Title: Irish and German immigration (article) | Khan Academy
Headings: Irish and German immigration
Irish and German immigration
Overview
An immigrant nation
Irish immigration
German immigration
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Content: Ultimately, the Germans and Irish assimilated into US culture and society and became two of the most successful immigrant groups in the country. An immigrant nation
The United States, as an immigrant nation, has always faced the challenge of incorporating new demographic groups into its society and culture. Throughout the history of the United States, this has resulted in fierce national debates over what it means to be an American. Successive waves of immigration diversified the country from its origins in white, Anglo-Saxon Protestantism, while enlarging and expanding upon the definition of the term American. Irish immigration
From the 1820s to the 1840s, approximately 90 percent of immigrants to the United States came from Ireland, England, or Germany. Among these groups, the Irish were by far the largest. In the 1820s, nearly 60,000 Irish immigrated to the United States. In the 1830s, the number grew to 235,000, and in the 1840s—due to a potato famine in Ireland—the number of immigrants skyrocketed to 845,000. The Great Irish Famine, as it became known, resulted from a five-year blight that turned potato crops black. Between 1845 and 1850, one million Irish died of starvation and another two million fled the country.