overseas territories in the Pacific and the Indian Oceans, and Spain still clings to Ceuta and Melilla on the North African coast.
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Dowlah, C. (2020). Global Human Migration: An Overview. In: Cross-Border Labor Mobility . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36506-6_2
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