british and other europeans were the first immigrants that came to america, settling in florida and mexico.
who were the first immigrants that came to america, settling in florida and mexico?
british and other europeans
the first non-portuguese people to settle rio grande do sul were german immigrants. in 1824, the first immigrants from germany arrived in porto alegre, but they were sent to what is now the city of são leopoldo ( away). from 1824 to 1914, 50,000 germans arrived in rio grande do sul. most of these colonists had rural communities in the countryside of the state as their first destination. the large rural exodus in brazil in the early 20th century brought many german-descendants to porto alegre and, nowadays, they compose a large percentage of the population. the second largest group of immigrants who arrived in porto alegre were the italians. they started immigrating to brazil in 1875, mainly from the northern italian veneto region. as the germans, italians were also first sent to rural communities, mainly in the serra gaúcha region. after some decades, many of them started to migrate to other parts of rio grande do sul, including porto alegre. minority communities of immigrants, such as central europeans from poland and eastern europeans from ukraine and jews; arabs from palestine, lebanon and syria; asians from japan; as well as spaniards arriving after the civil war also made porto alegre their home. according to an autosomal dna genetic study from 2011, the ancestral composition of the population of porto alegre is: 77.70% european, 12.70% african and 9.60% native american.
porto alegre
in 1844 philippi formed a partnership with ferdinand flindt, a german merchant based in valparaíso, who also represented prussia there as consul. with financial backing from flindt, in 1844 philippi purchased land in valdivia and along the southern bank of bueno river to be developed by future immigrants. philippi's brother, rodolfo amando philippi, contributed to the colonization plans by recruiting nine german families to emigrate to chile. these families arrived to chile in 1846 aboard one of flindt's ships. by the time the first immigrants arrived, flindt had gone bankrupt and his properties were taken over by another german merchant, franz kindermann. he supported german immigration and took over flindt's responsibilities. land purchases of dubious legality were made by kindermann and his father-in-law johann renous around trumao with the aim re-selling these lands to german immigrants. bankrupted flindt had made similar purchases near osorno. as the chilean state nullified kindermanns and renous purchases the first immigrants to arrive were instead settled in isla teja in valdivia, a river island then called isla valenzuela.
german colonization of valdivia, osorno and llanquihue