where did the majority of italian immigrants settled
New York City
title: Italian Americans text: century, such as Baltimore, Maryland; New York City, New York; Newark, New Jersey; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Hartford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; St. Louis, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; and Kansas City, Missouri. New Orleans, Louisiana was the first site of immigration of Italians and Sicilians into America in the 19th century, before Italy was a unified nation-state. This was before New York Harbor and Baltimore became the preferred destinations for Italian immigrants. In sharp contrast to the Northeast, most of the Southern states (with the exception of Central and South Florida and the New title: Italian Americans text: (1922), never fully resumed. Further immigration was greatly limited by several laws Congress passed in the 1920s. Approximately 84% of the Italian immigrants came from the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. This was the poorest and least developed part of Italy, still largely rural and agricultural, where much of the populace had been impoverished by centuries of foreign misrule, and an oppressive taxation system imposed after Italian unification in 1861. After unification, the Italian government initially encouraged emigration to relieve economic pressures in the South. After the American Civil War, which resulted in over a half million killed or title: Italian Americans text: would go first, leaving the mother and the rest of the family behind until the male members could afford their passage. From 1880 to 1915, an estimated 13 million Italians migrated out of Italy, making Italy the scene of the largest voluntary emigration in recorded world history. During this period of mass migration, 4 million Italian immigrants arrived in the United States, and 3 million of the Italian immigrants came just between 1900 and 1915. Once in America, the immigrants faced great challenges. Often with no knowledge of the English language and with little formal education, many of the immigrants title: Italian Americans text: wounded, immigrant workers were recruited from Italy and elsewhere to fill the labor shortage caused by the war. In the United States, most Italians began their new lives as manual laborers in Eastern cities, mining camps and in agriculture. The descendants of the Italian immigrants gradually rose from a lower economic class in the first generation to a level comparable to the national average by 1970. The Italian community has often been characterized by strong ties to family, the Roman Catholic Church, fraternal organizations, and political parties. Italian navigators and explorers played a key role in the exploration and settlement title: Italian Americans in New York City text: wave of Protestants, known as Waldensians, who were of French and northern Italian heritage (specifically Piedmontese), occurred during the 17th century, with the majority coming between 1654 and 1663. A 1671 Dutch record indicates that, in 1656 alone, the Duchy of Savoy near Turin, Italy, had exiled 300 Waldensians due to their Protestant faith. The largest wave of Italian immigration to the United States took place in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Between 1820 and 1978, 5.3 million Italians immigrated to the United States, including over two million between 1900 and 1910. Only the Irish and Germans