to come to Canada were Dutch Americans among the United Empire Loyalists. The largest wave was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when large numbers of Dutch helped settle the Canadian west. During this period significant numbers also settled in major cities like Toronto. While interrupted by World War I, this migration returned in the 1920s, but again halted during the Great Depression and World War II. After the war a large number of Dutch immigrants moved to Canada, including a number of war brides of the Canadian soldiers who liberated the Low Countries. South America In South America, the Dutch settled mainly in Brazil, Argentina and Suriname. The Dutch were among the first Europeans settling in Brazil during the 17th century. They controlled the northern coast of Brazil from 1630 to 1654 (Dutch Brazil). A significant number of Dutch immigrants arrived in that period. The state of Pernambuco (then Captaincy of Pernambuco) was once a colony of the Dutch Republic from 1630 to 1661. There are a considerable number of people who are descendants of the Dutch colonists in Paraíba (for example in Frederikstad, today João Pessoa), Pernambuco, Alagoas and Rio Grande do Norte. During the 19th and 20th century, Dutch immigrants from the Netherlands immigrated to the Brazil's Center-South, where they founded a few cities. The majority of Dutch Brazilians reside in the states of Espírito Santo, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco and São Paulo. There are also small groups of Dutch Brazilians in Goiás, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. In Argentina, Dutch immigration has been one of many migration flows from Europe in the country, although it has not been as numerous as in other cases (they failed to account for 1% of total migration received). However, Argentina received a large contingent of Dutch since 1825. The largest community is in the city of Tres Arroyos in the south of the province of Buenos Aires. In Suriname the Dutch migrant settlers in search of a better life started arriving in the 19th century with the boeroes, poor farmers arriving from the Dutch provinces of Gelderland, Utrecht, and Groningen. Furthermore, the Surinamese ethnic group, the Creoles, persons of mixed African-European ancestry, are partially of Dutch descent. Many Dutch settlers left Suriname after independence in 1975, which diminished the white Dutch population in the country. Currently