The German Immigrants In Colonial Pennsylvania Of Birtish North America: An Analysis Of Reasons And Characteristics

Throughout the colonial period, the German immigrants had deeply influenced thedevelopment of Pennsylvania. The German immigrants not only accounted forone-third of Pennsylvania’s population, but also made great contributions in thepolitical, frontier development, agriculture and military, and have became an importantpart of Pennsylvania. With the key point of the history that Germans immigrated toPennsylvania in the colonial period, this paper analyses the cause of the emigrationfrom Germany and the emigration from Germany to Pennsylvania. And based on theabove, this paper states the stages of Germans immigrating to Pennsylvania and thecharacteristics of the composition of the immigration. Finally this paper discusses thecontribution of Germans who migrated to Pennsylvania.This thesis consists of preface, text and conclusion.The preface mainly introduces the reasons of this research, the literature review ofrelevant, the studying method, the innovation and deficiency of this paper, thedefinitions of relevant concepts, and so on.Four chapters are included in the text.The first part discusses the reasons that the Germans immigrated to abroad. Firstly,this article introduces the factors of war, religious and economic in Germany thrust theGermans immigrated to abroad. Then, America cheap vast land and high degree offreedom, which were a sharp contrast to the sad experience of the Germans in otherland, became the pull of attracting immigration.The second part analysis the causes that most German immigrated to Pennsylvania.With the action of various superiorities, Pennsylvania became the majority of Germanimmigrants’ destination in North America.The third part states the stages of Germans immigrating to Pennsylvania and thecharacteristics of the composition of the immigration. According to the number and thetype of the immigration, we may divide the process that Germans immigrated toPennsylvania in the colonial period into four stages. And the characteristics such as theconcentrate provenance, family migration, redemptioners made up a large proportion,the clustering and the creation of the religious communities belonging to the Germanimmigrants were different from other ethnic groups.The fourth part discusses the contribution of Germans who migrated to Pennsylvania. Although German immigrants were not the erudite, they made anoutstanding contribution to the politics, the construction of the frontier, the agriculture,the military and the education with their own diligence, wisdom and toughness.Based on the introduction and text, we could conclude that German immigrantsmostly were farmers and craftsmen, nor the erudite or the rich squires, but theycontributed to the development of Pennsylvania with diligence and wisdom in their ownway. At the same time, they transformed the old culture and tradition in order to adaptthemselves to the new environment of Pennsylvania, and then formed a new culture ofthe group of German-American.