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when did super storm sandy hit new york | Effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|Meteorological history|
|Formed||October 28, 2012 (First rainbands begin to affect New Jersey)|
|Extratropical||October 29|
|Dissipated||November 2, 2012 (Dissipated as extratropical cyclone)|
|Category 1 hurricane|
|1-minute sustained ( SSHWS / NWS )|
|Highest winds||80 mph (130 km/h)|
|Lowest pressure||945 mbar ( hPa ); 27.91 inHg|
|Overall effects|
|Fatalities||53 total|
|Damage||$32 billion (2012 USD )|
|Areas affected||New York , especially the New York metropolitan area|
|[1]|
Part of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season
| History |
Effects
Other wikis
New York was severely affected by Hurricane Sandy on October 29–30, 2012, particularly New York City , its suburbs, and Long Island . Sandy's impacts included the flooding of the New York City Subway system, of many suburban communities, and of all road tunnels entering Manhattan except the Lincoln Tunnel . The New York Stock Exchange closed for two consecutive days. Numerous homes and businesses were destroyed by fire, including over 100 homes in Breezy Point, Queens . Large parts of the city and surrounding areas lost electricity for several days. Several thousand people in midtown Manhattan were evacuated for six days due to a crane collapse at Extell's One57 . Bellevue Hospital Center and a few other large hospitals were closed and evacuated. Flooding at 140 West Street and another exchange disrupted voice and data communication in lower Manhattan . [2]
At least 43 people died in New York City as a result of the storm, and 53 in the state. Thousands of homes and an estimated 250,000 vehicles were destroyed during the storm, and the economic losses in New York City were estimated to be roughly $19 billion [3] with an estimated $32.8 billion required for restoration across the state. [4]
Hurricane Sandy originated in the Caribbean Sea on October 22. Early on October 25, Hurricane Sandy moved across eastern Cuba as a major hurricane and emerged into the western Atlantic Ocean. [5] The National Hurricane Center (NHC) expected that Sandy would become extratropical at some point before hitting the New Jersey coast, but there was uncertainty in the timing. To avoid potential confusion, the agency did not issue hurricane and tropical cyclone warnings ; instead, the National Weather Service (NWS) office in New York City issued high wind warnings , reflecting the expectation of wind gusts over 58 mph (93 km/h). [5] [6] As early as October 27, the NHC forecast a 4 to 8 ft (1.2 to 2.4 m) storm surge inundation, which they later increased to 6 to 11 ft (1.8 to 3.4 m). [5]
On October 28, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for every county in the state. He also asked for a pre-disaster declaration to better access federal assistance. [7] Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano ordered voluntary evacuations of the South Shore storm surge area, which includes the area south of Sunrise Highway , as well as the North Shore 's areas north of Route 25A and in elevations 15 feet above sea level or less. [8] Shelters were opened at Levittown Memorial High School, Locust Valley High School, Nassau Community College and SUNY Old Westbury . In Suffolk County , officials ordered mandatory evacuations for residents of Fire Island and in surge zone areas in Babylon , Brookhaven , Islip , Riverhead , Southampton and Southold . Shelters were opened at Hampton Bays High School , Sachem East High School, and the Brentwood High School Sonderling Building . [9] Most schools closed in Nassau and Suffolk counties on October 29, including Adelphi University , Hofstra University , Molloy College , Nassau Community College and Stony Brook University . [10] [11]
On October 28, President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration for the state of New York. [12] The Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road suspended service beginning 7 p.m. October 27 through October 29 and possibly October 30. [13] Starbucks closed all of its outlets in the city and Long Island on October 28 at 4 p.m. to let employees get home before the transit system shut down. The stores remained closed on October 29. [14] The Tappan Zee Bridge was closed October 29 at 4 p.m. EDT due to wind conditions. [15]
Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters on October 26 that the city had begun taking precautions but said at that time there was no call for mandatory evacuations and no plans to suspend the city's mass transit or cancel school. But on October 28, Governor Cuomo ordered the MTA , including the subway, closed and in a press conference immediately after Cuomo's announcement, Mayor Bloomberg ordered public schools closed on October 29. [16] He ordered mandatory evacuations for Zone A [17] which includes the southern tip of Manhattan, the Coney Island - Brighton Beach and Red Hook areas of Brooklyn , the entire Rockaways peninsula, much of Staten Island , City Island , and part of the Throggs Neck area of the Bronx . [18] On October 28, officials activated the city's coastal emergency plan, with subway closings and the evacuation of residents in areas hit during Hurricane Irene in August 2011. More than 76 evacuation shelters were open around the city. [7]
The MTA announced that all subway, bus and commuter rail service would be suspended, beginning at 7 p.m. EDT on October 28 and expected to continue suspension through at least October 30. [19] All PATH train service and stations were shut down at 12:01 a.m. October 29. [16] 200 National Guard troops were deployed in the city. All bus carriers at the Port Authority Bus Terminal closed at 3 a.m. October 29. U.S. stock trading was suspended for October 29 and 30. [20] It was the first two-day weather closure since the Great Blizzard of 1888 . [21] All state courts were closed October 29, except for arraignments and emergency applications. NYU Langone Medical Center cancelled all surgeries and medical procedures, except for emergency procedures. [22]
On October 27, Google postponed their planned Android event in New York City due to the storm. [23] [24] The Staten Island Ferry and East River Ferry services were suspended at least through October 29. [25] Most bridges and tunnels closed. Major carriers cancelled all flights into and out of JFK , LaGuardia and Newark-Liberty airports until it was safe to fly. Broadway theater owners canceled all October 28 evening and October 29 performances. [13] Alternate-side parking and parking meter regulations were suspended on October 29. [26] Grand Central Terminal , Central Park and Battery Park were closed on October 29. The Holland Tunnel and the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel closed at 2 p.m. EDT on October 29. The Tappan Zee Bridge was closed later on that day. [27] [28]
One of the units at Indian Point nuclear power plant (Unit #3) was shut down around 10:45 p.m. October 29, because of external electrical grid issues according to plant operator Entergy . [29]
As an extratropical cyclone, Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey on October 29, about 100 mi (160 km) south of New York City. [5] It was a large cyclone, with gale-force winds about 1,000 mi (1,600 km) in diameter. Sandy's northwest track toward the coast drove a wall of water into southeastern New York from New York Harbor , as well as from the Long Island Sound . [3] Along the coast of Long Island and across the New York metropolitan area, the storm's large size produced record high tides and a significant storm surge , which is the rise in water above the normally expected high tide . [5] The timing of the surge coincided with the normal high tide, as well as a full moon, which added to the increase in water. [3] Kings Point at the western end of the Long Island Sound recorded a storm surge of 12.65 ft (3.86 m) above normal tide levels. At the Battery on the southern tip of Manhattan , a storm surge of 9.40 ft (2.87 m) was recorded, corresponding to 14.06 ft (4.29 m) above the average low tide ; this was the highest water level on record, surpassing the previous record set by the December 1992 nor'easter . [5] About 17% of New York City flooded during the storm, equating to 51 sq mi (130 km 2 ). This exceeded the 100-year flood as predicted by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Areas along the ocean suffered from 12 ft (3.7 m) in addition to the high tides, which eroded more than 3 million yd 3 (2.3 million m 3 of beaches in New York City. Oceanfront locations with nourished beach , dunes, or bulkheads had less flooding. [3]
Sandy's large circulation produced high winds across southern New York. At Great Gull Island in the Long Island Sound, sustained winds reached 75 mph (121 km/h) while Sandy was still a tropical cyclone. Wind gusts reached 95 mph (153 km/h) at Eatons Neck along the northern coast of Long Island. [5] Hurricane-force gusts occurred throughout the New York metropolitan area and along Long Island. [30] The storm also dropped light rainfall across the state. Precipitation in New York reached 3.42 in (87 mm) in Sherman , in the extreme western portion of the state. [31]
Across New York, Sandy killed 48 people directly related to its impacts, including floodwaters and winds. [5] The storm caused 43 deaths in New York City, mostly in Staten Island. [3] There were another five deaths caused by carbon monoxide poisoning, after people used generators inside their homes. [32] Power outages affected nearly 2 million people in New York City, while more than 1 million people lost cellphone service. [3] Statewide, Sandy destroyed about 305,000 homes, mostly related to the high storm surge. [5] In New York City alone, the floodwaters entered the homes of more than 443,000 people and more than 23,400 businesses. About 75,000 people in poor health were affected by the floodwaters, while another 54,000 people in poor health were in areas affected by power outages. [3] On November 26, Governor Cuomo estimated statewide damage and losses at $32 billion. Mayor Bloomberg announced earlier in the day that the storm caused $19 billion in losses in New York City, which was included in the estimate Cuomo gave. [33] The statewide damage was roughly half of the nationwide estimate of $68.7 billion, with much of the remaining damage occurring in neighboring New Jersey. [5]
The Old Orchard Shoal Light in New York Harbor was destroyed by the hurricane. [34] [35]
As of the morning of November 1, Con Ed had restored two power networks, but there were still more than 600,000 customers without power throughout the five boroughs. Con Ed predicted most all of Manhattan would be fully restored by November 3. [36] By the afternoon of the same day, Con Ed said it expected to "restore the vast majority of customers who lost power by the weekend of November 10 and 11. The remaining customer restorations could take an additional week more." [37]
As of the morning of November 2, more than 1.3 million customers were without power, down from 2.2 million. As of 5:00 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT) on that date Con Edison said about 226,000 customers lacked service in Manhattan, 84,000 in Queens, 35,000 in Brooklyn, 54,000 in Staten Island 31,000 in the Bronx and 140,000 in Westchester. On Long Island, LIPA said it still had about 532,000 customers without power, down from more than 900,000. [38] In the evening of November 2, LIPA said they expected to cut the number of customer outages by 150,000 by November 4. [39]
As of 4 a.m. November 3, Con Ed reported about:
- 94,769 customer outages in Manhattan
- 81,372 customer outages in Queens
- 37,504 customer outages in Staten Island
- 31,448 customer outages in Brooklyn
- 26,252 customer outages in the Bronx [40]
During the evening of November 3, Con Ed announced all Manhattan power networks were back online. Approximately 153,000 Con Ed customers were without power as of 8 p.m. November 3:
- 9,211 customer outages in Manhattan
- 74,067 customer outages in Queens
- 27,842 customer outages in Staten Island
- 24,707 customer outages in Brooklyn
- 19,501 customer outages in the Bronx [41]
As of around noon November 5, Con Ed reported those without electricity were:
- 3,825 customer outages in Manhattan
- 38,397 customer outages in Queens
- 17,465 customer outages in Staten Island
- 22,887 customer outages in Brooklyn
- 8,282 customer outages in the Bronx [42]
As of January 2013, there were still 8,200 people without power. [43]
The storm damaged, destroyed, or severely flooded around 100,000 homes on Long Island. As of December 10, 2012, more than 2,000 homes were deemed uninhabitable. [44]
Bloomberg stated on November 3 that 55,000 buildings in the city's Zone A were ordered to evacuate and would be inspected for damage. [45]
The MTA incurred about $5 billion in damage from Sandy, which became the worst disaster to affect the transit agency in its 108-year history. There was an additional $2.5 billion in transportation damage in the state. Several subway stations were severely damaged, and eight tunnels were submerged. Train service between Manhattan and Brooklyn was disrupted for several weeks after the storm. [5]
The storm surge inundated portions of the runways and tarmacs at both LaGuardia and JFK airports. [5]
On October 31, NY Waterway ferries between Hudson County, New Jersey , and Manhattan resumed service. The Staten Island Ferry resumed full service November 2 and Staten Island Railway the next day.
On November 1, fuel ships started arriving in reopened New York Harbor . [46]
On November 2, Governor Cuomo signed an executive order waiving the state's requirements that fuel tankers register and pay a tax before unloading. [47]
The George Washington Bridge , Throgs Neck Bridge , Verrazano Bridge , and Whitestone Bridge closed at 7 p.m. EDT October 29. All road tunnels into Manhattan, except the Lincoln Tunnel, were flooded and closed, as were subway tunnels under the East River and the PATH subway system. [48] Limited bus service resumed Tuesday evening, Oct 30. Limited MTA subway service was scheduled to resume on November 1 with two East River tunnels (59th Street and 63rd Street ) in operation and shuttle bus service to Manhattan from Brooklyn termini. [49] The Long Island Rail Road remained closed due to storm damage until November 8, 2012. The LIRR then re-opened with partial service to most of its branches, excluding Long Beach. [50] Nassau Inter-County Express and Suffolk County Transit suspended and/or greatly limited service for the storm. [51] In response to the flooding of tunnels and other infrastructure, the United States Army Corps of Engineers sent its National Unwatering Team. [52]
As of October 31, 2012, MTA bus service began operating on a regular schedule. The subway system was tested with plans to resume limited service to 14 of the 23 services on November 1. PATH services remained suspended; the Long Island Rail Road resumed limited, hourly service; and Metro-North restored hourly service on its Harlem Line between North White Plains and Grand Central Terminal. All bridges were open. Amtrak provided modified service starting on November 1, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal reopened with no Greyhound Lines service or commuter buses to New Jersey. [53]
On the morning of November 1, the first train, an A train , pulled out of Penn Station three days after tunnels were flooded. Subway service in Lower Manhattan except for the IRT Lexington Avenue Line and to Brooklyn was disconnected. The G train (which is a crosstown route between Queens and Brooklyn), as well as the Rockaway Park Shuttle and the part-time B , C , and Z trains, were also suspended. [54] [55] Governor Cuomo waived fares on MTA trains and buses through November 5. [56]
The Holland Tunnel opened to buses only on November 2. [57] HOV restrictions on bridges and Lincoln Tunnel ended on that day. By November 3, 80 percent of subway service was restored. [58] On November 6, the Queens Midtown Tunnel reopened one lane for buses heading into and out of Manhattan during rush hour . [59] The Holland Tunnel reopened November 7 at 5 a.m. EST., [60] while the Queens-Midtown Tunnel reopened on November 9 at 6 a.m. EST. [61] The Hugh L. Carey Tunnel opened November 12 to limited rush-hour bus service. [62]
Delta Air Lines cancelled all flights out of LaGuardia Airport through October 30 at 8 p.m. EDT. [63] The three major airports serving New York City, JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark, were closed as of 8 p.m. on October 29. [64] More than 8,000 flights were canceled by 4 p.m. EDT for the day of October 30. LaGuardia and Newark had a total of 2,400 cancelled flights. As of early morning October 31, nearly 3,000 flights were canceled, [65] but JFK and Newark airports began handling flights after 7 a.m. [53] LaGuardia Airport reopened November 1 at 7:00 a.m. [53]
New York's Village Halloween Parade , held annually on October 31, was cancelled due to blackout conditions in Greenwich Village . A similar parade in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York was also cancelled for that same reason. [66]
After many complaints that running the New York City Marathon through affected areas would seem insensitive and would put further pressure on police and other service workers who would be better deployed in the recovery efforts, Mayor Bloomberg announced late afternoon November 2 that the race had been cancelled. The event was to take place on Sunday, November 4. Marathon officials said that it would not be rescheduled. [67]
The opening game at the Barclays Center between the National Basketball Association 's Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks originally scheduled to take place on November 1 was rescheduled for November 26. [68]
The soccer game between the New York Red Bulls and D.C. United in the 2012 Major League Soccer playoffs, scheduled for November 3, was moved to November 7, due to a power outage at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey .
The most significant water levels in the state from Sandy occurred in Staten Island. Along the northern tip along the Kill Van Kull , Sandy produced a storm surge of 9.56 ft (2.91 m) above normal tide levels, which corresponded to water levels 14.58 ft (4.44 m) above the average low tide. This surpassed the previous record by 4.57 ft (1.39 m), set by Irene a year earlier. The highest-observed water line in the state was 7.9 ft (2.4 m) above ground, measured on a doorframe of a house in Staten Island's Oakwood neighborhood. [5]
Staten Island experienced sustained winds of 40 to 60 mph, with gusts of up to 80 mph. [69]
At least 21 people died on Staten Island from the storm surge. Floodwaters washed away entire blocks of houses in Midland Beach , New Dorp , and Oakwood Beach. [5]
On October 30, the John B. Caddell tanker was driven ashore at Staten Island. [70]
Parts of Lower Manhattan were inundated by floodwaters, possibly as much as 8 ft (2.4 m) deep, based on water marks measured near the South Street Seaport . At One World Trade Center in the Financial District , water levels were 4.7 ft (1.4 m) above ground. Floodwaters reached the corner of Canal and Hudson streets. Waters from the East River inundated parts of the East Village . [5]
The floods entered hundreds of buildings across Manhattan. The South Ferry/Whitehall Street station in Battery Park was largely destroyed, [5] after the storm surge submerged the station with 80 ft (24 m) of floodwaters. [71] The station was less than four years old, as the previous station was rebuilt following the September 11 attacks of 2001. [72] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Sandy_in_New_York | 51 |
when did super storm sandy hit new york | 2012 Hurricane Sandy: Facts, FAQs, and how to help | Gallery
A girl observes storm damage in New York, where Sandy unleashed hurricane-force winds of up to 90 miles per hour. Sandy’s wind and rain downed power lines, uprooted trees, and, at its height, inundated Manhattan with a 14-foot storm surge. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Laura Reinhardt)
Gallery
Debris litters the streets of lower Manhattan in the aftermath of Sandy. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Laura Reinhardt)
Gallery
Five-year-old Junior Gonzalez sobs uncontrollably; tears stream down his face. His family’s basement apartment was flooded, leaving almost nothing to salvage, including destroying his book bag and schoolwork. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Laura Reinhardt)
Gallery
People wait in line for emergency relief supplies from World Vision in Far Rockaway, New York. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Reed Slattery)
Gallery
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy pounded the U.S. with 90 mph winds and record-breaking storm surges, killing 147 people from the Caribbean to the U.S. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Laura Reinhardt)
Gallery
Hurricane Sandy moves northward in this NOAA satellite image on Oct. 28, 2012. (©2012 photo courtesy of NOAA)
Gallery
People's personal belongings litter the streets of Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood following Hurricane Sandy. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Laura Reinhardt)
Gallery
A girl observes storm damage in New York, where Sandy unleashed hurricane-force winds of up to 90 miles per hour. Sandy’s wind and rain downed power lines, uprooted trees, and, at its height, inundated Manhattan with a 14-foot storm surge. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Laura Reinhardt)
Gallery
Debris litters the streets of lower Manhattan in the aftermath of Sandy. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Laura Reinhardt)
Gallery
Five-year-old Junior Gonzalez sobs uncontrollably; tears stream down his face. His family’s basement apartment was flooded, leaving almost nothing to salvage, including destroying his book bag and schoolwork. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Laura Reinhardt)
Gallery
People wait in line for emergency relief supplies from World Vision in Far Rockaway, New York. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Reed Slattery)
Gallery
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy pounded the U.S. with 90 mph winds and record-breaking storm surges, killing 147 people from the Caribbean to the U.S. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Laura Reinhardt)
Gallery
Hurricane Sandy moves northward in this NOAA satellite image on Oct. 28, 2012. (©2012 photo courtesy of NOAA)
Gallery
People's personal belongings litter the streets of Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood following Hurricane Sandy. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Laura Reinhardt)
Gallery
A girl observes storm damage in New York, where Sandy unleashed hurricane-force winds of up to 90 miles per hour. Sandy’s wind and rain downed power lines, uprooted trees, and, at its height, inundated Manhattan with a 14-foot storm surge. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Laura Reinhardt)
Hurricane Sandy was the deadliest hurricane of 2012 and one of the most destructive hurricanes in history to hit the United States. Toward the end of October 2012, Hurricane Sandy plowed through the Caribbean — killing 75 people before heading north. As it approached the East Coast, it produced the highest waves ever recorded in the western Atlantic , causing devastating storm surge and floods throughout coastal New York and New Jersey. At one point, Sandy engulfed a swath of 800 miles between the East Coast and the Great Lakes region.
Also called Superstorm Sandy, it caused $70.2 billion worth of damage, left 8.5 million people without power, destroyed 650,000 homes , and was responsible for the deaths of at least 72 Americans .
Explore frequently asked questions about Hurricane Sandy, and learn how you can help families impacted by hurricanes .
- 147 people died
- $70.2 billion worth of damage
- 8.5 million people lost power
- 650,000 homes destroyed
- Record-breaking storm surges flooded New York and New Jersey
On Oct. 22, 2012, over tropical ocean waters off the coast of Nicaragua, Hurricane Sandy began from a tropical wave that developed into a tropical depression, then quickly into a tropical cyclone. Two days later it became a Category 1 hurricane with winds stronger than 74 mph.
Hurricane Sandy first made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 1 hurricane on October 24, 2012. The next day, it wreaked a path of destruction through Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas.
On Oct. 29, 2012, Sandy made landfall over the U.S. near Atlantic City, New Jersey, with hurricane-force winds of 90 mph.
The number of deaths from Hurricane Sandy, such as drowning in storm surges or flooding, is counted at 147, according to the National Hurricane Center . Death counts in the U.S. totaled 72. Haiti was the second-most affected country with 54 deaths.
Hurricane Sandy is now the fourth-costliest hurricane in U.S. history, damaging at least 650,000 houses and causing $70.2 billion worth of damage. When Sandy made landfall in 2012, it was the second-costliest hurricane to hit the United States since 1900, with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 being the costliest. Both Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and Hurricane Irma in 2017 have since topped Sandy.
Haiti : In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, World Vision staff in Haiti distributed nearly 6,000 tarpaulins, 5,000 jerrycans, and 2,500 hygiene kits in Port-au-Prince. In the far south of the island nation, 100 families received T-shirts, sleeping mats, and blankets. Hot meals were also provided to 200 families in shelters in La Gonave.
United States : As Hurricane Sandy moved away from the East Coast, World Vision sent relief teams to assess the damage. Teams surveyed areas in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, West Virginia, and Kentucky.
World Vision targeted the most impoverished and vulnerable communities in each state and supported local partners — such as churches and community groups — to facilitate clean-up efforts.
World Vision had pre-positioned emergency supplies to help with the relief effort, including flood clean-up kits, food kits, and hygiene kits. Additional supplies were trucked from World Vision’s domestic disaster warehouse in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Initiatives and accomplishments of World Vision’s Hurricane Sandy response included:
- 49,335 people served
- $2.49 million worth of relief supplies and materials distributed
- 1,534 volunteers hours
- 9,904 blankets distributed
- 9,001 hygiene kits distributed
- 1,700 flood clean-up kits distributed
- 5,168 students and 398 teachers provided school supplies through a mobile Teacher Resource Center
October 22, 2012 : Sandy begins as a tropical storm in the Caribbean Sea.
October 24, 2012 : Sandy develops into a Category 1 hurricane and hits Jamaica with winds of 80 mph.
October 25, 2012 : Hurricane Sandy makes landfall in Cuba as a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds, then travels to Haiti and the Bahamas, killing 54 people in Haiti, 11 people in the Dominican Republic, and two people in the Bahamas.
October 26 to 27, 2012: Hurricane Sandy alternates between a Category 1 hurricane and a tropical storm, then returns to a Category 1 hurricane.
October 28, 2012 : Still a Category 1, Hurricane Sandy moves parallel to Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
October 29, 2012 : Hurricane Sandy approaches the East Coast of the United States as a Category 2, then weakens to a post-tropical cyclone.
- 12:30 p.m.: Sandy brings high winds and drenching rain from Washington, D.C., northward.
- 8 p.m.: Sandy comes ashore near Atlantic City, New Jersey, with hurricane-force winds of 90 mph. In combination with a full moon and high tide, a 14-foot wave surge in New York Harbor tops the seawall in lower Manhattan and floods parts of New York’s subway system and a crucial tunnel. It downs power lines, uproots trees, inundates Manhattan, and causes extensive damage in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Heavy wind and rain continue all night through three tidal cycles.
October 30, 2012 : Sandy moves away from New York, toward Pennsylvania, but is still drenching the Northeast.
October 31, 2012 : Sandy dissipates over western Pennsylvania, leaving heavy snow in the Appalachian Mountains. | https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/2012-hurricane-sandy-facts | 51 |
when did super storm sandy hit new york | 10 Biggest Disasters in the History of New York City: Hurricane Sandy | We are back this week with our series the 10 Biggest Disasters in the History of New York City with a look at one of the most destructive storms to hit New York City and the surrounding areas, Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy is the fourth costliest storm in the U.S., causing nearly $70 billion in damage and resulting in the death of 233 people across 8 different countries .
Hurricane Sandy originated as a tropical wave in the Caribbean Sea, west of Nicaragua on October 22, 2012. Just six hours after its formation, the storm was upgraded to Tropical Storm Sandy and by October 24, it intensified into a hurricane. Hurricane Sandy first made landfall in Jamaica and strengthened into a Category 2 storm after passing through Jamaica and back into the Caribbean. Sandy then strengthened again into a Category 3 storm by the time if hit Cuba on October 25.
The next day, Hurricane Sandy moved through the Bahamas and up the Atlantic, not making landfall again until October 29 when it made landfall near Brigantine, New Jersey. As Sandy moved further inland, it weakened and became absorbed by another storm on November 2. In total, Hurricane Sandy affected six countries in the Caribbean, the U.S., and Canada and affected 24 states from Florida to Maine and as far northwest as Michigan and Wisconsin.
Hurricane Sandy caused a path of destruction with strong winds and flooding. The storm left 70 percent of Jamaicans with no power, caused coastal flooding in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, and resulted in nearly $3 billion in damage. Sandy caused the most damage in the U.S., resulting in $65 billion in damage and 160 deaths. New York and New Jersey were hit the hardest and New York City was hit by a storm surge that caused major flooding and damage.
In this blog, we are going to focus on the effect that Hurricane Sandy had on New York and New Jersey. Both states experienced extensive flooding that led to widespread property damage and had the highest death tolls of the affected states. At ServiceMaster Restoration by Complete , our technicians are ready to respond in the aftermath of a major storm in Staten Island, Brooklyn, and the surrounding areas in New Jersey with our flood and storm damage repair services . We are trained and fully equipped to help homes and businesses recover after sustaining damage from strong winds or major flooding. We are not afraid to tackle any level of damage to get your property back to its original condition.
Early on October 22, 2012, Hurricane Sandy was a low-pressure system that was classified as a tropical depression. The storm strengthened throughout the day and was upgraded to a tropical storm. The eye of the storm began to form two days later on October 24 and was upgraded to a hurricane by the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane Sandy first made landfall near Kingston, Jamaica on October 24 with 85 mph winds and the next morning it hit near Santiago de Cuba with 115 mph winds.
Once Hurricane Sandy passed through Cuba, it weakened into a tropical storm as it moved towards the Bahamas. A low-pressure system caused Hurricane Sandy to maintain its power and it strengthened into a hurricane again and redeveloped its eye on October 28. The storm then moved up the Atlantic along the east coast of the U.S. without making landfall before turning northwest.
On October 29, Hurricane Sandy expanded and had a wind diameter of more than 1,000 miles, and it intensified into a Category 2 storm. The storm made landfall in New Jersey later that day with 80 mph winds. Over the next few days, the storm moved inland, slowly dissipating before being taken over by another low-pressure system in Ontario, Canada.
As Hurricane Sandy began to threaten the U.S., it was referred to as a “superstorm” or “Frankenstorm” because it was expected to make landfall in combination with a winter storm. Up and down the East Coast, communities prepared for heavy rain, snow, flooding, and gale force winds. Utility companies and local governments worked together to prepare for possible power outages and President Obama declared emergencies for states in the storm’s path so they could prepare with the help of federal aid. The impending storms also caused the cancellation of more than 5,000 commercial flights and Amtrak suspended services in the area
Evacuations of the barrier islands of New Jersey began on October 26 as Governor Chris Christie ordered mandatory evacuations. Voluntary evacuations began in many areas, the casinos in Atlantic City were closed, and tollways were suspended. Cities and townships including Hoboken and Logan Township were given mandatory evacuations and many schools across the state were closed. New Jersey was one of the states that got an emergency declaration from President Obama and was able to get federal assistance while preparing for the storm.
The state of New York also received an emergency declaration from President Obama on October 27. Flights into and out of the major airports, including JFK and LaGuardia, were cancelled, rail service was suspended, and Governor Cuomo ordered the MTA and Port Authority Bus Terminal to shut down in New York City. The MTA subways were flooded the previous year by Hurricane Irene, so city officials took action to prevent flooding of the subways. Medical centers in the area also cancelled surgeries and medical procedures except in emergency situations.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered throughout the state of New York as well as New York City itself. Many areas of Long Island were evacuated as well as coastal areas that were impacted by Hurricane Irene. Around 200 National Guard Troops were sent to New York City to help with the preparation and recovery.
Hurricane Sandy directly and indirectly impacted 24 states in the U.S., causing $65 billion in damage, 160 deaths, thousands of destroyed homes, and leaving millions without power for days. Nearly 20,000 flights were cancelled, and many regional railroads suspended service. Organizations including FEMA, Direct Relief, and American Red Cross worked throughout the East Coast to help with disaster response, search and rescue, emergency shelters, and providing supplies. Of the states affected, New Jersey and New York felt the biggest impact.
Hurricane Sandy hit near Atlantic City, NJ with 80 mph winds and the tides were higher than normal at the time it made landfall because of a full moon. This increased the storm surges which led to major flooding, downed trees and powerlines, and widespread property damage along the Jersey Shore. Many homes and buildings along the shore were destroyed and a 50-foot piece of the boardwalk in Atlantic City was broken off.
Major flooding in Hoboken and the communities of Bergen County forced tens of thousands to evacuate. Some were left stranded in their homes and had to be rescued by boat. The storm resulted in 43 deaths in New Jersey and $38.6 billion in damage.
New York was the hardest hit state and experienced more fatalities than any other state hit by the storm. While areas of upstate New York did experience some flooding, property damage, and downed trees and powerlines, the damage in New York City was much worse.
Much of the damage in New York city was due to the flooding of the East River. The overflowing of the East River flooded many areas in Lower Manhattan, including the Ground Zero construction site and subway tunnels that were under the river. The storm also caused billions of gallons of sewage to spill into the water surrounding New York and New Jersey. Many homes, buildings, roadways, and transit facilities in low areas of Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens were flooded and damaged by a storm surge in the Atlantic Ocean.
Schools and businesses were closed for several days after Hurricane Sandy hit New York City. The New York Stock Exchange closed for two days in a row which hadn’t happened since 1888. The New York City Marathon was also cancelled as a result of the storm. There were 53 deaths in New York caused by Hurricane Sandy and the storms caused about $42 billion in damage.
It took many people and businesses in New York and New Jersey years to recover from the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Telethon and benefits concerts were put on to help raise money for Hurricane Sandy relief and the federal government stepped in to supply aid. Hurricane Sandy also had an effect on the upcoming presidential election.
Relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy took several forms. Both ABC and NBC held telethons shortly after the storm and raised $17 million and $23 million respectively. A relief concert with an all-star lineup was held at Madison Square Garden on December 12, 2012 to help raise money and it was streamed on several platforms to reach people all over the world.
The federal government and local governments also did what they could to provide relief for those affected by Hurricane Sandy. In January 2013, a $50.5 billion Sandy aid bill was approved by the Senate and passed by President Obama to provide relief for the states affected. In New York, Governor Cuomo established the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR) to centralize the recovery efforts for major storms and determine a recovery plan that will address the most urgent needs in the aftermath. The GOSR also helps improve housing and infrastructure to reduce the damage caused by a severe storm in the future.
Hurricane Sandy had a major political effect because it hit the U.S. just weeks before the 2012 presidential election and caused a debate on the effects of global warming. Congressman Henry Waxman even requested a hearing to investigate the possible connection between global warming and Hurricane Sandy. President Obama also acknowledged in a news conference that he was a believer in climate change and believed that people needed to take action to help reduce its effects.
In response to a report released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that investigated future flood risks in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, Obama issued an executive order calling for stricter building and siting standards to account for future flood risks due to global warming.
Hurricane Sandy is also believed to have impacted the 2012 presidential election as Obama was lauded by many for his response to Hurricane Sandy, including Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Mitt Romney’s campaign was hurt in the aftermath of the storm as it was believed that he was going to cut funding to FEMA which was instrumental in the recovery of Hurricane Sandy.
When Hurricane Sandy made landfall in the U.S., it brought wind and rain that led to flooding and water surges that made the flooding worse. Homes and businesses were destroyed, tens of thousands were displaced, and millions were without power even after the storm. New York City experienced major flooding that caused billions in damage and shut down public transportation.
At ServiceMaster Restoration by Complete , we understand the impact a major storm like a hurricane can have on homes and businesses. We provide professional flood and storm damage restoration services to help those affected by flooding and property damage caused by a severe storm. Our technicians are ready to respond in any disaster scenario, including major disasters like Hurricane Sandy, to help with the relief effort. We can rebuild properties damaged by wind and floods to restore them to their original condition. Our disaster restoration crew will help bring some relief to a difficult situation. Contact ServiceMaster Restoration by Complete today for more information. | https://www.servicemasterbycomplete.com/new-york-city-hurricane-sandy-disaster | 51 |
when did super storm sandy hit new york | Hurricane Sandy - Wikipedia | Not to be confused with the 2015 Pacific Hurricane Sandra .
For other storms of the same name, see Tropical Storm Sandy .
|Meteorological history|
|Formed||October 22, 2012|
|Post-tropical||October 29|
|Dissipated||November 2, 2012|
|Category 3 hurricane|
|1-minute sustained ( SSHWS / NWS )|
|Highest winds||115 mph (185 km/h)|
|Lowest pressure||940 mbar ( hPa ); 27.76 inHg|
|Overall effects|
|Fatalities||233 total|
|Damage|| $68.7 billion (2012 USD ) |
( Seventh-costliest hurricane in U.S. history)
|Areas affected||Greater Antilles , Bahamas , most of the eastern United States (especially the coastal Mid-Atlantic States ), Bermuda , eastern Canada|
|IBTrACS|
Part of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane and
2012–13 North American winter seasons
| History |
Effects
Other wikis
Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy ) [1] [2] was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane , as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spanning 1,150 miles (1,850 km). [3] [4] [5] The storm inflicted nearly $70 billion (2012 USD ) in damage and killed 233 people across eight countries from the Caribbean to Canada. [6] [7] The eighteenth named storm , tenth hurricane , and second major hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season , Sandy was a Category 3 storm at its peak intensity when it made landfall in Cuba , though most of the damage it caused was after it became a Category 1-equivalent extratropical cyclone off the coast of the Northeastern United States. [8]
Sandy developed from a tropical wave in the western Caribbean Sea on October 22, quickly strengthened, and was upgraded to Tropical Storm Sandy six hours later. Sandy moved slowly northward toward the Greater Antilles and gradually intensified. On October 24, Sandy became a hurricane, made landfall near Kingston, Jamaica , re-emerged a few hours later into the Caribbean Sea and strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane. On October 25, Sandy hit Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane, then weakened to a Category 1 hurricane. Early on October 26, Sandy moved through the Bahamas. [9] On October 27, Sandy briefly weakened to a tropical storm and then restrengthened to a Category 1 hurricane. Early on October 29, Sandy curved west-northwest (the "left turn" or "left hook") and then [10] moved ashore near Brigantine, New Jersey , just to the northeast of Atlantic City , as a post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds. [8] [11] Sandy continued drifting inland for another few days while gradually weakening, until it was absorbed by another approaching extratropical storm on November 2. [8] [12]
In Jamaica , winds left 70 percent of residents without electricity, blew roofs off buildings, killed one person, and caused about $100 million (2012 USD) in damage. Sandy's outer bands brought flooding to Haiti , killing at least 54, causing food shortages, and leaving about 200,000 homeless; the hurricane also caused two deaths in the Dominican Republic . In Puerto Rico , one man was swept away by a swollen river. In Cuba, there was extensive coastal flooding and wind damage inland, destroying some 15,000 homes, killing 11, and causing $2 billion (2012 USD) in damage. Sandy caused two deaths and an estimated $700 million (2012 USD) in damage in The Bahamas .
In the United States, Hurricane Sandy affected 24 states , including the entire eastern seaboard from Florida to Maine and west across the Appalachian Mountains to Michigan and Wisconsin , with particularly severe damage in New Jersey and New York . Its storm surge hit New York City on October 29, flooding streets, tunnels and subway lines and cutting power in and around the city. [13] [14] Damage in the United States amounted to $65 billion (2012 USD). [15] In Canada, two were killed in Ontario, and the storm caused an estimated $100 million (2012 CAD ) in damage throughout Ontario and Quebec. [16]
Map key
Hurricane Sandy began as a low pressure system which developed sufficient organized convection to be classified as Tropical Depression Eighteen on October 22 south of Kingston, Jamaica . [17] It moved slowly at first due to a ridge to the north. Low wind shear and warm waters allowed for strengthening, [17] and the system was named Tropical Storm Sandy late on October 22. [18] Early on October 24, an eye began developing, and it was moving steadily northward due to an approaching trough . [19] Later that day, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded Sandy to hurricane status about 65 mi (105 km) south of Kingston, Jamaica. [20] At about 1900 UTC that day, Sandy made landfall near Kingston with winds of about 85 mph (137 km/h). [21] Just offshore Cuba, Sandy rapidly intensified to a Category 3 hurricane, with sustained winds at 115 mph (185 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 954 millibars (28.2 inHg), [8] and at that intensity, Sandy made landfall just west of Santiago de Cuba at 0525 UTC on October 25. [22] Operationally, Sandy was assessed to have peaked as a high-end Category 2 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (180 km/h). [8]
3:23
After Sandy exited Cuba, the structure of the storm became disorganized, [23] and it turned to the north-northwest over the Bahamas. [24] By October 27, Sandy was no longer fully tropical, as evidenced by the development of frontal structures in its outer circulation. [8] Despite strong shear, Sandy maintained its convection due to influence from an approaching trough; the same that turned the hurricane to the northeast. [25] After briefly weakening to a tropical storm, [26] Sandy re-intensified into a Category 1 hurricane, [27] and on October 28, an eye began redeveloping. [28] The storm moved around an upper-level low over the eastern United States and also to the southwest of a ridge over Atlantic Canada , turning it to the northwest. [29]
Sandy briefly re-intensified to Category 2 intensity on the morning of October 29, around which time it had become an extremely large hurricane, with a record gale-force wind diameter of over 1,150 miles (1,850 km), [3] [30] and an unusually low central barometric pressure of 940 mbar, possibly due to the very large size of the system. [8] This pressure set records for many cities across the Northeastern United States for the lowest pressures ever observed. [31] The convection diminished while the hurricane accelerated toward the New Jersey coast, [32] and the cyclone was no longer tropical by 2100 UTC on October 29. [33] About 2½ hours later, Sandy made landfall near Brigantine, New Jersey, [34] with sustained winds of 80 mph (130 km/h). [8] During the next four days, Sandy's remnants drifted northward and then northeastward over Ontario , before merging with another low pressure area over Eastern Canada on November 2. [8] [12]
On October 23, 2012, the path of Hurricane Sandy was correctly predicted by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) headquartered in Reading, England nearly eight days in advance of its striking the American East Coast . The computer model noted that the storm would turn west towards land and strike the New York/New Jersey region on October 29, rather than turn east and head out to the open Atlantic as most hurricanes in this position do. By October 27, four days after the ECMWF made its prediction, the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center confirmed the path of the hurricane predicted by the European model. The National Weather Service was criticized for not employing its higher-resolution forecast models the way that its European counterpart did. A hardware and software upgrade completed at the end of 2013 enabled the weather service to make predictions more accurate and farther in advance than the technology in 2012 had allowed. [35]
According to NCAR senior climatologist Kevin E. Trenberth , "The answer to the oft-asked question of whether an event is caused by climate change is that it is the wrong question. All weather events are affected by climate change because the environment in which they occur is warmer and moister than it used to be." [36] Although NOAA meteorologist Martin Hoerling attributes Sandy to "little more than the coincidental alignment of a tropical storm with an extratropical storm", [37] Trenberth does agree that the storm was caused by "natural variability" but adds that it was "enhanced by global warming". [38] One factor contributing to the storm's strength was abnormally warm sea surface temperatures offshore the East Coast of the United States —more than 3 °C (5 °F) above normal, to which global warming had contributed 0.6 °C (1 °F). [38] As the temperature of the atmosphere increases, the capacity to hold water increases, leading to stronger storms and higher rainfall amounts. [38]
As they move north, Atlantic hurricanes typically are forced east and out to sea by the Prevailing Westerlies . [39] In Sandy's case, this typical pattern was blocked by a ridge of high pressure over Greenland resulting in a negative North Atlantic Oscillation , forming a kink in the jet stream, causing it to double back on itself off the East Coast. Sandy was caught up in this southeasterly flow, taking the storm on an unusual northwest path. [39] The blocking pattern over Greenland also stalled an Arctic front which combined with the cyclone. [39] Mark Fischetti of Scientific American said that the jet stream's unusual shape was caused by the melting of Arctic ice . [40] Trenberth said that while a negative North Atlantic Oscillation and a blocking anticyclone were in place, the null hypothesis remained that this was just the natural variability of weather. [37] Sea level at New York and along the New Jersey coast has increased by nearly a foot (300 mm) over the last hundred years, [41] which contributed to the storm surge . [42] One group of scientists estimated that the anthropogenic (human activity-driven) climate change was responsible for approximately 9 cm of sea level rise in New York, which permitted additional storm surge that caused approximately US$8.1B out of the $60 billion in reported economic damage and to an extension of the flood zone to impact approximately 71,000 more people than would have been the case without it. [43] Harvard geologist Daniel P. Schrag calls Hurricane Sandy's 13-foot (4.0 m) storm surge an example of what will, by mid-century, be the "new norm on the Eastern seaboard". [44]
After the storm became a tropical cyclone on October 22, the Government of Jamaica issued a tropical storm watch for the entire island. [45] Early on October 23, the watch was replaced with a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch was issued. [46] At 1500 UTC, the hurricane watch was upgraded to a hurricane warning, while the tropical storm warning was discontinued. [47] In preparation of the storm, many residents stocked up on supplies and reinforced roofing material. Acting Prime Minister Peter Phillips urged people to take this storm seriously, and also to take care of their neighbors, especially the elderly, children, and disabled. Government officials shut down schools, government buildings, and the airport in Kingston on the day prior to the arrival of Sandy. Meanwhile, numerous and early curfews were put in place to protect residents, properties, and to prevent crime. [48] Shortly after Jamaica issued its first watch on October 22, the Government of Haiti issued a tropical storm watch for Haiti. [49] By late October 23, it was modified to a tropical storm warning. [50]
The Government of Cuba posted a hurricane watch for the Cuban Provinces of Camagüey , Granma , Guantánamo , Holguín , Las Tunas , and Santiago de Cuba at 1500 UTC on October 23. [47] Only three hours later, the hurricane watch was switched to a hurricane warning. [51] The Government of the Bahamas , at 1500 UTC on October 23, issued a tropical storm watch for several Bahamian islands, including the Acklins , Cat Island , Crooked Island , Exuma , Inagua , Long Cay , Long Island , Mayaguana , Ragged Island , Rum Cay , and San Salvador Island . [47] Later that day, another tropical storm watch was issued for Abaco Islands , Andros Island , the Berry Islands , Bimini , Eleuthera , Grand Bahama , and New Providence . [51] By early on October 24, the tropical storm watch for Cat Island, Exuma, Long Island, Rum Cay, and San Salvador was upgraded to a tropical storm warning. [52]
At 1515 UTC on October 26, the Bermuda Weather Service issued a tropical storm watch for Bermuda, reflecting the enormous size of the storm and the anticipated wide-reaching impacts. [53]
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Much of the East Coast of the United States, in Mid-Atlantic and New England regions, had a good chance of receiving gale -force winds, flooding, heavy rain and possibly snow early in the week of October 28 from an unusual hybrid of Hurricane Sandy and a winter storm producing a Fujiwhara effect . [54] Government weather forecasters said there was a 90% chance that the East Coast would be impacted by the storm. Jim Cisco of the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center coined the term "Frankenstorm", as Sandy was expected to merge with a storm front a few days before Halloween. [55] [56] [57] As coverage continued, several media outlets began eschewing this term in favor of "superstorm". [58] [59] Utilities and governments along the East Coast attempted to head off long-term power failures Sandy might cause. Power companies from the Southeast to New England alerted independent contractors to be ready to help repair storm damaged equipment quickly and asked employees to cancel vacations and work longer hours. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University , using a computer model built on power outage data from previous hurricanes, conservatively forecast that 10 million customers along the Eastern Seaboard would lose power from the storm. [60]
Through regional offices in Atlanta , Philadelphia , New York City , and Boston , the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) monitored Sandy, closely coordinating with state and tribal emergency management partners in Florida and the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and New England states. [61] President Obama signed emergency declarations on October 28 for several states expected to be impacted by Sandy, allowing them to request federal aid and make additional preparations in advance of the storm. [62] Flight cancellations and travel alerts on the U.S. East Coast were put in place in the Mid-Atlantic and the New England areas. [63] Over 5,000 commercial airline flights scheduled for October 28 and 29 were canceled by the afternoon of October 28 [64] and Amtrak canceled some services through October 29 in preparation for the storm. [65] In addition, the National Guard and U.S. Air Force put as many as 45,000 personnel in at least seven states on alert for possible duty in response to the preparations and aftermath of Sandy. [66]
Schools on the Treasure Coast announced closures for October 26 in anticipation of Sandy. [67] A Russian intelligence-gathering ship was allowed to stay in Jacksonville to avoid Sandy; the port is not far from Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base . [68]
At 0900 UTC on October 26, a tropical storm watch was issued from the mouth of the Savannah River in South Carolina to Oregon Inlet , North Carolina, including Pamlico Sound . [69] Twelve hours later, the portion of the tropical storm watch from the Santee River in South Carolina to Duck, North Carolina , including Pamlico Sound, was upgraded to a warning. [70] Governor of North Carolina Beverly Perdue declared a state of emergency for 38 eastern counties on October 26, which took effect on the following day. [71] By October 29, the state of emergency was extended to 24 counties in western North Carolina, with up to a foot (30 cm) of snow attributed to Sandy anticipated in higher elevations. The National Park Service closed at least five sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway . [72]
On October 26, Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell declared a state of emergency. The U.S. Navy sent more than twenty-seven ships and forces to sea from Naval Station Norfolk for their protection. [73] Governor McDonnell authorized the National Guard to activate 630 personnel ahead of the storm. [74] Republican Party presidential candidate Mitt Romney canceled campaign appearances scheduled for October 28 in Virginia Beach, Virginia , and New Hampshire October 30 because of Sandy. Vice President Joe Biden canceled his appearance on October 27 in Virginia Beach and an October 29 campaign event in New Hampshire. [75] President Barack Obama canceled a campaign stop with former President Bill Clinton in Virginia scheduled for October 29, as well as a trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado , the next day because of the impending storm. [76]
On October 26, Mayor of Washington, D.C. Vincent Gray declared a state of emergency, [77] which President Obama signed on October 28. [78] The United States Office of Personnel Management announced federal offices in the Washington, D.C. area would be closed to the public on October 29–30. [79] In addition, Washington D.C. Metro service, both rail and bus, was canceled on October 29 due to expected high winds, the likelihood of widespread power outages, and the closing of the federal government. [80] The Smithsonian Institution closed for the day of October 29. [81]
Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley declared a state of emergency on October 26. [73] By the following day, Smith Island residents were evacuated with the assistance of the Maryland Natural Resources Police, Dorchester County opened two shelters for those in flood prone areas, and Ocean City initiated Phase I of their Emergency Operations Plan. [82] [83] [84] Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. put workers on standby and made plans to bring in crews from other states. [85] On October 28, President Obama declared an emergency in Maryland and signed an order authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to aid in disaster relief efforts. [86] Also, numerous areas were ordered to be evacuated including part of Ocean City , Worcester County , Wicomico County , and Somerset County . [87] [88] Officials warned that more than a hundred million tons of dirty sediment mixed with tree limbs and debris floating behind Conowingo Dam could eventually pour into the Chesapeake Bay , posing a potential environmental threat. [89]
The Maryland Transit Administration canceled all service for October 29 and 30. The cancellations applied to buses, light rail, and Amtrak and MARC train service. [90] On October 29, six shelters opened in Baltimore , and early voting was canceled for the day. [81] Maryland Insurance Commissioner Therese M. Goldsmith activated an emergency regulation requiring pharmacies to refill prescriptions regardless of their last refill date. [91] On October 29, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge over the Chesapeake Bay and the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge and Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge over the Susquehanna River were closed to traffic in the midday hours. [92]
On October 28, Governor Markell declared a state of emergency, with coastal areas of Sussex County evacuated. [93] In preparation for the storm, the Delaware Department of Transportation suspended some weekend construction projects, removed traffic cones and barrels from construction sites, and removed several span-wire overhead signs in Sussex County. [94] Delaware Route 1 through Delaware Seashore State Park was closed due to flooding. [93] Delaware roads were closed to the public, except for emergency and essential personnel, [95] and tolls on I-95 and Delaware Route 1 were waived. [96] DART First State transit service was also suspended during the storm. [97]
Preparations began on October 26, when officials in Cape May County advised residents on barrier islands to evacuate. There was also a voluntary evacuation for Mantoloking , Bay Head , Barnegat Light , Beach Haven , Harvey Cedars , Long Beach , Ship Bottom , and Stafford in Ocean County . [98] [99] [100] Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie ordered all residents of barrier islands from Sandy Hook to Cape May to evacuate and closed Atlantic City casinos. Tolls were suspended on the northbound Garden State Parkway and the westbound Atlantic City Expressway starting at 6 a.m. on October 28. [101] President Obama signed an emergency declaration for New Jersey, allowing the state to request federal funding and other assistance for actions taken before Sandy's landfall. [102]
On October 28, Mayor of Hoboken Dawn Zimmer ordered residents of basement and street-level residential units to evacuate, due to possible flooding. [103] On October 29, residents of Logan Township were ordered to evacuate. [104] Jersey Central Power & Light told employees to prepare to work extended shifts. [85] Most schools, colleges and universities were closed October 29 while at least 509 out of 580 school districts were closed October 30. [105] Although tropical storm conditions were inevitable and hurricane-force winds were likely, the National Hurricane Center did not issue any tropical cyclone watches or warnings for New Jersey, because Sandy was forecast to become extratropical before landfall and thus would not be a tropical cyclone. [106]
Preparations in Pennsylvania began when Governor Tom Corbett declared a state of emergency on October 26. [73] Mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter asked residents in low-lying areas and neighborhoods prone to flooding to leave their homes by 1800 UTC October 28 and move to safer ground. [107] The Philadelphia International Airport suspended all flight operations for October 29. [108] On October 29, Philadelphia shut down its mass transit system. [81] On October 28, Mayor of Harrisburg Linda D. Thompson declared a state of disaster emergency for the city to go into effect at 5 a.m. October 29. Electric utilities in the state brought in crews and equipment from other states such as New Mexico , Texas , and Oklahoma , to assist with restoration efforts. [109]
Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a statewide state of emergency and asked for a pre-disaster declaration on October 26, [110] which President Obama signed later that day. [111] By October 27, major carriers canceled all flights into and out of JFK , LaGuardia , and Newark-Liberty airports, and Metro North and the Long Island Rail Road suspended service. [112] The Tappan Zee Bridge was closed, [113] and later the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and Holland Tunnel were also closed. [114] On Long Island, an evacuation was ordered for South Shore , including areas south of Sunrise Highway , north of Route 25A , and in elevations of less than 16 feet (4.9 m) above sea level on the North Shore . [115] In Suffolk County , mandatory evacuations were ordered for residents of Fire Island and six towns. [116] Most schools closed in Nassau and Suffolk counties on October 29. [117]
New York City began taking precautions on October 26. Governor Cuomo ordered the closure of MTA and its subway on October 28, and the MTA suspended all subway, bus, and commuter rail service beginning at 2300 UTC. [118] After Hurricane Irene nearly submerged subways and tunnels in 2011, [119] entrances and grates were covered just before Sandy, but were still flooded. [120] PATH train service and stations as well as the Port Authority Bus Terminal were shut down in the early morning hours of October 29. [121] [122]
Later on October 28, officials activated the coastal emergency plan, with subway closings and the evacuation of residents in areas hit by Hurricane Irene in 2011. More than 76 evacuation shelters were open around the city. [110] On October 29, Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered public schools closed [121] and called for a mandatory evacuation of Zone A, which comprised areas near coastlines or waterways. [123] Additionally, 200 National Guard troops were deployed in the city. [122] NYU Langone Medical Center canceled all surgeries and medical procedures, except for emergency procedures. [122] Additionally, one of NYU Langone Medical Center's backup generators failed on October 29, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of patients, including those from the hospital's various intensive care units . [124] U.S. stock trading was suspended for October 29–30. [125]
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy partially activated the state's Emergency Operations Center on October 26 [126] and signed a Declaration of Emergency the next day. [127] On October 28, President Obama approved Connecticut's request for an emergency declaration, and hundreds of National Guard personnel were deployed. [128] On October 29, Governor Malloy ordered road closures for all state highways. [129] Numerous mandatory and partial evacuations were issued in cities across Connecticut. [130]
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick ordered state offices to be closed October 29 and recommended schools and private businesses close. On October 28, President Obama issued a Pre-Landfall Emergency Declaration for Massachusetts. Several shelters were opened, and many schools were closed. [131] The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority shut down all services on the afternoon of October 29. [132] On October 28, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin , New Hampshire Governor John Lynch , and Maine 's Governor Paul LePage all declared states of emergency. [81] [133] [134]
The National Weather Service issued a storm warning for Lake Huron on October 29 that called for wave heights of 26 feet (7.9 m), and possibly as high as 38 feet (12 m). Lake Michigan waves were expected to reach 19 feet (5.8 m), with a potential of 33 feet (10 m) on October 30. [135] Flood warnings were issued in Chicago on October 29, where wave heights were expected to reach 18 to 23 feet (5.5 to 7.0 m) in Cook County and 25 feet (7.6 m) in northwest Indiana . [136] Gale warnings were issued for Lake Michigan and Green Bay in Wisconsin until the morning of October 31, and waves of 33 feet (10 m) in Milwaukee and 20 feet (6.1 m) in Sheboygan were predicted for October 30. [137] The actual waves reached about 20 feet (6.1 m) but were less damaging than expected. [138] [139] The village of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin urged a voluntary evacuation of its lakefront area, though few residents signed up, and little flooding actually occurred. [137] [139]
Michigan was impacted by a winter storm system coming in from the west, mixing with cold air streams from the Arctic and colliding with Hurricane Sandy. [135] The forecasts slowed shipping traffic on the Great Lakes , as some vessels sought shelter away from the peak winds, except those on Lake Superior. [140] [141] Detroit -based DTE Energy released 100 contract line workers to assist utilities along the eastern U.S. with storm response, and Consumers Energy did the same with more than a dozen employees and 120 contract employees. [142] Due to the widespread power outages, numerous schools had to close, especially in St. Clair County and areas along Lake Huron north of Metro Detroit. [143]
As far as Ohio's western edge, areas were under a wind advisory. [144] All departing flights at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport were canceled until October 30 at 3 p.m. [145]
Governor of West Virginia Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency ahead of storm on October 29. [146] Up to 2 to 3 feet (0.61 to 0.91 m) of snow was forecast for mountainous areas of the state. [147]
The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued its first preliminary statement for Hurricane Sandy on October 25 from Southern Ontario to the Canadian Maritimes , [148] with the potential for heavy rain and strong winds. [149] On October 29, Environment Canada issued severe wind warnings for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Valley corridor, from Southwestern Ontario as far as Quebec City. [150] On October 30, Environment Canada issued storm surge warnings along the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. [151] Rainfall warnings were issued for the Charlevoix region in Quebec, as well as for several counties in New Brunswick , and Nova Scotia , where about 2 to 3 inches (51 to 76 mm) of rain was to be expected. [152] [153] [154] Freezing rain warnings were issued for parts of Northern Ontario . [155]
|Date||Time||Warning type||Areas|
|October 22||15:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch||Jamaica|
|October 23||09:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Jamaica|
|Hurricane Watch||Jamaica|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Haiti|
|15:00 UTC||Hurricane Warning||Jamaica|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Southeastern and Central Bahamas|
|Hurricane Watch discontinued||Jamaica|
|Hurricane Watch||Camagüey to Guantánamo, Cuba|
|18:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Haiti|
|21:00 UTC||Hurricane Warning||Camagüey to Guantánamo, Cuba|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Northwestern Bahamas|
|October 24||03:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Central Bahamas|
|09:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch||Jupiter Inlet to Ocean Reef, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Ocean Reef to Craig Key, Florida|
|12:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Northwestern Bahamas|
|15:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch||Volusia / Brevard County Line to Ocean Reef, Florida|
|Hurricane Watch||Central and Northwestern Bahamas|
|21:00 UTC||Hurricane Warning||Central and Northwestern Bahamas|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Ocean Reef to Craig Key, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Sebastian Inlet to Flagler Beach, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Warning||Ocean Reef to Sebastian Inlet, Florida|
|Hurricane Watch discontinued||All|
|October 25||03:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Southeastern Bahamas|
|Tropical Storm Warning||Lake Okeechobee|
|Hurricane Warning||Ragged Island, Bahamas|
|09:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch||Flagler Beach to Fernandina Beach, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Warning||Ocean Reef to Flagler Beach, Florida|
|Hurricane Warning discontinued||Jamaica|
|15:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Haiti|
|Hurricane Warning discontinued||Camagüey to Guantánamo, Cuba|
|October 26||03:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Central Bahamas|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Southeastern Bahamas|
|Hurricane Warning discontinued||Ragged Island, Bahamas|
|Hurricane Warning||Northwestern Bahamas|
|06:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Andros Island , Bahamas|
|09:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch||Savannah River , Georgia/South Carolina to Oregon Inlet , North Carolina|
|15:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Northwestern Bahamas except Great Abaco and Grand Bahama Island|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Ocean Reef to Craig Key, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Bermuda|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Central Bahamas and Andros Island|
|Tropical Storm Warning||Great Abaco to Grand Bahama Island|
|18:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Deerfield Beach to Flagler Beach, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Northwestern Bahamas except Great Abaco and Grand Bahama Island|
|21:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch||St. Augustine to Fernandina Beach, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Savannah River, Georgia/South Carolina to South Santee River , South Carolina|
|Tropical Storm Warning||Deerfield Beach to St. Augustine, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Lake Okeechobee|
|Tropical Storm Warning||South Santee River, South Carolina to Duck, North Carolina|
|October 27||00:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Jupiter Inlet to St. Augustine, Florida|
|09:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Sebastian Inlet to St. Augustine, Florida|
|15:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch discontinued||St. Augustine to Fernandina Beach, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Sebastian Inlet to St. Augustine, Florida|
|21:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Bermuda|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Great Abaco and Grand Bahama Island|
|October 28||03:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch discontinued||All|
|09:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Cape Fear to Duck, North Carolina|
|21:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Surf City to Duck, North Carolina|
|October 29||15:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Bermuda|
|21:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||All|
|Country||Fatalities||Missing|| Damage |
2012 (USD)
|Ref(s)|
|Total||Direct||Indirect||N/A|
|Bermuda||0||0||0||0||0||Minimal||[8]|
|The Bahamas||2||2||0||0||0||$700 million||[6] [156] [157]|
|Canada||2||1||1||0||0||$100 million||[158] [159] [160]|
|Cuba||11||6||0||5||0||$2 billion||[6] [156] [161] [162]|
|Dominican Republic||2||2||0||0||0||$30 million||[6] [156] [163]|
|Haiti||54||20||0||34||21||$750 million||[164] [165] [166]|
|Jamaica||2||1||1||0||0||$100 million||[6] [156] [167]|
|Puerto Rico||1||1||0||0||0||—||[8]|
|United States||157||71||85||1||0||$65 billion||[15]|
|U.S. offshore||2||2||0||0||0||—||[8]|
|Totals:||233||106||87||40||21||$68.7 billion|
At least 233 people were killed across the United States, the Caribbean, and Canada, as a result of the storm. [168] [169] [170]
Jamaica was the first country directly affected by Sandy, which was also the first hurricane to make landfall on the island since Hurricane Gilbert , which struck the island in 1988 . Trees and power lines were snapped and shanty houses were heavily damaged, both from the winds and flooding rains. More than 100 fishermen were stranded in outlying Pedro Cays off Jamaica's southern coast. [171] Stones falling from a hillside crushed one man to death as he tried to get into his house in a rural village near Kingston. [172] After 6 days another fatality recorded as a 27-year-old man, died due to electrocution, attempting a repair. [6] The country's sole electricity provider, the Jamaica Public Service Company, reported that 70 percent of its customers were without power. More than 1,000 people went to shelters. Jamaican authorities closed the island's international airports, and police ordered 48-hour curfews in major towns to keep people off the streets and deter looting. [173] Most buildings in the eastern portion of the island lost their roofs. [174] Damage was assessed at approximately $100 million throughout the country. [8]
In Haiti, which was still recovering from both the 2010 earthquake and the ongoing cholera outbreak , at least 54 people died, [175] and approximately 200,000 were left homeless as a result of four days of ongoing rain from Hurricane Sandy. [176] Heavy damage occurred in Port-Salut after rivers overflowed their banks. [177] In the capital of Port-au-Prince , streets were flooded by the heavy rains, and it was reported that "the whole south of the country is underwater". [178] Most of the tents and buildings in the city's sprawling refugee camps and the Cité Soleil neighborhood were flooded or leaking, a repeat of what happened earlier in the year during the passage of Hurricane Isaac . [174] Crops were also wiped out by the storm and the country would be making an appeal for emergency aid. [179] Damage in Haiti was estimated at $750 million (2012 USD), making it the costliest tropical cyclone in Haitian history. [164] In the month following Sandy, a resurgence of cholera linked to the storm killed at least 44 people and infected more than 5,000 others. [166]
In the neighboring Dominican Republic , two people were killed and 30,000 people evacuated. [156] An employee of CNN estimated 70% of the streets in Santo Domingo were flooded. [180] One person was killed in Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico after being swept away by a swollen river. [156]
|Rank||Hurricane||Season||Damage||Refs|
|1||Irma||2017||$13.2 billion||[181]|
|2||Ike||2008||$7.3 billion||[182]|
|3||Matthew||2016||$2.58 billion||[183]|
|4||Gustav||2008||$2.1 billion||[182]|
|5||Michelle||2001||$2 billion||[184]|
|Sandy||2012||[185]|
|7||Dennis||2005||$1.5 billion||[186]|
|8||Ivan||2004||$1.2 billion||[187]|
|9||Charley||2004||$923 million||[187]|
|10||Wilma||2005||$700 million||[188]|
At least 55,000 people were evacuated before Hurricane Sandy's arrival. [189] While moving ashore, the storm produced waves up to 29 feet (8.8 meters) and a 6-foot (1.8-meter) storm surge that caused extensive coastal flooding. [190] There was widespread damage, particularly to Santiago de Cuba where 132,733 homes were damaged, of which 15,322 were destroyed and 43,426 lost their roof. [161] Electricity and water services were knocked out, and most of the trees in the city were damaged. Total losses throughout Santiago de Cuba province is estimated as high as $2 billion (2012 USD). [162] Sandy killed 11 people in the country – nine in Santiago de Cuba Province and two in Guantánamo Province ; most of the victims were trapped in destroyed houses. [191] [192] This makes Sandy the deadliest hurricane to hit Cuba since 2005, when Hurricane Dennis killed 16 people. [193]
A NOAA automated station at Settlement Point on Grand Bahama Island reported sustained winds of 49 mph (79 km/h) and a wind gust of 63 mph (101 km/h). [194] One person died from falling off his roof while attempting to fix a window shutter in the Lyford Cay area on New Providence. Another died in the Queen's Cove area on Grand Bahama Island where he drowned after the sea surge trapped him in his apartment. [156] Portions of the Bahamas lost power or cellular service, including an islandwide power outage on Bimini . Five homes were severely damaged near Williams's Town. [195] Overall damage in the Bahamas was about $700 million (2012 USD), with the most severe damage on Cat Island and Exuma where many houses were heavily damaged by wind and storm surge. [157]
Owing to the sheer size of the storm, Sandy also impacted Bermuda with high winds and heavy rains. On October 28, a weak F0 tornado touched down in Sandys Parish , damaging homes and businesses. [196] During a three-day span, the storm produced 0.98 in (25 mm) of rain at the L.F. Wade International Airport . The strongest winds were recorded on October 29: sustained winds reached 37 mph (60 km/h) and gusts peaked at 58 mph (93 km/h), which produced scattered minor damage. [197]
|Costliest U.S. Atlantic hurricanes|
|Rank||Hurricane||Season||Damage|
|1||3 Katrina||2005||$125 billion|
|4 Harvey||2017|
|3||4 Ian||2022||$113 billion|
|4||4 Maria||2017||$90 billion|
|5||4 Ida||2021||$75 billion|
|6||ET Sandy||2012||$65 billion|
|7||4 Irma||2017||$52.1 billion|
|8||2 Ike||2008||$30 billion|
|9||5 Andrew||1992||$27 billion|
|10||5 Michael||2018||$25 billion|
|Source: National Hurricane Center [198] [199] [nb 1] [nb 2]|
A total of 24 U.S. states were in some way affected by Sandy. The hurricane caused tens of billions of dollars in damage in the United States, destroyed thousands of homes, left millions without electric service, [200] and caused 71 direct deaths in nine states, including 49 in New York, 10 in New Jersey, 3 in Connecticut, 2 each in Pennsylvania and Maryland, and 1 each in New Hampshire, Virginia and West Virginia. [6] There were also 2 direct deaths from Sandy in U.S. coastal waters in the Atlantic Ocean, about 90 miles (140 km) off the North Carolina coast, which are not counted in the U.S. total. In addition, the storm resulted in 87 indirect deaths. [8] In all, a total of 160 people were killed due to the storm, making Sandy the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the deadliest to hit the U.S. East Coast since Hurricane Agnes in 1972. [201]
Due to flooding and other storm-related problems, Amtrak canceled all Acela Express , Northeast Regional , Keystone , and Shuttle services for October 29 and 30. [202] [203] More than 13,000 flights were canceled across the U.S. on October 29, and more than 3,500 were called off October 30. [204] From October 27 through early November 1, airlines canceled a total of 19,729 flights, according to FlightAware . [205]
On October 31, over 6 million customers were still without power in 15 states and the District of Columbia . The states with the most customers without power were New Jersey with 2,040,195 customers; New York with 1,933,147; Pennsylvania with 852,458; and Connecticut with 486,927. [206]
The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq reopened on October 31 after a two-day closure for the storm. [207] More than 1,500 FEMA personnel were along the East Coast working to support disaster preparedness and response operations, including search and rescue, situational awareness, communications and logistical support. In addition, 28 teams containing 294 FEMA Corps members were pre-staged to support Sandy responders. Three federal urban search and rescue task forces were positioned in the Mid-Atlantic and ready to deploy as needed. [208] Direct Relief provided medical supplies to community clinics, non-profit health centers, and other groups in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, and mapped pharmacies, gas stations, and other facilities that remained in the New York City area despite power outages. [209]
On November 2, the American Red Cross announced they had 4,000 disaster workers across storm damaged areas, with thousands more en route from other states. Nearly 7,000 people spent the night in emergency shelters across the region. [210]
Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together , a live telethon on November 2 that featured rock and pop stars such as Bruce Springsteen , Billy Joel , Jon Bon Jovi , Mary J. Blige , Sting and Christina Aguilera , raised around $23 million for American Red Cross hurricane relief efforts. [211]
At the time, the National Hurricane Center ranked Hurricane Sandy the second-costliest U.S. hurricane since 1900 in constant 2010 dollars, and the sixth-costliest after adjusting for inflation , population and property values. [212] Scientists at the University of Utah reported the energy generated by Sandy was equivalent to "small earthquakes between magnitudes 2 and 3". [213]
In South Florida, Sandy lashed the area with rough surf, strong winds, and brief squalls. Along the coast of Miami-Dade County , waves reached 10 feet (3.0 m), but may have been as high as 20 feet (6.1 m) in Palm Beach County . In the former county, minor pounding occurred on a few coastal roads. Further north in Broward County , State Road A1A was inundated with sand and water, causing more than a 2 miles (3.2 km) stretch of the road to be closed for the entire weekend. Additionally, coastal flooding extended inland up to 2 blocks in some locations and a few houses in the area suffered water damage. In Manalapan , which is located in southern Palm Beach County, several beachfront homes were threatened by erosion. The Lake Worth Pier was also damaged by rough seas. In Palm Beach County alone, losses reached $14 million. [214] Sandy caused closures and cancellations of some activities at schools in Palm Beach , Broward and Miami-Dade counties. [215] Storm surge from Sandy also caused flooding and beach erosion along coastal areas in South Florida. [216] Gusty winds also impacted South Florida, peaking at 67 mph (108 km/h) in Jupiter and Fowey Rocks Light , which is near Key Biscayne . [214] The storm created power outages across the region, which left many traffic lights out of order. [217]
In east-central Florida, damage was minor, though the storm left about 1,000 people without power. [218] Airlines at Miami International Airport canceled more than 20 flights to or from Jamaica or the Bahamas , while some airlines flying from Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport canceled a total of 13 flights to the islands. [73] The Coast Guard rescued two sea men in Volusia County off New Smyrna Beach on the morning of October 26. [219] Brevard and Volusia Counties schools canceled all extracurricular activities for October 26, including football. [220]
Two panther kittens escaped from the White Oak Conservation Center in Nassau County after the hurricane swept a tree into the fence of their enclosure; they were missing for 24 hours before being found in good health. [ citation needed ]
On October 28, Governor Bev Perdue declared a state of emergency in 24 western counties, due to snow and strong winds. [221]
North Carolina was spared from major damage for the most part (except at the immediate coastline), though winds, rain, and mountain snow affected the state through October 30. Ocracoke and Highway 12 on Hatteras Island were flooded with up to 2 feet (0.6 m) of water, closing part of the highway, while 20 people on a fishing trip were stranded on Portsmouth Island . [222]
There were three Hurricane Sandy-related deaths in the state. [6] [223]
On October 29, the Coast Guard responded to a distress call from Bounty , which was built for the 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty . It was taking on water about 90 miles (140 km) southeast of Cape Hatteras . Sixteen people were on board. [224] The Coast Guard said the 16 people abandoned ship and got into two lifeboats, wearing survival suits and life jackets. [225] The ship sank after the crew got off. [226] The Coast Guard rescued 14 crew members; another was found hours later but was unresponsive and later died. [227] The search for the captain, Robin Walbridge, was suspended on November 1, after efforts lasting more than 90 hours and covering approximately 12,000 square nautical miles (41,100 km 2 ). [228]
On October 29, snow was falling in parts of the state. [147] Gov. Bob McDonnell announced on October 30 that Virginia had been "spared a significant event", but cited concerns about rivers cresting and consequent flooding of major arteries. Virginia was awarded a federal disaster declaration, with Gov. McDonnell saying he was "delighted" that President Barack Obama and FEMA were on it immediately. At Sandy's peak, more than 180,000 customers were without power, most of whom were located in Northern Virginia . [206] [229] There were three Hurricane Sandy-related fatalities in the state. [6] [170]
The Supreme Court and the United States Government Office of Personnel Management were closed on October 30, [230] [231] and schools were closed for two days. [232] MARC train and Virginia Railway Express were closed on October 30, and Metro rail and bus service were on Sunday schedule, opening at 2 p.m., until the system closes. [233]
At least 100 feet (30 m) of a fishing pier in Ocean City was destroyed. Governor Martin O'Malley said the pier was "half-gone". [234] Due to high winds, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge on I-95 were closed. [235] During the storm, the Mayor of Salisbury instituted a Civil Emergency and a curfew. [236] Interstate 68 in far western Maryland and northern West Virginia closed due to heavy snow, stranding multiple vehicles and requiring assistance from the National Guard . [237] Redhouse, Maryland received 26 inches (66 cm) of snow and Alpine Lake, West Virginia received 24 inches (61 cm). [238]
Workers in Howard County tried to stop a sewage overflow caused by a power outage on October 30. Raw sewage spilled at a rate of 2 million gallons per hour. It was unclear how much sewage had flowed into the Little Patuxent River . [239] Over 311,000 people were left without power as a result of the storm. [206]
By the afternoon of October 29, rainfall at Rehoboth Beach totaled 6.53 inches (166 mm). Other precipitation reports include nearly 7 inches (180 mm) at Indian River Inlet and more than 4 inches (100 mm) in Dover and Bear . At 4 p.m. on October 29, Delmarva Power reported on its website that more than 13,900 customers in Delaware and portions of the Eastern Shore of Maryland had lost electric service as high winds brought down trees and power lines. About 3,500 of those were in New Castle County , 2,900 were in Sussex , and more than 100 were in Kent County . Some residents in Kent and Sussex Counties experienced power outages that lasted up to nearly six hours. At the peak of the storm, more than 45,000 customers in Delaware were without power. [206] The Delaware Memorial Bridge speed limit was reduced to 25 mph (40 km/h) and the two outer lanes in each direction were closed. Officials planned to close the span entirely if sustained winds exceeded 50 mph (80 km/h). A wind gust of 64 mph (103 km/h) was measured at Lewes just before 2:30 p.m. on October 29. Delaware Route 1 was closed due to water inundation between Dewey Beach and Fenwick Island . In Dewey Beach, flood waters were 1 to 2 feet (0.30 to 0.61 m) in depth. [240] Following the impact in Delaware, President Barack Obama declared the entire state a federal disaster area , providing money and agencies for disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. [241]
A 50-foot (15 m) piece of the Atlantic City Boardwalk washed away. Half the city of Hoboken flooded; the city of 50,000 had to evacuate two of its fire stations, the EMS headquarters, and the hospital. With the city cut off from area hospitals and fire suppression mutual aid, the city's Mayor asked for National Guard help. [227] In the early morning of October 30, authorities in Bergen County , New Jersey, evacuated residents after a berm overflowed and flooded several communities. Police Chief of Staff Jeanne Baratta said there were up to five feet (1.5 m) of water in the streets of Moonachie and Little Ferry . The state Office of Emergency Management said rescues were undertaken in Carlstadt . [242] Baratta said the three towns had been "devastated" by the flood of water. [243] At the peak of the storm, more than 2,600,000 customers were without power. [206] There were 43 Hurricane Sandy-related deaths in the state of New Jersey. [6] [244] Damage in the state was estimated at $36.8 billion. [245]
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said the city would have no mass transit operations on any lines October 30. [208] All major highways in and around the city of Philadelphia were closed on October 29 during the hurricane, including Interstate 95 , the Blue Route portion of Interstate 476 , the Vine Street Expressway , Schuylkill Expressway ( I-76 ), and the Roosevelt Expressway; U.S. Route 1 . [246] The highways reopened at 4 a.m. on October 30. [246] The Delaware River Port Authority also closed its major crossings over the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey due to high winds, including the Commodore Barry Bridge , the Walt Whitman Bridge , the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and the Betsy Ross Bridge . [246] Trees and powerlines were downed throughout Altoona , and four buildings partially collapsed. [247] More than 1.2 million were left without power. [81] The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency reported 14 deaths believed to be related to Sandy. [248]
New York governor Andrew Cuomo called National Guard members to help in the state. Storm impacts in Upstate New York were much more limited than in New York City ; there was some flooding and a few downed trees. [249] Rochester area utilities reported slightly fewer than 19,000 customers without power, in seven counties. [250] In the state as a whole, however, more than 2,000,000 customers were without power at the peak of the storm. [206]
Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg announced that New York City public schools would be closed on Tuesday, October 30 and Wednesday, October 31, but they remained closed through Friday, November 2. [251] The City University of New York and New York University canceled all classes and campus activities for October 30. [252] The New York Stock Exchange was closed for trading for two days, the first weather closure of the exchange since 1985. [253] It was also the first two-day weather closure since the Great Blizzard of 1888 . [254]
The East River overflowed its banks, flooding large sections of Lower Manhattan . Battery Park had a water surge of 13.88 ft. [255] Seven subway tunnels under the East River were flooded. [256] The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that the destruction caused by the storm was the worst disaster in the 108-year history of the New York City subway system. [257] Sea water flooded the Ground Zero construction site including the National September 11 Memorial and Museum . [258] Over 10 billion gallons of raw and partially treated sewage were released by the storm, 94% of which went into waters in and around New York and New Jersey. [259] In addition, a four-story Chelsea building's facade crumbled and collapsed, leaving the interior on full display; however, no one was hurt by the falling masonry. [260] The Atlantic Ocean storm surge also caused considerable flood damage to homes, buildings, roadways, boardwalks and mass transit facilities in low-lying coastal areas of the outer boroughs of Queens , Brooklyn and Staten Island .
After receiving many complaints that holding the marathon would divert needed resources, Mayor Bloomberg announced late afternoon November 2 that the New York City Marathon had been canceled. The event was to take place on Sunday, November 4. Marathon officials said that they did not plan to reschedule. [261]
Gas shortages throughout the region led to an effort by the U.S. federal government to bring in gasoline and set up mobile truck distribution at which people could receive up to 10 gallons of gas, free of charge. This caused lines of up to 20 blocks long and was quickly suspended. [262] On Thursday, November 8, Mayor Bloomberg announced odd-even rationing of gasoline would be in effect beginning November 9 until further notice. [263]
On November 26, Governor Cuomo called Sandy "more impactful" than Hurricane Katrina, and estimated costs to New York at $42 billion. [264] Approximately 100,000 residences on Long Island were destroyed or severely damaged, including 2,000 that were rendered uninhabitable. [265] There were 53 Hurricane Sandy-related deaths in the state of New York. [266] In 2016, the hurricane was determined to have been the worst to strike the New York City area since at least 1700. [267]
Wind gusts to 83 mph were recorded on outer Cape Cod and Buzzards Bay . [268] Nearly 300,000 customers were without power in Massachusetts, [206] and roads and buildings were flooded. [269] Over 100,000 customers lost power in Rhode Island. [270] Most of the damage was along the coastline, where some communities were flooded. [271] Mount Washington , New Hampshire saw the strongest measured wind gust from the storm at 140 mph. [272] Nearly 142,000 customers lost power in the state. [206]
The flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy overwhelmed water treatment infrastructure on the northeast coast of the United States. More than 200 wastewater treatment plants and over 80 drinking water facilities along the coast of the Tri-State area had been damaged beyond function, with a statement from Governor Cuomo that damage in New York treatment plants alone could reach $1.1 billion. The resulting damage caused more than 10 billion gallons of raw sewage to be released into New York and New Jersey water sources. This contamination resulted in the shutting down of several drinking-water facilities. [273]
The contamination caused by this incident resulted in the EPA issuing a warning that all individuals should avoid coming into contact with the water in Newark Bay and New York Harbor, due to the increased presence of fecal coliform, a bacteria that is associated with human waste. Similar warnings were issued for water sources in both the Westchester and Yonkers areas. [274]
Sandy's rain became snow in the Appalachian Mountains, leading to blizzard conditions in some areas, especially West Virginia, [8] when a tongue of dense and heavy Arctic air pushed south through the region. This would normally cause a Nor'easter, prompting some to dub Sandy a "nor'eastercane" or "Frankenstorm". [275] There was 1–3 feet (30–91 cm) of snowfall in 28 of West Virginia 's 55 counties. [8] [276] The highest snowfall accumulation was 36 inches (91 cm) near Richwood . [8] Other significant totals include 32 inches (81 cm) in Snowshoe , 29 inches (74 cm) in Quinwood , [277] and 28 inches (71 cm) in Davis , Flat Top , and Huttonsville . [278] By the morning of October 31, there were still 36 roads closed due to downed trees, powerlines, and snow in the road. [277] Approximately 271,800 customers lost power during the storm. [206]
There were reports of collapsed buildings in several counties due to the sheer weight of the wet, heavy snow. [279] Overall, there were seven fatalities related to Hurricane Sandy and its remnants in West Virginia, [280] including John Rose Sr., the Republican candidate for the state's 47th district in the state legislature, who was killed in the aftermath of the storm by a falling tree limb broken off by the heavy snowfall. [281] Governor Earl Ray Tomblin asked President Obama for a federal disaster declaration, and on October 30, President Obama approved a state of emergency declaration for the state. [282]
Wind gusts at Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport were reported at 68 miles per hour (109 km/h). [283] On October 30, hundreds of school districts canceled or delayed school across the state with at least 250,000 homes and businesses without power. [284] Damage was reported across the state including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame which lost parts of its siding. [283] Snow was reported in some parts of eastern Ohio and south of Cleveland . Snow and icy roads also were reported south of Columbus . [284]
The US Department of Energy reported that more than 120,000 customers lost power in Michigan as a result of the storm. [206] The National Weather Service said that waves up to 23 feet (7.0 m) high were reported on southern Lake Huron. [143]
More than one foot (300 mm) of snow fell in eastern Kentucky as Sandy merged with an Arctic front . [285] Winter warnings in Harlan , Letcher , and Pike County were put into effect until October 31. [286]
Mount Le Conte , Tennessee, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park , was blanketed with 32 inches (81 cm) of snow, an October record. [287]
The remnants of Sandy produced high winds along Lake Huron and Georgian Bay , where gusts were measured at 105 km/h (65 mph). A 121 km/h (75 mph) gust was measured on top of the Bluewater Bridge . [288] One woman died after being hit by a piece of flying debris in Toronto . [158] At least 145,000 customers across Ontario lost power, [289] and a Bluewater Power worker was electrocuted in Sarnia while working to restore power. [290] Around 49,000 homes and businesses lost power in Quebec during the storm, with nearly 40,000 of those in the Laurentides region of the province, as well as more than 4,000 customers in the Eastern Townships and 1,700 customers in Montreal . [291] Hundreds of flights were canceled. [292] Around 14,000 customers in Nova Scotia lost power during the height of the storm. [293] The Insurance Bureau of Canada's preliminary damage estimate was over $100 million for the nation. [160]
Several media organizations contributed to the immediate relief effort: Disney–ABC Television Group held a "Day of Giving" on Monday, November 5, raising $17 million on their television stations for the American Red Cross [294] and NBC raised $23 million during their Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together telethon the same day. [295] On October 31, 2012, News Corporation donated $1 million to relief efforts in the New York metropolitan area . [296] As of December 2013, the NGO Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund had distributed much of the funding raised in New Jersey. [297]
On November 6, the United Nations and World Food Programme promised humanitarian aid to at least 500,000 people in Santiago de Cuba . [298]
On December 12, 2012, the 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City . Various television channels in the United States and internationally aired the four-hour concert which was expected to reach over 1 billion people worldwide, featuring many famous performers including Bon Jovi , Eric Clapton , Dave Grohl , Billy Joel , and Alicia Keys . Web sites including Fuse.tv , MTV .com, YouTube , and the sites of AOL and Yahoo! planned to stream the performance. [299]
The U.S. Government mobilized several agencies and departments to mitigate the effects of the Hurricane in the most afflicted areas. The response to the storm on part of the government was of particular urgency owing to the possible fallout of a poor response on part of the Obama administration during the upcoming U.S. presidential elections . These sentiments were characterized in the President's speech in the days following the impact, stating the government's response was “not going to tolerate any red tape. We’re not going to tolerate any bureaucracy”. [300]
Anticipating the destruction of the Atlantic storm, states on the U.S. East Coast, especially in heavily populated regions like in the New York metropolitan area, began to prepare. As the tropical depression strengthened to a hurricane, the Department of Defense formed Joint Task Force Sandy on October 22, 2012. [300] Gathering humanitarian supplies and disaster recovery equipment, the DOD prepared to carry out DSCA (Defense Support of Civil Authorities) operations across the eastern seaboard . In the aftermath of the calamity, thousands of military personnel provided vital assistance to affected communities. On the first night of the aftermath, 12,000 National Guard members across the East Coast worked to assuage the destruction. [301] President Obama mandated the Defense Logistics Agency to supply over 5 million gallons Department of Energy-owned ultra-low sulfur diesel. [302]
On December 28, 2012, the United States Senate approved an emergency Hurricane Sandy relief bill to provide $60 billion for US states affected by Sandy, [303] but the House in effect postponed action until the next session which began January 3 by adjourning without voting on the bill. [304] On January 4, 2013, House leaders pledged to vote on a flood insurance bill and an aid package by January 15. [305] On January 28, the Senate passed the $50.5 billion Sandy aid bill by a count of 62–36. [306] which President Obama signed into law January 29. [307]
In January 2013, The New York Times reported that those affected by the hurricane were still struggling to recover. [308]
In June 2013, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo set out to centralize recovery and rebuilding efforts in impacted areas of New York State by establishing the Governor's Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR). He aimed to address communities' most urgent needs, and to identify innovative and enduring solutions to strengthen the State's infrastructure and critical systems. Operating under the umbrella of New York Rising, GOSR utilized approximately $3.8 billion in flexible funding made available by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development 's (HUD) Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program to concentrate aid in four main areas: housing, small business, infrastructure, and the community reconstruction. [309]
On December 6, 2013, an analysis of Federal Emergency Management Agency data showed that fewer than half of those affected who requested disaster recovery assistance had received any, and a total of 30,000 residents of New York and New Jersey remained displaced. [310]
In March 2014, Newsday reported, that 17 months after the hurricane people displaced from rental units on Long Island faced unique difficulties due to lack of affordable rental housing and delays in housing program implementations by New York State. Close to 9,000 rental units on Long Island were damaged by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, and Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee in 2011 per the NY State Governor's Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR). [311] New York State officials said that additional assistance would soon be available from the HUD's Community Development Block Grant funds via the New York Rising program. [312] On March 15, 2014, a group of those who remained displaced by the hurricane organized a protest at the Nassau Legislative building in Mineola, New York, to raise awareness of their frustration with the timeline for receiving financial assistance from the New York Rising program. [313]
As of March 2014, the GOSR released a press statement, that the New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program had distributed more than $280 million in payments to 6,388 homeowners for damage from Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Irene or Tropical Storm Lee . Every eligible homeowner who had applied by January 20, 2014, had been issued a check for home reconstruction, including over 4,650 Nassau residents for over $201 million and over 1,350 Suffolk residents for over $65 million. The state also had made offers over $293 million to buy out homes of 709 homeowners. [314]
Hurricane Sandy sparked much political commentary. Many scientists said warming oceans and greater atmospheric moisture were intensifying storms while rising sea levels were worsening coastal effects. November 2012 Representative Henry Waxman of California , the top Democrat of the House Energy and Commerce Committee , requested a hearing in the lame duck session on links between climate change and Hurricane Sandy. [315] Some news outlets labeled the storm the October surprise of the 2012 United States Presidential election , [316] [317] while Democrats and Republicans accused each other of politicizing the storm. [318]
The storm hit the United States one week before its general United States elections , and affected the presidential campaign, local and state campaigns in storm-damaged areas. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie , one of Mitt Romney 's leading supporters, praised President Barack Obama and his reaction to the hurricane, and toured storm-damaged areas of his state with the president. [319] It was reported at the time that Sandy might affect elections in several states, especially by curtailing early voting . [320] The Economist wrote, "the weather is supposed to clear up well ahead of election day, but the impact could be felt in the turnout of early voters." [321] ABC News predicted this might be offset by a tendency to clear roads and restore power more quickly in urban areas. [322] The storm ignited a debate over whether Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2011 proposed to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). [323] The next day the Romney campaign promised to keep FEMA funded, but did not explain what other parts of the federal budget it would cut to pay for it. [324] Beyond the election, National Defense Magazine said Sandy "might cause a rethinking (in the USA) of how climate change threatens national security". [325]
In his news conference on November 14, 2012, President Obama said, "we can't attribute any particular weather event to climate change. What we do know is the temperature around the globe is increasing faster than was predicted even 10 years ago. We do know that the Arctic ice cap is melting faster than was predicted even five years ago. We do know that there have been extraordinarily — there have been an extraordinarily large number of severe weather events here in North America, but also around the globe. And I am a firm believer that climate change is real, that it is impacted by human behavior and carbon emissions. And as a consequence, I think we've got an obligation to future generations to do something about it." [326]
On January 30, 2015, days after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a post-Sandy report examining flood risks for 31,200 miles (50,200 km) of the North Atlantic coast, President Obama issued an executive order directing federal agencies, state and local governments drawing federal funds to adopt stricter building and siting standards to reflect scientific projections that future flooding will be more frequent and intense due to climate change. [327]
Power outages and flooding in the area closed the New York Stock Exchange and other financial markets on both October 29 and 30, a weather-related closure that last happened in 1888. [328] When markets reopened on October 31, investors were relieved that it closed relatively flat that day. A week later, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Capital Markets Bureau noted a slight uptick in the market (0.8%) and suggested that the negative economic impact of Hurricane Sandy was offset by the expected positive impacts of rebuilding. [329]
The destruction of physical infrastructure as a result of Sandy cost impacted states, including New York and New Jersey, tens of billions of dollars. [330] EQECAT, a risk-modeling company that focuses on catastrophes, approximated that impacted regions lost between $30 billion to $50 billion in economic activity. The economic loss was attributed to the massive power outages, liquid fuel shortages, and a near shutdown of the region's transportation system. [331]
- Energy: Roughly 8.5 million customers were impacted due to power outages, including many businesses that were hard-pressed to deliver products and services in a timely manner. [332] Breaks in gas lines also caused fires in many locations, prompting explosions and destruction of a large number of residences. Locating gas and diesel fuel proved difficult immediately after Sandy hit, which harmed transportation access for many people. [333] The impairment of the ability to obtain fuel was due to flooding damage in crucial terminals and harbors in areas of New Jersey bordering the Arthur Kill. The shortage of fuel held up first responders as well as other response and recovery officials. Therefore, portable generators remained unutilized, resulting in long lines at fueling stations while individuals were unable to differentiate between the stations that did not hold power from the gas stations that were operational.
- Communications: Telecommunications infrastructure was heavily disrupted, impacting millions of people and thousands of businesses, destabilizing the economy of one of the biggest cities in the world. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) found that roughly 25% of cell towers across 10 states were out of service at the peak of the storm. [334]
- Green Infrastructure: Hurricane Sandy's storm surge caused erosion of the beaches and dunes, island breaches, and overwash along the coast of New England down all the way to Florida. Flooding along the coast generated substantial erosion of previous natural infrastructure, flooding of wetland habitats, coastal dune destruction or erosion, decimation of coastal lakes, and novel inlet creation. [335]
- Transportation: Throughout the history of the country, the nation had not witnessed a worse disaster for public transit systems, including buses, subway, and commuter rail, than when Sandy struck. The morning after the storm hit, on October 30, 2012, more than half of the country's daily public transportation riders were unable to commute due to inoperable service. [337] The New York City subway system was shut down two days prior to the storm due to necessary precautions and remained closed through November 1. [338] During that short amount of time, one of the world's largest financial centers experienced immense traffic jams. Those who were able to arrive at work experienced commutes of several hours. [339] Eight New York City subway tunnels were flooded due to a seawater breach which flowed through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, impacting various transportation systems throughout the region. [340]
- Stormwater Management and Wastewater Treatment Systems: There was a massive failure in wastewater treatment facilities all around the mid-Atlantic coast due to floodwaters, large storm runoff, wind damage, and electricity loss. [341] The region's waterways were hit with billions of gallons of raw and partially treated sewage, adversely affecting the health of the public, as well as ocean habitats and other important resources. [341] There was also a public health concern about the threat of contaminated water filling the pipes and wells that supplied potable water to large parts of the region. Large water utility companies experienced power outages, disrupting their ability to provide safe drinking water. Advisories had to be sent out to many parts of New York and New Jersey for customers to warn them of the potential of their water being contaminated. [342] The "boil water" advisories were later lifted, however, when it was proven that none of the water was contaminated or held the potential for any ill effects.
- Public Medical Facilities and Schools: A variety of New York City hospitals and other medical facilities, including the Bellevue Medical Center and Coney Island hospital, were shut down as a result of flooding from the storm. In many parts of the hospitals, there was considerable damage to research, medical, and electrical equipment which was located on lower floors for ease of access. [343] In New Jersey, medical facilities were also severely affected. In sum, the hospitals in the state reported an estimated $68 million in damage. Hudson County had to force closure due to the extensive damage done by the hurricane. [344] Hurricane Sandy also caused schools to close for about a week on average immediately following the storm. During the period of closure, schools attempted to regain control of electrical operations that were impaired by the aftermath. [345]
Thousands of homeowners were denied their flood insurance claims based upon fraudulent engineers' reports, according to the whistleblowing efforts of Andrew Braum, an engineer who claimed that at least 175 of his more than 180 inspections were doctored. [346] [347] As a result, a class-action racketeering lawsuit has been filed against several insurance companies and their contract engineering firms. [348] As of 2015, the Federal Emergency Management Agency planned to review all flood insurance claims. [349]
New Jersey hospitals saw a spike in births nine months after Sandy, causing some to believe that there was a post-Sandy baby boom. The Monmouth Medical Center saw a 35% jump, and two other hospitals saw 20% increases. [350] An expert stated that post-storm births that year were higher than in past disasters. [351]
Because of the exceptional damage and deaths caused by the storm in several countries, the name Sandy was later retired by the World Meteorological Organization , and will never be used again for a North Atlantic hurricane. [352] It was replaced with Sara for the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season (though it went unused that season). [353]
As Hurricane Sandy approached the United States, forecasters and journalists gave it several different unofficial names, at first related to its projected snow content, then to its proximity to Halloween, and eventually to the overall size of the storm. Early nicknames included "Snowicane Sandy" [354] and "Snor'eastercane Sandy". [355] [356] The most popular Halloween-related nickname was "Frankenstorm", [357] [358] coined by Jim Cisco, a forecaster at the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center . [359] [360] [361] CNN banned the use of the term, saying it trivialized the destruction. [362] [363]
The severe and widespread damage the storm caused in the United States, as well as its unusual merger with a frontal system, resulted in the nicknaming of the hurricane "Superstorm Sandy" by the media, public officials, and several organizations, including U.S. government agencies. [364] [365] [366] [367] This persisted as the most common nickname well into 2013. The term was also embraced by climate change proponents as a term for the new type of storms caused by global warming, [368] while other writers used the term but maintained that it was too soon to blame the storm on climate change. [369] [370] Meanwhile, Popular Science called it "an imaginary scare-term that exists exclusively for shock value". [371] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Sandy | 51 |
when did super storm sandy hit new york | Effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|Meteorological history|
|Formed||October 28, 2012 (First rainbands begin to affect New Jersey)|
|Extratropical||October 29|
|Dissipated||November 2, 2012 (Dissipated as extratropical cyclone)|
|Category 1 hurricane|
|1-minute sustained ( SSHWS / NWS )|
|Highest winds||80 mph (130 km/h)|
|Lowest pressure||945 mbar ( hPa ); 27.91 inHg|
|Overall effects|
|Fatalities||53 total|
|Damage||$32 billion (2012 USD )|
|Areas affected||New York , especially the New York metropolitan area|
|[1]|
Part of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season
| History |
Effects
Other wikis
New York was severely affected by Hurricane Sandy on October 29–30, 2012, particularly New York City , its suburbs, and Long Island . Sandy's impacts included the flooding of the New York City Subway system, of many suburban communities, and of all road tunnels entering Manhattan except the Lincoln Tunnel . The New York Stock Exchange closed for two consecutive days. Numerous homes and businesses were destroyed by fire, including over 100 homes in Breezy Point, Queens . Large parts of the city and surrounding areas lost electricity for several days. Several thousand people in midtown Manhattan were evacuated for six days due to a crane collapse at Extell's One57 . Bellevue Hospital Center and a few other large hospitals were closed and evacuated. Flooding at 140 West Street and another exchange disrupted voice and data communication in lower Manhattan . [2]
At least 43 people died in New York City as a result of the storm, and 53 in the state. Thousands of homes and an estimated 250,000 vehicles were destroyed during the storm, and the economic losses in New York City were estimated to be roughly $19 billion [3] with an estimated $32.8 billion required for restoration across the state. [4]
Hurricane Sandy originated in the Caribbean Sea on October 22. Early on October 25, Hurricane Sandy moved across eastern Cuba as a major hurricane and emerged into the western Atlantic Ocean. [5] The National Hurricane Center (NHC) expected that Sandy would become extratropical at some point before hitting the New Jersey coast, but there was uncertainty in the timing. To avoid potential confusion, the agency did not issue hurricane and tropical cyclone warnings ; instead, the National Weather Service (NWS) office in New York City issued high wind warnings , reflecting the expectation of wind gusts over 58 mph (93 km/h). [5] [6] As early as October 27, the NHC forecast a 4 to 8 ft (1.2 to 2.4 m) storm surge inundation, which they later increased to 6 to 11 ft (1.8 to 3.4 m). [5]
On October 28, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for every county in the state. He also asked for a pre-disaster declaration to better access federal assistance. [7] Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano ordered voluntary evacuations of the South Shore storm surge area, which includes the area south of Sunrise Highway , as well as the North Shore 's areas north of Route 25A and in elevations 15 feet above sea level or less. [8] Shelters were opened at Levittown Memorial High School, Locust Valley High School, Nassau Community College and SUNY Old Westbury . In Suffolk County , officials ordered mandatory evacuations for residents of Fire Island and in surge zone areas in Babylon , Brookhaven , Islip , Riverhead , Southampton and Southold . Shelters were opened at Hampton Bays High School , Sachem East High School, and the Brentwood High School Sonderling Building . [9] Most schools closed in Nassau and Suffolk counties on October 29, including Adelphi University , Hofstra University , Molloy College , Nassau Community College and Stony Brook University . [10] [11]
On October 28, President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration for the state of New York. [12] The Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road suspended service beginning 7 p.m. October 27 through October 29 and possibly October 30. [13] Starbucks closed all of its outlets in the city and Long Island on October 28 at 4 p.m. to let employees get home before the transit system shut down. The stores remained closed on October 29. [14] The Tappan Zee Bridge was closed October 29 at 4 p.m. EDT due to wind conditions. [15]
Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters on October 26 that the city had begun taking precautions but said at that time there was no call for mandatory evacuations and no plans to suspend the city's mass transit or cancel school. But on October 28, Governor Cuomo ordered the MTA , including the subway, closed and in a press conference immediately after Cuomo's announcement, Mayor Bloomberg ordered public schools closed on October 29. [16] He ordered mandatory evacuations for Zone A [17] which includes the southern tip of Manhattan, the Coney Island - Brighton Beach and Red Hook areas of Brooklyn , the entire Rockaways peninsula, much of Staten Island , City Island , and part of the Throggs Neck area of the Bronx . [18] On October 28, officials activated the city's coastal emergency plan, with subway closings and the evacuation of residents in areas hit during Hurricane Irene in August 2011. More than 76 evacuation shelters were open around the city. [7]
The MTA announced that all subway, bus and commuter rail service would be suspended, beginning at 7 p.m. EDT on October 28 and expected to continue suspension through at least October 30. [19] All PATH train service and stations were shut down at 12:01 a.m. October 29. [16] 200 National Guard troops were deployed in the city. All bus carriers at the Port Authority Bus Terminal closed at 3 a.m. October 29. U.S. stock trading was suspended for October 29 and 30. [20] It was the first two-day weather closure since the Great Blizzard of 1888 . [21] All state courts were closed October 29, except for arraignments and emergency applications. NYU Langone Medical Center cancelled all surgeries and medical procedures, except for emergency procedures. [22]
On October 27, Google postponed their planned Android event in New York City due to the storm. [23] [24] The Staten Island Ferry and East River Ferry services were suspended at least through October 29. [25] Most bridges and tunnels closed. Major carriers cancelled all flights into and out of JFK , LaGuardia and Newark-Liberty airports until it was safe to fly. Broadway theater owners canceled all October 28 evening and October 29 performances. [13] Alternate-side parking and parking meter regulations were suspended on October 29. [26] Grand Central Terminal , Central Park and Battery Park were closed on October 29. The Holland Tunnel and the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel closed at 2 p.m. EDT on October 29. The Tappan Zee Bridge was closed later on that day. [27] [28]
One of the units at Indian Point nuclear power plant (Unit #3) was shut down around 10:45 p.m. October 29, because of external electrical grid issues according to plant operator Entergy . [29]
As an extratropical cyclone, Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey on October 29, about 100 mi (160 km) south of New York City. [5] It was a large cyclone, with gale-force winds about 1,000 mi (1,600 km) in diameter. Sandy's northwest track toward the coast drove a wall of water into southeastern New York from New York Harbor , as well as from the Long Island Sound . [3] Along the coast of Long Island and across the New York metropolitan area, the storm's large size produced record high tides and a significant storm surge , which is the rise in water above the normally expected high tide . [5] The timing of the surge coincided with the normal high tide, as well as a full moon, which added to the increase in water. [3] Kings Point at the western end of the Long Island Sound recorded a storm surge of 12.65 ft (3.86 m) above normal tide levels. At the Battery on the southern tip of Manhattan , a storm surge of 9.40 ft (2.87 m) was recorded, corresponding to 14.06 ft (4.29 m) above the average low tide ; this was the highest water level on record, surpassing the previous record set by the December 1992 nor'easter . [5] About 17% of New York City flooded during the storm, equating to 51 sq mi (130 km 2 ). This exceeded the 100-year flood as predicted by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Areas along the ocean suffered from 12 ft (3.7 m) in addition to the high tides, which eroded more than 3 million yd 3 (2.3 million m 3 of beaches in New York City. Oceanfront locations with nourished beach , dunes, or bulkheads had less flooding. [3]
Sandy's large circulation produced high winds across southern New York. At Great Gull Island in the Long Island Sound, sustained winds reached 75 mph (121 km/h) while Sandy was still a tropical cyclone. Wind gusts reached 95 mph (153 km/h) at Eatons Neck along the northern coast of Long Island. [5] Hurricane-force gusts occurred throughout the New York metropolitan area and along Long Island. [30] The storm also dropped light rainfall across the state. Precipitation in New York reached 3.42 in (87 mm) in Sherman , in the extreme western portion of the state. [31]
Across New York, Sandy killed 48 people directly related to its impacts, including floodwaters and winds. [5] The storm caused 43 deaths in New York City, mostly in Staten Island. [3] There were another five deaths caused by carbon monoxide poisoning, after people used generators inside their homes. [32] Power outages affected nearly 2 million people in New York City, while more than 1 million people lost cellphone service. [3] Statewide, Sandy destroyed about 305,000 homes, mostly related to the high storm surge. [5] In New York City alone, the floodwaters entered the homes of more than 443,000 people and more than 23,400 businesses. About 75,000 people in poor health were affected by the floodwaters, while another 54,000 people in poor health were in areas affected by power outages. [3] On November 26, Governor Cuomo estimated statewide damage and losses at $32 billion. Mayor Bloomberg announced earlier in the day that the storm caused $19 billion in losses in New York City, which was included in the estimate Cuomo gave. [33] The statewide damage was roughly half of the nationwide estimate of $68.7 billion, with much of the remaining damage occurring in neighboring New Jersey. [5]
The Old Orchard Shoal Light in New York Harbor was destroyed by the hurricane. [34] [35]
As of the morning of November 1, Con Ed had restored two power networks, but there were still more than 600,000 customers without power throughout the five boroughs. Con Ed predicted most all of Manhattan would be fully restored by November 3. [36] By the afternoon of the same day, Con Ed said it expected to "restore the vast majority of customers who lost power by the weekend of November 10 and 11. The remaining customer restorations could take an additional week more." [37]
As of the morning of November 2, more than 1.3 million customers were without power, down from 2.2 million. As of 5:00 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT) on that date Con Edison said about 226,000 customers lacked service in Manhattan, 84,000 in Queens, 35,000 in Brooklyn, 54,000 in Staten Island 31,000 in the Bronx and 140,000 in Westchester. On Long Island, LIPA said it still had about 532,000 customers without power, down from more than 900,000. [38] In the evening of November 2, LIPA said they expected to cut the number of customer outages by 150,000 by November 4. [39]
As of 4 a.m. November 3, Con Ed reported about:
- 94,769 customer outages in Manhattan
- 81,372 customer outages in Queens
- 37,504 customer outages in Staten Island
- 31,448 customer outages in Brooklyn
- 26,252 customer outages in the Bronx [40]
During the evening of November 3, Con Ed announced all Manhattan power networks were back online. Approximately 153,000 Con Ed customers were without power as of 8 p.m. November 3:
- 9,211 customer outages in Manhattan
- 74,067 customer outages in Queens
- 27,842 customer outages in Staten Island
- 24,707 customer outages in Brooklyn
- 19,501 customer outages in the Bronx [41]
As of around noon November 5, Con Ed reported those without electricity were:
- 3,825 customer outages in Manhattan
- 38,397 customer outages in Queens
- 17,465 customer outages in Staten Island
- 22,887 customer outages in Brooklyn
- 8,282 customer outages in the Bronx [42]
As of January 2013, there were still 8,200 people without power. [43]
The storm damaged, destroyed, or severely flooded around 100,000 homes on Long Island. As of December 10, 2012, more than 2,000 homes were deemed uninhabitable. [44]
Bloomberg stated on November 3 that 55,000 buildings in the city's Zone A were ordered to evacuate and would be inspected for damage. [45]
The MTA incurred about $5 billion in damage from Sandy, which became the worst disaster to affect the transit agency in its 108-year history. There was an additional $2.5 billion in transportation damage in the state. Several subway stations were severely damaged, and eight tunnels were submerged. Train service between Manhattan and Brooklyn was disrupted for several weeks after the storm. [5]
The storm surge inundated portions of the runways and tarmacs at both LaGuardia and JFK airports. [5]
On October 31, NY Waterway ferries between Hudson County, New Jersey , and Manhattan resumed service. The Staten Island Ferry resumed full service November 2 and Staten Island Railway the next day.
On November 1, fuel ships started arriving in reopened New York Harbor . [46]
On November 2, Governor Cuomo signed an executive order waiving the state's requirements that fuel tankers register and pay a tax before unloading. [47]
The George Washington Bridge , Throgs Neck Bridge , Verrazano Bridge , and Whitestone Bridge closed at 7 p.m. EDT October 29. All road tunnels into Manhattan, except the Lincoln Tunnel, were flooded and closed, as were subway tunnels under the East River and the PATH subway system. [48] Limited bus service resumed Tuesday evening, Oct 30. Limited MTA subway service was scheduled to resume on November 1 with two East River tunnels (59th Street and 63rd Street ) in operation and shuttle bus service to Manhattan from Brooklyn termini. [49] The Long Island Rail Road remained closed due to storm damage until November 8, 2012. The LIRR then re-opened with partial service to most of its branches, excluding Long Beach. [50] Nassau Inter-County Express and Suffolk County Transit suspended and/or greatly limited service for the storm. [51] In response to the flooding of tunnels and other infrastructure, the United States Army Corps of Engineers sent its National Unwatering Team. [52]
As of October 31, 2012, MTA bus service began operating on a regular schedule. The subway system was tested with plans to resume limited service to 14 of the 23 services on November 1. PATH services remained suspended; the Long Island Rail Road resumed limited, hourly service; and Metro-North restored hourly service on its Harlem Line between North White Plains and Grand Central Terminal. All bridges were open. Amtrak provided modified service starting on November 1, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal reopened with no Greyhound Lines service or commuter buses to New Jersey. [53]
On the morning of November 1, the first train, an A train , pulled out of Penn Station three days after tunnels were flooded. Subway service in Lower Manhattan except for the IRT Lexington Avenue Line and to Brooklyn was disconnected. The G train (which is a crosstown route between Queens and Brooklyn), as well as the Rockaway Park Shuttle and the part-time B , C , and Z trains, were also suspended. [54] [55] Governor Cuomo waived fares on MTA trains and buses through November 5. [56]
The Holland Tunnel opened to buses only on November 2. [57] HOV restrictions on bridges and Lincoln Tunnel ended on that day. By November 3, 80 percent of subway service was restored. [58] On November 6, the Queens Midtown Tunnel reopened one lane for buses heading into and out of Manhattan during rush hour . [59] The Holland Tunnel reopened November 7 at 5 a.m. EST., [60] while the Queens-Midtown Tunnel reopened on November 9 at 6 a.m. EST. [61] The Hugh L. Carey Tunnel opened November 12 to limited rush-hour bus service. [62]
Delta Air Lines cancelled all flights out of LaGuardia Airport through October 30 at 8 p.m. EDT. [63] The three major airports serving New York City, JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark, were closed as of 8 p.m. on October 29. [64] More than 8,000 flights were canceled by 4 p.m. EDT for the day of October 30. LaGuardia and Newark had a total of 2,400 cancelled flights. As of early morning October 31, nearly 3,000 flights were canceled, [65] but JFK and Newark airports began handling flights after 7 a.m. [53] LaGuardia Airport reopened November 1 at 7:00 a.m. [53]
New York's Village Halloween Parade , held annually on October 31, was cancelled due to blackout conditions in Greenwich Village . A similar parade in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York was also cancelled for that same reason. [66]
After many complaints that running the New York City Marathon through affected areas would seem insensitive and would put further pressure on police and other service workers who would be better deployed in the recovery efforts, Mayor Bloomberg announced late afternoon November 2 that the race had been cancelled. The event was to take place on Sunday, November 4. Marathon officials said that it would not be rescheduled. [67]
The opening game at the Barclays Center between the National Basketball Association 's Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks originally scheduled to take place on November 1 was rescheduled for November 26. [68]
The soccer game between the New York Red Bulls and D.C. United in the 2012 Major League Soccer playoffs, scheduled for November 3, was moved to November 7, due to a power outage at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey .
The most significant water levels in the state from Sandy occurred in Staten Island. Along the northern tip along the Kill Van Kull , Sandy produced a storm surge of 9.56 ft (2.91 m) above normal tide levels, which corresponded to water levels 14.58 ft (4.44 m) above the average low tide. This surpassed the previous record by 4.57 ft (1.39 m), set by Irene a year earlier. The highest-observed water line in the state was 7.9 ft (2.4 m) above ground, measured on a doorframe of a house in Staten Island's Oakwood neighborhood. [5]
Staten Island experienced sustained winds of 40 to 60 mph, with gusts of up to 80 mph. [69]
At least 21 people died on Staten Island from the storm surge. Floodwaters washed away entire blocks of houses in Midland Beach , New Dorp , and Oakwood Beach. [5]
On October 30, the John B. Caddell tanker was driven ashore at Staten Island. [70]
Parts of Lower Manhattan were inundated by floodwaters, possibly as much as 8 ft (2.4 m) deep, based on water marks measured near the South Street Seaport . At One World Trade Center in the Financial District , water levels were 4.7 ft (1.4 m) above ground. Floodwaters reached the corner of Canal and Hudson streets. Waters from the East River inundated parts of the East Village . [5]
The floods entered hundreds of buildings across Manhattan. The South Ferry/Whitehall Street station in Battery Park was largely destroyed, [5] after the storm surge submerged the station with 80 ft (24 m) of floodwaters. [71] The station was less than four years old, as the previous station was rebuilt following the September 11 attacks of 2001. [72] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Sandy_in_New_York | 51 |
when did super storm sandy hit new york | Superstorm Sandy anniversary: Memorable videos, photos from storm | NEW YORK (WABC) -- On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy slammed ashore in New Jersey and slowly marched inland, devastating coastal communities and causing widespread power outages.
The storm and its aftermath were blamed for at least 182 deaths in the U.S., and lives across the Tri-State area were forever changed.
Sandy remains the costliest natural disaster to hit the New York area.
The storm was blamed for at least 48 deaths in New York and 12 in New Jersey -- and more than $71 billion in damage in this country alone.
Nine years later, parts of our area are still recovering, and there are images that will always stay with us. | https://abc7ny.com/superstorm-sandy-news-coverage-hurricane-breezy-point/5656379/ | 51 |
when did super storm sandy hit new york | Superstorm Sandy: Ten years later | Jennifer A. Daly
Posted 10/27/22
On Oct. 29, 2012, almost 10 years ago from today, the “Frankenstorm” Hurricane Sandy made landfall on New York State. The Category 1 hurricane became one of the worst natural …
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when did super storm sandy hit new york | About Hurricane Sandy | Hurricane Sandy hit New York City on October 29, 2012. Over the course of 48 hours, wind, rain, and water destroyed approximately 300 homes, left hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers without power, damaged critical public and private infrastructure, and left many New Yorkers vulnerable with limited access to food, drinking water, healthcare, and other critical services. The City of New York’s preparation and immediate response to Hurricane Sandy was one of the largest mobilizations of public services in it’s history, and demonstrated the dedication of the City’s workforce and the perseverance of New Yorkers to recover and rebuild.
The storm resulted in the deaths of 44 City residents and inflicted an estimated $19 billion in damages and lost economic activity across the New York City. Most significantly, over 69,000 residential units were damaged, and thousands of New Yorkers were temporarily displaced.The Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 provided emergency relief funding to multiple Federal agencies in order to assist in the recovery efforts. As part of this legislation, New York City received roughly $4.2 billion in Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery funding to address a range of needs, including rebuilding and rehabilitating housing, assisting displaced tenants, providing aid to businesses, and bolstering coastal defenses. | https://www.nyc.gov/site/cdbgdr/about/About%20Hurricane%20Sandy.page | 51 |
when did super storm sandy hit new york | Hurricane Sandy - Wikipedia | Not to be confused with the 2015 Pacific Hurricane Sandra .
For other storms of the same name, see Tropical Storm Sandy .
|Meteorological history|
|Formed||October 22, 2012|
|Post-tropical||October 29|
|Dissipated||November 2, 2012|
|Category 3 hurricane|
|1-minute sustained ( SSHWS / NWS )|
|Highest winds||115 mph (185 km/h)|
|Lowest pressure||940 mbar ( hPa ); 27.76 inHg|
|Overall effects|
|Fatalities||233 total|
|Damage|| $68.7 billion (2012 USD ) |
( Seventh-costliest hurricane in U.S. history)
|Areas affected||Greater Antilles , Bahamas , most of the eastern United States (especially the coastal Mid-Atlantic States ), Bermuda , eastern Canada|
|IBTrACS|
Part of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane and
2012–13 North American winter seasons
| History |
Effects
Other wikis
Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy ) [1] [2] was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane , as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spanning 1,150 miles (1,850 km). [3] [4] [5] The storm inflicted nearly $70 billion (2012 USD ) in damage and killed 233 people across eight countries from the Caribbean to Canada. [6] [7] The eighteenth named storm , tenth hurricane , and second major hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season , Sandy was a Category 3 storm at its peak intensity when it made landfall in Cuba , though most of the damage it caused was after it became a Category 1-equivalent extratropical cyclone off the coast of the Northeastern United States. [8]
Sandy developed from a tropical wave in the western Caribbean Sea on October 22, quickly strengthened, and was upgraded to Tropical Storm Sandy six hours later. Sandy moved slowly northward toward the Greater Antilles and gradually intensified. On October 24, Sandy became a hurricane, made landfall near Kingston, Jamaica , re-emerged a few hours later into the Caribbean Sea and strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane. On October 25, Sandy hit Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane, then weakened to a Category 1 hurricane. Early on October 26, Sandy moved through the Bahamas. [9] On October 27, Sandy briefly weakened to a tropical storm and then restrengthened to a Category 1 hurricane. Early on October 29, Sandy curved west-northwest (the "left turn" or "left hook") and then [10] moved ashore near Brigantine, New Jersey , just to the northeast of Atlantic City , as a post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds. [8] [11] Sandy continued drifting inland for another few days while gradually weakening, until it was absorbed by another approaching extratropical storm on November 2. [8] [12]
In Jamaica , winds left 70 percent of residents without electricity, blew roofs off buildings, killed one person, and caused about $100 million (2012 USD) in damage. Sandy's outer bands brought flooding to Haiti , killing at least 54, causing food shortages, and leaving about 200,000 homeless; the hurricane also caused two deaths in the Dominican Republic . In Puerto Rico , one man was swept away by a swollen river. In Cuba, there was extensive coastal flooding and wind damage inland, destroying some 15,000 homes, killing 11, and causing $2 billion (2012 USD) in damage. Sandy caused two deaths and an estimated $700 million (2012 USD) in damage in The Bahamas .
In the United States, Hurricane Sandy affected 24 states , including the entire eastern seaboard from Florida to Maine and west across the Appalachian Mountains to Michigan and Wisconsin , with particularly severe damage in New Jersey and New York . Its storm surge hit New York City on October 29, flooding streets, tunnels and subway lines and cutting power in and around the city. [13] [14] Damage in the United States amounted to $65 billion (2012 USD). [15] In Canada, two were killed in Ontario, and the storm caused an estimated $100 million (2012 CAD ) in damage throughout Ontario and Quebec. [16]
Map key
Hurricane Sandy began as a low pressure system which developed sufficient organized convection to be classified as Tropical Depression Eighteen on October 22 south of Kingston, Jamaica . [17] It moved slowly at first due to a ridge to the north. Low wind shear and warm waters allowed for strengthening, [17] and the system was named Tropical Storm Sandy late on October 22. [18] Early on October 24, an eye began developing, and it was moving steadily northward due to an approaching trough . [19] Later that day, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded Sandy to hurricane status about 65 mi (105 km) south of Kingston, Jamaica. [20] At about 1900 UTC that day, Sandy made landfall near Kingston with winds of about 85 mph (137 km/h). [21] Just offshore Cuba, Sandy rapidly intensified to a Category 3 hurricane, with sustained winds at 115 mph (185 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 954 millibars (28.2 inHg), [8] and at that intensity, Sandy made landfall just west of Santiago de Cuba at 0525 UTC on October 25. [22] Operationally, Sandy was assessed to have peaked as a high-end Category 2 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (180 km/h). [8]
3:23
After Sandy exited Cuba, the structure of the storm became disorganized, [23] and it turned to the north-northwest over the Bahamas. [24] By October 27, Sandy was no longer fully tropical, as evidenced by the development of frontal structures in its outer circulation. [8] Despite strong shear, Sandy maintained its convection due to influence from an approaching trough; the same that turned the hurricane to the northeast. [25] After briefly weakening to a tropical storm, [26] Sandy re-intensified into a Category 1 hurricane, [27] and on October 28, an eye began redeveloping. [28] The storm moved around an upper-level low over the eastern United States and also to the southwest of a ridge over Atlantic Canada , turning it to the northwest. [29]
Sandy briefly re-intensified to Category 2 intensity on the morning of October 29, around which time it had become an extremely large hurricane, with a record gale-force wind diameter of over 1,150 miles (1,850 km), [3] [30] and an unusually low central barometric pressure of 940 mbar, possibly due to the very large size of the system. [8] This pressure set records for many cities across the Northeastern United States for the lowest pressures ever observed. [31] The convection diminished while the hurricane accelerated toward the New Jersey coast, [32] and the cyclone was no longer tropical by 2100 UTC on October 29. [33] About 2½ hours later, Sandy made landfall near Brigantine, New Jersey, [34] with sustained winds of 80 mph (130 km/h). [8] During the next four days, Sandy's remnants drifted northward and then northeastward over Ontario , before merging with another low pressure area over Eastern Canada on November 2. [8] [12]
On October 23, 2012, the path of Hurricane Sandy was correctly predicted by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) headquartered in Reading, England nearly eight days in advance of its striking the American East Coast . The computer model noted that the storm would turn west towards land and strike the New York/New Jersey region on October 29, rather than turn east and head out to the open Atlantic as most hurricanes in this position do. By October 27, four days after the ECMWF made its prediction, the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center confirmed the path of the hurricane predicted by the European model. The National Weather Service was criticized for not employing its higher-resolution forecast models the way that its European counterpart did. A hardware and software upgrade completed at the end of 2013 enabled the weather service to make predictions more accurate and farther in advance than the technology in 2012 had allowed. [35]
According to NCAR senior climatologist Kevin E. Trenberth , "The answer to the oft-asked question of whether an event is caused by climate change is that it is the wrong question. All weather events are affected by climate change because the environment in which they occur is warmer and moister than it used to be." [36] Although NOAA meteorologist Martin Hoerling attributes Sandy to "little more than the coincidental alignment of a tropical storm with an extratropical storm", [37] Trenberth does agree that the storm was caused by "natural variability" but adds that it was "enhanced by global warming". [38] One factor contributing to the storm's strength was abnormally warm sea surface temperatures offshore the East Coast of the United States —more than 3 °C (5 °F) above normal, to which global warming had contributed 0.6 °C (1 °F). [38] As the temperature of the atmosphere increases, the capacity to hold water increases, leading to stronger storms and higher rainfall amounts. [38]
As they move north, Atlantic hurricanes typically are forced east and out to sea by the Prevailing Westerlies . [39] In Sandy's case, this typical pattern was blocked by a ridge of high pressure over Greenland resulting in a negative North Atlantic Oscillation , forming a kink in the jet stream, causing it to double back on itself off the East Coast. Sandy was caught up in this southeasterly flow, taking the storm on an unusual northwest path. [39] The blocking pattern over Greenland also stalled an Arctic front which combined with the cyclone. [39] Mark Fischetti of Scientific American said that the jet stream's unusual shape was caused by the melting of Arctic ice . [40] Trenberth said that while a negative North Atlantic Oscillation and a blocking anticyclone were in place, the null hypothesis remained that this was just the natural variability of weather. [37] Sea level at New York and along the New Jersey coast has increased by nearly a foot (300 mm) over the last hundred years, [41] which contributed to the storm surge . [42] One group of scientists estimated that the anthropogenic (human activity-driven) climate change was responsible for approximately 9 cm of sea level rise in New York, which permitted additional storm surge that caused approximately US$8.1B out of the $60 billion in reported economic damage and to an extension of the flood zone to impact approximately 71,000 more people than would have been the case without it. [43] Harvard geologist Daniel P. Schrag calls Hurricane Sandy's 13-foot (4.0 m) storm surge an example of what will, by mid-century, be the "new norm on the Eastern seaboard". [44]
After the storm became a tropical cyclone on October 22, the Government of Jamaica issued a tropical storm watch for the entire island. [45] Early on October 23, the watch was replaced with a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch was issued. [46] At 1500 UTC, the hurricane watch was upgraded to a hurricane warning, while the tropical storm warning was discontinued. [47] In preparation of the storm, many residents stocked up on supplies and reinforced roofing material. Acting Prime Minister Peter Phillips urged people to take this storm seriously, and also to take care of their neighbors, especially the elderly, children, and disabled. Government officials shut down schools, government buildings, and the airport in Kingston on the day prior to the arrival of Sandy. Meanwhile, numerous and early curfews were put in place to protect residents, properties, and to prevent crime. [48] Shortly after Jamaica issued its first watch on October 22, the Government of Haiti issued a tropical storm watch for Haiti. [49] By late October 23, it was modified to a tropical storm warning. [50]
The Government of Cuba posted a hurricane watch for the Cuban Provinces of Camagüey , Granma , Guantánamo , Holguín , Las Tunas , and Santiago de Cuba at 1500 UTC on October 23. [47] Only three hours later, the hurricane watch was switched to a hurricane warning. [51] The Government of the Bahamas , at 1500 UTC on October 23, issued a tropical storm watch for several Bahamian islands, including the Acklins , Cat Island , Crooked Island , Exuma , Inagua , Long Cay , Long Island , Mayaguana , Ragged Island , Rum Cay , and San Salvador Island . [47] Later that day, another tropical storm watch was issued for Abaco Islands , Andros Island , the Berry Islands , Bimini , Eleuthera , Grand Bahama , and New Providence . [51] By early on October 24, the tropical storm watch for Cat Island, Exuma, Long Island, Rum Cay, and San Salvador was upgraded to a tropical storm warning. [52]
At 1515 UTC on October 26, the Bermuda Weather Service issued a tropical storm watch for Bermuda, reflecting the enormous size of the storm and the anticipated wide-reaching impacts. [53]
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Much of the East Coast of the United States, in Mid-Atlantic and New England regions, had a good chance of receiving gale -force winds, flooding, heavy rain and possibly snow early in the week of October 28 from an unusual hybrid of Hurricane Sandy and a winter storm producing a Fujiwhara effect . [54] Government weather forecasters said there was a 90% chance that the East Coast would be impacted by the storm. Jim Cisco of the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center coined the term "Frankenstorm", as Sandy was expected to merge with a storm front a few days before Halloween. [55] [56] [57] As coverage continued, several media outlets began eschewing this term in favor of "superstorm". [58] [59] Utilities and governments along the East Coast attempted to head off long-term power failures Sandy might cause. Power companies from the Southeast to New England alerted independent contractors to be ready to help repair storm damaged equipment quickly and asked employees to cancel vacations and work longer hours. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University , using a computer model built on power outage data from previous hurricanes, conservatively forecast that 10 million customers along the Eastern Seaboard would lose power from the storm. [60]
Through regional offices in Atlanta , Philadelphia , New York City , and Boston , the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) monitored Sandy, closely coordinating with state and tribal emergency management partners in Florida and the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and New England states. [61] President Obama signed emergency declarations on October 28 for several states expected to be impacted by Sandy, allowing them to request federal aid and make additional preparations in advance of the storm. [62] Flight cancellations and travel alerts on the U.S. East Coast were put in place in the Mid-Atlantic and the New England areas. [63] Over 5,000 commercial airline flights scheduled for October 28 and 29 were canceled by the afternoon of October 28 [64] and Amtrak canceled some services through October 29 in preparation for the storm. [65] In addition, the National Guard and U.S. Air Force put as many as 45,000 personnel in at least seven states on alert for possible duty in response to the preparations and aftermath of Sandy. [66]
Schools on the Treasure Coast announced closures for October 26 in anticipation of Sandy. [67] A Russian intelligence-gathering ship was allowed to stay in Jacksonville to avoid Sandy; the port is not far from Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base . [68]
At 0900 UTC on October 26, a tropical storm watch was issued from the mouth of the Savannah River in South Carolina to Oregon Inlet , North Carolina, including Pamlico Sound . [69] Twelve hours later, the portion of the tropical storm watch from the Santee River in South Carolina to Duck, North Carolina , including Pamlico Sound, was upgraded to a warning. [70] Governor of North Carolina Beverly Perdue declared a state of emergency for 38 eastern counties on October 26, which took effect on the following day. [71] By October 29, the state of emergency was extended to 24 counties in western North Carolina, with up to a foot (30 cm) of snow attributed to Sandy anticipated in higher elevations. The National Park Service closed at least five sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway . [72]
On October 26, Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell declared a state of emergency. The U.S. Navy sent more than twenty-seven ships and forces to sea from Naval Station Norfolk for their protection. [73] Governor McDonnell authorized the National Guard to activate 630 personnel ahead of the storm. [74] Republican Party presidential candidate Mitt Romney canceled campaign appearances scheduled for October 28 in Virginia Beach, Virginia , and New Hampshire October 30 because of Sandy. Vice President Joe Biden canceled his appearance on October 27 in Virginia Beach and an October 29 campaign event in New Hampshire. [75] President Barack Obama canceled a campaign stop with former President Bill Clinton in Virginia scheduled for October 29, as well as a trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado , the next day because of the impending storm. [76]
On October 26, Mayor of Washington, D.C. Vincent Gray declared a state of emergency, [77] which President Obama signed on October 28. [78] The United States Office of Personnel Management announced federal offices in the Washington, D.C. area would be closed to the public on October 29–30. [79] In addition, Washington D.C. Metro service, both rail and bus, was canceled on October 29 due to expected high winds, the likelihood of widespread power outages, and the closing of the federal government. [80] The Smithsonian Institution closed for the day of October 29. [81]
Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley declared a state of emergency on October 26. [73] By the following day, Smith Island residents were evacuated with the assistance of the Maryland Natural Resources Police, Dorchester County opened two shelters for those in flood prone areas, and Ocean City initiated Phase I of their Emergency Operations Plan. [82] [83] [84] Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. put workers on standby and made plans to bring in crews from other states. [85] On October 28, President Obama declared an emergency in Maryland and signed an order authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to aid in disaster relief efforts. [86] Also, numerous areas were ordered to be evacuated including part of Ocean City , Worcester County , Wicomico County , and Somerset County . [87] [88] Officials warned that more than a hundred million tons of dirty sediment mixed with tree limbs and debris floating behind Conowingo Dam could eventually pour into the Chesapeake Bay , posing a potential environmental threat. [89]
The Maryland Transit Administration canceled all service for October 29 and 30. The cancellations applied to buses, light rail, and Amtrak and MARC train service. [90] On October 29, six shelters opened in Baltimore , and early voting was canceled for the day. [81] Maryland Insurance Commissioner Therese M. Goldsmith activated an emergency regulation requiring pharmacies to refill prescriptions regardless of their last refill date. [91] On October 29, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge over the Chesapeake Bay and the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge and Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge over the Susquehanna River were closed to traffic in the midday hours. [92]
On October 28, Governor Markell declared a state of emergency, with coastal areas of Sussex County evacuated. [93] In preparation for the storm, the Delaware Department of Transportation suspended some weekend construction projects, removed traffic cones and barrels from construction sites, and removed several span-wire overhead signs in Sussex County. [94] Delaware Route 1 through Delaware Seashore State Park was closed due to flooding. [93] Delaware roads were closed to the public, except for emergency and essential personnel, [95] and tolls on I-95 and Delaware Route 1 were waived. [96] DART First State transit service was also suspended during the storm. [97]
Preparations began on October 26, when officials in Cape May County advised residents on barrier islands to evacuate. There was also a voluntary evacuation for Mantoloking , Bay Head , Barnegat Light , Beach Haven , Harvey Cedars , Long Beach , Ship Bottom , and Stafford in Ocean County . [98] [99] [100] Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie ordered all residents of barrier islands from Sandy Hook to Cape May to evacuate and closed Atlantic City casinos. Tolls were suspended on the northbound Garden State Parkway and the westbound Atlantic City Expressway starting at 6 a.m. on October 28. [101] President Obama signed an emergency declaration for New Jersey, allowing the state to request federal funding and other assistance for actions taken before Sandy's landfall. [102]
On October 28, Mayor of Hoboken Dawn Zimmer ordered residents of basement and street-level residential units to evacuate, due to possible flooding. [103] On October 29, residents of Logan Township were ordered to evacuate. [104] Jersey Central Power & Light told employees to prepare to work extended shifts. [85] Most schools, colleges and universities were closed October 29 while at least 509 out of 580 school districts were closed October 30. [105] Although tropical storm conditions were inevitable and hurricane-force winds were likely, the National Hurricane Center did not issue any tropical cyclone watches or warnings for New Jersey, because Sandy was forecast to become extratropical before landfall and thus would not be a tropical cyclone. [106]
Preparations in Pennsylvania began when Governor Tom Corbett declared a state of emergency on October 26. [73] Mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter asked residents in low-lying areas and neighborhoods prone to flooding to leave their homes by 1800 UTC October 28 and move to safer ground. [107] The Philadelphia International Airport suspended all flight operations for October 29. [108] On October 29, Philadelphia shut down its mass transit system. [81] On October 28, Mayor of Harrisburg Linda D. Thompson declared a state of disaster emergency for the city to go into effect at 5 a.m. October 29. Electric utilities in the state brought in crews and equipment from other states such as New Mexico , Texas , and Oklahoma , to assist with restoration efforts. [109]
Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a statewide state of emergency and asked for a pre-disaster declaration on October 26, [110] which President Obama signed later that day. [111] By October 27, major carriers canceled all flights into and out of JFK , LaGuardia , and Newark-Liberty airports, and Metro North and the Long Island Rail Road suspended service. [112] The Tappan Zee Bridge was closed, [113] and later the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and Holland Tunnel were also closed. [114] On Long Island, an evacuation was ordered for South Shore , including areas south of Sunrise Highway , north of Route 25A , and in elevations of less than 16 feet (4.9 m) above sea level on the North Shore . [115] In Suffolk County , mandatory evacuations were ordered for residents of Fire Island and six towns. [116] Most schools closed in Nassau and Suffolk counties on October 29. [117]
New York City began taking precautions on October 26. Governor Cuomo ordered the closure of MTA and its subway on October 28, and the MTA suspended all subway, bus, and commuter rail service beginning at 2300 UTC. [118] After Hurricane Irene nearly submerged subways and tunnels in 2011, [119] entrances and grates were covered just before Sandy, but were still flooded. [120] PATH train service and stations as well as the Port Authority Bus Terminal were shut down in the early morning hours of October 29. [121] [122]
Later on October 28, officials activated the coastal emergency plan, with subway closings and the evacuation of residents in areas hit by Hurricane Irene in 2011. More than 76 evacuation shelters were open around the city. [110] On October 29, Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered public schools closed [121] and called for a mandatory evacuation of Zone A, which comprised areas near coastlines or waterways. [123] Additionally, 200 National Guard troops were deployed in the city. [122] NYU Langone Medical Center canceled all surgeries and medical procedures, except for emergency procedures. [122] Additionally, one of NYU Langone Medical Center's backup generators failed on October 29, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of patients, including those from the hospital's various intensive care units . [124] U.S. stock trading was suspended for October 29–30. [125]
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy partially activated the state's Emergency Operations Center on October 26 [126] and signed a Declaration of Emergency the next day. [127] On October 28, President Obama approved Connecticut's request for an emergency declaration, and hundreds of National Guard personnel were deployed. [128] On October 29, Governor Malloy ordered road closures for all state highways. [129] Numerous mandatory and partial evacuations were issued in cities across Connecticut. [130]
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick ordered state offices to be closed October 29 and recommended schools and private businesses close. On October 28, President Obama issued a Pre-Landfall Emergency Declaration for Massachusetts. Several shelters were opened, and many schools were closed. [131] The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority shut down all services on the afternoon of October 29. [132] On October 28, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin , New Hampshire Governor John Lynch , and Maine 's Governor Paul LePage all declared states of emergency. [81] [133] [134]
The National Weather Service issued a storm warning for Lake Huron on October 29 that called for wave heights of 26 feet (7.9 m), and possibly as high as 38 feet (12 m). Lake Michigan waves were expected to reach 19 feet (5.8 m), with a potential of 33 feet (10 m) on October 30. [135] Flood warnings were issued in Chicago on October 29, where wave heights were expected to reach 18 to 23 feet (5.5 to 7.0 m) in Cook County and 25 feet (7.6 m) in northwest Indiana . [136] Gale warnings were issued for Lake Michigan and Green Bay in Wisconsin until the morning of October 31, and waves of 33 feet (10 m) in Milwaukee and 20 feet (6.1 m) in Sheboygan were predicted for October 30. [137] The actual waves reached about 20 feet (6.1 m) but were less damaging than expected. [138] [139] The village of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin urged a voluntary evacuation of its lakefront area, though few residents signed up, and little flooding actually occurred. [137] [139]
Michigan was impacted by a winter storm system coming in from the west, mixing with cold air streams from the Arctic and colliding with Hurricane Sandy. [135] The forecasts slowed shipping traffic on the Great Lakes , as some vessels sought shelter away from the peak winds, except those on Lake Superior. [140] [141] Detroit -based DTE Energy released 100 contract line workers to assist utilities along the eastern U.S. with storm response, and Consumers Energy did the same with more than a dozen employees and 120 contract employees. [142] Due to the widespread power outages, numerous schools had to close, especially in St. Clair County and areas along Lake Huron north of Metro Detroit. [143]
As far as Ohio's western edge, areas were under a wind advisory. [144] All departing flights at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport were canceled until October 30 at 3 p.m. [145]
Governor of West Virginia Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency ahead of storm on October 29. [146] Up to 2 to 3 feet (0.61 to 0.91 m) of snow was forecast for mountainous areas of the state. [147]
The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued its first preliminary statement for Hurricane Sandy on October 25 from Southern Ontario to the Canadian Maritimes , [148] with the potential for heavy rain and strong winds. [149] On October 29, Environment Canada issued severe wind warnings for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Valley corridor, from Southwestern Ontario as far as Quebec City. [150] On October 30, Environment Canada issued storm surge warnings along the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. [151] Rainfall warnings were issued for the Charlevoix region in Quebec, as well as for several counties in New Brunswick , and Nova Scotia , where about 2 to 3 inches (51 to 76 mm) of rain was to be expected. [152] [153] [154] Freezing rain warnings were issued for parts of Northern Ontario . [155]
|Date||Time||Warning type||Areas|
|October 22||15:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch||Jamaica|
|October 23||09:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Jamaica|
|Hurricane Watch||Jamaica|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Haiti|
|15:00 UTC||Hurricane Warning||Jamaica|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Southeastern and Central Bahamas|
|Hurricane Watch discontinued||Jamaica|
|Hurricane Watch||Camagüey to Guantánamo, Cuba|
|18:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Haiti|
|21:00 UTC||Hurricane Warning||Camagüey to Guantánamo, Cuba|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Northwestern Bahamas|
|October 24||03:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Central Bahamas|
|09:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch||Jupiter Inlet to Ocean Reef, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Ocean Reef to Craig Key, Florida|
|12:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Northwestern Bahamas|
|15:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch||Volusia / Brevard County Line to Ocean Reef, Florida|
|Hurricane Watch||Central and Northwestern Bahamas|
|21:00 UTC||Hurricane Warning||Central and Northwestern Bahamas|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Ocean Reef to Craig Key, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Sebastian Inlet to Flagler Beach, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Warning||Ocean Reef to Sebastian Inlet, Florida|
|Hurricane Watch discontinued||All|
|October 25||03:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Southeastern Bahamas|
|Tropical Storm Warning||Lake Okeechobee|
|Hurricane Warning||Ragged Island, Bahamas|
|09:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch||Flagler Beach to Fernandina Beach, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Warning||Ocean Reef to Flagler Beach, Florida|
|Hurricane Warning discontinued||Jamaica|
|15:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Haiti|
|Hurricane Warning discontinued||Camagüey to Guantánamo, Cuba|
|October 26||03:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Central Bahamas|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Southeastern Bahamas|
|Hurricane Warning discontinued||Ragged Island, Bahamas|
|Hurricane Warning||Northwestern Bahamas|
|06:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Andros Island , Bahamas|
|09:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch||Savannah River , Georgia/South Carolina to Oregon Inlet , North Carolina|
|15:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Northwestern Bahamas except Great Abaco and Grand Bahama Island|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Ocean Reef to Craig Key, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Bermuda|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Central Bahamas and Andros Island|
|Tropical Storm Warning||Great Abaco to Grand Bahama Island|
|18:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Deerfield Beach to Flagler Beach, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Northwestern Bahamas except Great Abaco and Grand Bahama Island|
|21:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch||St. Augustine to Fernandina Beach, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Watch||Savannah River, Georgia/South Carolina to South Santee River , South Carolina|
|Tropical Storm Warning||Deerfield Beach to St. Augustine, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Lake Okeechobee|
|Tropical Storm Warning||South Santee River, South Carolina to Duck, North Carolina|
|October 27||00:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Jupiter Inlet to St. Augustine, Florida|
|09:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Sebastian Inlet to St. Augustine, Florida|
|15:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch discontinued||St. Augustine to Fernandina Beach, Florida|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Sebastian Inlet to St. Augustine, Florida|
|21:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Bermuda|
|Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Great Abaco and Grand Bahama Island|
|October 28||03:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Watch discontinued||All|
|09:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Cape Fear to Duck, North Carolina|
|21:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning||Surf City to Duck, North Carolina|
|October 29||15:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||Bermuda|
|21:00 UTC||Tropical Storm Warning discontinued||All|
|Country||Fatalities||Missing|| Damage |
2012 (USD)
|Ref(s)|
|Total||Direct||Indirect||N/A|
|Bermuda||0||0||0||0||0||Minimal||[8]|
|The Bahamas||2||2||0||0||0||$700 million||[6] [156] [157]|
|Canada||2||1||1||0||0||$100 million||[158] [159] [160]|
|Cuba||11||6||0||5||0||$2 billion||[6] [156] [161] [162]|
|Dominican Republic||2||2||0||0||0||$30 million||[6] [156] [163]|
|Haiti||54||20||0||34||21||$750 million||[164] [165] [166]|
|Jamaica||2||1||1||0||0||$100 million||[6] [156] [167]|
|Puerto Rico||1||1||0||0||0||—||[8]|
|United States||157||71||85||1||0||$65 billion||[15]|
|U.S. offshore||2||2||0||0||0||—||[8]|
|Totals:||233||106||87||40||21||$68.7 billion|
At least 233 people were killed across the United States, the Caribbean, and Canada, as a result of the storm. [168] [169] [170]
Jamaica was the first country directly affected by Sandy, which was also the first hurricane to make landfall on the island since Hurricane Gilbert , which struck the island in 1988 . Trees and power lines were snapped and shanty houses were heavily damaged, both from the winds and flooding rains. More than 100 fishermen were stranded in outlying Pedro Cays off Jamaica's southern coast. [171] Stones falling from a hillside crushed one man to death as he tried to get into his house in a rural village near Kingston. [172] After 6 days another fatality recorded as a 27-year-old man, died due to electrocution, attempting a repair. [6] The country's sole electricity provider, the Jamaica Public Service Company, reported that 70 percent of its customers were without power. More than 1,000 people went to shelters. Jamaican authorities closed the island's international airports, and police ordered 48-hour curfews in major towns to keep people off the streets and deter looting. [173] Most buildings in the eastern portion of the island lost their roofs. [174] Damage was assessed at approximately $100 million throughout the country. [8]
In Haiti, which was still recovering from both the 2010 earthquake and the ongoing cholera outbreak , at least 54 people died, [175] and approximately 200,000 were left homeless as a result of four days of ongoing rain from Hurricane Sandy. [176] Heavy damage occurred in Port-Salut after rivers overflowed their banks. [177] In the capital of Port-au-Prince , streets were flooded by the heavy rains, and it was reported that "the whole south of the country is underwater". [178] Most of the tents and buildings in the city's sprawling refugee camps and the Cité Soleil neighborhood were flooded or leaking, a repeat of what happened earlier in the year during the passage of Hurricane Isaac . [174] Crops were also wiped out by the storm and the country would be making an appeal for emergency aid. [179] Damage in Haiti was estimated at $750 million (2012 USD), making it the costliest tropical cyclone in Haitian history. [164] In the month following Sandy, a resurgence of cholera linked to the storm killed at least 44 people and infected more than 5,000 others. [166]
In the neighboring Dominican Republic , two people were killed and 30,000 people evacuated. [156] An employee of CNN estimated 70% of the streets in Santo Domingo were flooded. [180] One person was killed in Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico after being swept away by a swollen river. [156]
|Rank||Hurricane||Season||Damage||Refs|
|1||Irma||2017||$13.2 billion||[181]|
|2||Ike||2008||$7.3 billion||[182]|
|3||Matthew||2016||$2.58 billion||[183]|
|4||Gustav||2008||$2.1 billion||[182]|
|5||Michelle||2001||$2 billion||[184]|
|Sandy||2012||[185]|
|7||Dennis||2005||$1.5 billion||[186]|
|8||Ivan||2004||$1.2 billion||[187]|
|9||Charley||2004||$923 million||[187]|
|10||Wilma||2005||$700 million||[188]|
At least 55,000 people were evacuated before Hurricane Sandy's arrival. [189] While moving ashore, the storm produced waves up to 29 feet (8.8 meters) and a 6-foot (1.8-meter) storm surge that caused extensive coastal flooding. [190] There was widespread damage, particularly to Santiago de Cuba where 132,733 homes were damaged, of which 15,322 were destroyed and 43,426 lost their roof. [161] Electricity and water services were knocked out, and most of the trees in the city were damaged. Total losses throughout Santiago de Cuba province is estimated as high as $2 billion (2012 USD). [162] Sandy killed 11 people in the country – nine in Santiago de Cuba Province and two in Guantánamo Province ; most of the victims were trapped in destroyed houses. [191] [192] This makes Sandy the deadliest hurricane to hit Cuba since 2005, when Hurricane Dennis killed 16 people. [193]
A NOAA automated station at Settlement Point on Grand Bahama Island reported sustained winds of 49 mph (79 km/h) and a wind gust of 63 mph (101 km/h). [194] One person died from falling off his roof while attempting to fix a window shutter in the Lyford Cay area on New Providence. Another died in the Queen's Cove area on Grand Bahama Island where he drowned after the sea surge trapped him in his apartment. [156] Portions of the Bahamas lost power or cellular service, including an islandwide power outage on Bimini . Five homes were severely damaged near Williams's Town. [195] Overall damage in the Bahamas was about $700 million (2012 USD), with the most severe damage on Cat Island and Exuma where many houses were heavily damaged by wind and storm surge. [157]
Owing to the sheer size of the storm, Sandy also impacted Bermuda with high winds and heavy rains. On October 28, a weak F0 tornado touched down in Sandys Parish , damaging homes and businesses. [196] During a three-day span, the storm produced 0.98 in (25 mm) of rain at the L.F. Wade International Airport . The strongest winds were recorded on October 29: sustained winds reached 37 mph (60 km/h) and gusts peaked at 58 mph (93 km/h), which produced scattered minor damage. [197]
|Costliest U.S. Atlantic hurricanes|
|Rank||Hurricane||Season||Damage|
|1||3 Katrina||2005||$125 billion|
|4 Harvey||2017|
|3||4 Ian||2022||$113 billion|
|4||4 Maria||2017||$90 billion|
|5||4 Ida||2021||$75 billion|
|6||ET Sandy||2012||$65 billion|
|7||4 Irma||2017||$52.1 billion|
|8||2 Ike||2008||$30 billion|
|9||5 Andrew||1992||$27 billion|
|10||5 Michael||2018||$25 billion|
|Source: National Hurricane Center [198] [199] [nb 1] [nb 2]|
A total of 24 U.S. states were in some way affected by Sandy. The hurricane caused tens of billions of dollars in damage in the United States, destroyed thousands of homes, left millions without electric service, [200] and caused 71 direct deaths in nine states, including 49 in New York, 10 in New Jersey, 3 in Connecticut, 2 each in Pennsylvania and Maryland, and 1 each in New Hampshire, Virginia and West Virginia. [6] There were also 2 direct deaths from Sandy in U.S. coastal waters in the Atlantic Ocean, about 90 miles (140 km) off the North Carolina coast, which are not counted in the U.S. total. In addition, the storm resulted in 87 indirect deaths. [8] In all, a total of 160 people were killed due to the storm, making Sandy the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the deadliest to hit the U.S. East Coast since Hurricane Agnes in 1972. [201]
Due to flooding and other storm-related problems, Amtrak canceled all Acela Express , Northeast Regional , Keystone , and Shuttle services for October 29 and 30. [202] [203] More than 13,000 flights were canceled across the U.S. on October 29, and more than 3,500 were called off October 30. [204] From October 27 through early November 1, airlines canceled a total of 19,729 flights, according to FlightAware . [205]
On October 31, over 6 million customers were still without power in 15 states and the District of Columbia . The states with the most customers without power were New Jersey with 2,040,195 customers; New York with 1,933,147; Pennsylvania with 852,458; and Connecticut with 486,927. [206]
The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq reopened on October 31 after a two-day closure for the storm. [207] More than 1,500 FEMA personnel were along the East Coast working to support disaster preparedness and response operations, including search and rescue, situational awareness, communications and logistical support. In addition, 28 teams containing 294 FEMA Corps members were pre-staged to support Sandy responders. Three federal urban search and rescue task forces were positioned in the Mid-Atlantic and ready to deploy as needed. [208] Direct Relief provided medical supplies to community clinics, non-profit health centers, and other groups in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, and mapped pharmacies, gas stations, and other facilities that remained in the New York City area despite power outages. [209]
On November 2, the American Red Cross announced they had 4,000 disaster workers across storm damaged areas, with thousands more en route from other states. Nearly 7,000 people spent the night in emergency shelters across the region. [210]
Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together , a live telethon on November 2 that featured rock and pop stars such as Bruce Springsteen , Billy Joel , Jon Bon Jovi , Mary J. Blige , Sting and Christina Aguilera , raised around $23 million for American Red Cross hurricane relief efforts. [211]
At the time, the National Hurricane Center ranked Hurricane Sandy the second-costliest U.S. hurricane since 1900 in constant 2010 dollars, and the sixth-costliest after adjusting for inflation , population and property values. [212] Scientists at the University of Utah reported the energy generated by Sandy was equivalent to "small earthquakes between magnitudes 2 and 3". [213]
In South Florida, Sandy lashed the area with rough surf, strong winds, and brief squalls. Along the coast of Miami-Dade County , waves reached 10 feet (3.0 m), but may have been as high as 20 feet (6.1 m) in Palm Beach County . In the former county, minor pounding occurred on a few coastal roads. Further north in Broward County , State Road A1A was inundated with sand and water, causing more than a 2 miles (3.2 km) stretch of the road to be closed for the entire weekend. Additionally, coastal flooding extended inland up to 2 blocks in some locations and a few houses in the area suffered water damage. In Manalapan , which is located in southern Palm Beach County, several beachfront homes were threatened by erosion. The Lake Worth Pier was also damaged by rough seas. In Palm Beach County alone, losses reached $14 million. [214] Sandy caused closures and cancellations of some activities at schools in Palm Beach , Broward and Miami-Dade counties. [215] Storm surge from Sandy also caused flooding and beach erosion along coastal areas in South Florida. [216] Gusty winds also impacted South Florida, peaking at 67 mph (108 km/h) in Jupiter and Fowey Rocks Light , which is near Key Biscayne . [214] The storm created power outages across the region, which left many traffic lights out of order. [217]
In east-central Florida, damage was minor, though the storm left about 1,000 people without power. [218] Airlines at Miami International Airport canceled more than 20 flights to or from Jamaica or the Bahamas , while some airlines flying from Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport canceled a total of 13 flights to the islands. [73] The Coast Guard rescued two sea men in Volusia County off New Smyrna Beach on the morning of October 26. [219] Brevard and Volusia Counties schools canceled all extracurricular activities for October 26, including football. [220]
Two panther kittens escaped from the White Oak Conservation Center in Nassau County after the hurricane swept a tree into the fence of their enclosure; they were missing for 24 hours before being found in good health. [ citation needed ]
On October 28, Governor Bev Perdue declared a state of emergency in 24 western counties, due to snow and strong winds. [221]
North Carolina was spared from major damage for the most part (except at the immediate coastline), though winds, rain, and mountain snow affected the state through October 30. Ocracoke and Highway 12 on Hatteras Island were flooded with up to 2 feet (0.6 m) of water, closing part of the highway, while 20 people on a fishing trip were stranded on Portsmouth Island . [222]
There were three Hurricane Sandy-related deaths in the state. [6] [223]
On October 29, the Coast Guard responded to a distress call from Bounty , which was built for the 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty . It was taking on water about 90 miles (140 km) southeast of Cape Hatteras . Sixteen people were on board. [224] The Coast Guard said the 16 people abandoned ship and got into two lifeboats, wearing survival suits and life jackets. [225] The ship sank after the crew got off. [226] The Coast Guard rescued 14 crew members; another was found hours later but was unresponsive and later died. [227] The search for the captain, Robin Walbridge, was suspended on November 1, after efforts lasting more than 90 hours and covering approximately 12,000 square nautical miles (41,100 km 2 ). [228]
On October 29, snow was falling in parts of the state. [147] Gov. Bob McDonnell announced on October 30 that Virginia had been "spared a significant event", but cited concerns about rivers cresting and consequent flooding of major arteries. Virginia was awarded a federal disaster declaration, with Gov. McDonnell saying he was "delighted" that President Barack Obama and FEMA were on it immediately. At Sandy's peak, more than 180,000 customers were without power, most of whom were located in Northern Virginia . [206] [229] There were three Hurricane Sandy-related fatalities in the state. [6] [170]
The Supreme Court and the United States Government Office of Personnel Management were closed on October 30, [230] [231] and schools were closed for two days. [232] MARC train and Virginia Railway Express were closed on October 30, and Metro rail and bus service were on Sunday schedule, opening at 2 p.m., until the system closes. [233]
At least 100 feet (30 m) of a fishing pier in Ocean City was destroyed. Governor Martin O'Malley said the pier was "half-gone". [234] Due to high winds, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge on I-95 were closed. [235] During the storm, the Mayor of Salisbury instituted a Civil Emergency and a curfew. [236] Interstate 68 in far western Maryland and northern West Virginia closed due to heavy snow, stranding multiple vehicles and requiring assistance from the National Guard . [237] Redhouse, Maryland received 26 inches (66 cm) of snow and Alpine Lake, West Virginia received 24 inches (61 cm). [238]
Workers in Howard County tried to stop a sewage overflow caused by a power outage on October 30. Raw sewage spilled at a rate of 2 million gallons per hour. It was unclear how much sewage had flowed into the Little Patuxent River . [239] Over 311,000 people were left without power as a result of the storm. [206]
By the afternoon of October 29, rainfall at Rehoboth Beach totaled 6.53 inches (166 mm). Other precipitation reports include nearly 7 inches (180 mm) at Indian River Inlet and more than 4 inches (100 mm) in Dover and Bear . At 4 p.m. on October 29, Delmarva Power reported on its website that more than 13,900 customers in Delaware and portions of the Eastern Shore of Maryland had lost electric service as high winds brought down trees and power lines. About 3,500 of those were in New Castle County , 2,900 were in Sussex , and more than 100 were in Kent County . Some residents in Kent and Sussex Counties experienced power outages that lasted up to nearly six hours. At the peak of the storm, more than 45,000 customers in Delaware were without power. [206] The Delaware Memorial Bridge speed limit was reduced to 25 mph (40 km/h) and the two outer lanes in each direction were closed. Officials planned to close the span entirely if sustained winds exceeded 50 mph (80 km/h). A wind gust of 64 mph (103 km/h) was measured at Lewes just before 2:30 p.m. on October 29. Delaware Route 1 was closed due to water inundation between Dewey Beach and Fenwick Island . In Dewey Beach, flood waters were 1 to 2 feet (0.30 to 0.61 m) in depth. [240] Following the impact in Delaware, President Barack Obama declared the entire state a federal disaster area , providing money and agencies for disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. [241]
A 50-foot (15 m) piece of the Atlantic City Boardwalk washed away. Half the city of Hoboken flooded; the city of 50,000 had to evacuate two of its fire stations, the EMS headquarters, and the hospital. With the city cut off from area hospitals and fire suppression mutual aid, the city's Mayor asked for National Guard help. [227] In the early morning of October 30, authorities in Bergen County , New Jersey, evacuated residents after a berm overflowed and flooded several communities. Police Chief of Staff Jeanne Baratta said there were up to five feet (1.5 m) of water in the streets of Moonachie and Little Ferry . The state Office of Emergency Management said rescues were undertaken in Carlstadt . [242] Baratta said the three towns had been "devastated" by the flood of water. [243] At the peak of the storm, more than 2,600,000 customers were without power. [206] There were 43 Hurricane Sandy-related deaths in the state of New Jersey. [6] [244] Damage in the state was estimated at $36.8 billion. [245]
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said the city would have no mass transit operations on any lines October 30. [208] All major highways in and around the city of Philadelphia were closed on October 29 during the hurricane, including Interstate 95 , the Blue Route portion of Interstate 476 , the Vine Street Expressway , Schuylkill Expressway ( I-76 ), and the Roosevelt Expressway; U.S. Route 1 . [246] The highways reopened at 4 a.m. on October 30. [246] The Delaware River Port Authority also closed its major crossings over the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey due to high winds, including the Commodore Barry Bridge , the Walt Whitman Bridge , the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and the Betsy Ross Bridge . [246] Trees and powerlines were downed throughout Altoona , and four buildings partially collapsed. [247] More than 1.2 million were left without power. [81] The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency reported 14 deaths believed to be related to Sandy. [248]
New York governor Andrew Cuomo called National Guard members to help in the state. Storm impacts in Upstate New York were much more limited than in New York City ; there was some flooding and a few downed trees. [249] Rochester area utilities reported slightly fewer than 19,000 customers without power, in seven counties. [250] In the state as a whole, however, more than 2,000,000 customers were without power at the peak of the storm. [206]
Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg announced that New York City public schools would be closed on Tuesday, October 30 and Wednesday, October 31, but they remained closed through Friday, November 2. [251] The City University of New York and New York University canceled all classes and campus activities for October 30. [252] The New York Stock Exchange was closed for trading for two days, the first weather closure of the exchange since 1985. [253] It was also the first two-day weather closure since the Great Blizzard of 1888 . [254]
The East River overflowed its banks, flooding large sections of Lower Manhattan . Battery Park had a water surge of 13.88 ft. [255] Seven subway tunnels under the East River were flooded. [256] The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that the destruction caused by the storm was the worst disaster in the 108-year history of the New York City subway system. [257] Sea water flooded the Ground Zero construction site including the National September 11 Memorial and Museum . [258] Over 10 billion gallons of raw and partially treated sewage were released by the storm, 94% of which went into waters in and around New York and New Jersey. [259] In addition, a four-story Chelsea building's facade crumbled and collapsed, leaving the interior on full display; however, no one was hurt by the falling masonry. [260] The Atlantic Ocean storm surge also caused considerable flood damage to homes, buildings, roadways, boardwalks and mass transit facilities in low-lying coastal areas of the outer boroughs of Queens , Brooklyn and Staten Island .
After receiving many complaints that holding the marathon would divert needed resources, Mayor Bloomberg announced late afternoon November 2 that the New York City Marathon had been canceled. The event was to take place on Sunday, November 4. Marathon officials said that they did not plan to reschedule. [261]
Gas shortages throughout the region led to an effort by the U.S. federal government to bring in gasoline and set up mobile truck distribution at which people could receive up to 10 gallons of gas, free of charge. This caused lines of up to 20 blocks long and was quickly suspended. [262] On Thursday, November 8, Mayor Bloomberg announced odd-even rationing of gasoline would be in effect beginning November 9 until further notice. [263]
On November 26, Governor Cuomo called Sandy "more impactful" than Hurricane Katrina, and estimated costs to New York at $42 billion. [264] Approximately 100,000 residences on Long Island were destroyed or severely damaged, including 2,000 that were rendered uninhabitable. [265] There were 53 Hurricane Sandy-related deaths in the state of New York. [266] In 2016, the hurricane was determined to have been the worst to strike the New York City area since at least 1700. [267]
Wind gusts to 83 mph were recorded on outer Cape Cod and Buzzards Bay . [268] Nearly 300,000 customers were without power in Massachusetts, [206] and roads and buildings were flooded. [269] Over 100,000 customers lost power in Rhode Island. [270] Most of the damage was along the coastline, where some communities were flooded. [271] Mount Washington , New Hampshire saw the strongest measured wind gust from the storm at 140 mph. [272] Nearly 142,000 customers lost power in the state. [206]
The flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy overwhelmed water treatment infrastructure on the northeast coast of the United States. More than 200 wastewater treatment plants and over 80 drinking water facilities along the coast of the Tri-State area had been damaged beyond function, with a statement from Governor Cuomo that damage in New York treatment plants alone could reach $1.1 billion. The resulting damage caused more than 10 billion gallons of raw sewage to be released into New York and New Jersey water sources. This contamination resulted in the shutting down of several drinking-water facilities. [273]
The contamination caused by this incident resulted in the EPA issuing a warning that all individuals should avoid coming into contact with the water in Newark Bay and New York Harbor, due to the increased presence of fecal coliform, a bacteria that is associated with human waste. Similar warnings were issued for water sources in both the Westchester and Yonkers areas. [274]
Sandy's rain became snow in the Appalachian Mountains, leading to blizzard conditions in some areas, especially West Virginia, [8] when a tongue of dense and heavy Arctic air pushed south through the region. This would normally cause a Nor'easter, prompting some to dub Sandy a "nor'eastercane" or "Frankenstorm". [275] There was 1–3 feet (30–91 cm) of snowfall in 28 of West Virginia 's 55 counties. [8] [276] The highest snowfall accumulation was 36 inches (91 cm) near Richwood . [8] Other significant totals include 32 inches (81 cm) in Snowshoe , 29 inches (74 cm) in Quinwood , [277] and 28 inches (71 cm) in Davis , Flat Top , and Huttonsville . [278] By the morning of October 31, there were still 36 roads closed due to downed trees, powerlines, and snow in the road. [277] Approximately 271,800 customers lost power during the storm. [206]
There were reports of collapsed buildings in several counties due to the sheer weight of the wet, heavy snow. [279] Overall, there were seven fatalities related to Hurricane Sandy and its remnants in West Virginia, [280] including John Rose Sr., the Republican candidate for the state's 47th district in the state legislature, who was killed in the aftermath of the storm by a falling tree limb broken off by the heavy snowfall. [281] Governor Earl Ray Tomblin asked President Obama for a federal disaster declaration, and on October 30, President Obama approved a state of emergency declaration for the state. [282]
Wind gusts at Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport were reported at 68 miles per hour (109 km/h). [283] On October 30, hundreds of school districts canceled or delayed school across the state with at least 250,000 homes and businesses without power. [284] Damage was reported across the state including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame which lost parts of its siding. [283] Snow was reported in some parts of eastern Ohio and south of Cleveland . Snow and icy roads also were reported south of Columbus . [284]
The US Department of Energy reported that more than 120,000 customers lost power in Michigan as a result of the storm. [206] The National Weather Service said that waves up to 23 feet (7.0 m) high were reported on southern Lake Huron. [143]
More than one foot (300 mm) of snow fell in eastern Kentucky as Sandy merged with an Arctic front . [285] Winter warnings in Harlan , Letcher , and Pike County were put into effect until October 31. [286]
Mount Le Conte , Tennessee, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park , was blanketed with 32 inches (81 cm) of snow, an October record. [287]
The remnants of Sandy produced high winds along Lake Huron and Georgian Bay , where gusts were measured at 105 km/h (65 mph). A 121 km/h (75 mph) gust was measured on top of the Bluewater Bridge . [288] One woman died after being hit by a piece of flying debris in Toronto . [158] At least 145,000 customers across Ontario lost power, [289] and a Bluewater Power worker was electrocuted in Sarnia while working to restore power. [290] Around 49,000 homes and businesses lost power in Quebec during the storm, with nearly 40,000 of those in the Laurentides region of the province, as well as more than 4,000 customers in the Eastern Townships and 1,700 customers in Montreal . [291] Hundreds of flights were canceled. [292] Around 14,000 customers in Nova Scotia lost power during the height of the storm. [293] The Insurance Bureau of Canada's preliminary damage estimate was over $100 million for the nation. [160]
Several media organizations contributed to the immediate relief effort: Disney–ABC Television Group held a "Day of Giving" on Monday, November 5, raising $17 million on their television stations for the American Red Cross [294] and NBC raised $23 million during their Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together telethon the same day. [295] On October 31, 2012, News Corporation donated $1 million to relief efforts in the New York metropolitan area . [296] As of December 2013, the NGO Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund had distributed much of the funding raised in New Jersey. [297]
On November 6, the United Nations and World Food Programme promised humanitarian aid to at least 500,000 people in Santiago de Cuba . [298]
On December 12, 2012, the 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City . Various television channels in the United States and internationally aired the four-hour concert which was expected to reach over 1 billion people worldwide, featuring many famous performers including Bon Jovi , Eric Clapton , Dave Grohl , Billy Joel , and Alicia Keys . Web sites including Fuse.tv , MTV .com, YouTube , and the sites of AOL and Yahoo! planned to stream the performance. [299]
The U.S. Government mobilized several agencies and departments to mitigate the effects of the Hurricane in the most afflicted areas. The response to the storm on part of the government was of particular urgency owing to the possible fallout of a poor response on part of the Obama administration during the upcoming U.S. presidential elections . These sentiments were characterized in the President's speech in the days following the impact, stating the government's response was “not going to tolerate any red tape. We’re not going to tolerate any bureaucracy”. [300]
Anticipating the destruction of the Atlantic storm, states on the U.S. East Coast, especially in heavily populated regions like in the New York metropolitan area, began to prepare. As the tropical depression strengthened to a hurricane, the Department of Defense formed Joint Task Force Sandy on October 22, 2012. [300] Gathering humanitarian supplies and disaster recovery equipment, the DOD prepared to carry out DSCA (Defense Support of Civil Authorities) operations across the eastern seaboard . In the aftermath of the calamity, thousands of military personnel provided vital assistance to affected communities. On the first night of the aftermath, 12,000 National Guard members across the East Coast worked to assuage the destruction. [301] President Obama mandated the Defense Logistics Agency to supply over 5 million gallons Department of Energy-owned ultra-low sulfur diesel. [302]
On December 28, 2012, the United States Senate approved an emergency Hurricane Sandy relief bill to provide $60 billion for US states affected by Sandy, [303] but the House in effect postponed action until the next session which began January 3 by adjourning without voting on the bill. [304] On January 4, 2013, House leaders pledged to vote on a flood insurance bill and an aid package by January 15. [305] On January 28, the Senate passed the $50.5 billion Sandy aid bill by a count of 62–36. [306] which President Obama signed into law January 29. [307]
In January 2013, The New York Times reported that those affected by the hurricane were still struggling to recover. [308]
In June 2013, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo set out to centralize recovery and rebuilding efforts in impacted areas of New York State by establishing the Governor's Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR). He aimed to address communities' most urgent needs, and to identify innovative and enduring solutions to strengthen the State's infrastructure and critical systems. Operating under the umbrella of New York Rising, GOSR utilized approximately $3.8 billion in flexible funding made available by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development 's (HUD) Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program to concentrate aid in four main areas: housing, small business, infrastructure, and the community reconstruction. [309]
On December 6, 2013, an analysis of Federal Emergency Management Agency data showed that fewer than half of those affected who requested disaster recovery assistance had received any, and a total of 30,000 residents of New York and New Jersey remained displaced. [310]
In March 2014, Newsday reported, that 17 months after the hurricane people displaced from rental units on Long Island faced unique difficulties due to lack of affordable rental housing and delays in housing program implementations by New York State. Close to 9,000 rental units on Long Island were damaged by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, and Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee in 2011 per the NY State Governor's Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR). [311] New York State officials said that additional assistance would soon be available from the HUD's Community Development Block Grant funds via the New York Rising program. [312] On March 15, 2014, a group of those who remained displaced by the hurricane organized a protest at the Nassau Legislative building in Mineola, New York, to raise awareness of their frustration with the timeline for receiving financial assistance from the New York Rising program. [313]
As of March 2014, the GOSR released a press statement, that the New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program had distributed more than $280 million in payments to 6,388 homeowners for damage from Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Irene or Tropical Storm Lee . Every eligible homeowner who had applied by January 20, 2014, had been issued a check for home reconstruction, including over 4,650 Nassau residents for over $201 million and over 1,350 Suffolk residents for over $65 million. The state also had made offers over $293 million to buy out homes of 709 homeowners. [314]
Hurricane Sandy sparked much political commentary. Many scientists said warming oceans and greater atmospheric moisture were intensifying storms while rising sea levels were worsening coastal effects. November 2012 Representative Henry Waxman of California , the top Democrat of the House Energy and Commerce Committee , requested a hearing in the lame duck session on links between climate change and Hurricane Sandy. [315] Some news outlets labeled the storm the October surprise of the 2012 United States Presidential election , [316] [317] while Democrats and Republicans accused each other of politicizing the storm. [318]
The storm hit the United States one week before its general United States elections , and affected the presidential campaign, local and state campaigns in storm-damaged areas. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie , one of Mitt Romney 's leading supporters, praised President Barack Obama and his reaction to the hurricane, and toured storm-damaged areas of his state with the president. [319] It was reported at the time that Sandy might affect elections in several states, especially by curtailing early voting . [320] The Economist wrote, "the weather is supposed to clear up well ahead of election day, but the impact could be felt in the turnout of early voters." [321] ABC News predicted this might be offset by a tendency to clear roads and restore power more quickly in urban areas. [322] The storm ignited a debate over whether Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2011 proposed to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). [323] The next day the Romney campaign promised to keep FEMA funded, but did not explain what other parts of the federal budget it would cut to pay for it. [324] Beyond the election, National Defense Magazine said Sandy "might cause a rethinking (in the USA) of how climate change threatens national security". [325]
In his news conference on November 14, 2012, President Obama said, "we can't attribute any particular weather event to climate change. What we do know is the temperature around the globe is increasing faster than was predicted even 10 years ago. We do know that the Arctic ice cap is melting faster than was predicted even five years ago. We do know that there have been extraordinarily — there have been an extraordinarily large number of severe weather events here in North America, but also around the globe. And I am a firm believer that climate change is real, that it is impacted by human behavior and carbon emissions. And as a consequence, I think we've got an obligation to future generations to do something about it." [326]
On January 30, 2015, days after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a post-Sandy report examining flood risks for 31,200 miles (50,200 km) of the North Atlantic coast, President Obama issued an executive order directing federal agencies, state and local governments drawing federal funds to adopt stricter building and siting standards to reflect scientific projections that future flooding will be more frequent and intense due to climate change. [327]
Power outages and flooding in the area closed the New York Stock Exchange and other financial markets on both October 29 and 30, a weather-related closure that last happened in 1888. [328] When markets reopened on October 31, investors were relieved that it closed relatively flat that day. A week later, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Capital Markets Bureau noted a slight uptick in the market (0.8%) and suggested that the negative economic impact of Hurricane Sandy was offset by the expected positive impacts of rebuilding. [329]
The destruction of physical infrastructure as a result of Sandy cost impacted states, including New York and New Jersey, tens of billions of dollars. [330] EQECAT, a risk-modeling company that focuses on catastrophes, approximated that impacted regions lost between $30 billion to $50 billion in economic activity. The economic loss was attributed to the massive power outages, liquid fuel shortages, and a near shutdown of the region's transportation system. [331]
- Energy: Roughly 8.5 million customers were impacted due to power outages, including many businesses that were hard-pressed to deliver products and services in a timely manner. [332] Breaks in gas lines also caused fires in many locations, prompting explosions and destruction of a large number of residences. Locating gas and diesel fuel proved difficult immediately after Sandy hit, which harmed transportation access for many people. [333] The impairment of the ability to obtain fuel was due to flooding damage in crucial terminals and harbors in areas of New Jersey bordering the Arthur Kill. The shortage of fuel held up first responders as well as other response and recovery officials. Therefore, portable generators remained unutilized, resulting in long lines at fueling stations while individuals were unable to differentiate between the stations that did not hold power from the gas stations that were operational.
- Communications: Telecommunications infrastructure was heavily disrupted, impacting millions of people and thousands of businesses, destabilizing the economy of one of the biggest cities in the world. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) found that roughly 25% of cell towers across 10 states were out of service at the peak of the storm. [334]
- Green Infrastructure: Hurricane Sandy's storm surge caused erosion of the beaches and dunes, island breaches, and overwash along the coast of New England down all the way to Florida. Flooding along the coast generated substantial erosion of previous natural infrastructure, flooding of wetland habitats, coastal dune destruction or erosion, decimation of coastal lakes, and novel inlet creation. [335]
- Transportation: Throughout the history of the country, the nation had not witnessed a worse disaster for public transit systems, including buses, subway, and commuter rail, than when Sandy struck. The morning after the storm hit, on October 30, 2012, more than half of the country's daily public transportation riders were unable to commute due to inoperable service. [337] The New York City subway system was shut down two days prior to the storm due to necessary precautions and remained closed through November 1. [338] During that short amount of time, one of the world's largest financial centers experienced immense traffic jams. Those who were able to arrive at work experienced commutes of several hours. [339] Eight New York City subway tunnels were flooded due to a seawater breach which flowed through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, impacting various transportation systems throughout the region. [340]
- Stormwater Management and Wastewater Treatment Systems: There was a massive failure in wastewater treatment facilities all around the mid-Atlantic coast due to floodwaters, large storm runoff, wind damage, and electricity loss. [341] The region's waterways were hit with billions of gallons of raw and partially treated sewage, adversely affecting the health of the public, as well as ocean habitats and other important resources. [341] There was also a public health concern about the threat of contaminated water filling the pipes and wells that supplied potable water to large parts of the region. Large water utility companies experienced power outages, disrupting their ability to provide safe drinking water. Advisories had to be sent out to many parts of New York and New Jersey for customers to warn them of the potential of their water being contaminated. [342] The "boil water" advisories were later lifted, however, when it was proven that none of the water was contaminated or held the potential for any ill effects.
- Public Medical Facilities and Schools: A variety of New York City hospitals and other medical facilities, including the Bellevue Medical Center and Coney Island hospital, were shut down as a result of flooding from the storm. In many parts of the hospitals, there was considerable damage to research, medical, and electrical equipment which was located on lower floors for ease of access. [343] In New Jersey, medical facilities were also severely affected. In sum, the hospitals in the state reported an estimated $68 million in damage. Hudson County had to force closure due to the extensive damage done by the hurricane. [344] Hurricane Sandy also caused schools to close for about a week on average immediately following the storm. During the period of closure, schools attempted to regain control of electrical operations that were impaired by the aftermath. [345]
Thousands of homeowners were denied their flood insurance claims based upon fraudulent engineers' reports, according to the whistleblowing efforts of Andrew Braum, an engineer who claimed that at least 175 of his more than 180 inspections were doctored. [346] [347] As a result, a class-action racketeering lawsuit has been filed against several insurance companies and their contract engineering firms. [348] As of 2015, the Federal Emergency Management Agency planned to review all flood insurance claims. [349]
New Jersey hospitals saw a spike in births nine months after Sandy, causing some to believe that there was a post-Sandy baby boom. The Monmouth Medical Center saw a 35% jump, and two other hospitals saw 20% increases. [350] An expert stated that post-storm births that year were higher than in past disasters. [351]
Because of the exceptional damage and deaths caused by the storm in several countries, the name Sandy was later retired by the World Meteorological Organization , and will never be used again for a North Atlantic hurricane. [352] It was replaced with Sara for the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season (though it went unused that season). [353]
As Hurricane Sandy approached the United States, forecasters and journalists gave it several different unofficial names, at first related to its projected snow content, then to its proximity to Halloween, and eventually to the overall size of the storm. Early nicknames included "Snowicane Sandy" [354] and "Snor'eastercane Sandy". [355] [356] The most popular Halloween-related nickname was "Frankenstorm", [357] [358] coined by Jim Cisco, a forecaster at the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center . [359] [360] [361] CNN banned the use of the term, saying it trivialized the destruction. [362] [363]
The severe and widespread damage the storm caused in the United States, as well as its unusual merger with a frontal system, resulted in the nicknaming of the hurricane "Superstorm Sandy" by the media, public officials, and several organizations, including U.S. government agencies. [364] [365] [366] [367] This persisted as the most common nickname well into 2013. The term was also embraced by climate change proponents as a term for the new type of storms caused by global warming, [368] while other writers used the term but maintained that it was too soon to blame the storm on climate change. [369] [370] Meanwhile, Popular Science called it "an imaginary scare-term that exists exclusively for shock value". [371] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Sandy | 51 |
where is the tagus river located on a map | Tagus - Wikipedia | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a river in the Iberian Peninsula. For the ancient Thessalian title, see Tagus (title) . For the ghost town in North Dakota, see Tagus, North Dakota .
This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish . (April 2009) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
The Tagus ( / ˈ t eɪ ɡ ə s / TAY -gəs ; Spanish : Tajo [ˈtaxo] ; Portuguese : Tejo [ˈtɛʒu] ; see below ) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula . The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel , in mid-eastern Spain , flows 1,007 km (626 mi), generally westward with two main south-west sections, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon . Its drainage basin covers 80,100 km 2 (30,927 sq mi) – exceeded in the peninsula only by the Douro . Several dams and diversions supply drinking water to population centers of central Spain and Portugal, and dozens of hydroelectric stations produce power. Between dams it follows a very constricted course, but after Almourol , Portugal it expands into a wide alluvial valley, with a prone to flooding . It culminates in a large estuary at the Port of Lisbon in the capital city of Portugal.
The source is specifically, in political geography, at the Fuente de García in the Frías de Albarracín municipality; in physical geography, in the Sistema Ibérico (Iberian System), covering the notably high mountains of the Sierra de Albarracín Comarca . The most plentiful tributaries (originating in the Central System mountain range) are on right bank , to the north. The river flows 716 km (445 mi) in Spain, 47 km (29 mi) along the two countries' borders and 275 km (171 mi) in Portugal .
The river flows through many cities, including Aranjuez , Toledo and Talavera de la Reina in Spain, and Abrantes , Santarém , Almada and Lisbon in Portugal. The Spanish capital, Madrid , lies on the right-bank side of the Tagus basin .
The first notable city on the Tagus is Sacedón . Below Aranjuez it receives the combined flow of the Jarama , Henares , Algodor and Tajuña . Below Toledo it receives the Guadarrama River . Above Talavera de la Reina it receives the Alberche . At Valdeverdeja is the upper end of the long upper reservoir, the Embalse de Valdecañas , beyond which are the Embalse de Torrejon , into which flow the Tiétar , and the lower reservoir, the Alcántara Dam into which flows the Alagón at the lower end.
A canal and aqueduct are between the Tagus and the Segura for the Tagus-Segura Water Transfer .
After forming the border it enters Portugal, passing Vila Velha de Ródão , Abrantes , Constância , Entroncamento , Santarém and Vila Franca de Xira at the head of the long narrow estuary, which has Lisbon at its mouth. The estuary is protected by the Tagus Estuary Natural Reserve . Two bridges span the river at Lisbon: the Vasco da Gama Bridge – the second longest bridge in Europe, with a total length of 17.2 km (10.7 mi) – and the 25 de Abril Bridge . The Port of Lisbon , straddling its mouth, is one of Europe's busiest.
The Portuguese Alentejo region and the former Ribatejo Province take their names from the river: Alentejo, from além Tejo ("beyond the Tejo") and Ribatejo probably from arriba Tejo (an archaic phrase for "upper Tejo"). However, the Spanish word riba means "riverside", or "riviera", implying that Ribatejo can also mean very generically "the side of Tejo". Many instances of towns in Spain have this prefix.
The river's Latin name is Tagus . While the etymology is unclear, the most probable etymological origin for the hydronym Tagus is Indo-European *(s)tag- ('to drip'). [1] It is known under different names in the languages of Iberia: Basque : Tajo , Catalan : Tajo , Galician : Río Texo , Mirandese : Riu Teijo , Portuguese : Tejo , Spanish : Tajo . It is known in Italian as Tago and Greek as Τάγος ( Tágos ).
The lower Tagus region in Portugal is a seismically active area. Major earthquakes in the Lower Tagus include those of 1309, 1531 , and 1909 . [2] [3]
The Pepper Wreck, properly the wreck of the Nossa Senhora dos Mártires , is a shipwreck located and excavated at the mouth of the Tagus between 1996 and 2001.
The river had strategic value to the Spanish and Portuguese empires, as it guarded the approach to Lisbon . [ citation needed ]
A major river, the Tagus is brought to mind in the songs and stories of the Portuguese. A popular fado song in Lisbon notes that, while people get older, the Tagus remains young ("My hair getting white, the Tagus is always young"). The author, Fernando Pessoa , wrote a poem [4] that begins:
The Tagus is more beautiful than the river that flows through my village.
But the Tagus is not more beautiful than the river that flows through my village...
Richard Crashaw (died 1649) wrote a poem "Saint Mary Magdalene, or the Weeper". This refers to the "Golden" Tagus as wanting Mary Magdalene's silver tears. In classical poetry, the Tagus was famous for its gold-bearing sands (the catalogued works of: Catullus 29.19; Ovid 's Amores 1.15.34; Juvenal 's Satires 3.55; and others). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagus | 52 |
where is the tagus river located on a map | Tagus River | river, Iberian Peninsula | Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: Article History
Tagus River , Portuguese Rio Tejo, Spanish Río Tajo , longest waterway of the Iberian Peninsula . It rises in the Sierra de Albarracín of eastern Spain , at a point about 90 miles (150 km) from the Mediterranean coast, and flows westward across Spain and Portugal for 626 miles (1,007 km) to empty into the Atlantic Ocean near Lisbon . Its drainage basin of 31,505 square miles (81,600 square km) is only exceeded on the peninsula by that of the Ebro River , to the northeast. The Tagus covers the heart of Portugal and Spain and has been of vital importance to the modern economic development of the two nations. The Vasco da Gama Bridge that crosses over the Tagus River estuary in Lisbon, spanning 17.2 km (10.7 miles), was the longest bridge in Europe at the time of its inauguration in 1998.
The upper Tagus cuts into limestone rocks and flows generally southwestward through narrow, sinuous valleys with deep canyons and abundant ravines. Near Trillo ( Guadalajara province ) it runs more peacefully, and just before the town of Bolarque it is held back by the dams of Entrepeñas and Buendía, forming an artificial lake known as the Sea of Castile, which covers an area of 51 square miles (132 square km).
Again flowing southwestward, the river irrigates the fertile lands of Aranjuez and the areas around Toledo and Talavera de la Reina until it reaches the province of Cáceres. Here it again flows through narrow, steep-edged trenches formed by quartzites and shales. At Puente de Alcántara another dam on the river has formed one of the greatest man-made lakes in Europe, with a length of 57 miles (92 km). Less than 10 miles (16 km) downstream the river becomes the frontier between Spain and Portugal for 27 miles (43 km). It enters Portugal at Beira and the Sierra de Carbajo, then crosses the fertile region of Abrantes. After flowing across Portugal for 111 miles (179 km), it forms at Vila Franca de Xira the Tagus (or Lisbon) estuary, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. Toledo is the only large Spanish city that lies along the river, which flows past the cities of Santarém and Lisbon in Portugal and supplies the latter with a fine natural harbour. Only the lower portion of the river is used for navigation of any importance.
The Tagus flows mostly through semiarid lands, and government efforts have been dedicated to increasing land irrigation and creating hydroelectric power in its basin. Major efforts to harness the Tagus and its tributaries for these purposes were undertaken from the 1960s, and by 1980 more than 60 dams had been built with a total installed power capacity of more than 1,200,000 kilowatts. In the highlands of the Tagus basin, coniferous trees are numerous, supporting a well-developed timber industry. About one-third of the basin’s cultivated land is devoted to cereal farming , and everywhere are olive trees and vineyards. In Extremadura, in western Spain, only oaks and cork trees break the monotony of a rolling and rocky landscape.
Animal life near the river is abundant and diverse , with both European and North African species. Fishing for royal carp, luces, and black bass is possible in the artificial lakes of Entrepeñas and Buendía, and trout, barbels, and many other kinds of fish are caught in the Tagus and its tributaries. There is big-game hunting in Gredos, noted for its Pyrenean, or Spanish, ibex; in the ridges of Cuenca and Guadalajara fallow deer and chamois are found.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen . | https://www.britannica.com/place/Tagus-River | 52 |
where is the tagus river located on a map | Tracking the Tagus - Portugal Travel Guide | River Tagus
The longest of all Portugal’s rivers, the Tagus (Tejo in Portuguese) meanders across the Iberian Peninsula for just over 1,000 kilometres before spilling out into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon , right at the point where Portuguese caravels set sail on their many voyages of discovery hundreds of years ago.
Rising in the Montes Universales to the east of Madrid in the centre of Spain, it passes many picturesque towns en route to the Portuguese capital, including Abrantes , Constância, Santarém and Vila Franca de Xira.
When it reaches the Ribatejo , after a long and often turbulent journey across the harsh plateaus of Castile in neighbouring Spain and the rough ridges of central Portugal , it spreads out in the region’s vast plains before shifting its course in a south-westerly direction.
In winter, swollen by the mountain snows, it overflows and covers part of the Santarém basin, flooding large swathes of the surrounding countryside. In spring, the waters recede leaving a fertile sediment on its soft banks.
On reaching Lisbon , it opens out broadly in the form of a huge river basin around which much of the city’s commercial and agricultural activity exists. Its journey ends at the point where the open Atlantic thunders on to the vast, sandy sweep of Guincho Beach near the cosmopolitan resort town of Cascais .
Lisbon is dominated by the River Tagus; indeed, it was through its estuary that remarkable riches arrived from all parts of the world during the great Age of Discovery . Portugal and its people subsequently evolved into a great maritime nation through living on the banks of the River Tagus and by dreaming of what ground-breaking adventures might possibly lie ahead.
Its riverbanks were said to resemble a ‘forest of masts’ as early as the reign of King Dinis from 1279 to 1325. And by the reign of King Fernando I just 42 years later, Lisbon was a booming port city, a fact that prompted the chronicler Fernão Lopes to write that up to 450 ships could be seen moored in the Tagus at any one time.
The region of Portugal most synonymous with the river is the Ribatejo, whose name simply means Tagus Riverbank, where the land is rich in cereals and wheat grows in abundance. And if you’re passing through the Ribatejo by car, keep an eye out for the fairy-tale Castelo de Almourol (indicated on the Google map below) located right in the middle of the River Tagus, one of the most scenically-striking castles in Europe.
Visitors to Santarém can marvel at the view of the Tagus Valley from Portas do Sol which Francis Turner Palgrave described as ‘one of the great panoramic landscapes of Europe’ when visiting Portugal with his friend Lord Tennyson in 1859.
The flat alluvial plains and dried-out lagoons of the Tagus Valley are a paradise for bird-watchers who can spot many water birds there, such as the Kentish plover, pratincole, marsh harrier, purple heron and black-winged stilt.
Vila Franca de Xira to the north-east of Lisbon offers travellers the chance to walk, cycle or drive across the original 1951 bridge spanning the Tagus which, at 1,220 metres long, was the nearest river crossing to the capital until the Ponte 25 Abril suspension bridge opened in 1966.
The River Tagus has also been the scene of some important chapters in the country’s history, most notably the moment Afonso, Prince of Portugal and heir apparent to the throne, tragically died in a horse-riding accident on the riverbank in Santarém on the 13th of July 1491, aged just 16.
Lisbon’s great 25 April suspension bridge across the River Tagus was originally named the Ponte Salazar in honour of the country’s dictator who commissioned its construction in the early 1960s. Inspired by San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, it stretches for 2.27 kilometres with six lanes of traffic and a railway line running underneath.
And one of the best places to appreciate the Tagus in all its glory is Praça do Comércio, central Lisbon’s popular riverside square. From there, you can absorb the immense sight of its flashing waters stretching to the far limits of the horizon from a panoramic viewpoint that encompasses two of Portugal’s most iconic landmarks – the Cristo Rei statue and the aforementioned 25 April suspension bridge.
Need more inspiration for your next visit? Why not listen to or download the Portugal Travel Show, the podcast for people planning a trip to sunny Portugal…
Map data ©2023 Inst. Geogr. Nacional
5 km | https://portugaltravelguide.com/river-tagus/ | 52 |
where is the tagus river located on a map | Tagus - Wikipedia | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a river in the Iberian Peninsula. For the ancient Thessalian title, see Tagus (title) . For the ghost town in North Dakota, see Tagus, North Dakota .
This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish . (April 2009) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
The Tagus ( / ˈ t eɪ ɡ ə s / TAY -gəs ; Spanish : Tajo [ˈtaxo] ; Portuguese : Tejo [ˈtɛʒu] ; see below ) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula . The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel , in mid-eastern Spain , flows 1,007 km (626 mi), generally westward with two main south-west sections, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon . Its drainage basin covers 80,100 km 2 (30,927 sq mi) – exceeded in the peninsula only by the Douro . Several dams and diversions supply drinking water to population centers of central Spain and Portugal, and dozens of hydroelectric stations produce power. Between dams it follows a very constricted course, but after Almourol , Portugal it expands into a wide alluvial valley, with a prone to flooding . It culminates in a large estuary at the Port of Lisbon in the capital city of Portugal.
The source is specifically, in political geography, at the Fuente de García in the Frías de Albarracín municipality; in physical geography, in the Sistema Ibérico (Iberian System), covering the notably high mountains of the Sierra de Albarracín Comarca . The most plentiful tributaries (originating in the Central System mountain range) are on right bank , to the north. The river flows 716 km (445 mi) in Spain, 47 km (29 mi) along the two countries' borders and 275 km (171 mi) in Portugal .
The river flows through many cities, including Aranjuez , Toledo and Talavera de la Reina in Spain, and Abrantes , Santarém , Almada and Lisbon in Portugal. The Spanish capital, Madrid , lies on the right-bank side of the Tagus basin .
The first notable city on the Tagus is Sacedón . Below Aranjuez it receives the combined flow of the Jarama , Henares , Algodor and Tajuña . Below Toledo it receives the Guadarrama River . Above Talavera de la Reina it receives the Alberche . At Valdeverdeja is the upper end of the long upper reservoir, the Embalse de Valdecañas , beyond which are the Embalse de Torrejon , into which flow the Tiétar , and the lower reservoir, the Alcántara Dam into which flows the Alagón at the lower end.
A canal and aqueduct are between the Tagus and the Segura for the Tagus-Segura Water Transfer .
After forming the border it enters Portugal, passing Vila Velha de Ródão , Abrantes , Constância , Entroncamento , Santarém and Vila Franca de Xira at the head of the long narrow estuary, which has Lisbon at its mouth. The estuary is protected by the Tagus Estuary Natural Reserve . Two bridges span the river at Lisbon: the Vasco da Gama Bridge – the second longest bridge in Europe, with a total length of 17.2 km (10.7 mi) – and the 25 de Abril Bridge . The Port of Lisbon , straddling its mouth, is one of Europe's busiest.
The Portuguese Alentejo region and the former Ribatejo Province take their names from the river: Alentejo, from além Tejo ("beyond the Tejo") and Ribatejo probably from arriba Tejo (an archaic phrase for "upper Tejo"). However, the Spanish word riba means "riverside", or "riviera", implying that Ribatejo can also mean very generically "the side of Tejo". Many instances of towns in Spain have this prefix.
The river's Latin name is Tagus . While the etymology is unclear, the most probable etymological origin for the hydronym Tagus is Indo-European *(s)tag- ('to drip'). [1] It is known under different names in the languages of Iberia: Basque : Tajo , Catalan : Tajo , Galician : Río Texo , Mirandese : Riu Teijo , Portuguese : Tejo , Spanish : Tajo . It is known in Italian as Tago and Greek as Τάγος ( Tágos ).
The lower Tagus region in Portugal is a seismically active area. Major earthquakes in the Lower Tagus include those of 1309, 1531 , and 1909 . [2] [3]
The Pepper Wreck, properly the wreck of the Nossa Senhora dos Mártires , is a shipwreck located and excavated at the mouth of the Tagus between 1996 and 2001.
The river had strategic value to the Spanish and Portuguese empires, as it guarded the approach to Lisbon . [ citation needed ]
A major river, the Tagus is brought to mind in the songs and stories of the Portuguese. A popular fado song in Lisbon notes that, while people get older, the Tagus remains young ("My hair getting white, the Tagus is always young"). The author, Fernando Pessoa , wrote a poem [4] that begins:
The Tagus is more beautiful than the river that flows through my village.
But the Tagus is not more beautiful than the river that flows through my village...
Richard Crashaw (died 1649) wrote a poem "Saint Mary Magdalene, or the Weeper". This refers to the "Golden" Tagus as wanting Mary Magdalene's silver tears. In classical poetry, the Tagus was famous for its gold-bearing sands (the catalogued works of: Catullus 29.19; Ovid 's Amores 1.15.34; Juvenal 's Satires 3.55; and others). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagus | 52 |
where is the tagus river located on a map | Iberian Peninsula | A peninsula is a piece of land almost surrounded by water and connected to the mainland on at least one side. Thus, it is a landform extending from a mainland into a water body such as an ocean or sea.
Europe is one of the world’s largest peninsulas and the only one with a continental status. It is the world’s 5th largest continent by area, covering approximately 9.9 million km 2 . Europe is made up of several other smaller peninsulas. However, the four largest peninsulas in Europe are Italian, Balkan, Iberian, and Scandinavian Peninsulas. The Iberian Peninsula is the continent’s second-largest peninsula after the Scandinavian Peninsula.
The Iberian Peninsula is located on Europe’s southwestern tip. It is part of the southern Europe peninsula, which comprises three peninsulas; Iberian, Balkan, and Italian peninsulas. The Iberian is the westernmost peninsula of the three peninsulas. The Iberian Peninsula’s southern tip is separated from the Africa continent by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar. At the narrowest point, the peninsula is only 8 kilometers from Africa, specifically Morocco.
The Iberian Peninsula covers approximately 583,256 km 2 , accounting for about 5.9% of Europe’s total area. It extends from Punta de Tarifa on the extreme south to Punta de Estaca de Bares on the northern extremity. From the west, the peninsula begins at Cabo da Roca and extends to Cap de Creus in the east. It forms an irregular octagonal shape resembling an ox-hide.
Country or territory
Capital
Area
Mainland
population
% area of Iberian Peninsula
Andorra
Andorra la Vella
468 km 2
(181 sq mi)
84,082
0.1
France (part of the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales)
Paris
539 km 2
(208 sq mi)
12,035
0.1
Gibraltar (British Overseas Territory)
—
7 km 2
(2.7 sq mi)
29,431
< 0.1
Portugal
Lisbon
89,015 km 2
(34,369 sq mi)
ca. 10,047,083
15.3
|Spain||Madrid|
492,175 km 2
(190,030 sq mi)
ca. 43,731,572
84.5
The Iberian Peninsula is separated from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees mountain range located between France and Spain . The peninsula is mainly occupied by Spain and Portugal. However, it also comprises Andorra, part of Southern France (part of the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales), and Gibraltar (British overseas territory).
Spain’s European continental territory is located entirely on the peninsula. It also occupies much of the landform, including the northwest, east, and central parts. Spain accounts for 84.5% of the peninsula’s total area or 492,175 square kilometers. It is bordered to the northwest and west by Portugal , north by Andorra and Southern France, and south by Gibraltar.
Portugal is the peninsula’s largest country. It occupies 15.3% of the peninsula or 89,015 square kilometers. It is bordered to the east and north by Spain . Andorra is located entirely on the Iberian Peninsula. It is the peninsula’s smallest country, covering 468 square kilometers. France is represented on the peninsula by the Pyrenees-Orientales and accounts for about 0.1% of the total area or 539 square kilometers. Gibraltar, located on the southern tip, occupies only 7 square kilometers on the peninsula
The name “Iberian” is often used to refer to Portugal and Spain . This name is linked to the Ebro River, also known as Hiberus in Latin and Iberos in ancient Greek. River Ebro runs on the north and northeastern part of the peninsula, particularly Spain , and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. The Greeks referred to Spain as Hiberia because of River Ebro and those living along the river bank as Iberians.
It is unclear what the word “Hiber” or “Iber” mean. However, according to the Basque speakers, the word “ibar” means “watered meadow” or “valley,” while “ibai” stands for “river.” But, there is no evidence linking the two Basque words to River Ebro. Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent coined the name “Iberian Peninsula” in 1823.
The Iberian Peninsula lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean and is separated from France by the Pyrenees mountain range. It features some of Europe’s important geographical features such as rivers, mountains, and coastal plains.
About 75% of the peninsula’s total area is Meseta Central, also known as Inner Plateau. This massive plateau occupies the peninsula’s central part and rises between 610 and 760 meters above sea level. It is crossed by Sistema Central mountain range, leaving Submeseta Sur and Submeseta Norte to the south and north respectively. It is the source of most rivers that flow throughout the peninsula.
The Iberian Peninsula is a largely mountainous region, with several mountain systems. The Pyrenees mountain range is located at the border between Spain and France. Aneto, the highest mountain in the Pyrenees, is located in Spain . The Cantabrian Mountains stretch over 300 kilometers along the northern coast, with Torre de Cerrado as the highest peak. On the peninsula’s central part, the mountain systems include the Sistema Central and Sistema Iberico. Other mountain systems are Montes de Toledo, Sierra Morena, and Baetic System.
Several rivers flow through the Peninsula, including Tagus, Douro, Ebro, and Guadiana. At 1,007 kilometers, Tagus is Iberian’s longest river. It originates in Monte Universales and forms the border between Spain and Portugal . Guadiana River also forms the border between the two countries, separating Andalucia and Extremadura ( Spain ) from Algarve and Alentejo (Portugal). The Iberian Peninsula also has a coastline of about 3,313 kilometers, of which 1,653 kilometers are on the Atlantic Ocean and 1,660 kilometers on the Mediterranean Sea.
The Iberian Peninsula experiences two main climate types. The oceanic climate, dominant along the Atlantic coastal regions, is characterized by cool summers and relatively even temperatures. The other climate experienced on the peninsula is the Mediterranean climate, characterized by varying temperatures and precipitation. Central Spain experiences a semi-arid climate, while the Sierra Nevada region experiences a desert climate.
The Iberian Peninsula is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. However, the various regions within the peninsula are characterized by distinct flora and fauna. About 27% of Spain’s total area is a protected area. It is home to about 9,000 vascular plants, of which about 25% are endemic. Plains, plateaus, and valleys across the peninsula host the semi-deciduous forests that are dominated by carob, cork oak, holm oak, and wild olive. Laurisilva rainforests are only restricted to the peninsula and contain the endemic Laurisilva species. Higher altitudes are dominated by Pyrenean oak, juniper, and scots pine.
Over 70,000 animal species are found on the Iberian Peninsula, with invertebrates accounting for the largest proportion. Some of the native species include Pyrenean desman, shrew, and European hedgehog. Other species include Eurasian beaver, Alpine marmot, the European rabbit, Iberian lynx, Italian wolf, and Eurasian lynx. The peninsula is also a popular stopover for most migratory birds because it is Africa and Northern Europe’s closest stopover.
Humans have been living on the Iberian Peninsula since over 1.2 million years ago. Neanderthals occupied the peninsula around 200,000 BP. However, early modern humans migrated to the peninsula approximately 40,000 years ago from Southern France. The Roman army occupied the peninsula around 213 BC after successfully fighting the Carthaginians. However, it took Rome 200 years to defeat the Iberians and Celtic and annex the peninsula. Thereafter, Hispania Province was established. The Romans occupied the Iberian Peninsula for 600 years.
The Germanic people, including Vandals, Suebi, and Alans began settling on the peninsula around the 5th century. The Visigoths arrived much later and occupied the whole of the peninsula, expelling other tribes except the Suebi people. However, around 584, they took control of the Suebi Kingdom, including Bracara (Braga).
In the early 8th century, Muslims, led by Tariq Ibn Ziyad conquered and occupied the peninsula except for the northern kingdom. The Muslims named the peninsula “Al-Andalus,” meaning “land of the Vandals.” The Muslim population included Arabs, Muladi, and Berbers. By the end of Muslim dominance on the peninsula (end of 15th century), the Iberian Peninsula had an estimated population of about 6.5 million people.
Metropolitan region
State
Population (2019)
Madrid
Spain
6,641,649
Barcelona
Spain
5,575,204
Lisbon
Portugal
2,846,332
Valencia
Spain
2,540,588
Seville
Spain
1,949,640
Alicante-Elche
Spain
1,862,780
Porto
Portugal
1,722,374
Málaga-Marbella
Spain
1,660,985
Murcia-Cartagena
Spain
1,487,663
Cádiz
Spain
1,249,739
Bilbao
Spain
1,137,191
A Coruña
Spain
1,122,006
Oviedo-Gijón
Spain
1,022,205
The Iberian Peninsula has an estimated population of 53 million people and is dominated by three main metropolises; Lisbon, Barcelona, and Madrid. Madrid is the largest metropolitan region, with a population of 6.6 million people. Barcelona has a population of about 5.6 million, while Lisbon has 2.8 million people. Portugal’s other populous city is Porto, with 1.7 million people. Valencia and Seville in Spain have a combined population of 4.5 million people.
The peninsula’s economy largely depends on the economy of Spain and Portugal. These countries have some of the thriving industries in Europe, including fishing, tourism, and mining. Because of the long coastline, fishing is a popular economic activity, with major catches including tuna and sardines. Processed fish products from Spain and Portugal are exported to the global market through several companies, including Ramirez.
Portugal is the world’s leading producer of carob and cork. Besides, it also produces barley, corn, and wheat. Spain’s traditional agricultural products include cereal grains, vegetables, citrus fruits, and olive oil.
The Iberian Peninsula is one of the world’s most visited places. In 2017, Spain recorded over 80 million visitors, making it the 2nd most-visited country. Madrid is the home to World Tourism Organization. Portugal receives over 20 million visitors annually, making it one of the world’s most-visited countries.
Significant European minerals come from the peninsula. Portugal is notable for copper Uranium, and tin. It also has vast coal and iron reserves. Spain is one of the top renewable energy producers. Overall, the Iberian Peninsula countries have a combined GDP of over $1.6 trillion.
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John Misachi February 11 2021 in Landforms | https://www.worldatlas.com/peninsulas/iberian-peninsula.html | 52 |
where is the tagus river located on a map | Tagus - Wikipedia | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a river in the Iberian Peninsula. For the ancient Thessalian title, see Tagus (title) . For the ghost town in North Dakota, see Tagus, North Dakota .
This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish . (April 2009) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
The Tagus ( / ˈ t eɪ ɡ ə s / TAY -gəs ; Spanish : Tajo [ˈtaxo] ; Portuguese : Tejo [ˈtɛʒu] ; see below ) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula . The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel , in mid-eastern Spain , flows 1,007 km (626 mi), generally westward with two main south-west sections, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon . Its drainage basin covers 80,100 km 2 (30,927 sq mi) – exceeded in the peninsula only by the Douro . Several dams and diversions supply drinking water to population centers of central Spain and Portugal, and dozens of hydroelectric stations produce power. Between dams it follows a very constricted course, but after Almourol , Portugal it expands into a wide alluvial valley, with a prone to flooding . It culminates in a large estuary at the Port of Lisbon in the capital city of Portugal.
The source is specifically, in political geography, at the Fuente de García in the Frías de Albarracín municipality; in physical geography, in the Sistema Ibérico (Iberian System), covering the notably high mountains of the Sierra de Albarracín Comarca . The most plentiful tributaries (originating in the Central System mountain range) are on right bank , to the north. The river flows 716 km (445 mi) in Spain, 47 km (29 mi) along the two countries' borders and 275 km (171 mi) in Portugal .
The river flows through many cities, including Aranjuez , Toledo and Talavera de la Reina in Spain, and Abrantes , Santarém , Almada and Lisbon in Portugal. The Spanish capital, Madrid , lies on the right-bank side of the Tagus basin .
The first notable city on the Tagus is Sacedón . Below Aranjuez it receives the combined flow of the Jarama , Henares , Algodor and Tajuña . Below Toledo it receives the Guadarrama River . Above Talavera de la Reina it receives the Alberche . At Valdeverdeja is the upper end of the long upper reservoir, the Embalse de Valdecañas , beyond which are the Embalse de Torrejon , into which flow the Tiétar , and the lower reservoir, the Alcántara Dam into which flows the Alagón at the lower end.
A canal and aqueduct are between the Tagus and the Segura for the Tagus-Segura Water Transfer .
After forming the border it enters Portugal, passing Vila Velha de Ródão , Abrantes , Constância , Entroncamento , Santarém and Vila Franca de Xira at the head of the long narrow estuary, which has Lisbon at its mouth. The estuary is protected by the Tagus Estuary Natural Reserve . Two bridges span the river at Lisbon: the Vasco da Gama Bridge – the second longest bridge in Europe, with a total length of 17.2 km (10.7 mi) – and the 25 de Abril Bridge . The Port of Lisbon , straddling its mouth, is one of Europe's busiest.
The Portuguese Alentejo region and the former Ribatejo Province take their names from the river: Alentejo, from além Tejo ("beyond the Tejo") and Ribatejo probably from arriba Tejo (an archaic phrase for "upper Tejo"). However, the Spanish word riba means "riverside", or "riviera", implying that Ribatejo can also mean very generically "the side of Tejo". Many instances of towns in Spain have this prefix.
The river's Latin name is Tagus . While the etymology is unclear, the most probable etymological origin for the hydronym Tagus is Indo-European *(s)tag- ('to drip'). [1] It is known under different names in the languages of Iberia: Basque : Tajo , Catalan : Tajo , Galician : Río Texo , Mirandese : Riu Teijo , Portuguese : Tejo , Spanish : Tajo . It is known in Italian as Tago and Greek as Τάγος ( Tágos ).
The lower Tagus region in Portugal is a seismically active area. Major earthquakes in the Lower Tagus include those of 1309, 1531 , and 1909 . [2] [3]
The Pepper Wreck, properly the wreck of the Nossa Senhora dos Mártires , is a shipwreck located and excavated at the mouth of the Tagus between 1996 and 2001.
The river had strategic value to the Spanish and Portuguese empires, as it guarded the approach to Lisbon . [ citation needed ]
A major river, the Tagus is brought to mind in the songs and stories of the Portuguese. A popular fado song in Lisbon notes that, while people get older, the Tagus remains young ("My hair getting white, the Tagus is always young"). The author, Fernando Pessoa , wrote a poem [4] that begins:
The Tagus is more beautiful than the river that flows through my village.
But the Tagus is not more beautiful than the river that flows through my village...
Richard Crashaw (died 1649) wrote a poem "Saint Mary Magdalene, or the Weeper". This refers to the "Golden" Tagus as wanting Mary Magdalene's silver tears. In classical poetry, the Tagus was famous for its gold-bearing sands (the catalogued works of: Catullus 29.19; Ovid 's Amores 1.15.34; Juvenal 's Satires 3.55; and others). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagus | 52 |
where is the tagus river located on a map | Tagus River | river, Iberian Peninsula | Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: Article History
Tagus River , Portuguese Rio Tejo, Spanish Río Tajo , longest waterway of the Iberian Peninsula . It rises in the Sierra de Albarracín of eastern Spain , at a point about 90 miles (150 km) from the Mediterranean coast, and flows westward across Spain and Portugal for 626 miles (1,007 km) to empty into the Atlantic Ocean near Lisbon . Its drainage basin of 31,505 square miles (81,600 square km) is only exceeded on the peninsula by that of the Ebro River , to the northeast. The Tagus covers the heart of Portugal and Spain and has been of vital importance to the modern economic development of the two nations. The Vasco da Gama Bridge that crosses over the Tagus River estuary in Lisbon, spanning 17.2 km (10.7 miles), was the longest bridge in Europe at the time of its inauguration in 1998.
The upper Tagus cuts into limestone rocks and flows generally southwestward through narrow, sinuous valleys with deep canyons and abundant ravines. Near Trillo ( Guadalajara province ) it runs more peacefully, and just before the town of Bolarque it is held back by the dams of Entrepeñas and Buendía, forming an artificial lake known as the Sea of Castile, which covers an area of 51 square miles (132 square km).
Again flowing southwestward, the river irrigates the fertile lands of Aranjuez and the areas around Toledo and Talavera de la Reina until it reaches the province of Cáceres. Here it again flows through narrow, steep-edged trenches formed by quartzites and shales. At Puente de Alcántara another dam on the river has formed one of the greatest man-made lakes in Europe, with a length of 57 miles (92 km). Less than 10 miles (16 km) downstream the river becomes the frontier between Spain and Portugal for 27 miles (43 km). It enters Portugal at Beira and the Sierra de Carbajo, then crosses the fertile region of Abrantes. After flowing across Portugal for 111 miles (179 km), it forms at Vila Franca de Xira the Tagus (or Lisbon) estuary, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. Toledo is the only large Spanish city that lies along the river, which flows past the cities of Santarém and Lisbon in Portugal and supplies the latter with a fine natural harbour. Only the lower portion of the river is used for navigation of any importance.
The Tagus flows mostly through semiarid lands, and government efforts have been dedicated to increasing land irrigation and creating hydroelectric power in its basin. Major efforts to harness the Tagus and its tributaries for these purposes were undertaken from the 1960s, and by 1980 more than 60 dams had been built with a total installed power capacity of more than 1,200,000 kilowatts. In the highlands of the Tagus basin, coniferous trees are numerous, supporting a well-developed timber industry. About one-third of the basin’s cultivated land is devoted to cereal farming , and everywhere are olive trees and vineyards. In Extremadura, in western Spain, only oaks and cork trees break the monotony of a rolling and rocky landscape.
Animal life near the river is abundant and diverse , with both European and North African species. Fishing for royal carp, luces, and black bass is possible in the artificial lakes of Entrepeñas and Buendía, and trout, barbels, and many other kinds of fish are caught in the Tagus and its tributaries. There is big-game hunting in Gredos, noted for its Pyrenean, or Spanish, ibex; in the ridges of Cuenca and Guadalajara fallow deer and chamois are found.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen . | https://www.britannica.com/place/Tagus-River | 52 |
where is the tagus river located on a map | Tracking the Tagus - Portugal Travel Guide | River Tagus
The longest of all Portugal’s rivers, the Tagus (Tejo in Portuguese) meanders across the Iberian Peninsula for just over 1,000 kilometres before spilling out into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon , right at the point where Portuguese caravels set sail on their many voyages of discovery hundreds of years ago.
Rising in the Montes Universales to the east of Madrid in the centre of Spain, it passes many picturesque towns en route to the Portuguese capital, including Abrantes , Constância, Santarém and Vila Franca de Xira.
When it reaches the Ribatejo , after a long and often turbulent journey across the harsh plateaus of Castile in neighbouring Spain and the rough ridges of central Portugal , it spreads out in the region’s vast plains before shifting its course in a south-westerly direction.
In winter, swollen by the mountain snows, it overflows and covers part of the Santarém basin, flooding large swathes of the surrounding countryside. In spring, the waters recede leaving a fertile sediment on its soft banks.
On reaching Lisbon , it opens out broadly in the form of a huge river basin around which much of the city’s commercial and agricultural activity exists. Its journey ends at the point where the open Atlantic thunders on to the vast, sandy sweep of Guincho Beach near the cosmopolitan resort town of Cascais .
Lisbon is dominated by the River Tagus; indeed, it was through its estuary that remarkable riches arrived from all parts of the world during the great Age of Discovery . Portugal and its people subsequently evolved into a great maritime nation through living on the banks of the River Tagus and by dreaming of what ground-breaking adventures might possibly lie ahead.
Its riverbanks were said to resemble a ‘forest of masts’ as early as the reign of King Dinis from 1279 to 1325. And by the reign of King Fernando I just 42 years later, Lisbon was a booming port city, a fact that prompted the chronicler Fernão Lopes to write that up to 450 ships could be seen moored in the Tagus at any one time.
The region of Portugal most synonymous with the river is the Ribatejo, whose name simply means Tagus Riverbank, where the land is rich in cereals and wheat grows in abundance. And if you’re passing through the Ribatejo by car, keep an eye out for the fairy-tale Castelo de Almourol (indicated on the Google map below) located right in the middle of the River Tagus, one of the most scenically-striking castles in Europe.
Visitors to Santarém can marvel at the view of the Tagus Valley from Portas do Sol which Francis Turner Palgrave described as ‘one of the great panoramic landscapes of Europe’ when visiting Portugal with his friend Lord Tennyson in 1859.
The flat alluvial plains and dried-out lagoons of the Tagus Valley are a paradise for bird-watchers who can spot many water birds there, such as the Kentish plover, pratincole, marsh harrier, purple heron and black-winged stilt.
Vila Franca de Xira to the north-east of Lisbon offers travellers the chance to walk, cycle or drive across the original 1951 bridge spanning the Tagus which, at 1,220 metres long, was the nearest river crossing to the capital until the Ponte 25 Abril suspension bridge opened in 1966.
The River Tagus has also been the scene of some important chapters in the country’s history, most notably the moment Afonso, Prince of Portugal and heir apparent to the throne, tragically died in a horse-riding accident on the riverbank in Santarém on the 13th of July 1491, aged just 16.
Lisbon’s great 25 April suspension bridge across the River Tagus was originally named the Ponte Salazar in honour of the country’s dictator who commissioned its construction in the early 1960s. Inspired by San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, it stretches for 2.27 kilometres with six lanes of traffic and a railway line running underneath.
And one of the best places to appreciate the Tagus in all its glory is Praça do Comércio, central Lisbon’s popular riverside square. From there, you can absorb the immense sight of its flashing waters stretching to the far limits of the horizon from a panoramic viewpoint that encompasses two of Portugal’s most iconic landmarks – the Cristo Rei statue and the aforementioned 25 April suspension bridge.
Need more inspiration for your next visit? Why not listen to or download the Portugal Travel Show, the podcast for people planning a trip to sunny Portugal…
Map data ©2023 Inst. Geogr. Nacional
5 km | https://portugaltravelguide.com/river-tagus/ | 52 |
how old is the united state of america | How Old Is The United States? | The United States of America , the world’s third or fourth-largest country by area and the most developed economy celebrate its birthday (otherwise known as Independence Day) on July 4 every year. However, amidst the fireworks and all sorts of celebrations to mark this day, many people often ask just how old the country is. For most people, all they want to know is America’s age since attaining independence from the European colonizer. For others, they want to know how long America has been occupied. According to the country’s history, the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, making the country 245 years old as of July 4, 2021. However, Native Americans have occupied the area that later became the US for at least 12,000 years.
Although the US is 245 years old as of 2021, the country has existed for more than 2.5 centuries. The first Native Americans migrated to North America long before the Declaration of Independence. According to most historians, the first indigenous people settled in the area at least 15,000 BC, although the migration to the area could have happened as early as 30,000 years ago. The first indigenous people used the Bering land bridge to move from Eurasia to North America until 10,000 years ago when the land bridge submerged.
Paleoamericans were the first Native Americans to arrive and settle in North America and were later joined by ancestors of several present-day tribes, including Aleuts, Athabaskans, and Eskimos. Over time, the indigenous people developed distinct cultures and spread throughout the area until Christopher Columbus ’ arrival in the 15th century, marking the beginning of European colonization.
Although Christopher Columbus was one of the first Europeans to sight the American continent, the Spanish were the first people to settle in the present-day United States, setting up settlements in New Mexico and Florida, including Saint Augustine and Santa Fe. By the mid-17th century, the English had established their presence on the Atlantic Coast and founded the first colony, Jamestown, Virginia. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the British established the 13 colonies, with Georgia as the last colony in 1733.
In the late 18th century, tension developed between the 13 colonies and Great Britain over lack of representation and imposition of burdensome taxes, leading to the American Revolutionary War. The war, which broke out in April 1775, ended in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris signing between the US and Great Britain. However, on July 4, 1776, just over a year after the war broke out, Americans adopted the Declaration of Independence. The United States of America was born on this day, celebrated annually as Independence Day. However, the British recognized American independence following the Treaty of Paris signing on September 3, 1783.
In 2.5 centuries, the US has grown from the initial 13 colonies (granted statehood on various dates) to the current 50 states, becoming the third or fourth-largest country by total area. The country’s population has also grown over 130 times to about 330 million, making it the world’s third most populous country after China and India.
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John Misachi July 18 2021 in Geography | https://www.worldatlas.com/geography/how-old-is-the-united-states.html | 53 |
how old is the united state of america | How old is America? 1 common answer and 9 potential others | The question “How old is America?” is both a simple and complex question to answer, depending on how you want to measure age.
We’re going to start with the simple and then move onto the complex.
The simple answer is that as of the July 4, 2022, the United States is 246 years old . The United States is 246-years-old because the Declaration of Independence was ratified by the US Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
The passing of the Declaration of Independence meant that the thirteen original British colonies in North America ceased to be colonies and officially (at least according to them) became a sovereign nation.
READ MORE: Colonial America
But, as I said before, this is just the simple answer and the simple answer may or may not be correct depending on when you count the birth of a nation.
Here are 9 other potential birth dates and ages for the United States of America.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the North American landmass first separated from the rest of the surrounding world, the US would be celebrating it’s 200 millionth birthday!
Good luck trying to find a Hallmark card for that one… 🙂
It separated from a landmass known as Laurentia (known as Lauren, to her friends) which also contained Eurasia, around 200 million years ago.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the Native Americans first set foot on the North American continent, then the age of the United States is somewhere between 15,000 and 40,000-years-old.
It’s believed the first Native Americans arrived between 13,000 B.C.E and 38,000 B.C.E via a land bridge connecting North America to Siberia. Hallmark still isn’t coming to the party on this one, but I’d LOVE to see a birthday cake stacked with 13,000+ candles!
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America, landing on the ‘uninhabited’ (if you don’t count the somewhere between 8 million and 112 million Native Americans) shores of North America, then the United States is 529 years old.
He set sail on the evening of August 3, 1492 , in three ships: the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. It took roughly 10 weeks to find the Americas, and on October 12, 1492, he set foot in the Bahamas with a group of sailors from the Santa Maria.
However, given the ugly events of the next few years surrounding European colonization in the Americas, celebrating this date as America’s birthday has fallen largely out of favor. In fact, in many places in the United States, people have stopped celebrating the anniversary of Columbus’ arrival to the America’s because of a better understanding of the impact this had on indigenous populations.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the first settlement was established, then the United States is 435 years old.
The first settlement was established on Roanoke Island in 1587, however, all was not well. The harsh conditions and lack of supplies meant that by the time some of the original settlers arrived back on the island with supplies in 1590, the settlement appeared to be completely abandoned with no sign of the original inhabitants.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the first successful settlement was established, then the age of the United States is 413 years old.
The failure of Roanoke Island didn’t deter the British. In a joint venture with the Virginia Company, they established a second settlement at Jamestown in 1609 . Once again, the harsh conditions, aggressive natives, and lack of supplies made life on the continental US very tough (they even resorted to cannibalism to survive at one point), but the settlement was ultimately successful.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from the Articles of Confederation were ratified, then the United States is 241-years-old.
The Articles of Confederation laid the framework for how the states were to operate in their ‘League of Friendship’ (their words, not mine) and were the guiding principles behind the decision-making process of Congress.
The articles were debated for more than a year (July 1776 – November 1777) before being sent to the states for ratification on November 15th. They were finally ratified and came into force on March 1st, 1781.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the constitution, then the age of the United States is 233-years-old.
The Constitution was finally ratified by the ninth state (New Hampshire – holding everyone back…) on 21 June 1788 and came into force 1789. In its 7 articles , it embodies the doctrine of the separation of powers, the concepts of federalism, and the process of ratification. It’s been amended 27 times to help a growing nation accommodate the changing needs of an ever-expanding population.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from the end of the Civil War , then the United States is only 157 years old!
During the Civil War, the Union ceased to exist as the southern states seceded. It wasn’t reformed until the end of the Civil War in June 1865 .
I mean, if you get divorced and remarried, you don’t count your wedding anniversary from when you were first married, do you? So why would you do that with a country?
If we’re going to play fun hypotheticals, then lets at least have some fun with it.
One of the significant contributions the United States has made to world culture is the invention of fast food (you can argue about its merits, but you can’t deny its impact). Of all the fast-food chains, the most iconic is MacDonalds.
A new restaurant opens every 14.5 hours and the company feeds 68 million people PER DAY – which is larger than the population of Great Britain, France, and South Africa, and more than double the population of Australia.
Given the significant role this American icon has played in shaping the culinary habits of the world, an argument could be made (not a good argument, but an argument nonetheless) that you should count America’s age from the opening of the first MacDonalds store.
If you believe the birth of the United States should be counted from when the Golden Arches first spanned this wide brown land and the first crunch of a McDonald’s french fry being hastily gobbled down by a satisfied customer was rang out across the carpark, then the United States is 67 years old as the first McDonalds opened it’s doors on April 15, 1955 , in San Bernadino, California and has continued its march forward ever since.
The age of the United States can be measured in many different ways, but the generally accepted consensus is that the United States of America is 246-years-old (and counting). | https://historycooperative.org/how-old-is-the-united-states-of-america/ | 53 |
how old is the united state of america | How old is America? 1 common answer and 9 potential others | The question “How old is America?” is both a simple and complex question to answer, depending on how you want to measure age.
We’re going to start with the simple and then move onto the complex.
The simple answer is that as of the July 4, 2022, the United States is 246 years old . The United States is 246-years-old because the Declaration of Independence was ratified by the US Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
The passing of the Declaration of Independence meant that the thirteen original British colonies in North America ceased to be colonies and officially (at least according to them) became a sovereign nation.
READ MORE: Colonial America
But, as I said before, this is just the simple answer and the simple answer may or may not be correct depending on when you count the birth of a nation.
Here are 9 other potential birth dates and ages for the United States of America.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the North American landmass first separated from the rest of the surrounding world, the US would be celebrating it’s 200 millionth birthday!
Good luck trying to find a Hallmark card for that one… 🙂
It separated from a landmass known as Laurentia (known as Lauren, to her friends) which also contained Eurasia, around 200 million years ago.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the Native Americans first set foot on the North American continent, then the age of the United States is somewhere between 15,000 and 40,000-years-old.
It’s believed the first Native Americans arrived between 13,000 B.C.E and 38,000 B.C.E via a land bridge connecting North America to Siberia. Hallmark still isn’t coming to the party on this one, but I’d LOVE to see a birthday cake stacked with 13,000+ candles!
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America, landing on the ‘uninhabited’ (if you don’t count the somewhere between 8 million and 112 million Native Americans) shores of North America, then the United States is 529 years old.
He set sail on the evening of August 3, 1492 , in three ships: the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. It took roughly 10 weeks to find the Americas, and on October 12, 1492, he set foot in the Bahamas with a group of sailors from the Santa Maria.
However, given the ugly events of the next few years surrounding European colonization in the Americas, celebrating this date as America’s birthday has fallen largely out of favor. In fact, in many places in the United States, people have stopped celebrating the anniversary of Columbus’ arrival to the America’s because of a better understanding of the impact this had on indigenous populations.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the first settlement was established, then the United States is 435 years old.
The first settlement was established on Roanoke Island in 1587, however, all was not well. The harsh conditions and lack of supplies meant that by the time some of the original settlers arrived back on the island with supplies in 1590, the settlement appeared to be completely abandoned with no sign of the original inhabitants.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the first successful settlement was established, then the age of the United States is 413 years old.
The failure of Roanoke Island didn’t deter the British. In a joint venture with the Virginia Company, they established a second settlement at Jamestown in 1609 . Once again, the harsh conditions, aggressive natives, and lack of supplies made life on the continental US very tough (they even resorted to cannibalism to survive at one point), but the settlement was ultimately successful.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from the Articles of Confederation were ratified, then the United States is 241-years-old.
The Articles of Confederation laid the framework for how the states were to operate in their ‘League of Friendship’ (their words, not mine) and were the guiding principles behind the decision-making process of Congress.
The articles were debated for more than a year (July 1776 – November 1777) before being sent to the states for ratification on November 15th. They were finally ratified and came into force on March 1st, 1781.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the constitution, then the age of the United States is 233-years-old.
The Constitution was finally ratified by the ninth state (New Hampshire – holding everyone back…) on 21 June 1788 and came into force 1789. In its 7 articles , it embodies the doctrine of the separation of powers, the concepts of federalism, and the process of ratification. It’s been amended 27 times to help a growing nation accommodate the changing needs of an ever-expanding population.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from the end of the Civil War , then the United States is only 157 years old!
During the Civil War, the Union ceased to exist as the southern states seceded. It wasn’t reformed until the end of the Civil War in June 1865 .
I mean, if you get divorced and remarried, you don’t count your wedding anniversary from when you were first married, do you? So why would you do that with a country?
If we’re going to play fun hypotheticals, then lets at least have some fun with it.
One of the significant contributions the United States has made to world culture is the invention of fast food (you can argue about its merits, but you can’t deny its impact). Of all the fast-food chains, the most iconic is MacDonalds.
A new restaurant opens every 14.5 hours and the company feeds 68 million people PER DAY – which is larger than the population of Great Britain, France, and South Africa, and more than double the population of Australia.
Given the significant role this American icon has played in shaping the culinary habits of the world, an argument could be made (not a good argument, but an argument nonetheless) that you should count America’s age from the opening of the first MacDonalds store.
If you believe the birth of the United States should be counted from when the Golden Arches first spanned this wide brown land and the first crunch of a McDonald’s french fry being hastily gobbled down by a satisfied customer was rang out across the carpark, then the United States is 67 years old as the first McDonalds opened it’s doors on April 15, 1955 , in San Bernadino, California and has continued its march forward ever since.
The age of the United States can be measured in many different ways, but the generally accepted consensus is that the United States of America is 246-years-old (and counting). | https://historycooperative.org/how-old-is-the-united-states-of-america/ | 53 |
how old is the united state of america | How Old Is The United States? | The United States of America , the world’s third or fourth-largest country by area and the most developed economy celebrate its birthday (otherwise known as Independence Day) on July 4 every year. However, amidst the fireworks and all sorts of celebrations to mark this day, many people often ask just how old the country is. For most people, all they want to know is America’s age since attaining independence from the European colonizer. For others, they want to know how long America has been occupied. According to the country’s history, the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, making the country 245 years old as of July 4, 2021. However, Native Americans have occupied the area that later became the US for at least 12,000 years.
Although the US is 245 years old as of 2021, the country has existed for more than 2.5 centuries. The first Native Americans migrated to North America long before the Declaration of Independence. According to most historians, the first indigenous people settled in the area at least 15,000 BC, although the migration to the area could have happened as early as 30,000 years ago. The first indigenous people used the Bering land bridge to move from Eurasia to North America until 10,000 years ago when the land bridge submerged.
Paleoamericans were the first Native Americans to arrive and settle in North America and were later joined by ancestors of several present-day tribes, including Aleuts, Athabaskans, and Eskimos. Over time, the indigenous people developed distinct cultures and spread throughout the area until Christopher Columbus ’ arrival in the 15th century, marking the beginning of European colonization.
Although Christopher Columbus was one of the first Europeans to sight the American continent, the Spanish were the first people to settle in the present-day United States, setting up settlements in New Mexico and Florida, including Saint Augustine and Santa Fe. By the mid-17th century, the English had established their presence on the Atlantic Coast and founded the first colony, Jamestown, Virginia. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the British established the 13 colonies, with Georgia as the last colony in 1733.
In the late 18th century, tension developed between the 13 colonies and Great Britain over lack of representation and imposition of burdensome taxes, leading to the American Revolutionary War. The war, which broke out in April 1775, ended in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris signing between the US and Great Britain. However, on July 4, 1776, just over a year after the war broke out, Americans adopted the Declaration of Independence. The United States of America was born on this day, celebrated annually as Independence Day. However, the British recognized American independence following the Treaty of Paris signing on September 3, 1783.
In 2.5 centuries, the US has grown from the initial 13 colonies (granted statehood on various dates) to the current 50 states, becoming the third or fourth-largest country by total area. The country’s population has also grown over 130 times to about 330 million, making it the world’s third most populous country after China and India.
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John Misachi July 18 2021 in Geography | https://www.worldatlas.com/geography/how-old-is-the-united-states.html | 53 |
how old is the united state of america | How Old Is the United States of America? | Every 4th of July, the United States of America celebrates its birthday. The US is a federal republic, made up of 50 states, 48 of which are located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The US also has a federal district, five self-governing territories, and other possessions. It is one of the most highly developed countries in the world and includes nearly 40% of the total wealth in the world. The country is also a prominent political and cultural force internationally. But how old is the US?
The history of the United States of America dates back to the prehistory of the Native Americans and the colonial period. The people who lived in present-day America arrived in the early 1600s, mostly from England. The Spanish and French built small settlements in Florida, along the Mississippi River, the southwest, and the Gulf Coast. Most European settlers were farmers, and various industries began to develop within a few decades. Several cities were established along the coast to support local economies and to act as trade hubs. The colonies that formed the US were established in 1732, with the colonization of Georgia by the British. All colonies had local governments with elections open to free men. By 1770, the 13 British colonies had a population of about 2.1 million people.
Americans felt that their freedom had been suppressed by the European colonialists, and the American Revolutionary War marked the first successful independence campaign against the colonialists. Americans developed the spirit of “Republicanism,” maintaining that the government rested with the people’s will, as proclaimed in the local legislature. They demanded that the rights of Americans be respected and “no tax should be charged without any representation.” However, the British insisted on ruling the country through parliament, leading to war. On July 2, 1776, the Lee Resolution, which was a vote for independence, was passed and led to the Declaration of Independence two days later. July 4 has since been celebrated as US Independence Day.
Although July 2, 1776, marked the formal separation of the 13 colonies from Britain colonialists, the Declaration of Independence was officially signed on July 4, 1776. Thus, Independence Day is also known as Fourth of July, or simply as July Fourth. The US marked its first birthday on July 4, 1777, with 13 gunshots fired once in the morning and again in the evening. July 4 was first recognized as a state celebration in 1781 by the Massachusetts General Court. Thus, Independence Day became a national holiday marked by patriotic displays. On July 4, 2019, the US celebrated its 243rd birthday.
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how old is the united state of america | How old is America? 1 common answer and 9 potential others | The question “How old is America?” is both a simple and complex question to answer, depending on how you want to measure age.
We’re going to start with the simple and then move onto the complex.
The simple answer is that as of the July 4, 2022, the United States is 246 years old . The United States is 246-years-old because the Declaration of Independence was ratified by the US Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
The passing of the Declaration of Independence meant that the thirteen original British colonies in North America ceased to be colonies and officially (at least according to them) became a sovereign nation.
READ MORE: Colonial America
But, as I said before, this is just the simple answer and the simple answer may or may not be correct depending on when you count the birth of a nation.
Here are 9 other potential birth dates and ages for the United States of America.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the North American landmass first separated from the rest of the surrounding world, the US would be celebrating it’s 200 millionth birthday!
Good luck trying to find a Hallmark card for that one… 🙂
It separated from a landmass known as Laurentia (known as Lauren, to her friends) which also contained Eurasia, around 200 million years ago.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the Native Americans first set foot on the North American continent, then the age of the United States is somewhere between 15,000 and 40,000-years-old.
It’s believed the first Native Americans arrived between 13,000 B.C.E and 38,000 B.C.E via a land bridge connecting North America to Siberia. Hallmark still isn’t coming to the party on this one, but I’d LOVE to see a birthday cake stacked with 13,000+ candles!
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America, landing on the ‘uninhabited’ (if you don’t count the somewhere between 8 million and 112 million Native Americans) shores of North America, then the United States is 529 years old.
He set sail on the evening of August 3, 1492 , in three ships: the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. It took roughly 10 weeks to find the Americas, and on October 12, 1492, he set foot in the Bahamas with a group of sailors from the Santa Maria.
However, given the ugly events of the next few years surrounding European colonization in the Americas, celebrating this date as America’s birthday has fallen largely out of favor. In fact, in many places in the United States, people have stopped celebrating the anniversary of Columbus’ arrival to the America’s because of a better understanding of the impact this had on indigenous populations.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the first settlement was established, then the United States is 435 years old.
The first settlement was established on Roanoke Island in 1587, however, all was not well. The harsh conditions and lack of supplies meant that by the time some of the original settlers arrived back on the island with supplies in 1590, the settlement appeared to be completely abandoned with no sign of the original inhabitants.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the first successful settlement was established, then the age of the United States is 413 years old.
The failure of Roanoke Island didn’t deter the British. In a joint venture with the Virginia Company, they established a second settlement at Jamestown in 1609 . Once again, the harsh conditions, aggressive natives, and lack of supplies made life on the continental US very tough (they even resorted to cannibalism to survive at one point), but the settlement was ultimately successful.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from the Articles of Confederation were ratified, then the United States is 241-years-old.
The Articles of Confederation laid the framework for how the states were to operate in their ‘League of Friendship’ (their words, not mine) and were the guiding principles behind the decision-making process of Congress.
The articles were debated for more than a year (July 1776 – November 1777) before being sent to the states for ratification on November 15th. They were finally ratified and came into force on March 1st, 1781.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from when the constitution, then the age of the United States is 233-years-old.
The Constitution was finally ratified by the ninth state (New Hampshire – holding everyone back…) on 21 June 1788 and came into force 1789. In its 7 articles , it embodies the doctrine of the separation of powers, the concepts of federalism, and the process of ratification. It’s been amended 27 times to help a growing nation accommodate the changing needs of an ever-expanding population.
If you believe the age of the United States should be counted from the end of the Civil War , then the United States is only 157 years old!
During the Civil War, the Union ceased to exist as the southern states seceded. It wasn’t reformed until the end of the Civil War in June 1865 .
I mean, if you get divorced and remarried, you don’t count your wedding anniversary from when you were first married, do you? So why would you do that with a country?
If we’re going to play fun hypotheticals, then lets at least have some fun with it.
One of the significant contributions the United States has made to world culture is the invention of fast food (you can argue about its merits, but you can’t deny its impact). Of all the fast-food chains, the most iconic is MacDonalds.
A new restaurant opens every 14.5 hours and the company feeds 68 million people PER DAY – which is larger than the population of Great Britain, France, and South Africa, and more than double the population of Australia.
Given the significant role this American icon has played in shaping the culinary habits of the world, an argument could be made (not a good argument, but an argument nonetheless) that you should count America’s age from the opening of the first MacDonalds store.
If you believe the birth of the United States should be counted from when the Golden Arches first spanned this wide brown land and the first crunch of a McDonald’s french fry being hastily gobbled down by a satisfied customer was rang out across the carpark, then the United States is 67 years old as the first McDonalds opened it’s doors on April 15, 1955 , in San Bernadino, California and has continued its march forward ever since.
The age of the United States can be measured in many different ways, but the generally accepted consensus is that the United States of America is 246-years-old (and counting). | https://historycooperative.org/how-old-is-the-united-states-of-america/ | 53 |
how old is the united state of america | How Old Is the United States? | Last modified: February 24, 2023
The age of the United States depends on what stage you are counting as the birth. For the purpose of this article, we will define birth as the Declaration of Independence. How old is the United States? The Declaration of Independence was 1776, which makes the United States years old . Read on to find out how we calculate and define what the age is.
Historians often refer to the United States as a young country. There isn’t as much history of the country compared to other nations because of its ties to the British before the Revolutionary War. But how old is the USA, and how old is America?
When we ask the age of the USA, the answer is more complex than you might suspect. The deeper you go into the colonization of the landmass and settlements, the older the country gets.
But, if you specifically mean the country of the United States of America, it is less than 250 years old. This takes us back to 1776 and the official “birth” of the nation. It is also why the nation celebrated its bicentennial in 1976.
However, the history of America is much older than that. With so much emphasis on the Mayflower 400 celebrations of 2020, it is easy to assume that the country is 400 years old, not .
Then there is the fact that the establishment of the first of the thirteen colonies occurred earlier still. Finally, we can’t overlook the fact that America as a landmass was inhabited long before the arrival of Christopher Columbus or European colonization.
Let’s start with the official age of 240-250. Relatively speaking, the USA is a very young country. The United States of America became an official country in its own right on July 4th, 1776, with the Declaration of Independence following the War of Independence.
The aim was to break away from the rule of Great Britain that governed the colonies of America and to form their own independent nation.
But, this means that the basis of an American nation began much earlier than 1776. It must have been, as for those colonies to exist that would feel so separate from the British as to want to rule themselves. Therefore, the age of “America” as a nation colonized by the British and other European settlers is much older.
If we think back to the origins of Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims that landed at Plymouth Rock, we go back much further to 1620. This would make the colonized America over 400 years old.
This is the date etched in history as when the brave Puritans set sail for the New World, shared their meal with the local natives, and successfully began what is now New England. Of course, it wasn’t a New World as it was already inhabited. Also, they weren’t the first Europeans to form a colony on the other side of the Atlantic .
While there is the misconception that the formation of Plymouth led to the first American colony of Massachusetts, this is the second of the Thirteen Colonies. The first was Virginia. Settlers landed at Jamestown in 1607 – 13 years before the Mayflower Pilgrims set sail. While this settlement wasn’t that successful, it was still the first time European settlers created a town and made a corner of North America their own.
Over time, the United States’ east coast grew with more and more colonies. By the time of the Revolutionary War, thirteen of them had strong identities and generations far removed from their British ancestry.
The USA may have been born in 1776, but its people expanded and populated the region for 169 years. For perspective, that’s the same amount of time between the birth of the USA and the end of the Second World War.
- Virginia came first in 1607
- Then it was Massachusetts in 1620
- New Hampshire followed this in 1623
- Maryland in 1634
- Connecticut in 1635
- Rhode Island in 1636
- Then there was Delaware in 1638, ending a very quick expansion through these neighboring states.
- A little later, the Virginians settled in North Carolina.
- South Carolina followed in 1663
- A year later saw the formation of New Jersey and New York, the latter named for the founder, the Duke of York.
- William Penn founded Pennsylvania sometime later in 1682
- Then came Georgia in 1732, making it almost 100 years younger than Maryland.
Different states will have their own idea of how old America is, which may be more significant to them than the age of the USA.
As you can see, there are vast differences in the ages of various parts of what makes up the United States today. The age of the USA as a whole may be years old.
But, Virginians would argue that their part of the country is 413 years old. Arizona is only 108 years old. The youngest state is Hawaii , which was only admitted into the union in 1959, but the people of Hawaii would say that their state is much older because of their rich native culture.
With that in mind, we can’t talk about the age of the USA, and the age of America, without taking a moment to consider the greater history of some of the states. While young in terms of their involvement with the USA, many were home to Native Americans for millennia.
It is thought that settlers first inhabited the country as long as 30,000 years ago before the land bridge between continents fell to rising sea levels. Various cultures emerged across the states, many of which still exist in some form today.
Officially, the USA is years old, and we will celebrate its birthday on July 4th, Independence Day. But, the official formation of an independent nation isn’t the only factor to consider here.
The USA began on a specific date. However, the formation of its colonies, population, culture, and views to fight for independence began much earlier. The first European settlement is 413 years old, while New England is 400 years old. That history counts – as makes the native history of those already on the North American landmass before the Europeans arrived, and indeed that of African-Americans. The latter celebrate Black Independence Day on what has come to be known as Juneteenth .
If you would like to download a PDF with our quiz, then please go to: Download the quiz PDF Alternatively, you can take our online quiz here: [streamquiz id=”14″] | https://constitutionus.com/citizenship/how-old-is-the-united-states/ | 53 |
how old is the united state of america | Exactly How Old Is the United States? | Technically, America is 245 years old: the nation first declared her independence from Great Britain on July 4th, 1776. Long before Independence Day, settlers from Europe had begun the westward expansion, a vast immigration to the Americas in order to find improvements in their lives.
Native Americans lived in the Americas for some 10,000 years before European explorers and settlers arrived . Beginning in the early 1600s, the emigration numbers of Europeans traveling to the United States completely skyrocketed.
The first English colony known to dock its boats after their trek across the Atlantic was Jamestown, VA, in 1607. 104 settlers consisting of only men and boys arrived on the shore after voyaging across the Atlantic in three ships: the Susan Constant , the Godspeed, and the Discovery . They decided on naming their colony after the current King of England, James I, on May 13, 1607.
This settlement wasn’t chosen at random; the Virginia Company funders of the expedition chose Jamestown based on a few factors. For one, it was very far inland from the ocean and surrounded by water on three sides of the land (it’s a peninsula), meaning it would add a degree of difficulty for Spanish ships to attack.
There was no known Native American habitation at this specific location which gave them privacy and wouldn’t necessarily lead to fighting if it was not claimed prior. The water next to the land was also very deep — meaning they could anchor their ships very close to shore at their own convenience.
Jamestown established their own colonized government, naming Edward Maria Winfield as the first President along with council members who held positions as well. Their names were Bartholomew Gosnold, Christopher Newport, John Martin, John Radcliffe, George Kendall, and John Smith.
By June 15th of that same year, the colonists finished constructing the fort in hopes of keeping themselves protected from nearby Powhatan people. They had officially established the first European settlement in the New World.
Some 10-15 years after the settlers first landed at Jamestown, The Mayflower famously docked at Plymouth, MA , and began the works of creating New England (as we know it today). In September of 1620, 100 English men and women departed from their mother country to eventually dock their historic ship at Plymouth Rock in December of the same year, some two months later.
Due to religious concerns in England, many of the settlers were members of the Separatist Church. They decided to leave after the Church of England failed to complete the necessary work associated with the Protestant Reformation.
This issue had been ongoing with the English Separatists for some time — they had previously colonized the Netherlands during 1607 and 1608 in order to seek religious freedoms. After a decade or so, they ventured to the New World with hopes to be able to incorporate their English-spoken language.
Similar to the Jamestown settlement, the Mayflower colonists signed a contract with the Virginia Company to dock their boat along the Hudson River. Due to strong winds and storms, the ship veered off its original path and ended up reaching lands north of their original destination. They anchored at the site of Provincetown, MA, on November 21, 1920, and sent an exploratory party ashore. Finally, on December 18, they permanently docked at Plymouth Rock.
The Plymouth settlers did a phenomenal job of befriending the local Native Americans, the Pokanokets tribe, who were located in Rhode Island and Massachusetts at the time. In the late fall of the following year (1621), the Pilgrims famously celebrated the first Thanksgiving by sharing a feast with the Pokanokets.
In 1681, King James II of England owed money to the family of William Penn, a wealthy Englishmen Quaker. In order to pay off the debt, the King granted a charter for a place for the Quakers to settle. They were given the land area 12 miles north of Newcastle next to the Delaware River. They called their new home “The Province of Pennsylvania.”
Despite the charter grant having more limitations on them than the other colonies, Penn wasn’t concerned about the potential success of his new colony. He believed that Quakers were inherently good people (and better than the Puritans), so his philosophy essentially banked on the trust he had in them to form a solid government. It worked as they settled in 1681 on the east side of the Chesapeake River. To their benefit, the land they reached was extremely fertile, and they founded the city of Philadelphia.
Like the Plymouth colony, Penn was able to form friendly relationships with the neighboring Native American tribes by purchasing land from them before extending their settlement. Although the majority of the Pennsylvania settlers were Quakers at first, Penn’s ideology of tolerance to religious freedom attracted the likes of many others looking to escape religious oppression in Europe.
As of the year 1733, more than 13 established colonies had been founded in the New World along the Atlantic Coast. Settlers were commonly leaving their homelands with hopes of obtaining freedom they didn’t have before.
Many European companies imposed political oppression on their people, and America symbolized a place where people could do whatever they wanted to with their lives and have a fresh start. These ideals still hold true today, as the United States prides herself on the freedoms that her people have.
The majority of the original settlers were English, but other European nations also had citizens emigrating to the New World as well. This included people from Portugal, France, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, and Germany. Today, the United States boasts one of the most diverse populations on the planet, and a large reason for this is due to the variation of early settlers who came here in the first place.
Pretty soon after settlements began establishing their trade roots, it became clear that the Northern and Middle colonies possessed different aspects of trade than the South.
The North had longer winters which really prevented the ease of farming for livelihood. On the other hand, the South heavily relied on farms and plantations. They used slave labor to maintain these extremely vast pieces of land. Up north, the sea became an excellent source of wealth for the economy. The colonists used the water power to make sawmills, and all those located around the harbors found some way to participate in a trade one way or another.
As most Americans know, the 13 English colonies officially attempted to break away from the United Kingdom when they signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. This document proclaimed them a sovereign nation from Great Britain. This act was signed in Philadelphia by American rebels opposed to the crown.
This act sparked the American Revolution, the famous war between the United States Colonies and their ruler to determine the freedom of the settlers. As we all know, the Patriots prevailed over the Redcoats, and in 1787, they established the United States Constitution, outlining the many freedoms and democracy that their citizens now had. Thus, the United States of America was officially born.
During the War of 1812, some 25 years later, the British and Americans were in conflict once again. It was during a famous British bombardment towards Fort McHenry that “Star-Spangled Banner” author/musician Francis Scott Key viewed a still-raised American flag that had withstood the raid. This moment symbolized the future outcome of that particular war and the history of the United States’s resilience over time.
Although there is a simple answer to when the United States officially left the British rule that they no longer wanted to belong to (1776), the history of how the country came to be had ties way beyond that.
The first English settlement was Jamestown in 1607, followed shortly after by the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock at the end of 1620. Subsequently, William Penn founded Philadelphia and the colony of Pennsylvania towards the latter half of the 17th century, while other colonies had been established all throughout the Atlantic Coast.
The mentality of those Europeans leaving for America played a large part in forming the identity the country recognizes today . Many of them were disgruntled with some form of government oppression or failure to express religious freedoms, all of which were possible in the Land of Opportunity.
The United States embodies this same philosophy today. No matter what you look like, what religion you practice, or who your parents are, America gives everyone the opportunity to succeed. It will remain the Land of the Free for all eternity, and that’s why people want to immigrate here today.
Sources: | https://www.showallegiance.com/blogs/news/how-old-is-the-us | 53 |
how old is the united state of america | How Old is United States? | The question, “How old is America?” could have several answers. The first answer refers back to when the indigenous people first settled the land that is now known as America. The second answer refers to when America gained its freedom from the British and became known as the United States of America. The United States of America was founded in 1776, making the country 243 years old as of 2019.
The earliest history of what is now America occurred when the land was settled by indigenous people before 15,000 B.C. It is not known exactly when it was first settled, but it is believed that people migrated rom Eurasia through the Beringia land bridge before settling throughout the Americas. It is believed that this settlement could have begun as many as 30,000 years ago. Migration is thought to have continued through the land bridge until about 10,000 years ago when it was submerged by rising sea levels.
The original inhabitants were known as Paleoamericans and were part of hundreds of nations and tribes. As time passed, the Native Americans continued to inhabitant the land and many distinct cultures were formed. This continued through the 15th century, which brought Christopher Columbus to the land and marked the beginning of European colonization.
However, it wasn’t until after European exploration when the first English settlement was established in the early 17th century. During this time, Europeans brought over many things to the Americas, including horses and cattle. They also brought back goods from America including potatoes, tobacco and other crops. Early settlers and explorers died after being exposed to diseases of the Americas. However, things were worse for the Native Americans, who were exposed to Eurasian diseases and died in large numbers.
The first successful colony was Jamestown, which was established in what is now Virginia . Throughout these early years, the thirteen colonies were established. The Georgia Colony was the last to be established in 1733.
It was in the last 18th century when the colonies launched the American Revolution. This was a rebellion against the British. Prior to the American Revolution, tensions were growing between the colonists and the British, primarily over the British’s imposition of more taxes and exercising more control. One year after the rebellion began, the colonies declared themselves independent of Britain and named themselves the United States of America. The Revolutionary War continued on through 1783. However, the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 was the day that the United States of America came to be. This is why Independence Day is celebrated every year on July 4, in celebration of the birth of America.
America, as it is named, is actually a misnomer. "America" consists of both the North and South American continents. it has existed since the dawn of time and was possibly visited many times prior to its being recorded. Generally, it is widely accepted in the American school system that explorer Christopher Columbus was the first to set foot in North America in 1492 and report back to the British Empire. Some refute this, with certain scholars saying that Asian colonies first visited South America by accident when sailing in the 13th century, with Vikings landing near what is now New England and the eastern provinces of Canada as early as the 9th century.
1607 was the start of the colonial period, where ships and boats from England and its colonies would settle here under the flag of the British Empire. It was a grueling time, as starvation, lack of medicine, hostilities towards aboriginals, and the fight against the French, Spanish and Dutch for control of the Americas were intense. Unlike mainland England, the colonial period saw an influx of many European settlers from many walks of life. The first province to be established by the Empire was Virginia, specifically Jamestown. 13 more colonies were created until the American Revolution, which began with the signing of the Declaration of Independence from the British Empire, signed on July 4th, 1776. Thus, July 4th is recognized as the anniversary of the day that America declared itself a sovereign nation.
Throughout the entirety of the colonial period, the colonies struggled to survive. Resources were abundant, but methods of extraction were difficult. It was an entirely new landscape that did not have the privileges of "home". Proper housing, roads, food supply, and social advancement were extremely difficult and many lived in harsh conditions. The British Empire had been the dominant force for many years and secured its position by claiming colonies that would pay them tribute in resources. The Empire flourished at first, eclipsing the French and Dutch - and later, splitting the American continents with the Spanish.
The thirteen colonies finally could afford to be self-sufficient, but by the mid-1700s, the disapproval rating of the Empire was extremely high - as they demanded more and more tribute to be paid. The people revolted in 1776 and eventually won their independence.
Date of Initial Sovereignty
1776 | https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/united-states/how-old | 53 |
how old is the united state of america | Exactly How Old Is the United States? | Technically, America is 245 years old: the nation first declared her independence from Great Britain on July 4th, 1776. Long before Independence Day, settlers from Europe had begun the westward expansion, a vast immigration to the Americas in order to find improvements in their lives.
Native Americans lived in the Americas for some 10,000 years before European explorers and settlers arrived . Beginning in the early 1600s, the emigration numbers of Europeans traveling to the United States completely skyrocketed.
The first English colony known to dock its boats after their trek across the Atlantic was Jamestown, VA, in 1607. 104 settlers consisting of only men and boys arrived on the shore after voyaging across the Atlantic in three ships: the Susan Constant , the Godspeed, and the Discovery . They decided on naming their colony after the current King of England, James I, on May 13, 1607.
This settlement wasn’t chosen at random; the Virginia Company funders of the expedition chose Jamestown based on a few factors. For one, it was very far inland from the ocean and surrounded by water on three sides of the land (it’s a peninsula), meaning it would add a degree of difficulty for Spanish ships to attack.
There was no known Native American habitation at this specific location which gave them privacy and wouldn’t necessarily lead to fighting if it was not claimed prior. The water next to the land was also very deep — meaning they could anchor their ships very close to shore at their own convenience.
Jamestown established their own colonized government, naming Edward Maria Winfield as the first President along with council members who held positions as well. Their names were Bartholomew Gosnold, Christopher Newport, John Martin, John Radcliffe, George Kendall, and John Smith.
By June 15th of that same year, the colonists finished constructing the fort in hopes of keeping themselves protected from nearby Powhatan people. They had officially established the first European settlement in the New World.
Some 10-15 years after the settlers first landed at Jamestown, The Mayflower famously docked at Plymouth, MA , and began the works of creating New England (as we know it today). In September of 1620, 100 English men and women departed from their mother country to eventually dock their historic ship at Plymouth Rock in December of the same year, some two months later.
Due to religious concerns in England, many of the settlers were members of the Separatist Church. They decided to leave after the Church of England failed to complete the necessary work associated with the Protestant Reformation.
This issue had been ongoing with the English Separatists for some time — they had previously colonized the Netherlands during 1607 and 1608 in order to seek religious freedoms. After a decade or so, they ventured to the New World with hopes to be able to incorporate their English-spoken language.
Similar to the Jamestown settlement, the Mayflower colonists signed a contract with the Virginia Company to dock their boat along the Hudson River. Due to strong winds and storms, the ship veered off its original path and ended up reaching lands north of their original destination. They anchored at the site of Provincetown, MA, on November 21, 1920, and sent an exploratory party ashore. Finally, on December 18, they permanently docked at Plymouth Rock.
The Plymouth settlers did a phenomenal job of befriending the local Native Americans, the Pokanokets tribe, who were located in Rhode Island and Massachusetts at the time. In the late fall of the following year (1621), the Pilgrims famously celebrated the first Thanksgiving by sharing a feast with the Pokanokets.
In 1681, King James II of England owed money to the family of William Penn, a wealthy Englishmen Quaker. In order to pay off the debt, the King granted a charter for a place for the Quakers to settle. They were given the land area 12 miles north of Newcastle next to the Delaware River. They called their new home “The Province of Pennsylvania.”
Despite the charter grant having more limitations on them than the other colonies, Penn wasn’t concerned about the potential success of his new colony. He believed that Quakers were inherently good people (and better than the Puritans), so his philosophy essentially banked on the trust he had in them to form a solid government. It worked as they settled in 1681 on the east side of the Chesapeake River. To their benefit, the land they reached was extremely fertile, and they founded the city of Philadelphia.
Like the Plymouth colony, Penn was able to form friendly relationships with the neighboring Native American tribes by purchasing land from them before extending their settlement. Although the majority of the Pennsylvania settlers were Quakers at first, Penn’s ideology of tolerance to religious freedom attracted the likes of many others looking to escape religious oppression in Europe.
As of the year 1733, more than 13 established colonies had been founded in the New World along the Atlantic Coast. Settlers were commonly leaving their homelands with hopes of obtaining freedom they didn’t have before.
Many European companies imposed political oppression on their people, and America symbolized a place where people could do whatever they wanted to with their lives and have a fresh start. These ideals still hold true today, as the United States prides herself on the freedoms that her people have.
The majority of the original settlers were English, but other European nations also had citizens emigrating to the New World as well. This included people from Portugal, France, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, and Germany. Today, the United States boasts one of the most diverse populations on the planet, and a large reason for this is due to the variation of early settlers who came here in the first place.
Pretty soon after settlements began establishing their trade roots, it became clear that the Northern and Middle colonies possessed different aspects of trade than the South.
The North had longer winters which really prevented the ease of farming for livelihood. On the other hand, the South heavily relied on farms and plantations. They used slave labor to maintain these extremely vast pieces of land. Up north, the sea became an excellent source of wealth for the economy. The colonists used the water power to make sawmills, and all those located around the harbors found some way to participate in a trade one way or another.
As most Americans know, the 13 English colonies officially attempted to break away from the United Kingdom when they signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. This document proclaimed them a sovereign nation from Great Britain. This act was signed in Philadelphia by American rebels opposed to the crown.
This act sparked the American Revolution, the famous war between the United States Colonies and their ruler to determine the freedom of the settlers. As we all know, the Patriots prevailed over the Redcoats, and in 1787, they established the United States Constitution, outlining the many freedoms and democracy that their citizens now had. Thus, the United States of America was officially born.
During the War of 1812, some 25 years later, the British and Americans were in conflict once again. It was during a famous British bombardment towards Fort McHenry that “Star-Spangled Banner” author/musician Francis Scott Key viewed a still-raised American flag that had withstood the raid. This moment symbolized the future outcome of that particular war and the history of the United States’s resilience over time.
Although there is a simple answer to when the United States officially left the British rule that they no longer wanted to belong to (1776), the history of how the country came to be had ties way beyond that.
The first English settlement was Jamestown in 1607, followed shortly after by the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock at the end of 1620. Subsequently, William Penn founded Philadelphia and the colony of Pennsylvania towards the latter half of the 17th century, while other colonies had been established all throughout the Atlantic Coast.
The mentality of those Europeans leaving for America played a large part in forming the identity the country recognizes today . Many of them were disgruntled with some form of government oppression or failure to express religious freedoms, all of which were possible in the Land of Opportunity.
The United States embodies this same philosophy today. No matter what you look like, what religion you practice, or who your parents are, America gives everyone the opportunity to succeed. It will remain the Land of the Free for all eternity, and that’s why people want to immigrate here today.
Sources: | https://www.showallegiance.com/blogs/news/how-old-is-the-us | 53 |
who retains rights not specifically listed in the constitution | Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution | The Ninth Amendment ( Amendment IX ) to the United States Constitution addresses rights, retained by the people, that are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. It is part of the Bill of Rights . The amendment was introduced during the drafting of the Bill of Rights when some of the American founders became concerned that future generations might argue that, because a certain right was not listed in the Bill of Rights, it did not exist. However, the Ninth Amendment has rarely played any role in U.S. constitutional law, and until the 1980s was often considered "forgotten" or "irrelevant" by many legal academics. [1] [2]
In United Public Workers v. Mitchell the U.S. Supreme Court held that rights contained in the 9th or 10th amendments could not be used to challenge the exercise of enumerated powers by the government: “If granted power is found, necessarily the objection of invasion of those rights, reserved by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, must fail.” [3] [4] Some scholars have taken a different position and challenged the Court's reasoning, [5] while other scholars have agreed with the Court’s reasoning. [6]
The amendment, as proposed by Congress in 1789 and later ratified as the Ninth Amendment, reads as follows:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. [7]
When the U.S. Constitution was put to the states for ratification after being signed on September 17, 1787, the Anti-Federalists argued that a Bill of Rights should be added. One of the arguments the Federalists gave against the addition of a Bill of Rights, during the debates about ratification of the Constitution, was that a listing of rights could problematically enlarge the powers specified in Article One, Section 8 of the new Constitution by implication. For example, in Federalist 84 , Alexander Hamilton asked, "Why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?" [8] Likewise, James Madison explained to Thomas Jefferson , "I conceive that in a certain degree ... the rights in question are reserved by the manner in which the federal powers are granted" [9] by Article One, Section 8 of the Constitution.
The Anti-Federalists persisted in favor of a Bill of Rights during the ratification debates, but also were against ratification, and consequently several of the state ratification conventions gave their assent with accompanying resolutions proposing amendments to be added. In 1788, the Virginia Ratifying Convention attempted to solve the problem that Hamilton and the Federalists had identified by proposing a constitutional amendment specifying: [10]
That those clauses which declare that Congress shall not exercise certain powers be not interpreted in any manner whatsoever to extend the powers of Congress. But that they may be construed either as making exceptions to the specified powers where this shall be the case, or otherwise as inserted merely for greater caution.
This proposal ultimately led to the Ninth Amendment. In 1789, while introducing to the House of Representatives nineteen [11] draft Amendments, James Madison addressed what would become the Ninth Amendment as follows: [12]
It has been objected also against a Bill of Rights, that, by enumerating particular exceptions to the grant of power, it would disparage those rights which were not placed in that enumeration; and it might follow by implication, that those rights which were not singled out, were intended to be assigned into the hands of the General Government, and were consequently insecure. This is one of the most plausible arguments I have ever heard against the admission of a bill of rights into this system; but, I conceive, that it may be guarded against. I have attempted it, as gentlemen may see by turning to the last clause of the fourth resolution.
Like Alexander Hamilton, Madison was concerned that enumerating various rights could "enlarge the powers delegated by the constitution". [12] To attempt to solve this problem, Madison submitted this draft to Congress:
The exceptions here or elsewhere in the constitution, made in favor of particular rights, shall not be so construed as to diminish the just importance of other rights retained by the people; or as to enlarge the powers delegated by the constitution; but either as actual limitations of such powers, or as inserted merely for greater caution. [12]
This was an intermediate form of the Ninth Amendment that borrowed from the Virginia proposal, while foreshadowing the final version.
The final text of the Ninth Amendment, like Madison's draft, speaks of other rights than those enumerated in the Constitution. The character of those other rights was indicated by Madison in his speech introducing the Bill of Rights (emphasis added):
It has been said, by way of objection to a bill of rights ... that in the Federal Government they are unnecessary, because the powers are enumerated, and it follows, that all that are not granted by the constitution are retained; that the constitution is a bill of powers, the great residuum being the rights of the people; and, therefore, a bill of rights cannot be so necessary as if the residuum was thrown into the hands of the Government. I admit that these arguments are not entirely without foundation, but they are not as conclusive to the extent it has been proposed. It is true the powers of the general government are circumscribed; they are directed to particular objects; but even if government keeps within those limits, it has certain discretionary powers with respect to the means, which may admit of abuse. [12]
The First through Eighth Amendments address the means by which the federal government exercises its enumerated powers, while the Ninth Amendment addresses a "great residuum" of rights that have not been "thrown into the hands of the government", as Madison put it. [12] The Ninth Amendment became part of the Constitution on December 15, 1791, upon ratification by three-fourths of the states.
The final form of the amendment ratified by the states is as follows:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. [13]
The Ninth Amendment has generally been regarded by the courts as negating any expansion of governmental power on account of the enumeration of rights in the Constitution, but the Amendment has not been regarded as further limiting governmental power. The U.S. Supreme Court explained this, in U.S. Public Workers v. Mitchell 330 U.S. 75 (1947): "If granted power is found, necessarily the objection of invasion of those rights, reserved by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, must fail."
The Supreme Court held in Barron v. Baltimore (1833) that the Bill of Rights was enforceable by the federal courts only against the federal government, not against the states. Thus, the Ninth Amendment originally applied only to the federal government, which is a government of enumerated powers .
Some jurists have asserted that the Ninth Amendment is relevant to the interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment . Justice Arthur Goldberg (joined by Chief Justice Earl Warren and Justice William Brennan ) expressed this view in a concurring opinion in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut (1965):
The Framers did not intend that the first eight amendments be construed to exhaust the basic and fundamental rights ... I do not mean to imply that the ... Ninth Amendment constitutes an independent source of rights protected from infringement by either the States or the Federal Government ... While the Ninth Amendment – and indeed the entire Bill of Rights – originally concerned restrictions upon federal power, the subsequently enacted Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the States as well from abridging fundamental personal liberties. And, the Ninth Amendment, in indicating that not all such liberties are specifically mentioned in the first eight amendments, is surely relevant in showing the existence of other fundamental personal rights, now protected from state, as well as federal, infringement. In sum, the Ninth Amendment simply lends strong support to the view that the "liberty" protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments from infringement by the Federal Government or the States is not restricted to rights specifically mentioned in the first eight amendments. Cf. United Public Workers v. Mitchell , 330 U.S. 75, 94–95.
In support of his interpretation of the Ninth, Goldberg quoted from Madison's speech in the House of Representatives as well as from Alexander Hamilton 's Federalist Paper No. 84:
I go further and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted, and, on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why, for instance, should it be said that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed? I will not contend that such a provision would confer a regulating power; but it is evident that it would furnish, to men disposed to usurp, a plausible pretense for claiming that power.
But the two Justices who dissented in Griswold replied that Goldberg was mistaken to invoke the Ninth as authority. Hugo Black 's dissent said:
My Brother GOLDBERG has adopted the recent discovery that the Ninth Amendment, as well as the Due Process Clause, can be used by this Court as authority to strike down all state legislation which this Court thinks violates "fundamental principles of liberty and justice", or is contrary to the "traditions and [collective] conscience of our people". ... [O]ne would certainly have to look far beyond the language of the Ninth Amendment to find that the Framers vested in this Court any such awesome veto powers over lawmaking, either by the States or by the Congress. Nor does anything in the history of the Amendment offer any support for such a shocking doctrine. The whole history of the adoption of the Constitution and Bill of Rights points the other way, and the very material quoted by my Brother GOLDBERG shows that the Ninth Amendment was intended to protect against the idea that, "by enumerating particular exceptions to the grant of power" to the Federal Government, "those rights which were not singled out were intended to be assigned into the hands of the General Government [the United States], and were consequently insecure." That Amendment was passed not to broaden the powers of this Court or any other department of "the General Government", but, as every student of history knows, to assure the people that the Constitution in all its provisions was intended to limit the Federal Government to the powers granted expressly or by necessary implication. ... [F]or a period of a century and a half, no serious suggestion was ever made that the Ninth Amendment, enacted to protect state powers against federal invasion, could be used as a weapon of federal power to prevent state legislatures from passing laws they consider appropriate to govern local affairs.
And Potter Stewart 's dissent said:
[T]o say that the Ninth Amendment has anything to do with this case is to turn somersaults with history. The Ninth Amendment, like its companion, the Tenth, which this Court held "states but a truism that all is retained which has not been surrendered", United States v. Darby , 312 U.S. 100, 312 U.S. 124, was framed by James Madison and adopted by the States simply to make clear that the adoption of the Bill of Rights did not alter the plan that the Federal Government was to be a government of express and limited powers, and that all rights and powers not delegated to it were retained by the people and the individual States. Until today, no member of this Court has ever suggested that the Ninth Amendment meant anything else, and the idea that a federal court could ever use the Ninth Amendment to annul a law passed by the elected representatives of the people of the State of Connecticut would have caused James Madison no little wonder.
Since Griswold , some judges have tried to use the Ninth Amendment to justify judicially enforcing rights that are not enumerated. For example, the District Court that heard the case of Roe v. Wade ruled in favor of a "Ninth Amendment right to choose to have an abortion," although it stressed that the right was "not unqualified or unfettered." [14] However, Justice William O. Douglas rejected that view; Douglas wrote that "The Ninth Amendment obviously does not create federally enforceable rights." See Doe v. Bolton (1973). Douglas joined the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe , which stated that a federally enforceable right to privacy, "whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." [15]
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals stated in Gibson v. Matthews , 926 F.2d 532, 537 (6th Cir. 1991) that the Ninth Amendment was intended to vitiate the maxim of expressio unius est exclusio alterius according to which the express mention of one thing excludes all others: [16]
[T]he ninth amendment does not confer substantive rights in addition to those conferred by other portions of our governing law. The ninth amendment was added to the Bill of Rights to ensure that the maxim expressio unius est exclusio alterius would not be used at a later time to deny fundamental rights merely because they were not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.
Justice Antonin Scalia expressed the view, in the dissenting opinion of Troxel v. Granville , 530 U.S. 57 (2000), that:
The Declaration of Independence ... is not a legal prescription conferring powers upon the courts; and the Constitution's refusal to "deny or disparage" other rights is far removed from affirming any one of them, and even farther removed from authorizing judges to identify what they might be, and to enforce the judges' list against laws duly enacted by the people.
Professor Laurence Tribe shares the view that this amendment does not confer substantive rights: "It is a common error, but an error nonetheless, to talk of 'ninth amendment rights.' The ninth amendment is not a source of rights as such; it is simply a rule about how to read the Constitution." [17]
In 2000, Harvard historian Bernard Bailyn gave a speech at the White House on the subject of the Ninth Amendment. He said that the Ninth Amendment refers to "a universe of rights, possessed by the people – latent rights, still to be evoked and enacted into law ... a reservoir of other, unenumerated rights that the people retain, which in time may be enacted into law". [18] Similarly, journalist Brian Doherty has argued that the Ninth Amendment "specifically roots the Constitution in a natural rights tradition that says we are born with more rights than any constitution could ever list or specify." [19]
Robert Bork , often considered an originalist , stated during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing that a judge should not apply a constitutional provision like this one if he does not know what it means; the example Bork then gave was a clause covered by an inkblot. Upon further study, Bork later ascribed a meaning to the Ninth Amendment in his book The Tempting of America . In that book, Bork subscribed to the interpretation of constitutional historian Russell Caplan, who asserted that this Amendment was meant to ensure that the federal Bill of Rights would not affect provisions in state law that restrain state governments. [20]
A libertarian originalist, Randy Barnett has argued that the Ninth Amendment requires what he calls a presumption of liberty. Barnett also argues that the Ninth Amendment prevents the government from invalidating a ruling by either a jury or lower court through strict interpretation of the Bill of Rights. According to Barnett, "The purpose of the Ninth Amendment was to ensure that all individual natural rights had the same stature and force after some of them were enumerated as they had before." [20]
According to professor and former Circuit Judge Michael W. McConnell ,
[T]he rights retained by the people are indeed individual natural rights, but those rights enjoy precisely the same status and are protected in the same way, as before the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution. They are not relinquished, denied, or disparaged. Nor do natural rights become "constitutional rights." They are simply what all retained rights were before the enactment of the Bill of Rights: a guide to equitable interpretation and a rationale for the narrow construction of statutes that might be thought to infringe them, but not superior to explicit positive law. This understanding of the relation of unenumerated natural rights to a positive law closely resembles the relationship between common law and legislation: the common law governs in the absence of contrary legislation, and sometimes even guides or limits the interpretation of ambiguous or overbroad statutes, but does not prevail in the teeth of specific statutory overrides. This mode of interpretation offers a middle way between the two usual poles of unenumerated rights jurisprudence. One pole maintains that if a claimed right cannot be found in the Constitution, even applying a liberal construction to its terms, it is entitled to no protection at all ... The other pole maintains that there are unwritten natural rights whose content must inevitably be determined, finally and without the possibility of legislative override, by judges. These rights then receive full constitutional protection even when the representatives of the people have reached the contrary conclusion ... If I am correct about the meaning of the Ninth Amendment, neither of these approaches is entirely correct. Rather, an assertion of a natural right (generally founded on common law or other long-standing practice) will be judicially enforceable unless there is specific and explicit positive law to the contrary. This allows the representatives of the people, rather than members of the judiciary, to make the ultimate determination of when natural rights should yield to the peace, safety, and happiness of society. [21]
Still others, such as Thomas B. McAffee, have argued that the Ninth Amendment protects the unenumerated "residuum" of rights which the federal government was never empowered to violate. [22]
According to lawyer and diplomat Frederic Jesup Stimson , the framers of the Constitution and the Ninth Amendment intended that no rights that they already held would be lost through omission. Law professor Charles Lund Black took a similar position, though Stimson and Black respectively acknowledged that their views differed from the modern view, and differed from the prevalent view in academic writing. [23] [24]
Gun rights activists in recent decades have sometimes argued for a fundamental natural right to keep and bear arms in the United States that both predates the U.S. Constitution and is covered by the Constitution's Ninth Amendment; according to this viewpoint, the Second Amendment only enumerates a pre-existing right to keep and bear arms. [25] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution | 54 |
who retains rights not specifically listed in the constitution | Amendment IX – Non-Enumerated Rights (1791) – System | The Ninth Amendment states, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” This means that the rights citizens are not limited by those listed in the Constitution. The purpose of the Ninth Amendment was to dismiss the notion that the rights not explicitly named in the Constitution did not exist. The Ninth Amendment rights or Non-enumerated rights are additional fundamental rights protected from governmental infringement. These additional rights exists side-by-side with the fundamental rights specifically mentioned in the first eight amendments.
The non-enumerated rights are considered to arise from natural law. Courts have also found that these non-enumerated rights can be derived from express constitutional provisions. For example, although the first amendment guarantees freedom of speech, it is silent about the nature of the speech protected. In this regard, the Supreme Court has held that a freedom of speech protects both verbal and non-verbal expressions and communicative conduct at the same time[i].
Some of the non-enumerated rights recognized by Supreme Court are as follows:
- right to an abortion based on right to privacy[ii].
- right to choose and follow a profession[iii];
- right to attend and report on criminal trials[iv];
- right to receive equal protection not only from the states but also from the federal government[v];
- right to a presumption of innocence and to demand proof beyond a reasonable doubt before being convicted of a crime[vi];
- right to associate with others[vii];
- right to privacy[viii];
- right to travel within the United States[ix];
- right to marry or not to marry[x];
- right to make one’s own choice about having children/ right to reproductive autonomy/right to be free from compulsory sterilization[xi]
- right to educate one’s children as long as one meets certain minimum standards set by the state[xii];
- right to vote, subject only to reasonable restrictions to prevent fraud, and to cast a ballot equal in weight to those of other citizens[xiii];
- right to use the federal courts and other governmental institutions and to urge others to use these processes to protect their interests[xiv];
- right to retain American citizenship, despite even criminal activities, until explicitly and voluntarily renouncing it[xv];
The Supreme Court has also used this power not to recognize certain rights asserted by people. In Wash. v. Glucksberg , 521 U.S. 702 (U.S. 1997), the Supreme Court ruled that the right to die is not a non-enumerated constitutional right.
Critics pose the argument that this power of the Courts imposes the personal values of Judges on the law. But this role of Judiciary has helped recognize various rights of the people which are not expressly enumerated in the Constitution. The term ‘due process of law’ as used in the Fifth and Fourteenth amendment is nowhere defined in those amendments. However, the Supreme Court has interpreted this term to require procedural fairness in the litigation process. The procedural rights recognized under this term are non-enumerated because the due process clause does not describe the procedures that it covers.
[i] Tex. v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (U.S. 1989)
[ii] Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (U.S. 1973)
[iii] Gibson v. Berryhill, 411 U.S. 564 (1973); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923); Allgeyer v. Louisiana, 165 U.S. 578 (1897).
[iv]Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia, 448 U.S. 555 (1980)
[v] Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497 (1954).
[vi] Sandstrom v. Montana, 442 U.S. 510 (1979); Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (1979); Estelle v. Williams, 425 U.S. 501 (1976); In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358 (1970).
[vii]NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449 (1958); De Jonge v. Oregon, 299 U.S. 353 (1937).
[viii] Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965)
[ix] Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618 (1969); Crandall v. Nevada, 73 U.S. (6 Wall.) 35 (1868).
[x] Zablocki v. Redhail, 434 U.S. 374 (1978); Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)
[xi] Carey v. Population Servs., 431 U.S. 678 (1977); Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973); Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972); Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965).
[xii] Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925).
[xiii] Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533 (1964); Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962).
[xiv] NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415 (1963); Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36 (1873).
[xv]Afroyim v. Rusk, 387 U.S. 253 (1967) | https://system.uslegal.com/u-s-constitution/the-ninth-amendment/ | 54 |
who retains rights not specifically listed in the constitution | Ninth Amendment | Definition, Text, & Interpretation | Ninth Amendment , amendment (1791) to the Constitution of the United States , part of the Bill of Rights , formally stating that the people retain rights absent specific enumeration.
The full text of the Ninth Amendment is:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Prior to, during, and after ratification of the Constitution, debate raged about the protection of individual rights. Eventually, a Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution at the urging of the Anti-Federalists , who feared that without one, too much power would be vested in the federal government. Federalists , who believed that the Constitution had created a limited central government, countered that an enumeration of protected rights would be a possible detriment to individual liberties and render other liberties presumably unworthy of constitutional protection. Thus was born the Ninth Amendment, whose purpose was to assert the principle that the enumerated rights are not exhaustive and final and that the listing of certain rights does not deny or disparage the existence of other rights. What rights were protected by the amendment was left unclear.
Since the enactment of the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Supreme Court has never relied solely (or primarily) on the Ninth Amendment, and through the mid-1960s it was mentioned only sparingly. Indeed, in 1955 in a lecture (later turned into book form) titled “The Supreme Court in the American System of Government,” Justice Robert H. Jackson admitted that the Ninth Amendment was a “mystery” to him. Since that time, however, the Ninth Amendment has been used as a secondary source of liberties and has emerged as important in the extension of the rights of privacy .
In Griswold v. State of Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court held that married couples had the right to use birth control . The majority decision rested on Fourth and Fifth Amendment grounds, but Justice Arthur Goldberg based his concurring opinion squarely on Ninth Amendment principles, stating that
the language and history of the Ninth Amendment reveal that the Framers of the Constitution believed that there are additional fundamental rights, protected from governmental infringement, which exist alongside those fundamental rights specifically mentioned in the first eight constitutional amendments .
Taking that argument one step further, Goldberg claimed that
other fundamental personal rights should not be denied such protection or disparaged in any other way simply because they are not specifically listed in the first eight constitutional amendments.
Goldberg’s invoking of the Ninth Amendment was criticized in a dissenting opinion by Justice Potter Stewart who wrote that
to say that the Ninth Amendment has anything to do with this case is to turn somersaults with history. The Ninth Amendment, like its companion, the Tenth…was framed by James Madison and adopted by the States simply to make clear that the adoption of the Bill of Rights did not alter the plan that the Federal Government was to be a government of express and limited powers, and that all rights and powers not delegated to it were retained by the people and the individual States. Until today, no member of this Court has ever suggested that the Ninth Amendment meant anything else, and the idea that a federal court could ever use the Ninth Amendment to annul a law passed by the elected representatives of the people of the State of Connecticut would have caused James Madison no little wonder.
In the decades since the Griswold decision, numerous claims were made in federal filings that additional rights were protected by the Ninth Amendment (almost all were rejected), and there has been considerable debate as to what protections, if any, are guaranteed by it. Some federal courts have used the Ninth Amendment as a guidepost in their decisions, but it still has not been central to any decision. | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ninth-Amendment | 54 |
who retains rights not specifically listed in the constitution | Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution | The Ninth Amendment ( Amendment IX ) to the United States Constitution addresses rights, retained by the people, that are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. It is part of the Bill of Rights . The amendment was introduced during the drafting of the Bill of Rights when some of the American founders became concerned that future generations might argue that, because a certain right was not listed in the Bill of Rights, it did not exist. However, the Ninth Amendment has rarely played any role in U.S. constitutional law, and until the 1980s was often considered "forgotten" or "irrelevant" by many legal academics. [1] [2]
In United Public Workers v. Mitchell the U.S. Supreme Court held that rights contained in the 9th or 10th amendments could not be used to challenge the exercise of enumerated powers by the government: “If granted power is found, necessarily the objection of invasion of those rights, reserved by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, must fail.” [3] [4] Some scholars have taken a different position and challenged the Court's reasoning, [5] while other scholars have agreed with the Court’s reasoning. [6]
The amendment, as proposed by Congress in 1789 and later ratified as the Ninth Amendment, reads as follows:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. [7]
When the U.S. Constitution was put to the states for ratification after being signed on September 17, 1787, the Anti-Federalists argued that a Bill of Rights should be added. One of the arguments the Federalists gave against the addition of a Bill of Rights, during the debates about ratification of the Constitution, was that a listing of rights could problematically enlarge the powers specified in Article One, Section 8 of the new Constitution by implication. For example, in Federalist 84 , Alexander Hamilton asked, "Why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?" [8] Likewise, James Madison explained to Thomas Jefferson , "I conceive that in a certain degree ... the rights in question are reserved by the manner in which the federal powers are granted" [9] by Article One, Section 8 of the Constitution.
The Anti-Federalists persisted in favor of a Bill of Rights during the ratification debates, but also were against ratification, and consequently several of the state ratification conventions gave their assent with accompanying resolutions proposing amendments to be added. In 1788, the Virginia Ratifying Convention attempted to solve the problem that Hamilton and the Federalists had identified by proposing a constitutional amendment specifying: [10]
That those clauses which declare that Congress shall not exercise certain powers be not interpreted in any manner whatsoever to extend the powers of Congress. But that they may be construed either as making exceptions to the specified powers where this shall be the case, or otherwise as inserted merely for greater caution.
This proposal ultimately led to the Ninth Amendment. In 1789, while introducing to the House of Representatives nineteen [11] draft Amendments, James Madison addressed what would become the Ninth Amendment as follows: [12]
It has been objected also against a Bill of Rights, that, by enumerating particular exceptions to the grant of power, it would disparage those rights which were not placed in that enumeration; and it might follow by implication, that those rights which were not singled out, were intended to be assigned into the hands of the General Government, and were consequently insecure. This is one of the most plausible arguments I have ever heard against the admission of a bill of rights into this system; but, I conceive, that it may be guarded against. I have attempted it, as gentlemen may see by turning to the last clause of the fourth resolution.
Like Alexander Hamilton, Madison was concerned that enumerating various rights could "enlarge the powers delegated by the constitution". [12] To attempt to solve this problem, Madison submitted this draft to Congress:
The exceptions here or elsewhere in the constitution, made in favor of particular rights, shall not be so construed as to diminish the just importance of other rights retained by the people; or as to enlarge the powers delegated by the constitution; but either as actual limitations of such powers, or as inserted merely for greater caution. [12]
This was an intermediate form of the Ninth Amendment that borrowed from the Virginia proposal, while foreshadowing the final version.
The final text of the Ninth Amendment, like Madison's draft, speaks of other rights than those enumerated in the Constitution. The character of those other rights was indicated by Madison in his speech introducing the Bill of Rights (emphasis added):
It has been said, by way of objection to a bill of rights ... that in the Federal Government they are unnecessary, because the powers are enumerated, and it follows, that all that are not granted by the constitution are retained; that the constitution is a bill of powers, the great residuum being the rights of the people; and, therefore, a bill of rights cannot be so necessary as if the residuum was thrown into the hands of the Government. I admit that these arguments are not entirely without foundation, but they are not as conclusive to the extent it has been proposed. It is true the powers of the general government are circumscribed; they are directed to particular objects; but even if government keeps within those limits, it has certain discretionary powers with respect to the means, which may admit of abuse. [12]
The First through Eighth Amendments address the means by which the federal government exercises its enumerated powers, while the Ninth Amendment addresses a "great residuum" of rights that have not been "thrown into the hands of the government", as Madison put it. [12] The Ninth Amendment became part of the Constitution on December 15, 1791, upon ratification by three-fourths of the states.
The final form of the amendment ratified by the states is as follows:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. [13]
The Ninth Amendment has generally been regarded by the courts as negating any expansion of governmental power on account of the enumeration of rights in the Constitution, but the Amendment has not been regarded as further limiting governmental power. The U.S. Supreme Court explained this, in U.S. Public Workers v. Mitchell 330 U.S. 75 (1947): "If granted power is found, necessarily the objection of invasion of those rights, reserved by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, must fail."
The Supreme Court held in Barron v. Baltimore (1833) that the Bill of Rights was enforceable by the federal courts only against the federal government, not against the states. Thus, the Ninth Amendment originally applied only to the federal government, which is a government of enumerated powers .
Some jurists have asserted that the Ninth Amendment is relevant to the interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment . Justice Arthur Goldberg (joined by Chief Justice Earl Warren and Justice William Brennan ) expressed this view in a concurring opinion in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut (1965):
The Framers did not intend that the first eight amendments be construed to exhaust the basic and fundamental rights ... I do not mean to imply that the ... Ninth Amendment constitutes an independent source of rights protected from infringement by either the States or the Federal Government ... While the Ninth Amendment – and indeed the entire Bill of Rights – originally concerned restrictions upon federal power, the subsequently enacted Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the States as well from abridging fundamental personal liberties. And, the Ninth Amendment, in indicating that not all such liberties are specifically mentioned in the first eight amendments, is surely relevant in showing the existence of other fundamental personal rights, now protected from state, as well as federal, infringement. In sum, the Ninth Amendment simply lends strong support to the view that the "liberty" protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments from infringement by the Federal Government or the States is not restricted to rights specifically mentioned in the first eight amendments. Cf. United Public Workers v. Mitchell , 330 U.S. 75, 94–95.
In support of his interpretation of the Ninth, Goldberg quoted from Madison's speech in the House of Representatives as well as from Alexander Hamilton 's Federalist Paper No. 84:
I go further and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted, and, on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why, for instance, should it be said that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed? I will not contend that such a provision would confer a regulating power; but it is evident that it would furnish, to men disposed to usurp, a plausible pretense for claiming that power.
But the two Justices who dissented in Griswold replied that Goldberg was mistaken to invoke the Ninth as authority. Hugo Black 's dissent said:
My Brother GOLDBERG has adopted the recent discovery that the Ninth Amendment, as well as the Due Process Clause, can be used by this Court as authority to strike down all state legislation which this Court thinks violates "fundamental principles of liberty and justice", or is contrary to the "traditions and [collective] conscience of our people". ... [O]ne would certainly have to look far beyond the language of the Ninth Amendment to find that the Framers vested in this Court any such awesome veto powers over lawmaking, either by the States or by the Congress. Nor does anything in the history of the Amendment offer any support for such a shocking doctrine. The whole history of the adoption of the Constitution and Bill of Rights points the other way, and the very material quoted by my Brother GOLDBERG shows that the Ninth Amendment was intended to protect against the idea that, "by enumerating particular exceptions to the grant of power" to the Federal Government, "those rights which were not singled out were intended to be assigned into the hands of the General Government [the United States], and were consequently insecure." That Amendment was passed not to broaden the powers of this Court or any other department of "the General Government", but, as every student of history knows, to assure the people that the Constitution in all its provisions was intended to limit the Federal Government to the powers granted expressly or by necessary implication. ... [F]or a period of a century and a half, no serious suggestion was ever made that the Ninth Amendment, enacted to protect state powers against federal invasion, could be used as a weapon of federal power to prevent state legislatures from passing laws they consider appropriate to govern local affairs.
And Potter Stewart 's dissent said:
[T]o say that the Ninth Amendment has anything to do with this case is to turn somersaults with history. The Ninth Amendment, like its companion, the Tenth, which this Court held "states but a truism that all is retained which has not been surrendered", United States v. Darby , 312 U.S. 100, 312 U.S. 124, was framed by James Madison and adopted by the States simply to make clear that the adoption of the Bill of Rights did not alter the plan that the Federal Government was to be a government of express and limited powers, and that all rights and powers not delegated to it were retained by the people and the individual States. Until today, no member of this Court has ever suggested that the Ninth Amendment meant anything else, and the idea that a federal court could ever use the Ninth Amendment to annul a law passed by the elected representatives of the people of the State of Connecticut would have caused James Madison no little wonder.
Since Griswold , some judges have tried to use the Ninth Amendment to justify judicially enforcing rights that are not enumerated. For example, the District Court that heard the case of Roe v. Wade ruled in favor of a "Ninth Amendment right to choose to have an abortion," although it stressed that the right was "not unqualified or unfettered." [14] However, Justice William O. Douglas rejected that view; Douglas wrote that "The Ninth Amendment obviously does not create federally enforceable rights." See Doe v. Bolton (1973). Douglas joined the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe , which stated that a federally enforceable right to privacy, "whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." [15]
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals stated in Gibson v. Matthews , 926 F.2d 532, 537 (6th Cir. 1991) that the Ninth Amendment was intended to vitiate the maxim of expressio unius est exclusio alterius according to which the express mention of one thing excludes all others: [16]
[T]he ninth amendment does not confer substantive rights in addition to those conferred by other portions of our governing law. The ninth amendment was added to the Bill of Rights to ensure that the maxim expressio unius est exclusio alterius would not be used at a later time to deny fundamental rights merely because they were not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.
Justice Antonin Scalia expressed the view, in the dissenting opinion of Troxel v. Granville , 530 U.S. 57 (2000), that:
The Declaration of Independence ... is not a legal prescription conferring powers upon the courts; and the Constitution's refusal to "deny or disparage" other rights is far removed from affirming any one of them, and even farther removed from authorizing judges to identify what they might be, and to enforce the judges' list against laws duly enacted by the people.
Professor Laurence Tribe shares the view that this amendment does not confer substantive rights: "It is a common error, but an error nonetheless, to talk of 'ninth amendment rights.' The ninth amendment is not a source of rights as such; it is simply a rule about how to read the Constitution." [17]
In 2000, Harvard historian Bernard Bailyn gave a speech at the White House on the subject of the Ninth Amendment. He said that the Ninth Amendment refers to "a universe of rights, possessed by the people – latent rights, still to be evoked and enacted into law ... a reservoir of other, unenumerated rights that the people retain, which in time may be enacted into law". [18] Similarly, journalist Brian Doherty has argued that the Ninth Amendment "specifically roots the Constitution in a natural rights tradition that says we are born with more rights than any constitution could ever list or specify." [19]
Robert Bork , often considered an originalist , stated during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing that a judge should not apply a constitutional provision like this one if he does not know what it means; the example Bork then gave was a clause covered by an inkblot. Upon further study, Bork later ascribed a meaning to the Ninth Amendment in his book The Tempting of America . In that book, Bork subscribed to the interpretation of constitutional historian Russell Caplan, who asserted that this Amendment was meant to ensure that the federal Bill of Rights would not affect provisions in state law that restrain state governments. [20]
A libertarian originalist, Randy Barnett has argued that the Ninth Amendment requires what he calls a presumption of liberty. Barnett also argues that the Ninth Amendment prevents the government from invalidating a ruling by either a jury or lower court through strict interpretation of the Bill of Rights. According to Barnett, "The purpose of the Ninth Amendment was to ensure that all individual natural rights had the same stature and force after some of them were enumerated as they had before." [20]
According to professor and former Circuit Judge Michael W. McConnell ,
[T]he rights retained by the people are indeed individual natural rights, but those rights enjoy precisely the same status and are protected in the same way, as before the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution. They are not relinquished, denied, or disparaged. Nor do natural rights become "constitutional rights." They are simply what all retained rights were before the enactment of the Bill of Rights: a guide to equitable interpretation and a rationale for the narrow construction of statutes that might be thought to infringe them, but not superior to explicit positive law. This understanding of the relation of unenumerated natural rights to a positive law closely resembles the relationship between common law and legislation: the common law governs in the absence of contrary legislation, and sometimes even guides or limits the interpretation of ambiguous or overbroad statutes, but does not prevail in the teeth of specific statutory overrides. This mode of interpretation offers a middle way between the two usual poles of unenumerated rights jurisprudence. One pole maintains that if a claimed right cannot be found in the Constitution, even applying a liberal construction to its terms, it is entitled to no protection at all ... The other pole maintains that there are unwritten natural rights whose content must inevitably be determined, finally and without the possibility of legislative override, by judges. These rights then receive full constitutional protection even when the representatives of the people have reached the contrary conclusion ... If I am correct about the meaning of the Ninth Amendment, neither of these approaches is entirely correct. Rather, an assertion of a natural right (generally founded on common law or other long-standing practice) will be judicially enforceable unless there is specific and explicit positive law to the contrary. This allows the representatives of the people, rather than members of the judiciary, to make the ultimate determination of when natural rights should yield to the peace, safety, and happiness of society. [21]
Still others, such as Thomas B. McAffee, have argued that the Ninth Amendment protects the unenumerated "residuum" of rights which the federal government was never empowered to violate. [22]
According to lawyer and diplomat Frederic Jesup Stimson , the framers of the Constitution and the Ninth Amendment intended that no rights that they already held would be lost through omission. Law professor Charles Lund Black took a similar position, though Stimson and Black respectively acknowledged that their views differed from the modern view, and differed from the prevalent view in academic writing. [23] [24]
Gun rights activists in recent decades have sometimes argued for a fundamental natural right to keep and bear arms in the United States that both predates the U.S. Constitution and is covered by the Constitution's Ninth Amendment; according to this viewpoint, the Second Amendment only enumerates a pre-existing right to keep and bear arms. [25] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution | 54 |
who retains rights not specifically listed in the constitution | Ninth Amendment | Definition, Text, & Interpretation | Ninth Amendment , amendment (1791) to the Constitution of the United States , part of the Bill of Rights , formally stating that the people retain rights absent specific enumeration.
The full text of the Ninth Amendment is:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Prior to, during, and after ratification of the Constitution, debate raged about the protection of individual rights. Eventually, a Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution at the urging of the Anti-Federalists , who feared that without one, too much power would be vested in the federal government. Federalists , who believed that the Constitution had created a limited central government, countered that an enumeration of protected rights would be a possible detriment to individual liberties and render other liberties presumably unworthy of constitutional protection. Thus was born the Ninth Amendment, whose purpose was to assert the principle that the enumerated rights are not exhaustive and final and that the listing of certain rights does not deny or disparage the existence of other rights. What rights were protected by the amendment was left unclear.
Since the enactment of the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Supreme Court has never relied solely (or primarily) on the Ninth Amendment, and through the mid-1960s it was mentioned only sparingly. Indeed, in 1955 in a lecture (later turned into book form) titled “The Supreme Court in the American System of Government,” Justice Robert H. Jackson admitted that the Ninth Amendment was a “mystery” to him. Since that time, however, the Ninth Amendment has been used as a secondary source of liberties and has emerged as important in the extension of the rights of privacy .
In Griswold v. State of Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court held that married couples had the right to use birth control . The majority decision rested on Fourth and Fifth Amendment grounds, but Justice Arthur Goldberg based his concurring opinion squarely on Ninth Amendment principles, stating that
the language and history of the Ninth Amendment reveal that the Framers of the Constitution believed that there are additional fundamental rights, protected from governmental infringement, which exist alongside those fundamental rights specifically mentioned in the first eight constitutional amendments .
Taking that argument one step further, Goldberg claimed that
other fundamental personal rights should not be denied such protection or disparaged in any other way simply because they are not specifically listed in the first eight constitutional amendments.
Goldberg’s invoking of the Ninth Amendment was criticized in a dissenting opinion by Justice Potter Stewart who wrote that
to say that the Ninth Amendment has anything to do with this case is to turn somersaults with history. The Ninth Amendment, like its companion, the Tenth…was framed by James Madison and adopted by the States simply to make clear that the adoption of the Bill of Rights did not alter the plan that the Federal Government was to be a government of express and limited powers, and that all rights and powers not delegated to it were retained by the people and the individual States. Until today, no member of this Court has ever suggested that the Ninth Amendment meant anything else, and the idea that a federal court could ever use the Ninth Amendment to annul a law passed by the elected representatives of the people of the State of Connecticut would have caused James Madison no little wonder.
In the decades since the Griswold decision, numerous claims were made in federal filings that additional rights were protected by the Ninth Amendment (almost all were rejected), and there has been considerable debate as to what protections, if any, are guaranteed by it. Some federal courts have used the Ninth Amendment as a guidepost in their decisions, but it still has not been central to any decision. | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ninth-Amendment | 54 |
who retains rights not specifically listed in the constitution | 10th Amendment - Rights Reserved to States or People | The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Podcast
Jun 2
Town Hall Video
Jun 1
Blog Post
Feb 20
Coming soon for this provision! Until then, you can use Writing Rights to explore key historical documents, early drafts and major proposals behind each provision, and discover how the drafters deliberated, agreed and disagreed, on the path to compromise and the final text.
The Interactive Constitution app puts the full text and interpretations at your fingertips. | https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-x | 54 |
who retains rights not specifically listed in the constitution | US Government for Kids: Ninth Amendment | US Government
Ninth Amendment
The Ninth Amendment was part of the Bill of Rights that was added to the Constitution on December 15, 1791. It says that all the rights not listed in the Constitution belong to the people, not the government. In other words, the rights of the people are not limited to just the rights listed in the Constitution.
From the Constitution
Here is the text of the Ninth Amendment from the Constitution:
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
Confused?
The wording used in the Ninth Amendment can be confusing. Let's go through a few of the phrases:
"enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights" - The word "enumeration" means an ordered or numbered list. So here they are referring to a "list of rights" in the Constitution.
"shall not be construed" - The word "construed" means to "interpret the meaning of something". So this means something like "don't take this to mean."
"deny or disparage others retained by the people" - This means that the government can't take away (deny or disparage) other rights of the people.
If you put this together you get:
Just because there is a list of rights in the Constitution, it doesn't mean that the government can take away other rights of the people that are not listed.
This isn't meant to be a legal definition, just something to help you understand the general meaning of the amendment.
What are some "other rights"?
The Ninth Amendment never lists exactly what rights are "retained by the people." That's sort of the whole point of the amendment. Different people have different ideas as to what these rights may be. Can you think of some "rights" you think are still held by the people? Here are a few examples:
From the Constitution
Here is the text of the Ninth Amendment from the Constitution:
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
Confused?
The wording used in the Ninth Amendment can be confusing. Let's go through a few of the phrases:
"enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights" - The word "enumeration" means an ordered or numbered list. So here they are referring to a "list of rights" in the Constitution.
"shall not be construed" - The word "construed" means to "interpret the meaning of something". So this means something like "don't take this to mean."
"deny or disparage others retained by the people" - This means that the government can't take away (deny or disparage) other rights of the people.
If you put this together you get:
Just because there is a list of rights in the Constitution, it doesn't mean that the government can take away other rights of the people that are not listed.
This isn't meant to be a legal definition, just something to help you understand the general meaning of the amendment.
What are some "other rights"?
The Ninth Amendment never lists exactly what rights are "retained by the people." That's sort of the whole point of the amendment. Different people have different ideas as to what these rights may be. Can you think of some "rights" you think are still held by the people? Here are a few examples:
- The right to eat junk food
- The right to a job
- The right to dye your hair green
- The right to clean drinking water
The Right to Privacy
What about the right to privacy? It turns out that the Supreme Court in 1965 decided that the Ninth Amendment protected the right to privacy within a marriage in the landmark case of Griswold v. Connecticut .
Interesting Facts about the Ninth Amendment
What about the right to privacy? It turns out that the Supreme Court in 1965 decided that the Ninth Amendment protected the right to privacy within a marriage in the landmark case of Griswold v. Connecticut .
Interesting Facts about the Ninth Amendment
- It is sometimes referred to as Amendment IX.
- This amendment is sometimes used to stop the government from expanding its powers beyond those listed in the Constitution.
- Judge Robert Bork called the Ninth Amendment a "meaningless inkblot" on the Constitution.
- The Ninth Amendment was cited by the Supreme Court in the famous Roe v. Wade case.
- Some judges have said that this amendment is not a source of additional rights, but simply a rule about how to read the Constitution.
Activities
- Take a quiz about this page.
- Listen to a recorded reading of this page:
To learn more about the United States government: | https://www.ducksters.com/history/us_government/ninth_amendment.php | 54 |
who retains rights not specifically listed in the constitution | Ninth amendment of the US Constitution -- Unenumerated Rights | The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Annotations
RIGHTS RETAINED BY THE PEOPLE
The Federalists contended that a bill of rights was unnecessary. They responded to those opposing ratification of the Constitution because of the lack of a declaration of fundamental rights by arguing that, inasmuch as it would be impossible to list all rights, it would be dangerous to list some and thereby lend support to the argument that government was unrestrained as to those rights not listed. 1 Madison adverted to this argument in presenting his proposed amendments to the House of Representatives. “It has been objected also against a bill of rights, that, by enumerating particular exceptions to the grant of power, it would disparage those rights which were not placed in that enumeration; and it might follow by implication, that those rights which were not singled out, were intended to be assigned into the hands of the General Government, and were consequently insecure. This is one of the most plausible arguments I have ever heard against the admission of a bill of rights into this system; but, I conceive, that it may be guarded against. I have attempted it, as gentlemen may see by turning to the last clause of the fourth resolution.” 2 It is clear from its text and from Madison’s statement that the Amendment states but a rule of construction, making clear that a Bill of Rights might not by implication be taken to increase the powers of the national government in areas not enumerated, and that it does not contain within itself any guarantee of a right or a proscription of an infringement. 3 In 1965, however, the Amendment was construed to be positive affirmation of the existence of rights which are not enumerated but which are nonetheless protected by other provisions.
The Ninth Amendment had been mentioned infrequently in decisions of the Supreme Court 4 until it became the subject of some exegesis by several of the Justices in Griswold v. Connecticut . 5 The Court in that case voided a statute prohibiting use of contraceptives as an infringement of the right of marital privacy. Justice Douglas, writing for the Court, asserted that the “specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance.” 6 Thus, although privacy is not mentioned in the Constitution, it is one of the values served and protected by the First Amendment through its protection of associational rights, and by the Third, the Fourth, and the Fifth Amendments as well. The Justice recurred to the text of the Ninth Amendment, apparently to support the thought that these penumbral rights are protected by one Amendment or a complex of Amendments despite the absence of a specific reference. Justice Goldberg, concurring, devoted several pages to the Amendment.
“The language and history of the Ninth Amendment reveal that the Framers of the Constitution believed that there are additional fundamental rights, protected from governmental infringement, which exist alongside those fundamental rights specifically mentioned in the first eight constitutional amendments. . . . To hold that a right so basic and fundamental and so deep-rooted in our society as the right of privacy in marriage may be infringed because that right is not guaranteed in so many words by the first eight amendments to the Constitution is to ignore the Ninth Amendment and to give it no effect whatsoever. Moreover, a judicial construction that this fundamental right is not protected by the Constitution because it is not mentioned in explicit terms by one of the first eight amendments or elsewhere in the Constitution would violate the Ninth Amendment. . . . Nor do I mean to state that the Ninth Amendment constitutes an independent source of right protected from infringement by either the States or the Federal Government. Rather, the Ninth Amendment shows a belief of the Constitution’s authors that fundamental rights exist that are not expressly enumerated in the first eight amendments and an intent that the list of rights included there not be deemed exhaustive.” 7
Therefore, although neither Douglas’ nor Goldberg’s opinion sought to make the Ninth Amendment a substantive source of constitutional guarantees, both read it as indicating a function of the courts to interpose a veto over legislative and executive efforts to abridge other fundamental rights. Both opinions seemed to concur that the fundamental right claimed and upheld was derivative of several express rights and, in this case, really, the Ninth Amendment added almost nothing to the argument. But, if there is a claim of a fundamental right that cannot reasonably be derived from one of the provisions of the Bill of Rights, even with the Ninth Amendment, how is the Court to determine, first, that it is fundamental, and second, that it is protected from abridgment? 8
1 The Federalist No. 84 (Modern Library ed. 1937).
2 1 Annals Of Congress 439 (1789). Earlier, Madison had written to Jefferson: “My own opinion has always been in favor of a bill of rights; provided it be so framed as not to imply powers not meant to be included in the enumeration. . . . I have not viewed it in an important light—1. because I conceive that in a certain degree . . . the rights in question are reserved by the manner in which the federal powers are granted. 2. because there is great reason to fear that a positive declaration of some of the most essential rights could not be obtained in the requisite latitude. I am sure that the rights of conscience in particular, if submitted to public definition would be narrowed much more than they are likely ever to be by an assumed power.” 5 Writings Of James Madison, 271–72 (G. Hunt ed., 1904). See also 3 J. Story, Commentaries On The Constitution Of The United States 1898 (1833).
3 To some extent, the Ninth and Tenth Amendments overlap with respect to the question of unenumerated powers, one of the two concerns expressed by Madison, more clearly in his letter to Jefferson but also in his introductory speech.
4 In United Public Workers v. Mitchell, 330 U.S. 75, 94–95 (1947), upholding the Hatch Act, the Court said: “We accept appellant’s contention that the nature of political rights reserved to the people by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments [is] involved. The right claimed as inviolate may be stated as the right of a citizen to act as a party official or worker to further his own political views. Thus we have a measure of interference by the Hatch Act and the Rules with what otherwise would be the freedom of the civil servant under the First, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments.” See Ashwander v. TVA, 297 U.S. 288, 300–11 (1936), and Tennessee Electric Power Co. v. TVA, 306 U.S. 118, 143–44 (1939). See also Justice Chase’s opinion in Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 386, 388 (1798), and Justice Miller for the Court in Loan Ass’n v. Topeka, 87 U.S. (20 Wall.) 655, 662–63 (1875).
5 381 U.S. 479 (1965).
6 381 U.S. at 484. The opinion was joined by Chief Justice Warren and by Justices Clark, Goldberg, and Brennan.
7 381 U.S. at 488, 491, 492. Chief Justice Warren and Justice Brennan joined this opinion. Justices Harlan and White concurred, id. at 499, 502, without alluding to the Ninth Amendment, but instead basing their conclusions on substantive due process, finding that the state statute “violates basic values implicit in the concept of ordered liberty” (citing Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 325 (1937)). Id. at 500. It appears that the source of the fundamental rights to which Justices Douglas and Goldberg referred must be found in a concept of substantive due process, despite the former’s express rejection of this ground. Id. at 481–82. Justices Black and Stewart dissented. Justice Black viewed the Ninth Amendment ground as essentially a variation of the due process argument under which Justices claimed the right to void legislation as irrational, unreasonable, or offensive, without finding any violation of an express constitutional provision.
8 As Justice Scalia observed, “the [Ninth Amendment’s] refusal to ‘deny or disparage’ other rights is far removed from affirming any one of them, and even further removed from authorizing judges to identify what they might be, and to enforce the judges’ list against laws duly enacted by the people.” Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 91 (2000) (dissenting from recognition of due-process-derived parental right to direct the upbringing of their children). Notice the recurrence to the Ninth Amendment as a “constitutional ‘saving clause’” in Chief Justice Burger’s plurality opinion in Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia, 448 U.S. 555, 579–80 & n.15 (1980). Scholarly efforts to establish the clause as a substantive protection of rights include J. Ely, Democracy And Distrust : A Theory Of Judicial Review 34–41 (1980); and C. Black, Decision According To Law (1981), critically reviewed in W. Van Alstyne, Slouching Toward Bethlehem with the Ninth Amendment , 91 Yale L. J. 207 (1981). For a collection of articles on the Ninth Amendment, see The Rights Retained By The People : The History And Meaning Of The Ninth Amendment (Randy E. Barnett ed., 1989).
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. | https://law.justia.com/constitution/us/amendment-09/ | 54 |
who retains rights not specifically listed in the constitution | Ninth Amendment | Definition, Text, & Interpretation | Ninth Amendment , amendment (1791) to the Constitution of the United States , part of the Bill of Rights , formally stating that the people retain rights absent specific enumeration.
The full text of the Ninth Amendment is:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Prior to, during, and after ratification of the Constitution, debate raged about the protection of individual rights. Eventually, a Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution at the urging of the Anti-Federalists , who feared that without one, too much power would be vested in the federal government. Federalists , who believed that the Constitution had created a limited central government, countered that an enumeration of protected rights would be a possible detriment to individual liberties and render other liberties presumably unworthy of constitutional protection. Thus was born the Ninth Amendment, whose purpose was to assert the principle that the enumerated rights are not exhaustive and final and that the listing of certain rights does not deny or disparage the existence of other rights. What rights were protected by the amendment was left unclear.
Since the enactment of the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Supreme Court has never relied solely (or primarily) on the Ninth Amendment, and through the mid-1960s it was mentioned only sparingly. Indeed, in 1955 in a lecture (later turned into book form) titled “The Supreme Court in the American System of Government,” Justice Robert H. Jackson admitted that the Ninth Amendment was a “mystery” to him. Since that time, however, the Ninth Amendment has been used as a secondary source of liberties and has emerged as important in the extension of the rights of privacy .
In Griswold v. State of Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court held that married couples had the right to use birth control . The majority decision rested on Fourth and Fifth Amendment grounds, but Justice Arthur Goldberg based his concurring opinion squarely on Ninth Amendment principles, stating that
the language and history of the Ninth Amendment reveal that the Framers of the Constitution believed that there are additional fundamental rights, protected from governmental infringement, which exist alongside those fundamental rights specifically mentioned in the first eight constitutional amendments .
Taking that argument one step further, Goldberg claimed that
other fundamental personal rights should not be denied such protection or disparaged in any other way simply because they are not specifically listed in the first eight constitutional amendments.
Goldberg’s invoking of the Ninth Amendment was criticized in a dissenting opinion by Justice Potter Stewart who wrote that
to say that the Ninth Amendment has anything to do with this case is to turn somersaults with history. The Ninth Amendment, like its companion, the Tenth…was framed by James Madison and adopted by the States simply to make clear that the adoption of the Bill of Rights did not alter the plan that the Federal Government was to be a government of express and limited powers, and that all rights and powers not delegated to it were retained by the people and the individual States. Until today, no member of this Court has ever suggested that the Ninth Amendment meant anything else, and the idea that a federal court could ever use the Ninth Amendment to annul a law passed by the elected representatives of the people of the State of Connecticut would have caused James Madison no little wonder.
In the decades since the Griswold decision, numerous claims were made in federal filings that additional rights were protected by the Ninth Amendment (almost all were rejected), and there has been considerable debate as to what protections, if any, are guaranteed by it. Some federal courts have used the Ninth Amendment as a guidepost in their decisions, but it still has not been central to any decision. | https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ninth-Amendment | 54 |
who retains rights not specifically listed in the constitution | Ch.10 The Bill of Rights Flashcards | the concept that the government must follow clear rules and act reasonably as it carries out the law
an order from a judge that authorizes police or other officials to take a certain action, such as searching someone's property
-Freedom of Religion
-Freedom of Speech
-Freedom of Press
-Freedom of Assembly
-Freedom to Petition the government
-Freedom of Speech
-Freedom of Press
-Freedom of Assembly
-Freedom to Petition the government
The Second Amendment protects the right of citizens to bear arms. The Third Amendment prohibits the government from housing troops in citizen's homes.
Some people argue that the Second and Third Amendments are not particularly relevant in today's society. Do you agree? Why or why not?
What steps must the police follow to search someone or someone's property? Create a simple flowchart to show your answer. (4th amendment)
Police show a judge that they have a good reason for the search. ➞ If the judge agrees, he or she issues a warrant saying who or what can be searched. ➞ Police present the warrant and conduct the search.
The Fifth Amendment guarantees the right to a grand jury, protects citizens from double jeopardy, prohibits self-incrimination, guarantees due process of law, and prohibits the government from taking private property without fair compensation.
To the spoke diagram below, add and label at least four spokes for key rights protected by the Sixth Amendment, such as the right to a speedy trial. Draw a symbol for each right.
1) the right to an attorney
2) the right to a speedy and public trial
3) the right to be judged by an impartial jury
4) the right to hear charges
5) the right to hear and question witnesses at a trial
2) the right to a speedy and public trial
3) the right to be judged by an impartial jury
4) the right to hear charges
5) the right to hear and question witnesses at a trial
The Eighth Amendment protects an accused person's rights before and after a trial. Name one of the rights protected by the Eighth Amendment and explain why it is important.
Judges are forbidden from demanding "excessive bail", "excessive fines" and "cruel and unusual punishments", it prevents judges from using unreasonably high bail to keep someone in jail before his or her day in court
According to the Ninth Amendment, rights not specially listed in the Constitution belong to the people or the states. | https://quizlet.com/167818318/ch10-the-bill-of-rights-flash-cards/ | 54 |
where does the farmington river start and end | Farmington River - Wikipedia | For the river of the same name in Liberia, see Farmington River (Liberia) .
|Farmington River|
|Location|
|Country||United States|
|State||Massachusetts & Connecticut|
|Physical characteristics|
|Source||outlet of Hayden Pond (West Branch of the Farmington River)|
|• location||Otis , Berkshire County , Massachusetts|
|2nd source||Barkhamsted Reservoir (East Branch of the Farmington River)|
|• location||Hartland , Hartford County , Connecticut|
|Source confluence||confluence of the East Branch and West Branch|
|• location||New Hartford, Litchfield County, Connecticut|
|Mouth||confluence with Connecticut River|
• location
|Windsor , Hartford County , Connecticut|
• coordinates
|41°50′37.3596″N 72°37′52.6368″W Coordinates : 41°50′37.3596″N 72°37′52.6368″W|
|Length||80.4 mi (129.4 km), from source of West Branch|
|Basin size||602 sq mi (1,560 km 2 )|
|Official name||Farmington River|
|Type||Recreational|
|Designated||August 26, 1994|
The Farmington River is a river, 46.7 miles (75.2 km) [1] in length along its main stem, located in northwest Connecticut with major tributaries extending into southwest Massachusetts . The longest route of the river, from the origin of its West Branch, is 80.4 miles (129.4 km) long, making it the Connecticut River 's longest tributary by 2.3 miles (3.7 km) over the major river directly to its north, the Westfield River . [1] The Farmington River's watershed covers 609 square miles (1,580 km 2 ). Historically, the river played an important role in small-scale manufacturing in towns along its course, but it is now mainly used for recreation and drinking water.
Headwaters for the two branches of the Farmington River, the East Branch and West Branch, are found in southwestern Massachusetts, though only the West Branch officially begins north of the Connecticut border. The West Branch begins at the outlet of Hayden Pond in Otis, Massachusetts . The East Branch begins in Hartland , Connecticut at the confluence of Pond, Hubbard and Valley Brooks. [2] However, this branch has been impounded along the first 11 miles of its course to form the Barkhamsted Reservoir and Lake McDonough; it does not assume a river-like appearance until it exits Lake McDonough in New Hartford , Connecticut. The East Branch and West Branch join in New Hartford , Connecticut, one mile south of the lake. Upper reaches of the river generally flow southward, but the river turns northward in Farmington, Connecticut , and runs mostly north and east until it flows into the Connecticut River in Windsor .
Sites built adjacent to the river by nomadic peoples at the end of the last Ice Age , c. 12,400 years BP of the Younger Dryas indicate the presence of the earliest peoples to populate the region that would become known as southern New England . In the winter of 2019, the remains of the site were excavated in Avon , along with stone tools and artifacts constructed from materials in neighboring regions. [3]
The upper Connecticut and Farmington River valleys were the lands of the Native American indigenous people called the Massaco , a sub-tribe of the Tunxis , who were affiliated with the Wappinger . The name Tunxis, a word in the Quiripi family of Eastern Algonquian languages , derives from the indigenous term Wuttunkshau for "the point where the river bends". Halfway through the course of the river, in a floodplain in the town of Farmington at the base of the Metacomet Ridge , the flow of the Farmington River changes its direction to the northeast, where it eventually joins up with the Connecticut River in Windsor . [4]
When Europeans first arrived, the "Tunxis Sepus" territory consisted of a 165-mile square area bounded by Simsbury to the North, Wallingford to the South, to the northwest by Mohawk country, and on the east by the current towns of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield. In 1645, the Town of Farmington, Connecticut was named by the Connecticut General Assembly, and this was re-affirmed in 1650 by the execution of a deed by the General Assembly and the reservation of land for the "Tunxis Indians" near "Indian Neck" on the east bank of the Farmington River. [5] A group of twenty wigwams existed in Farmington at the beginning of the eighteenth century, but only four or five families resided in the settlement by 1761 [5]
The land of the Massaco was subsequently purchased by the Dutch. This and its settlement during the era of the Connecticut Colony are described in the early history of Simsbury .
The Spoonville Dam, built on the Farmington River in 1899 below the Tariffville Gorge in East Granby , was breached in the Flood of 1955 and remained as a partial dam for several decades before being removed in July 2012. [6] The dam, as well as the bridge crossing the Farmington River downstream at Route 187 , derived its name from the silver plating factory erected in 1840 on the north bank of the river. It was the first factory of its kind in the United States. [7]
Several bridges constructed in the 19th century and early 20th century still span the Farmington River to this day. Among these are:
- Farmington River Railroad Bridge, a stone arch bridge in Windsor, Connecticut built in 1867 [8]
- Drake Hill Road Bridge , a Parker through-truss bridge in Simsbury, Connecticut constructed in 1892 [9]
- Town Bridge, a Parker through-truss bridge in Canton, Connecticut constructed by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company in 1895 [10]
- Richards Corner Bridge, a Pratt through-truss bridge in New Hartford, Connecticut built in 1930 which spans the East Branch Farmington River [11]
- Pleasant Valley Bridge, a Parker through-truss bridge in Barkhamsted, Connecticut built in 1939 [12]
- Unionville Bridge, a Warren through-truss bridge in Unionville, Connecticut built in 1939 [13]
The river has several whitewater sections that are popular for tubing and kayaking. [14] [15] One of these, the colloquial "Upper Farmington" section of the West Branch in New Boston, Massachusetts , is about 7 miles (11 km) long. It is Class 2 through farm and woods scenery to an iron bridge, where kayak and canoe slalom races are held. Below the bridge the river becomes Class 3-4, [ citation needed ] with a short gorge with several abrupt drops.
The biggest of these is about four feet at Decoration Rock. Below, the river continues fast and technical with many rocks and constant maneuvering required. The river is continuously rapid, leading through larger drops at Battering Ram rapid and Corkscrew. Eventually the river flattens to Class 2 until a final, ledge rapid at Bear's Den, just above the reservoir. The Upper Farmington is barely runnable (very scratchy with many exposed rocks and pinning possibilities) during fall dam releases, and is a much better run at levels of about 600 cubic feet per second (16,990 L/s), or about 5 feet (1.5 m) on the internet gauge for that section. A second whitewater section is found in Tariffville, Connecticut , one mile (1.6 km) of technical Class 3 water which is runnable all year round. The river is normally paddled at levels between 1.5 and 2.75 feet (45–75 cm) on the internet gauge; [16] above 2.5 feet (75 cm) it becomes significantly heavier and more dangerous. This section includes the famous T-ville Hole, where kayakers can practice hole surfing and freestyle moves above a flat pool. Below the Hole is a broken dam, where the river funnels through an abrupt four foot drop into a large wave. This area is popular with swimmers in summer, and it is risky due to heavy currents and undercut rocks.
There have been at least three fatal drownings in the Tariffville Gorge section, primarily people who were not properly prepared or trained for the heavy rapids and pinning obstacles in the gorge. Paddlers without helmets, lifejackets and Class 3 whitewater skills should end downriver trips at Tariffville Park, just above the start of the gorge.
Other whitewater areas include Satan's Kingdom in New Hartford, Connecticut, which is popular with tubers, and the Crystal Rapids section in Collinsville and Unionville, Connecticut, which is about four miles (6 km) of Class 1-3 training waters with a bicycle and pedestrian path on the right side of the river. Entrance to the park is free. A service will also pick tubers up and drop them off at certain points.
The west branch of the river includes two hydroelectric dams in West Hartland and Colebrook, run by the Metropolitan District Commission of Connecticut .
The largest dam on the east branch is the Saville Dam , which impounds the Barkhamsted Reservoir .
The Rainbow Dam, a 68-foot (21 m) dam with a hydroelectric generator and a fish ladder , dams the river at Windsor, a few miles before the river flows into the Connecticut River.
A number of other dams have been built on the river since European settlement, usually to power mills and other industry. A few, such as in Collinsville, are still mostly intact. The Collinsville Renewable Energy Promotion Act (H.R. 316;113th Congress) would instruct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue licenses to the town of Canton, Connecticut , to restart two small power dams along the river. [17] The bill passed the United States House of Representatives on February 12, 2013, but has not yet become law.
Water released from or flowing over the Otis Reservoir dam enters the Farmington River just north of Reservoir Road in Otis, Massachusetts. Significant quantities of water are released during the fall in order to drop the reservoir water level for the winter.
Much of the Farmington River has been designated as part of the United States National Wild & Scenic Rivers System . The first such designation on the river was bestowed in 1994 and included 14 miles of water, mostly along the Farmington River West Branch but also a section of the river's main stem, from Hartland to the New Hartford - Canton town line. In 2019, this designation was extended 1.1 miles further downstream to the confluence with the Nepaug River . [18] Most of the Farmington River main stem and the Salmon Brook tributary system, totalling 61.7 miles of additional water, were also designated Wild & Scenic in 2019. [19] The Farmington River Coordinating Committee oversees the implementation of management plans for the designated runs of the Farmington River and includes representatives from towns along the river, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection , Metropolitan District Commission , National Park Service , Farmington River Watershed Association and Farmington River Anglers Association. [20]
The Farmington River and its tributaries are known to contain 11 species of freshwater mussels . [21] The Farmington has the highest mussel species diversity of any tributary to the Connecticut, lacking only the Yellow lampmussel , which is found only in the mainstem of the Connecticut from Turners Falls, MA downriver to Windsor, CT. [21]
Drake Hill Road Bridge, built in 1892 to span the Farmington River in Simsbury , Connecticut
Historic mills along the Farmington River in the Collinsville section of Canton , Connecticut.
A stone arch bridge built in 1867 which still spans the Farmington River in Windsor , Connecticut.
The Saville Dam impounds the East Branch Farmington River to form Barkhamsted Reservoir .
Town Bridge, built in 1895 over the Farmington River in Canton, Connecticut. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmington_River | 55 |
where does the farmington river start and end | Farmington River - Wikipedia | For the river of the same name in Liberia, see Farmington River (Liberia) .
|Farmington River|
|Location|
|Country||United States|
|State||Massachusetts & Connecticut|
|Physical characteristics|
|Source||outlet of Hayden Pond (West Branch of the Farmington River)|
|• location||Otis , Berkshire County , Massachusetts|
|2nd source||Barkhamsted Reservoir (East Branch of the Farmington River)|
|• location||Hartland , Hartford County , Connecticut|
|Source confluence||confluence of the East Branch and West Branch|
|• location||New Hartford, Litchfield County, Connecticut|
|Mouth||confluence with Connecticut River|
• location
|Windsor , Hartford County , Connecticut|
• coordinates
|41°50′37.3596″N 72°37′52.6368″W Coordinates : 41°50′37.3596″N 72°37′52.6368″W|
|Length||80.4 mi (129.4 km), from source of West Branch|
|Basin size||602 sq mi (1,560 km 2 )|
|Official name||Farmington River|
|Type||Recreational|
|Designated||August 26, 1994|
The Farmington River is a river, 46.7 miles (75.2 km) [1] in length along its main stem, located in northwest Connecticut with major tributaries extending into southwest Massachusetts . The longest route of the river, from the origin of its West Branch, is 80.4 miles (129.4 km) long, making it the Connecticut River 's longest tributary by 2.3 miles (3.7 km) over the major river directly to its north, the Westfield River . [1] The Farmington River's watershed covers 609 square miles (1,580 km 2 ). Historically, the river played an important role in small-scale manufacturing in towns along its course, but it is now mainly used for recreation and drinking water.
Headwaters for the two branches of the Farmington River, the East Branch and West Branch, are found in southwestern Massachusetts, though only the West Branch officially begins north of the Connecticut border. The West Branch begins at the outlet of Hayden Pond in Otis, Massachusetts . The East Branch begins in Hartland , Connecticut at the confluence of Pond, Hubbard and Valley Brooks. [2] However, this branch has been impounded along the first 11 miles of its course to form the Barkhamsted Reservoir and Lake McDonough; it does not assume a river-like appearance until it exits Lake McDonough in New Hartford , Connecticut. The East Branch and West Branch join in New Hartford , Connecticut, one mile south of the lake. Upper reaches of the river generally flow southward, but the river turns northward in Farmington, Connecticut , and runs mostly north and east until it flows into the Connecticut River in Windsor .
Sites built adjacent to the river by nomadic peoples at the end of the last Ice Age , c. 12,400 years BP of the Younger Dryas indicate the presence of the earliest peoples to populate the region that would become known as southern New England . In the winter of 2019, the remains of the site were excavated in Avon , along with stone tools and artifacts constructed from materials in neighboring regions. [3]
The upper Connecticut and Farmington River valleys were the lands of the Native American indigenous people called the Massaco , a sub-tribe of the Tunxis , who were affiliated with the Wappinger . The name Tunxis, a word in the Quiripi family of Eastern Algonquian languages , derives from the indigenous term Wuttunkshau for "the point where the river bends". Halfway through the course of the river, in a floodplain in the town of Farmington at the base of the Metacomet Ridge , the flow of the Farmington River changes its direction to the northeast, where it eventually joins up with the Connecticut River in Windsor . [4]
When Europeans first arrived, the "Tunxis Sepus" territory consisted of a 165-mile square area bounded by Simsbury to the North, Wallingford to the South, to the northwest by Mohawk country, and on the east by the current towns of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield. In 1645, the Town of Farmington, Connecticut was named by the Connecticut General Assembly, and this was re-affirmed in 1650 by the execution of a deed by the General Assembly and the reservation of land for the "Tunxis Indians" near "Indian Neck" on the east bank of the Farmington River. [5] A group of twenty wigwams existed in Farmington at the beginning of the eighteenth century, but only four or five families resided in the settlement by 1761 [5]
The land of the Massaco was subsequently purchased by the Dutch. This and its settlement during the era of the Connecticut Colony are described in the early history of Simsbury .
The Spoonville Dam, built on the Farmington River in 1899 below the Tariffville Gorge in East Granby , was breached in the Flood of 1955 and remained as a partial dam for several decades before being removed in July 2012. [6] The dam, as well as the bridge crossing the Farmington River downstream at Route 187 , derived its name from the silver plating factory erected in 1840 on the north bank of the river. It was the first factory of its kind in the United States. [7]
Several bridges constructed in the 19th century and early 20th century still span the Farmington River to this day. Among these are:
- Farmington River Railroad Bridge, a stone arch bridge in Windsor, Connecticut built in 1867 [8]
- Drake Hill Road Bridge , a Parker through-truss bridge in Simsbury, Connecticut constructed in 1892 [9]
- Town Bridge, a Parker through-truss bridge in Canton, Connecticut constructed by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company in 1895 [10]
- Richards Corner Bridge, a Pratt through-truss bridge in New Hartford, Connecticut built in 1930 which spans the East Branch Farmington River [11]
- Pleasant Valley Bridge, a Parker through-truss bridge in Barkhamsted, Connecticut built in 1939 [12]
- Unionville Bridge, a Warren through-truss bridge in Unionville, Connecticut built in 1939 [13]
The river has several whitewater sections that are popular for tubing and kayaking. [14] [15] One of these, the colloquial "Upper Farmington" section of the West Branch in New Boston, Massachusetts , is about 7 miles (11 km) long. It is Class 2 through farm and woods scenery to an iron bridge, where kayak and canoe slalom races are held. Below the bridge the river becomes Class 3-4, [ citation needed ] with a short gorge with several abrupt drops.
The biggest of these is about four feet at Decoration Rock. Below, the river continues fast and technical with many rocks and constant maneuvering required. The river is continuously rapid, leading through larger drops at Battering Ram rapid and Corkscrew. Eventually the river flattens to Class 2 until a final, ledge rapid at Bear's Den, just above the reservoir. The Upper Farmington is barely runnable (very scratchy with many exposed rocks and pinning possibilities) during fall dam releases, and is a much better run at levels of about 600 cubic feet per second (16,990 L/s), or about 5 feet (1.5 m) on the internet gauge for that section. A second whitewater section is found in Tariffville, Connecticut , one mile (1.6 km) of technical Class 3 water which is runnable all year round. The river is normally paddled at levels between 1.5 and 2.75 feet (45–75 cm) on the internet gauge; [16] above 2.5 feet (75 cm) it becomes significantly heavier and more dangerous. This section includes the famous T-ville Hole, where kayakers can practice hole surfing and freestyle moves above a flat pool. Below the Hole is a broken dam, where the river funnels through an abrupt four foot drop into a large wave. This area is popular with swimmers in summer, and it is risky due to heavy currents and undercut rocks.
There have been at least three fatal drownings in the Tariffville Gorge section, primarily people who were not properly prepared or trained for the heavy rapids and pinning obstacles in the gorge. Paddlers without helmets, lifejackets and Class 3 whitewater skills should end downriver trips at Tariffville Park, just above the start of the gorge.
Other whitewater areas include Satan's Kingdom in New Hartford, Connecticut, which is popular with tubers, and the Crystal Rapids section in Collinsville and Unionville, Connecticut, which is about four miles (6 km) of Class 1-3 training waters with a bicycle and pedestrian path on the right side of the river. Entrance to the park is free. A service will also pick tubers up and drop them off at certain points.
The west branch of the river includes two hydroelectric dams in West Hartland and Colebrook, run by the Metropolitan District Commission of Connecticut .
The largest dam on the east branch is the Saville Dam , which impounds the Barkhamsted Reservoir .
The Rainbow Dam, a 68-foot (21 m) dam with a hydroelectric generator and a fish ladder , dams the river at Windsor, a few miles before the river flows into the Connecticut River.
A number of other dams have been built on the river since European settlement, usually to power mills and other industry. A few, such as in Collinsville, are still mostly intact. The Collinsville Renewable Energy Promotion Act (H.R. 316;113th Congress) would instruct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue licenses to the town of Canton, Connecticut , to restart two small power dams along the river. [17] The bill passed the United States House of Representatives on February 12, 2013, but has not yet become law.
Water released from or flowing over the Otis Reservoir dam enters the Farmington River just north of Reservoir Road in Otis, Massachusetts. Significant quantities of water are released during the fall in order to drop the reservoir water level for the winter.
Much of the Farmington River has been designated as part of the United States National Wild & Scenic Rivers System . The first such designation on the river was bestowed in 1994 and included 14 miles of water, mostly along the Farmington River West Branch but also a section of the river's main stem, from Hartland to the New Hartford - Canton town line. In 2019, this designation was extended 1.1 miles further downstream to the confluence with the Nepaug River . [18] Most of the Farmington River main stem and the Salmon Brook tributary system, totalling 61.7 miles of additional water, were also designated Wild & Scenic in 2019. [19] The Farmington River Coordinating Committee oversees the implementation of management plans for the designated runs of the Farmington River and includes representatives from towns along the river, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection , Metropolitan District Commission , National Park Service , Farmington River Watershed Association and Farmington River Anglers Association. [20]
The Farmington River and its tributaries are known to contain 11 species of freshwater mussels . [21] The Farmington has the highest mussel species diversity of any tributary to the Connecticut, lacking only the Yellow lampmussel , which is found only in the mainstem of the Connecticut from Turners Falls, MA downriver to Windsor, CT. [21]
Drake Hill Road Bridge, built in 1892 to span the Farmington River in Simsbury , Connecticut
Historic mills along the Farmington River in the Collinsville section of Canton , Connecticut.
A stone arch bridge built in 1867 which still spans the Farmington River in Windsor , Connecticut.
The Saville Dam impounds the East Branch Farmington River to form Barkhamsted Reservoir .
Town Bridge, built in 1895 over the Farmington River in Canton, Connecticut. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmington_River | 55 |
where does the farmington river start and end | Farmington River - Wikipedia | For the river of the same name in Liberia, see Farmington River (Liberia) .
|Farmington River|
|Location|
|Country||United States|
|State||Massachusetts & Connecticut|
|Physical characteristics|
|Source||outlet of Hayden Pond (West Branch of the Farmington River)|
|• location||Otis , Berkshire County , Massachusetts|
|2nd source||Barkhamsted Reservoir (East Branch of the Farmington River)|
|• location||Hartland , Hartford County , Connecticut|
|Source confluence||confluence of the East Branch and West Branch|
|• location||New Hartford, Litchfield County, Connecticut|
|Mouth||confluence with Connecticut River|
• location
|Windsor , Hartford County , Connecticut|
• coordinates
|41°50′37.3596″N 72°37′52.6368″W Coordinates : 41°50′37.3596″N 72°37′52.6368″W|
|Length||80.4 mi (129.4 km), from source of West Branch|
|Basin size||602 sq mi (1,560 km 2 )|
|Official name||Farmington River|
|Type||Recreational|
|Designated||August 26, 1994|
The Farmington River is a river, 46.7 miles (75.2 km) [1] in length along its main stem, located in northwest Connecticut with major tributaries extending into southwest Massachusetts . The longest route of the river, from the origin of its West Branch, is 80.4 miles (129.4 km) long, making it the Connecticut River 's longest tributary by 2.3 miles (3.7 km) over the major river directly to its north, the Westfield River . [1] The Farmington River's watershed covers 609 square miles (1,580 km 2 ). Historically, the river played an important role in small-scale manufacturing in towns along its course, but it is now mainly used for recreation and drinking water.
Headwaters for the two branches of the Farmington River, the East Branch and West Branch, are found in southwestern Massachusetts, though only the West Branch officially begins north of the Connecticut border. The West Branch begins at the outlet of Hayden Pond in Otis, Massachusetts . The East Branch begins in Hartland , Connecticut at the confluence of Pond, Hubbard and Valley Brooks. [2] However, this branch has been impounded along the first 11 miles of its course to form the Barkhamsted Reservoir and Lake McDonough; it does not assume a river-like appearance until it exits Lake McDonough in New Hartford , Connecticut. The East Branch and West Branch join in New Hartford , Connecticut, one mile south of the lake. Upper reaches of the river generally flow southward, but the river turns northward in Farmington, Connecticut , and runs mostly north and east until it flows into the Connecticut River in Windsor .
Sites built adjacent to the river by nomadic peoples at the end of the last Ice Age , c. 12,400 years BP of the Younger Dryas indicate the presence of the earliest peoples to populate the region that would become known as southern New England . In the winter of 2019, the remains of the site were excavated in Avon , along with stone tools and artifacts constructed from materials in neighboring regions. [3]
The upper Connecticut and Farmington River valleys were the lands of the Native American indigenous people called the Massaco , a sub-tribe of the Tunxis , who were affiliated with the Wappinger . The name Tunxis, a word in the Quiripi family of Eastern Algonquian languages , derives from the indigenous term Wuttunkshau for "the point where the river bends". Halfway through the course of the river, in a floodplain in the town of Farmington at the base of the Metacomet Ridge , the flow of the Farmington River changes its direction to the northeast, where it eventually joins up with the Connecticut River in Windsor . [4]
When Europeans first arrived, the "Tunxis Sepus" territory consisted of a 165-mile square area bounded by Simsbury to the North, Wallingford to the South, to the northwest by Mohawk country, and on the east by the current towns of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield. In 1645, the Town of Farmington, Connecticut was named by the Connecticut General Assembly, and this was re-affirmed in 1650 by the execution of a deed by the General Assembly and the reservation of land for the "Tunxis Indians" near "Indian Neck" on the east bank of the Farmington River. [5] A group of twenty wigwams existed in Farmington at the beginning of the eighteenth century, but only four or five families resided in the settlement by 1761 [5]
The land of the Massaco was subsequently purchased by the Dutch. This and its settlement during the era of the Connecticut Colony are described in the early history of Simsbury .
The Spoonville Dam, built on the Farmington River in 1899 below the Tariffville Gorge in East Granby , was breached in the Flood of 1955 and remained as a partial dam for several decades before being removed in July 2012. [6] The dam, as well as the bridge crossing the Farmington River downstream at Route 187 , derived its name from the silver plating factory erected in 1840 on the north bank of the river. It was the first factory of its kind in the United States. [7]
Several bridges constructed in the 19th century and early 20th century still span the Farmington River to this day. Among these are:
- Farmington River Railroad Bridge, a stone arch bridge in Windsor, Connecticut built in 1867 [8]
- Drake Hill Road Bridge , a Parker through-truss bridge in Simsbury, Connecticut constructed in 1892 [9]
- Town Bridge, a Parker through-truss bridge in Canton, Connecticut constructed by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company in 1895 [10]
- Richards Corner Bridge, a Pratt through-truss bridge in New Hartford, Connecticut built in 1930 which spans the East Branch Farmington River [11]
- Pleasant Valley Bridge, a Parker through-truss bridge in Barkhamsted, Connecticut built in 1939 [12]
- Unionville Bridge, a Warren through-truss bridge in Unionville, Connecticut built in 1939 [13]
The river has several whitewater sections that are popular for tubing and kayaking. [14] [15] One of these, the colloquial "Upper Farmington" section of the West Branch in New Boston, Massachusetts , is about 7 miles (11 km) long. It is Class 2 through farm and woods scenery to an iron bridge, where kayak and canoe slalom races are held. Below the bridge the river becomes Class 3-4, [ citation needed ] with a short gorge with several abrupt drops.
The biggest of these is about four feet at Decoration Rock. Below, the river continues fast and technical with many rocks and constant maneuvering required. The river is continuously rapid, leading through larger drops at Battering Ram rapid and Corkscrew. Eventually the river flattens to Class 2 until a final, ledge rapid at Bear's Den, just above the reservoir. The Upper Farmington is barely runnable (very scratchy with many exposed rocks and pinning possibilities) during fall dam releases, and is a much better run at levels of about 600 cubic feet per second (16,990 L/s), or about 5 feet (1.5 m) on the internet gauge for that section. A second whitewater section is found in Tariffville, Connecticut , one mile (1.6 km) of technical Class 3 water which is runnable all year round. The river is normally paddled at levels between 1.5 and 2.75 feet (45–75 cm) on the internet gauge; [16] above 2.5 feet (75 cm) it becomes significantly heavier and more dangerous. This section includes the famous T-ville Hole, where kayakers can practice hole surfing and freestyle moves above a flat pool. Below the Hole is a broken dam, where the river funnels through an abrupt four foot drop into a large wave. This area is popular with swimmers in summer, and it is risky due to heavy currents and undercut rocks.
There have been at least three fatal drownings in the Tariffville Gorge section, primarily people who were not properly prepared or trained for the heavy rapids and pinning obstacles in the gorge. Paddlers without helmets, lifejackets and Class 3 whitewater skills should end downriver trips at Tariffville Park, just above the start of the gorge.
Other whitewater areas include Satan's Kingdom in New Hartford, Connecticut, which is popular with tubers, and the Crystal Rapids section in Collinsville and Unionville, Connecticut, which is about four miles (6 km) of Class 1-3 training waters with a bicycle and pedestrian path on the right side of the river. Entrance to the park is free. A service will also pick tubers up and drop them off at certain points.
The west branch of the river includes two hydroelectric dams in West Hartland and Colebrook, run by the Metropolitan District Commission of Connecticut .
The largest dam on the east branch is the Saville Dam , which impounds the Barkhamsted Reservoir .
The Rainbow Dam, a 68-foot (21 m) dam with a hydroelectric generator and a fish ladder , dams the river at Windsor, a few miles before the river flows into the Connecticut River.
A number of other dams have been built on the river since European settlement, usually to power mills and other industry. A few, such as in Collinsville, are still mostly intact. The Collinsville Renewable Energy Promotion Act (H.R. 316;113th Congress) would instruct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue licenses to the town of Canton, Connecticut , to restart two small power dams along the river. [17] The bill passed the United States House of Representatives on February 12, 2013, but has not yet become law.
Water released from or flowing over the Otis Reservoir dam enters the Farmington River just north of Reservoir Road in Otis, Massachusetts. Significant quantities of water are released during the fall in order to drop the reservoir water level for the winter.
Much of the Farmington River has been designated as part of the United States National Wild & Scenic Rivers System . The first such designation on the river was bestowed in 1994 and included 14 miles of water, mostly along the Farmington River West Branch but also a section of the river's main stem, from Hartland to the New Hartford - Canton town line. In 2019, this designation was extended 1.1 miles further downstream to the confluence with the Nepaug River . [18] Most of the Farmington River main stem and the Salmon Brook tributary system, totalling 61.7 miles of additional water, were also designated Wild & Scenic in 2019. [19] The Farmington River Coordinating Committee oversees the implementation of management plans for the designated runs of the Farmington River and includes representatives from towns along the river, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection , Metropolitan District Commission , National Park Service , Farmington River Watershed Association and Farmington River Anglers Association. [20]
The Farmington River and its tributaries are known to contain 11 species of freshwater mussels . [21] The Farmington has the highest mussel species diversity of any tributary to the Connecticut, lacking only the Yellow lampmussel , which is found only in the mainstem of the Connecticut from Turners Falls, MA downriver to Windsor, CT. [21]
Drake Hill Road Bridge, built in 1892 to span the Farmington River in Simsbury , Connecticut
Historic mills along the Farmington River in the Collinsville section of Canton , Connecticut.
A stone arch bridge built in 1867 which still spans the Farmington River in Windsor , Connecticut.
The Saville Dam impounds the East Branch Farmington River to form Barkhamsted Reservoir .
Town Bridge, built in 1895 over the Farmington River in Canton, Connecticut. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmington_River | 55 |
where does the farmington river start and end | Farmington River - Wikipedia | For the river of the same name in Liberia, see Farmington River (Liberia) .
|Farmington River|
|Location|
|Country||United States|
|State||Massachusetts & Connecticut|
|Physical characteristics|
|Source||outlet of Hayden Pond (West Branch of the Farmington River)|
|• location||Otis , Berkshire County , Massachusetts|
|2nd source||Barkhamsted Reservoir (East Branch of the Farmington River)|
|• location||Hartland , Hartford County , Connecticut|
|Source confluence||confluence of the East Branch and West Branch|
|• location||New Hartford, Litchfield County, Connecticut|
|Mouth||confluence with Connecticut River|
• location
|Windsor , Hartford County , Connecticut|
• coordinates
|41°50′37.3596″N 72°37′52.6368″W Coordinates : 41°50′37.3596″N 72°37′52.6368″W|
|Length||80.4 mi (129.4 km), from source of West Branch|
|Basin size||602 sq mi (1,560 km 2 )|
|Official name||Farmington River|
|Type||Recreational|
|Designated||August 26, 1994|
The Farmington River is a river, 46.7 miles (75.2 km) [1] in length along its main stem, located in northwest Connecticut with major tributaries extending into southwest Massachusetts . The longest route of the river, from the origin of its West Branch, is 80.4 miles (129.4 km) long, making it the Connecticut River 's longest tributary by 2.3 miles (3.7 km) over the major river directly to its north, the Westfield River . [1] The Farmington River's watershed covers 609 square miles (1,580 km 2 ). Historically, the river played an important role in small-scale manufacturing in towns along its course, but it is now mainly used for recreation and drinking water.
Headwaters for the two branches of the Farmington River, the East Branch and West Branch, are found in southwestern Massachusetts, though only the West Branch officially begins north of the Connecticut border. The West Branch begins at the outlet of Hayden Pond in Otis, Massachusetts . The East Branch begins in Hartland , Connecticut at the confluence of Pond, Hubbard and Valley Brooks. [2] However, this branch has been impounded along the first 11 miles of its course to form the Barkhamsted Reservoir and Lake McDonough; it does not assume a river-like appearance until it exits Lake McDonough in New Hartford , Connecticut. The East Branch and West Branch join in New Hartford , Connecticut, one mile south of the lake. Upper reaches of the river generally flow southward, but the river turns northward in Farmington, Connecticut , and runs mostly north and east until it flows into the Connecticut River in Windsor .
Sites built adjacent to the river by nomadic peoples at the end of the last Ice Age , c. 12,400 years BP of the Younger Dryas indicate the presence of the earliest peoples to populate the region that would become known as southern New England . In the winter of 2019, the remains of the site were excavated in Avon , along with stone tools and artifacts constructed from materials in neighboring regions. [3]
The upper Connecticut and Farmington River valleys were the lands of the Native American indigenous people called the Massaco , a sub-tribe of the Tunxis , who were affiliated with the Wappinger . The name Tunxis, a word in the Quiripi family of Eastern Algonquian languages , derives from the indigenous term Wuttunkshau for "the point where the river bends". Halfway through the course of the river, in a floodplain in the town of Farmington at the base of the Metacomet Ridge , the flow of the Farmington River changes its direction to the northeast, where it eventually joins up with the Connecticut River in Windsor . [4]
When Europeans first arrived, the "Tunxis Sepus" territory consisted of a 165-mile square area bounded by Simsbury to the North, Wallingford to the South, to the northwest by Mohawk country, and on the east by the current towns of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield. In 1645, the Town of Farmington, Connecticut was named by the Connecticut General Assembly, and this was re-affirmed in 1650 by the execution of a deed by the General Assembly and the reservation of land for the "Tunxis Indians" near "Indian Neck" on the east bank of the Farmington River. [5] A group of twenty wigwams existed in Farmington at the beginning of the eighteenth century, but only four or five families resided in the settlement by 1761 [5]
The land of the Massaco was subsequently purchased by the Dutch. This and its settlement during the era of the Connecticut Colony are described in the early history of Simsbury .
The Spoonville Dam, built on the Farmington River in 1899 below the Tariffville Gorge in East Granby , was breached in the Flood of 1955 and remained as a partial dam for several decades before being removed in July 2012. [6] The dam, as well as the bridge crossing the Farmington River downstream at Route 187 , derived its name from the silver plating factory erected in 1840 on the north bank of the river. It was the first factory of its kind in the United States. [7]
Several bridges constructed in the 19th century and early 20th century still span the Farmington River to this day. Among these are:
- Farmington River Railroad Bridge, a stone arch bridge in Windsor, Connecticut built in 1867 [8]
- Drake Hill Road Bridge , a Parker through-truss bridge in Simsbury, Connecticut constructed in 1892 [9]
- Town Bridge, a Parker through-truss bridge in Canton, Connecticut constructed by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company in 1895 [10]
- Richards Corner Bridge, a Pratt through-truss bridge in New Hartford, Connecticut built in 1930 which spans the East Branch Farmington River [11]
- Pleasant Valley Bridge, a Parker through-truss bridge in Barkhamsted, Connecticut built in 1939 [12]
- Unionville Bridge, a Warren through-truss bridge in Unionville, Connecticut built in 1939 [13]
The river has several whitewater sections that are popular for tubing and kayaking. [14] [15] One of these, the colloquial "Upper Farmington" section of the West Branch in New Boston, Massachusetts , is about 7 miles (11 km) long. It is Class 2 through farm and woods scenery to an iron bridge, where kayak and canoe slalom races are held. Below the bridge the river becomes Class 3-4, [ citation needed ] with a short gorge with several abrupt drops.
The biggest of these is about four feet at Decoration Rock. Below, the river continues fast and technical with many rocks and constant maneuvering required. The river is continuously rapid, leading through larger drops at Battering Ram rapid and Corkscrew. Eventually the river flattens to Class 2 until a final, ledge rapid at Bear's Den, just above the reservoir. The Upper Farmington is barely runnable (very scratchy with many exposed rocks and pinning possibilities) during fall dam releases, and is a much better run at levels of about 600 cubic feet per second (16,990 L/s), or about 5 feet (1.5 m) on the internet gauge for that section. A second whitewater section is found in Tariffville, Connecticut , one mile (1.6 km) of technical Class 3 water which is runnable all year round. The river is normally paddled at levels between 1.5 and 2.75 feet (45–75 cm) on the internet gauge; [16] above 2.5 feet (75 cm) it becomes significantly heavier and more dangerous. This section includes the famous T-ville Hole, where kayakers can practice hole surfing and freestyle moves above a flat pool. Below the Hole is a broken dam, where the river funnels through an abrupt four foot drop into a large wave. This area is popular with swimmers in summer, and it is risky due to heavy currents and undercut rocks.
There have been at least three fatal drownings in the Tariffville Gorge section, primarily people who were not properly prepared or trained for the heavy rapids and pinning obstacles in the gorge. Paddlers without helmets, lifejackets and Class 3 whitewater skills should end downriver trips at Tariffville Park, just above the start of the gorge.
Other whitewater areas include Satan's Kingdom in New Hartford, Connecticut, which is popular with tubers, and the Crystal Rapids section in Collinsville and Unionville, Connecticut, which is about four miles (6 km) of Class 1-3 training waters with a bicycle and pedestrian path on the right side of the river. Entrance to the park is free. A service will also pick tubers up and drop them off at certain points.
The west branch of the river includes two hydroelectric dams in West Hartland and Colebrook, run by the Metropolitan District Commission of Connecticut .
The largest dam on the east branch is the Saville Dam , which impounds the Barkhamsted Reservoir .
The Rainbow Dam, a 68-foot (21 m) dam with a hydroelectric generator and a fish ladder , dams the river at Windsor, a few miles before the river flows into the Connecticut River.
A number of other dams have been built on the river since European settlement, usually to power mills and other industry. A few, such as in Collinsville, are still mostly intact. The Collinsville Renewable Energy Promotion Act (H.R. 316;113th Congress) would instruct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue licenses to the town of Canton, Connecticut , to restart two small power dams along the river. [17] The bill passed the United States House of Representatives on February 12, 2013, but has not yet become law.
Water released from or flowing over the Otis Reservoir dam enters the Farmington River just north of Reservoir Road in Otis, Massachusetts. Significant quantities of water are released during the fall in order to drop the reservoir water level for the winter.
Much of the Farmington River has been designated as part of the United States National Wild & Scenic Rivers System . The first such designation on the river was bestowed in 1994 and included 14 miles of water, mostly along the Farmington River West Branch but also a section of the river's main stem, from Hartland to the New Hartford - Canton town line. In 2019, this designation was extended 1.1 miles further downstream to the confluence with the Nepaug River . [18] Most of the Farmington River main stem and the Salmon Brook tributary system, totalling 61.7 miles of additional water, were also designated Wild & Scenic in 2019. [19] The Farmington River Coordinating Committee oversees the implementation of management plans for the designated runs of the Farmington River and includes representatives from towns along the river, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection , Metropolitan District Commission , National Park Service , Farmington River Watershed Association and Farmington River Anglers Association. [20]
The Farmington River and its tributaries are known to contain 11 species of freshwater mussels . [21] The Farmington has the highest mussel species diversity of any tributary to the Connecticut, lacking only the Yellow lampmussel , which is found only in the mainstem of the Connecticut from Turners Falls, MA downriver to Windsor, CT. [21]
Drake Hill Road Bridge, built in 1892 to span the Farmington River in Simsbury , Connecticut
Historic mills along the Farmington River in the Collinsville section of Canton , Connecticut.
A stone arch bridge built in 1867 which still spans the Farmington River in Windsor , Connecticut.
The Saville Dam impounds the East Branch Farmington River to form Barkhamsted Reservoir .
Town Bridge, built in 1895 over the Farmington River in Canton, Connecticut. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmington_River#:~:text=The%20Farmington%20River%20is%20a%20river%2C%2046.7%20miles,Connecticut%20with%20major%20tributaries%20extending%20into%20southwest%20Massachusetts. | 55 |
where does the farmington river start and end | Farmington River - Wikipedia | For the river of the same name in Liberia, see Farmington River (Liberia) .
|Farmington River|
|Location|
|Country||United States|
|State||Massachusetts & Connecticut|
|Physical characteristics|
|Source||outlet of Hayden Pond (West Branch of the Farmington River)|
|• location||Otis , Berkshire County , Massachusetts|
|2nd source||Barkhamsted Reservoir (East Branch of the Farmington River)|
|• location||Hartland , Hartford County , Connecticut|
|Source confluence||confluence of the East Branch and West Branch|
|• location||New Hartford, Litchfield County, Connecticut|
|Mouth||confluence with Connecticut River|
• location
|Windsor , Hartford County , Connecticut|
• coordinates
|41°50′37.3596″N 72°37′52.6368″W Coordinates : 41°50′37.3596″N 72°37′52.6368″W|
|Length||80.4 mi (129.4 km), from source of West Branch|
|Basin size||602 sq mi (1,560 km 2 )|
|Official name||Farmington River|
|Type||Recreational|
|Designated||August 26, 1994|
The Farmington River is a river, 46.7 miles (75.2 km) [1] in length along its main stem, located in northwest Connecticut with major tributaries extending into southwest Massachusetts . The longest route of the river, from the origin of its West Branch, is 80.4 miles (129.4 km) long, making it the Connecticut River 's longest tributary by 2.3 miles (3.7 km) over the major river directly to its north, the Westfield River . [1] The Farmington River's watershed covers 609 square miles (1,580 km 2 ). Historically, the river played an important role in small-scale manufacturing in towns along its course, but it is now mainly used for recreation and drinking water.
Headwaters for the two branches of the Farmington River, the East Branch and West Branch, are found in southwestern Massachusetts, though only the West Branch officially begins north of the Connecticut border. The West Branch begins at the outlet of Hayden Pond in Otis, Massachusetts . The East Branch begins in Hartland , Connecticut at the confluence of Pond, Hubbard and Valley Brooks. [2] However, this branch has been impounded along the first 11 miles of its course to form the Barkhamsted Reservoir and Lake McDonough; it does not assume a river-like appearance until it exits Lake McDonough in New Hartford , Connecticut. The East Branch and West Branch join in New Hartford , Connecticut, one mile south of the lake. Upper reaches of the river generally flow southward, but the river turns northward in Farmington, Connecticut , and runs mostly north and east until it flows into the Connecticut River in Windsor .
Sites built adjacent to the river by nomadic peoples at the end of the last Ice Age , c. 12,400 years BP of the Younger Dryas indicate the presence of the earliest peoples to populate the region that would become known as southern New England . In the winter of 2019, the remains of the site were excavated in Avon , along with stone tools and artifacts constructed from materials in neighboring regions. [3]
The upper Connecticut and Farmington River valleys were the lands of the Native American indigenous people called the Massaco , a sub-tribe of the Tunxis , who were affiliated with the Wappinger . The name Tunxis, a word in the Quiripi family of Eastern Algonquian languages , derives from the indigenous term Wuttunkshau for "the point where the river bends". Halfway through the course of the river, in a floodplain in the town of Farmington at the base of the Metacomet Ridge , the flow of the Farmington River changes its direction to the northeast, where it eventually joins up with the Connecticut River in Windsor . [4]
When Europeans first arrived, the "Tunxis Sepus" territory consisted of a 165-mile square area bounded by Simsbury to the North, Wallingford to the South, to the northwest by Mohawk country, and on the east by the current towns of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield. In 1645, the Town of Farmington, Connecticut was named by the Connecticut General Assembly, and this was re-affirmed in 1650 by the execution of a deed by the General Assembly and the reservation of land for the "Tunxis Indians" near "Indian Neck" on the east bank of the Farmington River. [5] A group of twenty wigwams existed in Farmington at the beginning of the eighteenth century, but only four or five families resided in the settlement by 1761 [5]
The land of the Massaco was subsequently purchased by the Dutch. This and its settlement during the era of the Connecticut Colony are described in the early history of Simsbury .
The Spoonville Dam, built on the Farmington River in 1899 below the Tariffville Gorge in East Granby , was breached in the Flood of 1955 and remained as a partial dam for several decades before being removed in July 2012. [6] The dam, as well as the bridge crossing the Farmington River downstream at Route 187 , derived its name from the silver plating factory erected in 1840 on the north bank of the river. It was the first factory of its kind in the United States. [7]
Several bridges constructed in the 19th century and early 20th century still span the Farmington River to this day. Among these are:
- Farmington River Railroad Bridge, a stone arch bridge in Windsor, Connecticut built in 1867 [8]
- Drake Hill Road Bridge , a Parker through-truss bridge in Simsbury, Connecticut constructed in 1892 [9]
- Town Bridge, a Parker through-truss bridge in Canton, Connecticut constructed by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company in 1895 [10]
- Richards Corner Bridge, a Pratt through-truss bridge in New Hartford, Connecticut built in 1930 which spans the East Branch Farmington River [11]
- Pleasant Valley Bridge, a Parker through-truss bridge in Barkhamsted, Connecticut built in 1939 [12]
- Unionville Bridge, a Warren through-truss bridge in Unionville, Connecticut built in 1939 [13]
The river has several whitewater sections that are popular for tubing and kayaking. [14] [15] One of these, the colloquial "Upper Farmington" section of the West Branch in New Boston, Massachusetts , is about 7 miles (11 km) long. It is Class 2 through farm and woods scenery to an iron bridge, where kayak and canoe slalom races are held. Below the bridge the river becomes Class 3-4, [ citation needed ] with a short gorge with several abrupt drops.
The biggest of these is about four feet at Decoration Rock. Below, the river continues fast and technical with many rocks and constant maneuvering required. The river is continuously rapid, leading through larger drops at Battering Ram rapid and Corkscrew. Eventually the river flattens to Class 2 until a final, ledge rapid at Bear's Den, just above the reservoir. The Upper Farmington is barely runnable (very scratchy with many exposed rocks and pinning possibilities) during fall dam releases, and is a much better run at levels of about 600 cubic feet per second (16,990 L/s), or about 5 feet (1.5 m) on the internet gauge for that section. A second whitewater section is found in Tariffville, Connecticut , one mile (1.6 km) of technical Class 3 water which is runnable all year round. The river is normally paddled at levels between 1.5 and 2.75 feet (45–75 cm) on the internet gauge; [16] above 2.5 feet (75 cm) it becomes significantly heavier and more dangerous. This section includes the famous T-ville Hole, where kayakers can practice hole surfing and freestyle moves above a flat pool. Below the Hole is a broken dam, where the river funnels through an abrupt four foot drop into a large wave. This area is popular with swimmers in summer, and it is risky due to heavy currents and undercut rocks.
There have been at least three fatal drownings in the Tariffville Gorge section, primarily people who were not properly prepared or trained for the heavy rapids and pinning obstacles in the gorge. Paddlers without helmets, lifejackets and Class 3 whitewater skills should end downriver trips at Tariffville Park, just above the start of the gorge.
Other whitewater areas include Satan's Kingdom in New Hartford, Connecticut, which is popular with tubers, and the Crystal Rapids section in Collinsville and Unionville, Connecticut, which is about four miles (6 km) of Class 1-3 training waters with a bicycle and pedestrian path on the right side of the river. Entrance to the park is free. A service will also pick tubers up and drop them off at certain points.
The west branch of the river includes two hydroelectric dams in West Hartland and Colebrook, run by the Metropolitan District Commission of Connecticut .
The largest dam on the east branch is the Saville Dam , which impounds the Barkhamsted Reservoir .
The Rainbow Dam, a 68-foot (21 m) dam with a hydroelectric generator and a fish ladder , dams the river at Windsor, a few miles before the river flows into the Connecticut River.
A number of other dams have been built on the river since European settlement, usually to power mills and other industry. A few, such as in Collinsville, are still mostly intact. The Collinsville Renewable Energy Promotion Act (H.R. 316;113th Congress) would instruct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue licenses to the town of Canton, Connecticut , to restart two small power dams along the river. [17] The bill passed the United States House of Representatives on February 12, 2013, but has not yet become law.
Water released from or flowing over the Otis Reservoir dam enters the Farmington River just north of Reservoir Road in Otis, Massachusetts. Significant quantities of water are released during the fall in order to drop the reservoir water level for the winter.
Much of the Farmington River has been designated as part of the United States National Wild & Scenic Rivers System . The first such designation on the river was bestowed in 1994 and included 14 miles of water, mostly along the Farmington River West Branch but also a section of the river's main stem, from Hartland to the New Hartford - Canton town line. In 2019, this designation was extended 1.1 miles further downstream to the confluence with the Nepaug River . [18] Most of the Farmington River main stem and the Salmon Brook tributary system, totalling 61.7 miles of additional water, were also designated Wild & Scenic in 2019. [19] The Farmington River Coordinating Committee oversees the implementation of management plans for the designated runs of the Farmington River and includes representatives from towns along the river, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection , Metropolitan District Commission , National Park Service , Farmington River Watershed Association and Farmington River Anglers Association. [20]
The Farmington River and its tributaries are known to contain 11 species of freshwater mussels . [21] The Farmington has the highest mussel species diversity of any tributary to the Connecticut, lacking only the Yellow lampmussel , which is found only in the mainstem of the Connecticut from Turners Falls, MA downriver to Windsor, CT. [21]
Drake Hill Road Bridge, built in 1892 to span the Farmington River in Simsbury , Connecticut
Historic mills along the Farmington River in the Collinsville section of Canton , Connecticut.
A stone arch bridge built in 1867 which still spans the Farmington River in Windsor , Connecticut.
The Saville Dam impounds the East Branch Farmington River to form Barkhamsted Reservoir .
Town Bridge, built in 1895 over the Farmington River in Canton, Connecticut. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmington_River#:~:text=The%20Farmington%20River%20is%20a%20river%2C%2046.7%20miles,Connecticut%20with%20major%20tributaries%20extending%20into%20southwest%20Massachusetts. | 55 |
where does the farmington river start and end | Farmington River, Connecticut | The Farmington is the largest tributary to the Connecticut River, and Salmon Brook is the largest tributary to the Farmington. Due to its high-quality resources, Salmon Brook is arguably the most important tributary. Salmon Brook joins the Farmington River in the town of East Granby. The confluence of the Farmington and Connecticut Rivers is in the town of Windsor, which is 55 miles north of the Long Island Sound, 2.8 miles north of the city of Hartford, and 13.1 miles south of the Massachusetts state line. The Farmington River Valley is situated about halfway between New York and Boston. The towns of the wild and scenic study area include Avon, Bloomfield, Burlington, Canton, East Granby, Farmington, Granby, Hartland, Simsbury and Windsor.
Overall, the Lower Farmington River and Salmon Brook corridors are a remarkable combination of varied geology; healthy forested watershed; excellent fishing and paddling; well-kept walking and biking trails; diverse communities of plants, wildlife, fish and aquatic invertebrates; rich agricultural soils; archaeological sites; historic towns and landmarks; and striking scenic views. The watercourses are exceptional natural and cultural resources.
The Wild and Scenic River Study of the Lower Farmington River and Salmon Brook concludes that the lower Farmington River and Salmon Brook are eligible for designation into the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System based on their free-flowing condition and the presence of one or more "Outstandingly Remarkable Values (ORVs)," as defined by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The ORVs are geology, water quality, biological diversity, cultural landscape and recreation.
The river segment that includes the Rainbow Dam and reservoir is found ineligible for designation.
Still, white winters, subtle shades of spring green, lazy summer days, autumns lit with color, rivers in the Northeast showcase the seasons. | https://www.rivers.gov/rivers/study-lower-farmington.php | 55 |
where does the farmington river start and end | The Lower Farmington River | The Lower Farmington River presents a sharp contrast to its upper reaches in Massachusetts and northern Connecticut. The upper river is generally narrow, swift, and steep-sided, but as it reaches the beginning of the Lower Farmington River’s Wild & Scenic segments, where the river fronts on Avon to the east and Burlington to the west, the river broadens and slows. It flows southeast toward the lowlands of Farmington. In mid-Farmington, the river’s route is blocked by glacial deposits, forcing its turn sharply north, traversing Avon and Simsbury along an ancient lakebed. This reach of the river is called the “bathtub” because of its relatively placid flow and broad valley, bounded on the east by a traprock ridge. At Tariffville in Simsbury, the river dramatically exits the “bathtub,” punching southeast through a notch in the ridge in a short whitewater stretch, the site of various whitewater paddling competitions. The river then meanders through Bloomfield, East Granby and Windsor before finally entering the Connecticut River (see Figure 6: Elevation and Topography ).
A journey downstream along the Lower Farmington River corridor reveals a remarkable array of natural, recreational, and cultural features. Downstream from Canton, the Farmington forms the boundary between Burlington and Avon. It then angles into the town of Farmington. Along this stretch the river provides excellent recreation. A CT DEEP Trout Management Area extends from below the Lower Collinsville Dam in Canton to the Route 4 Bridge in Farmington and attracts many anglers. The Farmington River Trail, a very popular multi-use rail trail, runs along this same reach.
In Farmington, as the river turns from southeasterly to northerly flow, it is joined by a major tributary, the Pequabuck River. Here the corridor passes through broad, rich lowland that borders extensive wetlands, and features a number of archaeological sites, recreational trails, agricultural fields, and community gardens. The names of several tracts of open space along the river in Farmington and north into Avon, e.g. Tunxis Mead, Meadow Land, Tunxis Plantation, and Fisher Meadow, indicate the river’s extensive floodplain, still relatively undeveloped despite the area’s long history of settlement.
Continuing northward through Simsbury along an old glacial lakebed, the river corridor skirts the base of the traprock ridge that includes Talcott Mountain (see Figure 8: Traprock Ridges ). On either side of the main channel, old oxbows and meander scars are scattered through farmlands and wetlands. Placid flow, easy access points, abundant open space, and many wildlife viewing opportunities make this a favorite stretch of the river for canoeing, kayaking, and rowing as well as fishing. The Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, commemorating one of the most remarkable engineering projects of the nineteenth century accompanies this stretch of the river.
At the far northern end of the “bathtub” in East Granby, the Farmington is joined by Salmon Brook, arguably the most important tributary of the lower Farmington for its high-quality resources. The corridors of Salmon Brook’s East and West Branches and its mainstem have a higher percentage of forest cover than that of the lower Farmington. The forested land provides water filtration, shade, and tree debris to the Brook, resulting in clean, cold water, good fish habitat, and excellent angling. (see Figure 4: Land Cover )
After the confluence with Salmon Brook, the Farmington River turns southeast again, along the East Granby/Bloomfield town line, and its character changes abruptly to world-class whitewater as it charges through the traprock ravine known as Tariffville Gorge. Once a site of hydropower generation for Hartford, the Gorge is now a destination for top-level whitewater kayakers from all over North America.
Below the Gorge the river enters the impoundment behind Rainbow Dam, a present-day hydropower facility owned by Stanley Black & Decker and operated by the Farmington River Power Company. Below Rainbow Dam and its fish ladder, the river winds between natural levees and belts of riparian forest along the historic tobacco fields of Windsor before finally joining the Connecticut River.
Lower Farmington River and
Salmon Brook Wild & Scenic
749 Hopmeadow Street
Simsbury, CT 06070
P: 860-658-4442 ext. 203
F: 860-651-7519
EMAIL | https://lowerfarmingtonriver.org/our-watercourses/the-lower-farmington-river/ | 55 |
where does the farmington river start and end | Farmington River Releases | The MDC | THE WEST BRANCH OF THE FARMINGTON RIVER
The MDC is just one of many stakeholders in the Farmington River. Although MDC’s role on the Farmington is significant, and covers more than a century of the river’s history, MDC’s role is often misunderstood.
Only a small fraction (14%) of the Farmington River’s drainage area of 609 square miles is controlled by the MDC for drinking water purposes. The MDC also plays a role in the management of approximately 120 square miles of the West Branch of the Farmington River. The regulation of river flow release primarily takes place at the MDC’s Goodwin Dam and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Colebrook River Dam.
Colebrook River Dam, which impounds Colebrook River Lake, is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is a multipurpose water resource impoundment built for flood control, water supply, riverflow augmentation and fisheries enhancement. This dam is operated through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, CT Department of Energy & Environmental Protection and the MDC.
The MDC owns and operates Goodwin Dam and makes releases to the West Branch of the Farmington River in accordance with the Connecticut General Statutes, a riparian agreement, and an agreement with the Allied Connecticut Towns.
Pursuant to these obligations, required releases from Goodwin Dam occur as follows:
• Minimum release of 50 cubic feet per second (cfs) (or 32 mgd) at all times;
• Additional release of all natural flows up to 150 cfs;
• Additional release of any flows released from Otis Reservoir;
• Additional riparian releases upon request by the Farmington River Power Company, up to 21.7 billion gallons per year; and
• Pass through of fisheries releases from Connecticut DEEP controlled pools in Colebrook River Lake.
Without this water release protocol, the flows within the river would frequently be below 25 cfs during the summer months. Today MDC releases a minimum of 50 cfs daily under this protocol.
CONNECTICUT DEEP’S ROLE IN MANAGING WEST BRANCH FLOWS
Connecticut DEEP controls 3.3 billion gallons of water stored in Colebrook River Lake for the purpose of maintaining sufficient flows in the river for fisheries. A total of 1.63 billion gallons of storage is set aside within Colebrook River Lake for Connecticut DEEP to enhance anadromous brown trout runs and 1.63 billion gallons is set aside for Connecticut DEEP to enhance American shad runs. Connecticut DEEP is responsible for the control of these fishery management pools and the releases are coordinated through the MDC.
U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS
USACOE manages storage capacity in Colebrook River Lake to provide flood protection to downstream communities during periods of heavy inflow. The Corps oversees all flood control on the Farmington River.
UPPER FARMINGTON RIVER MANAGEMENT PLAN
The Upper Farmington River Management Plan was prepared under the Farmington Wild and Scenic River Study authorized by Congress in 1986. The plan outlines management of a 14 mile section of the West Branch and the Farmington River mainstem in Connecticut extending from immediately below the Goodwin Dam to the downstream end at the New Hartford/Canton town line.
The Study was led by the Farmington River Study Committee which included representatives from the State of Connecticut, the MDC, the Farmington River Watershed Association, the U.S. Department of the Interior and local towns along the Farmington River. The National Park Service serves as the key federal representative in the implementation of the management plan.
One of the key Goals of the Management Plan is to “Balance the legitimate demands on the river for water supply, waste assimilation, energy production, and commercial and industrial uses, while maintaining stream flow and water quality necessary to sustain fisheries, recreation and scenic qualities at levels sufficient for wild and scenic river designation.”
The plan established the Farmington River Coordinating Committee (FRCC) to promote the long-term protection of the upper Farmington River by bringing the key stakeholders together on a regular and ongoing basis. The Metropolitan District is an active participant on the FRCC. | https://themdc.org/farmington-river-releases/ | 55 |
what is a good score on the miller analogies test | Miller Analogies Test (MAT): What Does It Measure and Who Should Take It? - Student Progress | The MAT, also known as the Miller Analogies Test, is a standardized examination administered by Pearson Assessments. It assesses an examinee’s analytical thinking ability by solving analogies. It also measures one’s ability to understand relationships among ideas, English fluency, and general knowledge of social sciences, humanities, mathematics, and natural sciences are also examined. This test is primarily used for postgraduate school admissions along with the GRE.
The analytical thinking ability of prospective graduate school students is measured by the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). This ability is important for achieving success in both graduate school and professional life.
The MAT is used by graduate schools to pick out applicants who possess knowledge and abilities that exceed only memorizing and repeating information.
Word analogies are mostly the contents of MAT. It can also include analogies that are numbers, symbols, or word parts. These items were deduced from everyday topics like transportation, education, food, clothing, common expressions, and tools. Knowledge of different academic subjects which are taught to American undergraduate students is also included.
It may be helpful to be familiar with the following subject areas that are represented on the MAT, even though there are no specific pointers that can be studied to raise the MAT score. The subject areas in the MAT are the following [2] :
- Language and vocabulary
- Humanities
- Social Sciences,
- Natural Sciences
- Mathematics
Computer-based and pencil-and-paper are the test administration formats of the MAT. Questions in both formats are similar and the sole difference is the kind of test administration chosen. Note that not all testing centers offer both formats. Each testing center decides whether to deliver a paper-based or computer-based MAT.
No, the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) must only be taken at accredited testing centers.
60 minutes is given to answer the Miller Analogies Test (MAT).
120 partial analogies must be completed in the Miller Analogies Test (MAT).
To register for the Miller Analogies Test, follow these steps:
- Call the chosen testing center and ask which among the following options they would prefer you to do.
- Phone Registration
- through their official website, www.ets.org.
- Registration via Email
- You will be asked to provide some of your identifying information before a slot can be reserved for you.
- Pay a fee that ranges from $70 to $100 depending on the testing center.
- Some testing centers may give you a form to confirm your registration. It is a good idea to bring this along with your ID on the test day.
Listed above are the steps to register for the MAT. To choose which option to do, it is best to call the testing center near you and inquire.
To register for the MAT online, follow these steps:
- Go to www.milleanalogies.com and look for the “Find a MAT Testing Center.” This lists all the testing centers by location.
- Look for the testing center near you from the list.
- Contact the testing center with the information listed. It may be via email or an external website.
- The testing center will then send you more of the details and steps on how to apply.
Listed above are the steps to register online for the MAT. It is best to contact the testing site near you and ask what their registration process is.
At controlled testing centers all over the United States, Canada, and some countries outside of North America can the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) be taken. These testing centers are usually at colleges and universities. You may view the complete list of Pearson testing centers at www.milleranalogies.com.
Available test dates for MAT vary. You may schedule the date when to take your Miller Analogies Test (MAT). To set a date, you should contact the testing center near you and inquire of the available dates.
$70 to $100 is the test fee range of the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). The fee varies depending on the testing center.
The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) may be taken up to 8 times per 12-month period.
A score between 410 and 425 is a good MAT score. This score range falls on the high side of average. However, remember that the score you should aim for is the score your prospective school requires. Score requirements differ depending on the university and program to be taken.
There is no definite passing score set for the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). To decide whether to admit a student or not, universities rely on scaled scores and percentiles.
The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) is scored electronically. You will be provided with a scaled score and percentile ranks which were derived from your raw score. Scaled scores range from 200 to 600 with an average of roughly 400 whereas the percentile ranks can range from 1 to 99. These scores are then presented on the Official Score Report from Pearson Assessments.
Raw score is the number of questions answered correctly.
Scaled scores are raw scores that are converted to a common scale.
Percentile ranks show the percent of test takers in the norm group that got a score lower than you.
Scores will be mailed for about 10 to 15 business days after your test date. Your scores on the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) will be presented as The Official Score Report and Official Transcripts.
10 to 15 business days after the testing date, your Miller Analogies Test (MAT) results will be mailed.
To prepare for the Miller Analogies Test (MAT), follow these tips:
- Be familiar with the exam. It is important to know what the test format, test structure, contents, subject areas, and type of analogies will be on the exam.
- Take a diagnostic exam. Taking a diagnostic exam will help you understand which areas you need to improve on. This way, you can focus more on specific subject areas.
- Look for a study guide. Using a study guide will help you have a clear picture of what materials you need to have for your test preparation. This will also contribute to your knowledge of test-taking strategies.
- Answer practice questions. Take full-length practice tests but make sure to cover all the subject areas.
- Study using different resources. There are numerous downloadable books, tests, and study materials available online. Use these to expand your knowledge and be open to different approaches in analyzing analogies.
- Be consistent. Each day, take practice tests and study why some items were marked wrong. Consistency is the key to raising the MAT score.
Listed above are ways to prepare for the MAT. These steps are helpful for test preparation and in improving the MAT score.
www.pearsonassessments.com/mat is the best website to study for the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). This is the website of Pearson Assessments, the maker of MAT. They provide MAT preparation materials that are available on the website. Each item is in multiple-choice format, has an explanation, and similar to the actual MAT. They also provide a free MAT Study Guide on the website.
Yes, there are MAT practice tests and practice questions. These are available online and offline. There are also prep course companies that offer study materials at a cost.
You can get free MAT practice questions and tests online. Multiple websites are offering practice tests at zero cost. Even the maker of MAT, Pearson Assessments, provides free practice tests.
Yes, there are free MAT study guides. One of the famous study guides you may download is from the maker of MAT, Pearson Assessments. You may access it at www.pearsonassessments.com/mat.
Below are the questions asked by MAT test takers:
Colleges and universities that accept Miller Analogies Test (MAT) scores are listed below:
New York
- Buffalo State College
- College of New Rochelle
- Hofstra University
- State University of New York
- Utica College
California
Michigan
- Central Michigan University
- Lake Superior State University
- Michigan State University
- Oakland University
- Wayne State University
Listed above are the schools that accept MAT scores. To confirm if your chosen university accepts MAT scores, it is best to go to its official website and check. Some programs require the test, others do not.
The 5-year validity period applies to the Miller Analogies Test (MAT).
Bias on test takers’ age is the main criticism of the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). The test appears to under-predict the Grade Point Average (GPA) of people aged 35 to 44 and over-predict those aged 25 to 34.
Yes, the Miller Analogies Test is still accurate and useful. For over 50 years, it has demonstrated to be a valid and reliable test in evaluating applicants for postgraduate admissions.
The Miller Analogies Test is viewed by examinees to be easier than the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) because it’s shorter in length.
No, the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) does not measure intelligence. MAT measures an examinee’s literacy and reasoning ability. This looks into one’s knowledge of specific subject areas including mathematics, art, science, and history. | https://www.studentprogress.org/gre/miller-analogies-test-mat/ | 56 |
what is a good score on the miller analogies test | Miller Analogies Test (MAT): What Does It Measure and Who Should Take It? - Student Progress | The MAT, also known as the Miller Analogies Test, is a standardized examination administered by Pearson Assessments. It assesses an examinee’s analytical thinking ability by solving analogies. It also measures one’s ability to understand relationships among ideas, English fluency, and general knowledge of social sciences, humanities, mathematics, and natural sciences are also examined. This test is primarily used for postgraduate school admissions along with the GRE.
The analytical thinking ability of prospective graduate school students is measured by the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). This ability is important for achieving success in both graduate school and professional life.
The MAT is used by graduate schools to pick out applicants who possess knowledge and abilities that exceed only memorizing and repeating information.
Word analogies are mostly the contents of MAT. It can also include analogies that are numbers, symbols, or word parts. These items were deduced from everyday topics like transportation, education, food, clothing, common expressions, and tools. Knowledge of different academic subjects which are taught to American undergraduate students is also included.
It may be helpful to be familiar with the following subject areas that are represented on the MAT, even though there are no specific pointers that can be studied to raise the MAT score. The subject areas in the MAT are the following [2] :
- Language and vocabulary
- Humanities
- Social Sciences,
- Natural Sciences
- Mathematics
Computer-based and pencil-and-paper are the test administration formats of the MAT. Questions in both formats are similar and the sole difference is the kind of test administration chosen. Note that not all testing centers offer both formats. Each testing center decides whether to deliver a paper-based or computer-based MAT.
No, the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) must only be taken at accredited testing centers.
60 minutes is given to answer the Miller Analogies Test (MAT).
120 partial analogies must be completed in the Miller Analogies Test (MAT).
To register for the Miller Analogies Test, follow these steps:
- Call the chosen testing center and ask which among the following options they would prefer you to do.
- Phone Registration
- through their official website, www.ets.org.
- Registration via Email
- You will be asked to provide some of your identifying information before a slot can be reserved for you.
- Pay a fee that ranges from $70 to $100 depending on the testing center.
- Some testing centers may give you a form to confirm your registration. It is a good idea to bring this along with your ID on the test day.
Listed above are the steps to register for the MAT. To choose which option to do, it is best to call the testing center near you and inquire.
To register for the MAT online, follow these steps:
- Go to www.milleanalogies.com and look for the “Find a MAT Testing Center.” This lists all the testing centers by location.
- Look for the testing center near you from the list.
- Contact the testing center with the information listed. It may be via email or an external website.
- The testing center will then send you more of the details and steps on how to apply.
Listed above are the steps to register online for the MAT. It is best to contact the testing site near you and ask what their registration process is.
At controlled testing centers all over the United States, Canada, and some countries outside of North America can the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) be taken. These testing centers are usually at colleges and universities. You may view the complete list of Pearson testing centers at www.milleranalogies.com.
Available test dates for MAT vary. You may schedule the date when to take your Miller Analogies Test (MAT). To set a date, you should contact the testing center near you and inquire of the available dates.
$70 to $100 is the test fee range of the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). The fee varies depending on the testing center.
The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) may be taken up to 8 times per 12-month period.
A score between 410 and 425 is a good MAT score. This score range falls on the high side of average. However, remember that the score you should aim for is the score your prospective school requires. Score requirements differ depending on the university and program to be taken.
There is no definite passing score set for the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). To decide whether to admit a student or not, universities rely on scaled scores and percentiles.
The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) is scored electronically. You will be provided with a scaled score and percentile ranks which were derived from your raw score. Scaled scores range from 200 to 600 with an average of roughly 400 whereas the percentile ranks can range from 1 to 99. These scores are then presented on the Official Score Report from Pearson Assessments.
Raw score is the number of questions answered correctly.
Scaled scores are raw scores that are converted to a common scale.
Percentile ranks show the percent of test takers in the norm group that got a score lower than you.
Scores will be mailed for about 10 to 15 business days after your test date. Your scores on the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) will be presented as The Official Score Report and Official Transcripts.
10 to 15 business days after the testing date, your Miller Analogies Test (MAT) results will be mailed.
To prepare for the Miller Analogies Test (MAT), follow these tips:
- Be familiar with the exam. It is important to know what the test format, test structure, contents, subject areas, and type of analogies will be on the exam.
- Take a diagnostic exam. Taking a diagnostic exam will help you understand which areas you need to improve on. This way, you can focus more on specific subject areas.
- Look for a study guide. Using a study guide will help you have a clear picture of what materials you need to have for your test preparation. This will also contribute to your knowledge of test-taking strategies.
- Answer practice questions. Take full-length practice tests but make sure to cover all the subject areas.
- Study using different resources. There are numerous downloadable books, tests, and study materials available online. Use these to expand your knowledge and be open to different approaches in analyzing analogies.
- Be consistent. Each day, take practice tests and study why some items were marked wrong. Consistency is the key to raising the MAT score.
Listed above are ways to prepare for the MAT. These steps are helpful for test preparation and in improving the MAT score.
www.pearsonassessments.com/mat is the best website to study for the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). This is the website of Pearson Assessments, the maker of MAT. They provide MAT preparation materials that are available on the website. Each item is in multiple-choice format, has an explanation, and similar to the actual MAT. They also provide a free MAT Study Guide on the website.
Yes, there are MAT practice tests and practice questions. These are available online and offline. There are also prep course companies that offer study materials at a cost.
You can get free MAT practice questions and tests online. Multiple websites are offering practice tests at zero cost. Even the maker of MAT, Pearson Assessments, provides free practice tests.
Yes, there are free MAT study guides. One of the famous study guides you may download is from the maker of MAT, Pearson Assessments. You may access it at www.pearsonassessments.com/mat.
Below are the questions asked by MAT test takers:
Colleges and universities that accept Miller Analogies Test (MAT) scores are listed below:
New York
- Buffalo State College
- College of New Rochelle
- Hofstra University
- State University of New York
- Utica College
California
Texas
- Abilene Christian University
- Baylor University
- Lamar University
- Our Lady of The Lake University
- Sam Houston State University
- Southern Methodist University
- St. Mary’s University
- Stephen F. Austin State University
- Tarleton State University
- Texas A & M University
- Texas Tech University
- University of Houston
- University of Texas
- Rutgers University
- Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
- Rowan University
- Seton Hall University
- William Paterson University
- Appalachian State University
- East Carolina University
- Elizabeth City State University
- Fayetteville State University
- Gardner-Webb University
- North Carolina State University
- Pfeiffer University
- The University of North Carolina
- Troy University
- Western Carolina University
- Wingate University
- Albany State University
- Armstrong Atlantic State University
- Berry College
- Atlanta Metropolitan State College
- Columbus State University
- Georgia College & State University
- Georgia Regents
- Georgia Southern University
- Georgia Southwestern State University
- Georgia State University
- Kennesaw State University
- Mercer University
- North Georgia College & State University
- Piedmont College
- Troy University
- University of Georgia
- University of West Georgia
- Valdosta State University
- Bradley University
- Northern Illinois University
- Quincy University
- Southern Illinois University
- Trinity International University
- University of Illinois at Chicago
- Western Illinois University
Michigan
- Central Michigan University
- Lake Superior State University
- Michigan State University
- Oakland University
- Wayne State University
Listed above are the schools that accept MAT scores. To confirm if your chosen university accepts MAT scores, it is best to go to its official website and check. Some programs require the test, others do not.
The 5-year validity period applies to the Miller Analogies Test (MAT).
Bias on test takers’ age is the main criticism of the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). The test appears to under-predict the Grade Point Average (GPA) of people aged 35 to 44 and over-predict those aged 25 to 34.
Yes, the Miller Analogies Test is still accurate and useful. For over 50 years, it has demonstrated to be a valid and reliable test in evaluating applicants for postgraduate admissions.
The Miller Analogies Test is viewed by examinees to be easier than the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) because it’s shorter in length.
No, the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) does not measure intelligence. MAT measures an examinee’s literacy and reasoning ability. This looks into one’s knowledge of specific subject areas including mathematics, art, science, and history. | https://www.studentprogress.org/gre/miller-analogies-test-mat/#:~:text=The%20Miller%20Analogies%20Test%20%28MAT%29%20may%20be%20taken,for%20is%20the%20score%20your%20prospective%20school%20requires. | 56 |
what is a good score on the miller analogies test | Miller Analogies Test - Wikipedia | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|Acronym||MAT|
|Type||Computer-based standardized test|
|Developer / administrator||Harcourt Assessment / Pearson Education|
|Purpose||Graduate school admission in the United States|
|Duration||60 minutes|
|Score / grade range||200–600|
|Offered||Multiple times per year|
|Restrictions on attempts||1 attempt every 12 months|
|Countries / regions|
|Languages||English|
|Prerequisites / eligibility criteria||None|
|Fee||Varies approx. US$70–100) [1]|
|Scores / grades used by||Colleges and universities in the United States and Canada|
|Website|| www |
The Miller Analogies Test ( MAT ) is a standardized test used both for graduate school admissions in the United States and entrance to high I.Q. societies . Created and still published by Harcourt Assessment (now a division of Pearson Education ), the MAT consists of 120 questions in 60 minutes (formerly 100 questions in 50 minutes). Unlike other graduate school admissions exams such as the GRE , the Miller Analogies Test is verbal or computer based. [2] [ better source needed ]
The test aims to measure an individual's logical and analytical reasoning through the use of partial analogies . A sample test question might be
Bach : Composing :: Monet :
- a. painting
- b. composing
- c. writing
- d. orating
This should be read as "Bach is to (:) Composing as (::) Monet is to (:) _______." The answer would be a. painting because just as Bach is most known for composing music, Monet is most known for his painting. The open slot may appear in any of the four positions.
Unlike analogies found on past editions of the GRE and the SAT , the MAT's analogies demand a broad knowledge of Western culture, testing subjects such as science, music, literature, philosophy, mathematics, art, and history. Thus, exemplary success on the MAT requires more than a nuanced and cultivated vocabulary.
In the fall of 2004, the exam became computerized; the MAT is now solely a computer-based test (CBT). [3]
Out of the 120 questions, only 100 count in the test-taker's score. The remaining 20 questions are experimental. There is no way for test-takers to identify any of the 20 experimental questions on a given test form, as the two types of questions are intermingled.
Tests taken before October 2004 were scored simply by the number of questions the test-taker answered correctly, with a range from 0-100. Scores using this metric have historically been known as "raw" scores.
Tests taken in October 2004 or later have a score range from 200 to 600. The median score is 400, with a standard deviation of 25 points. These scores, based on a normal curve, are known as "scaled" scores. Because of their grounding in this model, scaled MAT scores of 500-600 are extremely rare, as they would be more than four standard deviations above the norm of 400.
Percentile ranks are also provided along with the official score report. Test-takers receive an overall percentile rank as well as a percentile rank within their intended graduate school discipline.
The Miller Analogies Test used to be accepted by American Mensa , and still is by Intertel , the Triple Nine Society , the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry and the Prometheus Society for its admission requirements. [4] [5] [6] [7] Intertel requires a raw score of 74 on the "old" MAT, or a score at the 99th percentile on the modern one. The ISPE and the Triple Nine Society require at least a raw score of 85 on the "old" MAT, and at least 472 on the modern one. The Prometheus Society requires at least a raw score of 98 on the "old" MAT, and at least 500 on the modern one. [8]
Kuncel and colleagues investigated the predictive validity of the MAT in both academic and occupational settings. Their meta-analytic study indicated that the MAT is a valid predictor in both domains and that it measures the same abilities as other cognitive ability instruments. [9] Selected validity coefficients from the study are presented in the table below.
|Criterion||r||ρ|
|Graduate Record Examination—Verbal||0.70||0.88|
|Graduate Record Examination—Quantitative||0.42||0.57|
|General ability and reasoning measures||0.56||0.75|
|Graduate grade point average||0.27||0.39|
|Faculty ratings||0.25||0.37|
|Research productivity||0.13||0.19|
|Time to finish degree||0.25||0.35|
|Internship/practicum ratings||0.13||0.22|
|Ratings of creativity||0.25||0.36|
|Job performance||0.26||0.41|
According to Kaplan & Saccuzo, the Miller Analogies Test is age-biased. The scores over-predict the GPAs (Grade Point Average) of people ages 25 to 34 and achievement for people 45 and older, and under-predict the GPAs of people 35 to 44. [10] [ better source needed ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Analogies_Test | 56 |
what is a good score on the miller analogies test | Miller Analogies Test (MAT): What Does It Measure and Who Should Take It? - Student Progress | The MAT, also known as the Miller Analogies Test, is a standardized examination administered by Pearson Assessments. It assesses an examinee’s analytical thinking ability by solving analogies. It also measures one’s ability to understand relationships among ideas, English fluency, and general knowledge of social sciences, humanities, mathematics, and natural sciences are also examined. This test is primarily used for postgraduate school admissions along with the GRE.
The analytical thinking ability of prospective graduate school students is measured by the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). This ability is important for achieving success in both graduate school and professional life.
The MAT is used by graduate schools to pick out applicants who possess knowledge and abilities that exceed only memorizing and repeating information.
Word analogies are mostly the contents of MAT. It can also include analogies that are numbers, symbols, or word parts. These items were deduced from everyday topics like transportation, education, food, clothing, common expressions, and tools. Knowledge of different academic subjects which are taught to American undergraduate students is also included.
It may be helpful to be familiar with the following subject areas that are represented on the MAT, even though there are no specific pointers that can be studied to raise the MAT score. The subject areas in the MAT are the following [2] :
- Language and vocabulary
- Humanities
- Social Sciences,
- Natural Sciences
- Mathematics
Computer-based and pencil-and-paper are the test administration formats of the MAT. Questions in both formats are similar and the sole difference is the kind of test administration chosen. Note that not all testing centers offer both formats. Each testing center decides whether to deliver a paper-based or computer-based MAT.
No, the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) must only be taken at accredited testing centers.
60 minutes is given to answer the Miller Analogies Test (MAT).
120 partial analogies must be completed in the Miller Analogies Test (MAT).
To register for the Miller Analogies Test, follow these steps:
- Call the chosen testing center and ask which among the following options they would prefer you to do.
- Phone Registration
- through their official website, www.ets.org.
- Registration via Email
- You will be asked to provide some of your identifying information before a slot can be reserved for you.
- Pay a fee that ranges from $70 to $100 depending on the testing center.
- Some testing centers may give you a form to confirm your registration. It is a good idea to bring this along with your ID on the test day.
Listed above are the steps to register for the MAT. To choose which option to do, it is best to call the testing center near you and inquire.
To register for the MAT online, follow these steps:
- Go to www.milleanalogies.com and look for the “Find a MAT Testing Center.” This lists all the testing centers by location.
- Look for the testing center near you from the list.
- Contact the testing center with the information listed. It may be via email or an external website.
- The testing center will then send you more of the details and steps on how to apply.
Listed above are the steps to register online for the MAT. It is best to contact the testing site near you and ask what their registration process is.
At controlled testing centers all over the United States, Canada, and some countries outside of North America can the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) be taken. These testing centers are usually at colleges and universities. You may view the complete list of Pearson testing centers at www.milleranalogies.com.
Available test dates for MAT vary. You may schedule the date when to take your Miller Analogies Test (MAT). To set a date, you should contact the testing center near you and inquire of the available dates.
$70 to $100 is the test fee range of the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). The fee varies depending on the testing center.
The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) may be taken up to 8 times per 12-month period.
A score between 410 and 425 is a good MAT score. This score range falls on the high side of average. However, remember that the score you should aim for is the score your prospective school requires. Score requirements differ depending on the university and program to be taken.
There is no definite passing score set for the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). To decide whether to admit a student or not, universities rely on scaled scores and percentiles.
The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) is scored electronically. You will be provided with a scaled score and percentile ranks which were derived from your raw score. Scaled scores range from 200 to 600 with an average of roughly 400 whereas the percentile ranks can range from 1 to 99. These scores are then presented on the Official Score Report from Pearson Assessments.
Raw score is the number of questions answered correctly.
Scaled scores are raw scores that are converted to a common scale.
Percentile ranks show the percent of test takers in the norm group that got a score lower than you.
Scores will be mailed for about 10 to 15 business days after your test date. Your scores on the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) will be presented as The Official Score Report and Official Transcripts.
10 to 15 business days after the testing date, your Miller Analogies Test (MAT) results will be mailed.
To prepare for the Miller Analogies Test (MAT), follow these tips:
- Be familiar with the exam. It is important to know what the test format, test structure, contents, subject areas, and type of analogies will be on the exam.
- Take a diagnostic exam. Taking a diagnostic exam will help you understand which areas you need to improve on. This way, you can focus more on specific subject areas.
- Look for a study guide. Using a study guide will help you have a clear picture of what materials you need to have for your test preparation. This will also contribute to your knowledge of test-taking strategies.
- Answer practice questions. Take full-length practice tests but make sure to cover all the subject areas.
- Study using different resources. There are numerous downloadable books, tests, and study materials available online. Use these to expand your knowledge and be open to different approaches in analyzing analogies.
- Be consistent. Each day, take practice tests and study why some items were marked wrong. Consistency is the key to raising the MAT score.
Listed above are ways to prepare for the MAT. These steps are helpful for test preparation and in improving the MAT score.
www.pearsonassessments.com/mat is the best website to study for the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). This is the website of Pearson Assessments, the maker of MAT. They provide MAT preparation materials that are available on the website. Each item is in multiple-choice format, has an explanation, and similar to the actual MAT. They also provide a free MAT Study Guide on the website.
Yes, there are MAT practice tests and practice questions. These are available online and offline. There are also prep course companies that offer study materials at a cost.
You can get free MAT practice questions and tests online. Multiple websites are offering practice tests at zero cost. Even the maker of MAT, Pearson Assessments, provides free practice tests.
Yes, there are free MAT study guides. One of the famous study guides you may download is from the maker of MAT, Pearson Assessments. You may access it at www.pearsonassessments.com/mat.
Below are the questions asked by MAT test takers:
Colleges and universities that accept Miller Analogies Test (MAT) scores are listed below:
New York
- Buffalo State College
- College of New Rochelle
- Hofstra University
- State University of New York
- Utica College
California
Michigan
- Central Michigan University
- Lake Superior State University
- Michigan State University
- Oakland University
- Wayne State University
Listed above are the schools that accept MAT scores. To confirm if your chosen university accepts MAT scores, it is best to go to its official website and check. Some programs require the test, others do not.
The 5-year validity period applies to the Miller Analogies Test (MAT).
Bias on test takers’ age is the main criticism of the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). The test appears to under-predict the Grade Point Average (GPA) of people aged 35 to 44 and over-predict those aged 25 to 34.
Yes, the Miller Analogies Test is still accurate and useful. For over 50 years, it has demonstrated to be a valid and reliable test in evaluating applicants for postgraduate admissions.
The Miller Analogies Test is viewed by examinees to be easier than the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) because it’s shorter in length.
No, the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) does not measure intelligence. MAT measures an examinee’s literacy and reasoning ability. This looks into one’s knowledge of specific subject areas including mathematics, art, science, and history. | https://www.studentprogress.org/gre/miller-analogies-test-mat/ | 56 |
what is a good score on the miller analogies test | Miller Analogies Test - Wikipedia | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|Acronym||MAT|
|Type||Computer-based standardized test|
|Developer / administrator||Harcourt Assessment / Pearson Education|
|Purpose||Graduate school admission in the United States|
|Duration||60 minutes|
|Score / grade range||200–600|
|Offered||Multiple times per year|
|Restrictions on attempts||1 attempt every 12 months|
|Countries / regions|
|Languages||English|
|Prerequisites / eligibility criteria||None|
|Fee||Varies approx. US$70–100) [1]|
|Scores / grades used by||Colleges and universities in the United States and Canada|
|Website|| www |
The Miller Analogies Test ( MAT ) is a standardized test used both for graduate school admissions in the United States and entrance to high I.Q. societies . Created and still published by Harcourt Assessment (now a division of Pearson Education ), the MAT consists of 120 questions in 60 minutes (formerly 100 questions in 50 minutes). Unlike other graduate school admissions exams such as the GRE , the Miller Analogies Test is verbal or computer based. [2] [ better source needed ]
The test aims to measure an individual's logical and analytical reasoning through the use of partial analogies . A sample test question might be
Bach : Composing :: Monet :
- a. painting
- b. composing
- c. writing
- d. orating
This should be read as "Bach is to (:) Composing as (::) Monet is to (:) _______." The answer would be a. painting because just as Bach is most known for composing music, Monet is most known for his painting. The open slot may appear in any of the four positions.
Unlike analogies found on past editions of the GRE and the SAT , the MAT's analogies demand a broad knowledge of Western culture, testing subjects such as science, music, literature, philosophy, mathematics, art, and history. Thus, exemplary success on the MAT requires more than a nuanced and cultivated vocabulary.
In the fall of 2004, the exam became computerized; the MAT is now solely a computer-based test (CBT). [3]
Out of the 120 questions, only 100 count in the test-taker's score. The remaining 20 questions are experimental. There is no way for test-takers to identify any of the 20 experimental questions on a given test form, as the two types of questions are intermingled.
Tests taken before October 2004 were scored simply by the number of questions the test-taker answered correctly, with a range from 0-100. Scores using this metric have historically been known as "raw" scores.
Tests taken in October 2004 or later have a score range from 200 to 600. The median score is 400, with a standard deviation of 25 points. These scores, based on a normal curve, are known as "scaled" scores. Because of their grounding in this model, scaled MAT scores of 500-600 are extremely rare, as they would be more than four standard deviations above the norm of 400.
Percentile ranks are also provided along with the official score report. Test-takers receive an overall percentile rank as well as a percentile rank within their intended graduate school discipline.
The Miller Analogies Test used to be accepted by American Mensa , and still is by Intertel , the Triple Nine Society , the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry and the Prometheus Society for its admission requirements. [4] [5] [6] [7] Intertel requires a raw score of 74 on the "old" MAT, or a score at the 99th percentile on the modern one. The ISPE and the Triple Nine Society require at least a raw score of 85 on the "old" MAT, and at least 472 on the modern one. The Prometheus Society requires at least a raw score of 98 on the "old" MAT, and at least 500 on the modern one. [8]
Kuncel and colleagues investigated the predictive validity of the MAT in both academic and occupational settings. Their meta-analytic study indicated that the MAT is a valid predictor in both domains and that it measures the same abilities as other cognitive ability instruments. [9] Selected validity coefficients from the study are presented in the table below.
|Criterion||r||ρ|
|Graduate Record Examination—Verbal||0.70||0.88|
|Graduate Record Examination—Quantitative||0.42||0.57|
|General ability and reasoning measures||0.56||0.75|
|Graduate grade point average||0.27||0.39|
|Faculty ratings||0.25||0.37|
|Research productivity||0.13||0.19|
|Time to finish degree||0.25||0.35|
|Internship/practicum ratings||0.13||0.22|
|Ratings of creativity||0.25||0.36|
|Job performance||0.26||0.41|
According to Kaplan & Saccuzo, the Miller Analogies Test is age-biased. The scores over-predict the GPAs (Grade Point Average) of people ages 25 to 34 and achievement for people 45 and older, and under-predict the GPAs of people 35 to 44. [10] [ better source needed ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Analogies_Test | 56 |
what is a good score on the miller analogies test | What is Considered a Good MAT® Test Score? (with pictures) | The median score of a modern Miller Analogies Test (MAT®) score is 400, on a scale of 200 to 600. A score of 500-600 would be extremely rare, so anything above 400 is considered above average. A good MAT® test score is used by graduate schools to determine the worthiness of applicants. Also, certain intellectual societies may use a good MAT® test score in order to determine acceptance of those applying.
The MAT® test score is based upon a series of 120 questions in the form of analogies. An example of an analogy question is “Bach is to Composing as Monet is to blank,” and the answer would be “painting”. Analogies are thought to be a comprehensive measure of a person’s analytical and vocabulary skills. Topics for questions contained within the MCAT® test range from math and science to art and history.
Scores for the MAT® are given in actual numbers and percentiles. A score of 420 reflects the actual number of questions answered correctly. A percentile of 65% means that 65% of test-takers scored lower than 420.
Only 100 of the 120 questions on the 60-minute test count toward the final score. This is because 20 of the questions are considered to be experimental. There is no way for a test-taker to differentiate between a legitimate question and an experimental question.
Prior to October of 2004, an MAT® test score was on a scale of 1 to 100. Then the test became computer-based, and the scoring system changed. The new method grades on a scale of 200 to 600, with a standard deviation of 25 points from 400, the median score.
It may behoove an applicant to re-take a test, although a particular graduate school may have rules about the submission of scores after an original score is submitted. In order to prepare for the MAT®, there are two sample tests available at the MAT®’s official website. Both are 100 questions and there is a fee to take the practice tests.
Some graduate schools require high scores on standardized tests in order to accept applicants. A person must check with their potential graduate school to determine which standardized tests are accepted for entry into the school. Other standardized tests include the Graduate Record Examination (GRE®), the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT®), Law School Admission Test ( LSAT ®) and Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT®). Of these, the GRE®is the most common.
I just took the MAT for the first time today and received a 455. I'm certain that had I not studied the week beforehand that my score would've been compromised and I would have to take it again. My university had the McGraw Hill MAT Study Guide available for free in their library and online. But there are others available, including Pearsons. Two things really helped: the back of the book is filled with most of the content addressed on the test. I read through part of this content every day for a week and noted those bits of information I couldn't remember. Writing it down helps. Secondly, they have 10 practice tests. I took one test every day and after the third test my score began to improve. (The only difference I saw were several mathematic equations which they didn't offer in the book, and there were a few of the analogies where I just didn't recognize the relationship.) Good luck!anon992174
I suggest that you purchase a good study guide early in the process and review the lists of vocabulary, prefix meanings, topics that relate to "-ology" (as in cetology, histology, etc.), basic Roman and Greek mythology, Roman numerals, etc. You likely knew all that stuff at some time but may have forgotten a lot of it. If you are a diverse reader, you will have a lot of knowledge that non-readers will lack. Taking the sample tests will help you with quick thinking and pacing.Viranty
@astewart – The Miller Analogies Test (and similar tests) aren’t prepared for in the same way classroom tests are. Though it’s obviously a good idea to study, there’s less of a “correct” way to do so, and unlike classrooms tests, you’re not expected to know every answer.
If you reread the article, it even says that only 100 questions count toward the final score, even though there are 120 questions total. As some final advice, don’t spend too much time on questions you don’t know, skipping them if need be. You can always come back to them later.Chmander | https://www.practicaladultinsights.com/what-is-considered-a-good-mat-test-score.htm | 56 |
what is a good score on the miller analogies test | How is the Miller Analogies Test Structured? - The Best Master's Degrees | The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) is a test designed to test analytical ability, and the MAT structure is very simple and straightforward. Success on the MAT Exam demands not only strong analytical abilities, but also a knowledge of Western culture, music, literature, art, and history. Additionally, MAT test questions often require a knowledge of scientific subjects such as the natural sciences, the social sciences, and mathematics. Although the test questions consist entirely of analogy questions like those seen on the GRE and SAT, a very high score on the MAT requires more than just a strong vocabulary. The MAT exam is devised and published by Harcourt Assessment.
There are 120 analogy questions on the MAT. The partial analogies given in the MAT test questions compare two sets of words, with a similar relationship existing between each of the two words. Although test takers answer a total of 120 questions, only 100 of the questions answered will actually contribute to the test taker's score. The other 20 questions are merely placed on the test as experimental questions. Data from these experimental questions may be used on new versions of the the MAT in the future. Test takers are given 60 minutes to answer all of the questions on the test.
Since the fall of 2004, the MAT has been offered as a computerized exam. Currently, the computerized form of the test is the only form available. The test is not offered in any language other than English. It is not permissible for test takers to have dictionaries, calculators, notes, or any electronic devices with them when they take the exam.
Scores on the MAT range from between 200 and 600. Scores given on the test in this range are "scaled" scores, and a score over 500 is extremely rare. The median score on the test is 400, and this mean score has a standard deviation of 25 points. Test takers receive not only scores, but they also receive percentile rankings to show how well they have scored in comparison to other test takers. Those who take the test can get not only a percentile rank in general, but also a percentile rank for those accepted to the graduate school at which they want to study. In addition to being used in graduate school admissions, the MAT is also used to determine eligibility for Mensa and the Prometheus Society.
Studies have shown the MAT exam to be an accurate predictor of success in work and in academia. Meta-analytic study data, compiled by Kuncel and colleagues, has shown that MAT scores measure aptitude in the same way that many cognitive ability instruments, such as the GRE and school grade point average, do.
Individuals interested in applying to graduate school may be interested in taking the MAT. Also, those who are interested in being accepted into organizations such as MENSA might be interested in the exam. MAT structure is much simpler than the structure of other tests like the GRE, and preparing for the exam is therefore a very straightforward process. | https://www.bestmastersdegrees.com/best-masters-degrees-faq/miller-analogies-test-structured | 56 |
what is a good score on the miller analogies test | What is Considered a Good MAT® Test Score? (with pictures) | The median score of a modern Miller Analogies Test (MAT®) score is 400, on a scale of 200 to 600. A score of 500-600 would be extremely rare, so anything above 400 is considered above average. A good MAT® test score is used by graduate schools to determine the worthiness of applicants. Also, certain intellectual societies may use a good MAT® test score in order to determine acceptance of those applying.
The MAT® test score is based upon a series of 120 questions in the form of analogies. An example of an analogy question is “Bach is to Composing as Monet is to blank,” and the answer would be “painting”. Analogies are thought to be a comprehensive measure of a person’s analytical and vocabulary skills. Topics for questions contained within the MCAT® test range from math and science to art and history.
Scores for the MAT® are given in actual numbers and percentiles. A score of 420 reflects the actual number of questions answered correctly. A percentile of 65% means that 65% of test-takers scored lower than 420.
Only 100 of the 120 questions on the 60-minute test count toward the final score. This is because 20 of the questions are considered to be experimental. There is no way for a test-taker to differentiate between a legitimate question and an experimental question.
Prior to October of 2004, an MAT® test score was on a scale of 1 to 100. Then the test became computer-based, and the scoring system changed. The new method grades on a scale of 200 to 600, with a standard deviation of 25 points from 400, the median score.
It may behoove an applicant to re-take a test, although a particular graduate school may have rules about the submission of scores after an original score is submitted. In order to prepare for the MAT®, there are two sample tests available at the MAT®’s official website. Both are 100 questions and there is a fee to take the practice tests.
Some graduate schools require high scores on standardized tests in order to accept applicants. A person must check with their potential graduate school to determine which standardized tests are accepted for entry into the school. Other standardized tests include the Graduate Record Examination (GRE®), the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT®), Law School Admission Test ( LSAT ®) and Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT®). Of these, the GRE®is the most common.
I just took the MAT for the first time today and received a 455. I'm certain that had I not studied the week beforehand that my score would've been compromised and I would have to take it again. My university had the McGraw Hill MAT Study Guide available for free in their library and online. But there are others available, including Pearsons. Two things really helped: the back of the book is filled with most of the content addressed on the test. I read through part of this content every day for a week and noted those bits of information I couldn't remember. Writing it down helps. Secondly, they have 10 practice tests. I took one test every day and after the third test my score began to improve. (The only difference I saw were several mathematic equations which they didn't offer in the book, and there were a few of the analogies where I just didn't recognize the relationship.) Good luck!anon992174
I suggest that you purchase a good study guide early in the process and review the lists of vocabulary, prefix meanings, topics that relate to "-ology" (as in cetology, histology, etc.), basic Roman and Greek mythology, Roman numerals, etc. You likely knew all that stuff at some time but may have forgotten a lot of it. If you are a diverse reader, you will have a lot of knowledge that non-readers will lack. Taking the sample tests will help you with quick thinking and pacing.Viranty
@astewart – The Miller Analogies Test (and similar tests) aren’t prepared for in the same way classroom tests are. Though it’s obviously a good idea to study, there’s less of a “correct” way to do so, and unlike classrooms tests, you’re not expected to know every answer.
If you reread the article, it even says that only 100 questions count toward the final score, even though there are 120 questions total. As some final advice, don’t spend too much time on questions you don’t know, skipping them if need be. You can always come back to them later.Chmander | https://www.practicaladultinsights.com/what-is-considered-a-good-mat-test-score.htm | 56 |
what is a good score on the miller analogies test | Miller Analogies Test - Wikipedia | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|Acronym||MAT|
|Type||Computer-based standardized test|
|Developer / administrator||Harcourt Assessment / Pearson Education|
|Purpose||Graduate school admission in the United States|
|Duration||60 minutes|
|Score / grade range||200–600|
|Offered||Multiple times per year|
|Restrictions on attempts||1 attempt every 12 months|
|Countries / regions|
|Languages||English|
|Prerequisites / eligibility criteria||None|
|Fee||Varies approx. US$70–100) [1]|
|Scores / grades used by||Colleges and universities in the United States and Canada|
|Website|| www |
The Miller Analogies Test ( MAT ) is a standardized test used both for graduate school admissions in the United States and entrance to high I.Q. societies . Created and still published by Harcourt Assessment (now a division of Pearson Education ), the MAT consists of 120 questions in 60 minutes (formerly 100 questions in 50 minutes). Unlike other graduate school admissions exams such as the GRE , the Miller Analogies Test is verbal or computer based. [2] [ better source needed ]
The test aims to measure an individual's logical and analytical reasoning through the use of partial analogies . A sample test question might be
Bach : Composing :: Monet :
- a. painting
- b. composing
- c. writing
- d. orating
This should be read as "Bach is to (:) Composing as (::) Monet is to (:) _______." The answer would be a. painting because just as Bach is most known for composing music, Monet is most known for his painting. The open slot may appear in any of the four positions.
Unlike analogies found on past editions of the GRE and the SAT , the MAT's analogies demand a broad knowledge of Western culture, testing subjects such as science, music, literature, philosophy, mathematics, art, and history. Thus, exemplary success on the MAT requires more than a nuanced and cultivated vocabulary.
In the fall of 2004, the exam became computerized; the MAT is now solely a computer-based test (CBT). [3]
Out of the 120 questions, only 100 count in the test-taker's score. The remaining 20 questions are experimental. There is no way for test-takers to identify any of the 20 experimental questions on a given test form, as the two types of questions are intermingled.
Tests taken before October 2004 were scored simply by the number of questions the test-taker answered correctly, with a range from 0-100. Scores using this metric have historically been known as "raw" scores.
Tests taken in October 2004 or later have a score range from 200 to 600. The median score is 400, with a standard deviation of 25 points. These scores, based on a normal curve, are known as "scaled" scores. Because of their grounding in this model, scaled MAT scores of 500-600 are extremely rare, as they would be more than four standard deviations above the norm of 400.
Percentile ranks are also provided along with the official score report. Test-takers receive an overall percentile rank as well as a percentile rank within their intended graduate school discipline.
The Miller Analogies Test used to be accepted by American Mensa , and still is by Intertel , the Triple Nine Society , the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry and the Prometheus Society for its admission requirements. [4] [5] [6] [7] Intertel requires a raw score of 74 on the "old" MAT, or a score at the 99th percentile on the modern one. The ISPE and the Triple Nine Society require at least a raw score of 85 on the "old" MAT, and at least 472 on the modern one. The Prometheus Society requires at least a raw score of 98 on the "old" MAT, and at least 500 on the modern one. [8]
Kuncel and colleagues investigated the predictive validity of the MAT in both academic and occupational settings. Their meta-analytic study indicated that the MAT is a valid predictor in both domains and that it measures the same abilities as other cognitive ability instruments. [9] Selected validity coefficients from the study are presented in the table below.
|Criterion||r||ρ|
|Graduate Record Examination—Verbal||0.70||0.88|
|Graduate Record Examination—Quantitative||0.42||0.57|
|General ability and reasoning measures||0.56||0.75|
|Graduate grade point average||0.27||0.39|
|Faculty ratings||0.25||0.37|
|Research productivity||0.13||0.19|
|Time to finish degree||0.25||0.35|
|Internship/practicum ratings||0.13||0.22|
|Ratings of creativity||0.25||0.36|
|Job performance||0.26||0.41|
According to Kaplan & Saccuzo, the Miller Analogies Test is age-biased. The scores over-predict the GPAs (Grade Point Average) of people ages 25 to 34 and achievement for people 45 and older, and under-predict the GPAs of people 35 to 44. [10] [ better source needed ] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Analogies_Test | 56 |
what is a good score on the miller analogies test | How the Miller Analogies Test Is Scored | The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) is used for graduate school admissions. The test is comprised entirely of analogies — 120 of them to be exact. However, although the MAT has 120 questions, only 100 of them count towards your score.
The MAT’s publisher uses the other 20 questions for future exams. Since the difficulty level of the MAT’s questions increases as the test progresses, the publisher needs to know where to put the difficult questions and where to put the easy ones.
Seeing how many people get each experimental question right helps. If most people get a certain experimental question right, that question will appear closer to the beginning of a future MAT. If most people got the question wrong, it will appear closer to the end of a future exam.
The MAT’s publisher uses this method so that a MAT given this year has a similar difficulty level to a MAT given last year. It’s also a more accurate way of determining which questions are truly hard and which are easy, instead of just having a committee of people vote on each question’s difficulty level.
Keep in mind as you take the MAT that you won’t know which questions are experimental, so answer them all as if they’re real.
One of the most important points to remember about the MAT is that questions left blank are automatically counted as wrong. Unlike some standardized tests, on the MAT, there’s no penalty for guessing. Make extra sure you at least answer every question, even if it’s a random guess because you’re running out of time.
It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in a question as time is running out and then forget to answer a few questions. Don’t let this happen to you! Always save a couple minutes at the end of the test so that you have time to answer every question, even if you have to guess randomly on some of them.
Also remember that later questions aren’t worth more; every correct answer improves your score by the same amount.
If you really think you failed the MAT after taking it, or if something goes horribly, tragically wrong for you that day, you can exercise what is known as the “no-score” option. This cancels your score — no one will even find out that you took the test.
However, you won’t get your money back and you won’t be able to find out how you did on the test. So use this option only as a last resort. | https://www.dummies.com/article/academics-the-arts/study-skills-test-prep/mat/how-the-miller-analogies-test-is-scored-165199/ | 56 |
what is a good score on the miller analogies test | How is the Miller Analogies Test Structured? - The Best Master's Degrees | The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) is a test designed to test analytical ability, and the MAT structure is very simple and straightforward. Success on the MAT Exam demands not only strong analytical abilities, but also a knowledge of Western culture, music, literature, art, and history. Additionally, MAT test questions often require a knowledge of scientific subjects such as the natural sciences, the social sciences, and mathematics. Although the test questions consist entirely of analogy questions like those seen on the GRE and SAT, a very high score on the MAT requires more than just a strong vocabulary. The MAT exam is devised and published by Harcourt Assessment.
There are 120 analogy questions on the MAT. The partial analogies given in the MAT test questions compare two sets of words, with a similar relationship existing between each of the two words. Although test takers answer a total of 120 questions, only 100 of the questions answered will actually contribute to the test taker's score. The other 20 questions are merely placed on the test as experimental questions. Data from these experimental questions may be used on new versions of the the MAT in the future. Test takers are given 60 minutes to answer all of the questions on the test.
Since the fall of 2004, the MAT has been offered as a computerized exam. Currently, the computerized form of the test is the only form available. The test is not offered in any language other than English. It is not permissible for test takers to have dictionaries, calculators, notes, or any electronic devices with them when they take the exam.
Scores on the MAT range from between 200 and 600. Scores given on the test in this range are "scaled" scores, and a score over 500 is extremely rare. The median score on the test is 400, and this mean score has a standard deviation of 25 points. Test takers receive not only scores, but they also receive percentile rankings to show how well they have scored in comparison to other test takers. Those who take the test can get not only a percentile rank in general, but also a percentile rank for those accepted to the graduate school at which they want to study. In addition to being used in graduate school admissions, the MAT is also used to determine eligibility for Mensa and the Prometheus Society.
Studies have shown the MAT exam to be an accurate predictor of success in work and in academia. Meta-analytic study data, compiled by Kuncel and colleagues, has shown that MAT scores measure aptitude in the same way that many cognitive ability instruments, such as the GRE and school grade point average, do.
Individuals interested in applying to graduate school may be interested in taking the MAT. Also, those who are interested in being accepted into organizations such as MENSA might be interested in the exam. MAT structure is much simpler than the structure of other tests like the GRE, and preparing for the exam is therefore a very straightforward process. | https://www.bestmastersdegrees.com/best-masters-degrees-faq/miller-analogies-test-structured | 56 |
what is a good score on the miller analogies test | Magoosh Test Prep | Sale on all prep plans! Now through May 8th. Coupon automatically applied at checkout. | https://magoosh.com/mat/what-is-a-good-miller-analogies-test-score/ | 56 |
when did the first immigrants come to america | U.S. Immigration Timeline: Definition & Reform - HISTORY | The United States has long been considered a nation of immigrants, but attitudes toward new immigrants by those who came before have vacillated over the years between welcoming and exclusionary. Thousands of years before Europeans began crossing the vast Atlantic by ship and settling en masse, the first immigrants arrived in North America from Asia. They were Native American ancestors who crossed a narrow spit of land connecting Asia to North America at least 20,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age .
By the early 1600s, communities of European immigrants dotted the Eastern seaboard, including the Spanish in Florida, the British in New England and Virginia, the Dutch in New York, and the Swedes in Delaware. Some, including the Pilgrims and Puritans, came for religious freedom. Many sought greater economic opportunities. Still others, including hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans, arrived in America against their will.
Below are the events that have shaped the turbulent history of immigration in the United States since its birth.
January 1776: Thomas Paine publishes a pamphlet, “ Common Sense ,” that argues for American independence. Most colonists consider themselves Britons, but Paine makes the case for a new American. “Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe,” he writes.
March 1790: Congress passes the first law about who should be granted U.S. citizenship. The Naturalization Act of 1790 allows any free white person of “good character,” who has been living in the United States for two years or longer, to apply for citizenship. Without citizenship, nonwhite residents are denied basic constitutional protections, including the right to vote, own property, or testify in court.
August 1790: The first U.S. census takes place. The English are the largest ethnic group among the 3.9 million people counted, though nearly one in five Americans are of African heritage.
History Shorts: The Revolving Doors of Ellis Island
1815: Peace is re-established between the United States and Britain after the War of 1812 . Immigration from Western Europe turns from a trickle into a gush, which causes a shift in the demographics of the United States. This first major wave of immigration lasts until the Civil War .
Between 1820 and 1860, the Irish —many of them Catholic—account for an estimated one-third of all immigrants to the United States. Some 5 million German immigrants also come to the United States, many of them making their way to the Midwest to buy farms or settle in cities including Milwaukee, St. Louis and Cincinnati.
1819: Many of newcomers arrive sick or dying from their long journey across the Atlantic in cramped conditions. The immigrants overwhelm major port cities, including New York City , Boston , Philadelphia and Charleston. In response, the United States passes the Steerage Act of 1819 requiring better conditions on ships arriving to the country. The Act also calls for ship captains to submit demographic information on passengers, creating the first federal records on the ethnic composition of immigrants to the United States.
1849: America’s first anti-immigrant political party, the Know-Nothing Party forms, as a backlash to the increasing number of German and Irish immigrants settling in the United States.
1875: Following the Civil War, some states passed their own immigration laws. In 1875 the Supreme Court declares that it’s the responsibility of the federal government to make and enforce immigration laws.
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1880: As America begins a rapid period of industrialization and urbanization, a second immigration boom begins. Between 1880 and 1920, more than 20 million immigrants arrive. The majority are from Southern, Eastern and Central Europe, including 4 million Italians and 2 million Jews . Many of them settle in major U.S. cities and work in factories.
1882: The Chinese Exclusion Act passes, which bars Chinese immigrants from entering the United States. Beginning in the 1850s, a steady flow of Chinese workers had immigrated to America.
They worked in the gold mines,and garment factories, built railroads and took agricultural jobs. Anti-Chinese sentiment grew as Chinese laborers became successful in America. Although Chinese immigrants make up only 0.002 percent of the United States population, white workers blame them for low wages.
The 1882 Act is the first in American history to place broad restrictions on certain immigrant groups.
1891: The Immigration Act of 1891 further excludes who can enter the United States, barring the immigration of polygamists, people convicted of certain crimes, and the sick or diseased. The Act also created a federal office of immigration to coordinate immigration enforcement and a corps of immigration inspectors stationed at principle ports of entry.
January 1892 : Ellis Island , the United States’ first immigration station, opens in New York Harbor. The first immigrant processed is Annie Moore, a teenager from County Cork in Ireland. More than 12 million immigrants would enter the United States through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954.
1907 : U.S. immigration peaks, with 1.3 million people entering the country through Ellis Island alone.
1 / 12: Geo. P. Hall & Son/The New York Historical Society/Getty Images
February 1907: Amid prejudices in California that an influx of Japanese workers would cost white workers farming jobs and depress wages, the United States and Japan sign the Gentlemen’s Agreement. Japan agrees to limit Japanese emigration to the United States to certain categories of business and professional men. In return, President Theodore Roosevelt urges San Francisco to end the segregation of Japanese students from white students in San Francisco schools.
1910: An estimated three-quarters of New York City’s population consists of new immigrants and first-generation Americans.
1917: Xenophobia reaches new highs on the eve of American involvement in World War I . The Immigration Act of 1917 establishes a literacy requirement for immigrants entering the country and halts immigration from most Asian countries.
May 1924: The Immigration Act of 1924 limits the number of immigrants allowed into the United States yearly through nationality quotas. Under the new quota system, the United States issues immigration visas to 2 percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States at the 1890 census. The law favors immigration from Northern and Western European countries. Just three countries, Great Britain, Ireland and Germany account for 70 percent of all available visas. Immigration from Southern, Central and Eastern Europe was limited. The Act completely excludes immigrants from Asia, aside from the Philippines, at the time an American colony.
1 / 20: Augustus Sherman/New York Public Library
1924 : In the wake of the numerical limits established by the 1924 law, illegal immigration to the United States increases. The U.S. Border Patrol is established to crack down on illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican and Canadian borders into the United States. Many of these early border crossers were Chinese and other Asian immigrants, who had been barred from entering legally.
1942: Labor shortages during World War II prompt the United States and Mexico to form the Bracero Program , which allows Mexican agricultural workers to enter the United States temporarily. The program lasts until 1964.
1948: The United States passes the nation’s first refugee and resettlement law to deal with the influx of Europeans seeking permanent residence in the United States after World War II.
1952: The McCarran-Walter Act formally ends the exclusion of Asian immigrants to the United States.
1956-1957 : The United States admits roughly 38,000 immigrants from Hungary after a failed uprising against the Soviet Union . They were among the first Cold War refugees. The United States would admit over 3 million refugees during the Cold War.
1960-1962 : Roughly 14,000 unaccompanied children flee Fidel Castro ’s Cuba and come to the United States as part of a secret, anti-Communism program called Operation Peter Pan.
1965: The Immigration and Nationality Act overhauls the American immigration system. The Act ends the national origin quotas enacted in the 1920s which favored some racial and ethnic groups over others.
The quota system is replaced with a seven-category preference system emphasizing family reunification and skilled immigrants. Upon signing the new bill, President Lyndon B. Johnson , called the old immigration system “un-American,” and said the new bill would correct a “cruel and enduring wrong in the conduct of the American Nation.”
Over the next five years, immigration from war-torn regions of Asia, including Vietnam and Cambodia , would more than quadruple. Family reunification became a driving force in U.S. immigration.
April-October 1980 : During the Mariel boatlift , roughly 125,000 Cuban refugees make a dangerous sea crossing in overcrowded boats to arrive on the Florida shore seeking political asylum.
1986: President Ronald Reagan signs into law the Simpson-Mazzoli Act, which grants amnesty to more than 3 million immigrants living illegally in the United States.
2001 : U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) propose the first Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would provide a pathway to legal status for Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States illegally by their parents as children. The bill—and subsequent iterations of it—don’t pass.
U.S. Immigration Since 1965
2012 : President Barack Obama signs Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) which temporarily shields some Dreamers from deportation, but doesn’t provide a path to citizenship.
2017: President Donald Trump issues two executive orders aimed at curtailing travel and immigration from six majority Muslim countries (Chad, Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia) as well as North Korea and Venezuela. Both of these so-called Muslim travel bans are challenged in state and federal courts.
2018: In April 2018, the travel restrictions on Chad are lifted. In June 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court uphold a third version of the travel ban on the remaining seven countries.
Immigration Timeline, The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation .
LBJ on Immigration, LBJ Presidential Library .
The Nation's Immigration Laws, 1920 to Today, Pew Research Center .
1986: Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Library of Congress . | https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/immigration-united-states-timeline | 57 |
when did the first immigrants come to america | Who were the first immigrants to America? - EasyRelocated | Immigration in the Colonial Era By the 1500s, the first Europeans, led by the Spanish and French, had begun establishing settlements in what would become the United States. In 1607, the English founded their first permanent settlement in present-day America at Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.
Mexico is the top origin country of the U.S. immigrant population. In 2018, roughly 11.2 million immigrants living in the U.S. were from there, accounting for 25% of all U.S. immigrants. The next largest origin groups were those from China (6%), India (6%), the Philippines (4%) and El Salvador (3%).
Between 1870 and 1900, the largest number of immigrants continued to come from northern and western Europe including Great Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia. But “new” immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were becoming one of the most important forces in American life.
The United States experienced successive waves of immigration, particularly from Europe, and later from Asia and Latin America. Colonial era immigrants often repaid the cost of transoceanic transportation by becoming indentured servants where the new employer paid the ship’s captain.
The answer may be in some of the major migrations of settlers to the colonies in the 1700s. Two major groups that arrived during that time were the Germans and the Scots-Irish. Detail of Palatine Church, early German immigrants.
Unlike earlier immigrants, who mainly came from northern and western Europe, the “new immigrants” came largely from southern and eastern Europe. Largely Catholic and Jewish in religion, the new immigrants came from the Balkans, Italy, Poland, and Russia.
People travelled by boat to North America some 30,000 years ago, at a time when giant animals still roamed the continent and long before it was thought the earliest arrivals had made the crossing from Asia, archaeological research reveals today.
Origins of the U.S. immigrant population, 1960–2016
|1960||2018|
|Europe-Canada||84%||13%|
|South and East Asia||4%||28%|
|Other Latin America||4%||25%|
|Mexico||6%||25%|
There have been four waves of immigration to the U.S.: 1) Native Americans; 2) immigrants from Western and Northern Europe and slaves from Africa from the 16th century to the 19th century; 3) immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean in the 19th and 20th centuries; and 4) immigrants …
Between 1820 and 1860 most immigrants came from northern and western Europe. The potato famine in Ireland (1845-1847) brought large numbers to the United States. The unsuccessful 1848 Revolution in Germany also created considerable emigration. Others came from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, England, Scotland and Wales.
“Old” immigrants were primarily Catholic, while many “new” immigrants were Jewish or Protestant. “Old” immigrants came from Northern and Western Europe, while “new“ immigrants came from Southern and Eastern Europe.
From 1841 to 1860, over 4 million people came to the United States. This represented a 600 percent increase over the previous 20-year period. Most of these immigrants came from Great Britain, Germany, and especially Ireland.
Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U. S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity.
About 12 million immigrants would pass through Ellis Island during the time of its operation, from 1892 to 1954. Many of them were from Southern and Eastern Europe. They included Russians, Italians, Slavs, Jews, Greeks, Poles, Serbs, and Turks.
Immigrants came to America due to push and pull factors. In some cases, they were pushed out of their native lands for reasons such as war, economic hardship, or religious persecution. Pull factors included seeking to join family or acquire wealth in America.
By the early 1600s, communities of European immigrants dotted the Eastern seaboard, including the Spanish in Florida, the British in New England and Virginia, the Dutch in New York, and the Swedes in Delaware. Some, including the Pilgrims and Puritans, came for religious freedom.
In the early 1600s, in rapid succession, the English began a colony (Jamestown) in Chesapeake Bay in 1607, the French built Quebec in 1608, and the Dutch began their interest in the region that became present-day New York.
In 1883, a group of some 17 families led by Johann Frederich Rosenoff arrive in Adams County and settle near Ritzville. They are known as Volga Germans because they are German-speaking and German-identified former residents of Russia’s Volga River valley. | https://easyrelocated.com/who-were-the-first-immigrants-to-america/ | 57 |
when did the first immigrants come to america | Who were the first immigrants to America? - EasyRelocated | Immigration in the Colonial Era By the 1500s, the first Europeans, led by the Spanish and French, had begun establishing settlements in what would become the United States. In 1607, the English founded their first permanent settlement in present-day America at Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.
Mexico is the top origin country of the U.S. immigrant population. In 2018, roughly 11.2 million immigrants living in the U.S. were from there, accounting for 25% of all U.S. immigrants. The next largest origin groups were those from China (6%), India (6%), the Philippines (4%) and El Salvador (3%).
Between 1870 and 1900, the largest number of immigrants continued to come from northern and western Europe including Great Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia. But “new” immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were becoming one of the most important forces in American life.
The United States experienced successive waves of immigration, particularly from Europe, and later from Asia and Latin America. Colonial era immigrants often repaid the cost of transoceanic transportation by becoming indentured servants where the new employer paid the ship’s captain.
The answer may be in some of the major migrations of settlers to the colonies in the 1700s. Two major groups that arrived during that time were the Germans and the Scots-Irish. Detail of Palatine Church, early German immigrants.
Unlike earlier immigrants, who mainly came from northern and western Europe, the “new immigrants” came largely from southern and eastern Europe. Largely Catholic and Jewish in religion, the new immigrants came from the Balkans, Italy, Poland, and Russia.
People travelled by boat to North America some 30,000 years ago, at a time when giant animals still roamed the continent and long before it was thought the earliest arrivals had made the crossing from Asia, archaeological research reveals today.
Origins of the U.S. immigrant population, 1960–2016
|1960||2018|
|Europe-Canada||84%||13%|
|South and East Asia||4%||28%|
|Other Latin America||4%||25%|
|Mexico||6%||25%|
There have been four waves of immigration to the U.S.: 1) Native Americans; 2) immigrants from Western and Northern Europe and slaves from Africa from the 16th century to the 19th century; 3) immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean in the 19th and 20th centuries; and 4) immigrants …
Between 1820 and 1860 most immigrants came from northern and western Europe. The potato famine in Ireland (1845-1847) brought large numbers to the United States. The unsuccessful 1848 Revolution in Germany also created considerable emigration. Others came from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, England, Scotland and Wales.
“Old” immigrants were primarily Catholic, while many “new” immigrants were Jewish or Protestant. “Old” immigrants came from Northern and Western Europe, while “new“ immigrants came from Southern and Eastern Europe.
From 1841 to 1860, over 4 million people came to the United States. This represented a 600 percent increase over the previous 20-year period. Most of these immigrants came from Great Britain, Germany, and especially Ireland.
Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U. S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity.
About 12 million immigrants would pass through Ellis Island during the time of its operation, from 1892 to 1954. Many of them were from Southern and Eastern Europe. They included Russians, Italians, Slavs, Jews, Greeks, Poles, Serbs, and Turks.
Immigrants came to America due to push and pull factors. In some cases, they were pushed out of their native lands for reasons such as war, economic hardship, or religious persecution. Pull factors included seeking to join family or acquire wealth in America.
By the early 1600s, communities of European immigrants dotted the Eastern seaboard, including the Spanish in Florida, the British in New England and Virginia, the Dutch in New York, and the Swedes in Delaware. Some, including the Pilgrims and Puritans, came for religious freedom.
In the early 1600s, in rapid succession, the English began a colony (Jamestown) in Chesapeake Bay in 1607, the French built Quebec in 1608, and the Dutch began their interest in the region that became present-day New York.
In 1883, a group of some 17 families led by Johann Frederich Rosenoff arrive in Adams County and settle near Ritzville. They are known as Volga Germans because they are German-speaking and German-identified former residents of Russia’s Volga River valley. | https://easyrelocated.com/who-were-the-first-immigrants-to-america/ | 57 |
when did the first immigrants come to america | U.S. Immigration Before 1965 | The United States experienced major waves of immigration during the colonial era, the first part of the 19th century and from the 1880s to 1920. Many immigrants came to America seeking greater economic opportunity, while some, such as the Pilgrims in the early 1600s, arrived in search of religious freedom. From the 17th to 19th centuries, hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans came to America against their will. The first significant federal legislation restricting immigration was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Individual states regulated immigration prior to the 1892 opening of Ellis Island, the country’s first federal immigration station. New laws in 1965 ended the quota system that favored European immigrants, and today, the majority of the country’s immigrants hail from Asia and Latin America.
From its earliest days, America has been a nation of immigrants, starting with its original inhabitants, who crossed the land bridge connecting Asia and North America tens of thousands of years ago. By the 1500s, the first Europeans, led by the Spanish and French, had begun establishing settlements in what would become the United States. In 1607, the English founded their first permanent settlement in present-day America at Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.
Did you know? On January 1, 1892, Annie Moore, a teenager from County Cork, Ireland, was the first immigrant processed at Ellis Island. She had made the nearly two-week journey across the Atlantic Ocean in steerage with her two younger brothers. Annie later raised a family on New York City’s Lower East Side.
Some of America’s first settlers came in search of freedom to practice their faith. In 1620, a group of roughly 100 people later known as the Pilgrims fled religious persecution in Europe and arrived at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts , where they established a colony. They were soon followed by a larger group seeking religious freedom, the Puritans, who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. By some estimates, 20,000 Puritans migrated to the region between 1630 and 1640.
A larger share of immigrants came to America seeking economic opportunities. However, because the price of passage was steep, an estimated one-half or more of the white Europeans who made the voyage did so by becoming indentured servants. Although some people voluntarily indentured themselves, others were kidnapped in European cities and forced into servitude in America. Additionally, thousands of English convicts were shipped across the Atlantic as indentured servants.
Another group of immigrants who arrived against their will during the colonial period were enslaved people from West Africa. The earliest records of slavery in America include a group of approximately 20 Africans who were forced into indentured servitude in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. By 1680, there were some 7,000 Africans in the American colonies, a number that ballooned to 700,000 by 1790, according to some estimates. Congress outlawed the importation of enslaved people to the United States as of 1808, but the practice continued. The U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) resulted in the emancipation of approximately 4 million enslaved people. Although the exact numbers will never be known, it is believed that 500,000 to 650,000 Africans were brought to America and sold into slavery between the 17th and 19th centuries.
The Gold Rush of 1849
Another major wave of immigration occurred from around 1815 to 1865. The majority of these newcomers hailed from Northern and Western Europe. Approximately one-third came from Ireland, which experienced a massive famine in the mid-19th century. In the 1840s, almost half of America’s immigrants were from Ireland alone. Typically impoverished, these Irish immigrants settled near their point of arrival in cities along the East Coast. Between 1820 and 1930, some 4.5 million Irish migrated to the United States.
Also in the 19th century, the United States received some 5 million German immigrants. Many of them journeyed to the present-day Midwest to buy farms or congregated in such cities as Milwaukee, St. Louis and Cincinnati. In the national census of 2000, more Americans claimed German ancestry than any other group.
During the mid-1800s, a significant number of Asian immigrants settled in the United States. Lured by news of the California gold rush, some 25,000 Chinese had migrated there by the early 1850s.
The influx of newcomers resulted in anti-immigrant sentiment among certain factions of America’s native-born, predominantly Anglo-Saxon Protestant population. The new arrivals were often seen as unwanted competition for jobs, while many Catholics–especially the Irish–experienced discrimination for their religious beliefs. In the 1850s, the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic American Party (also called the Know-Nothings) tried to severely curb immigration, and even ran a candidate, former U.S. president Millard Fillmore (1800-1874), in the presidential election of 1856.
Following the Civil War, the United States experienced a depression in the 1870s that contributed to a slowdown in immigration.
Immigrants at Ellis Island
One of the first significant pieces of federal legislation aimed at restricting immigration was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese laborers from coming to America. Californians had agitated for the new law, blaming the Chinese, who were willing to work for less, for a decline in wages.
For much of the 1800s, the federal government had left immigration policy to individual states. However, by the final decade of the century, the government decided it needed to step in to handle the ever-increasing influx of newcomers. In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901) designated Ellis Island , located in New York Harbor near the Statue of Liberty , as a federal immigration station. More than 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island during its years of operation from 1892 to 1954.
Between 1880 and 1920, a time of rapid industrialization and urbanization, America received more than 20 million immigrants. Beginning in the 1890s, the majority of arrivals were from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. In that decade alone, some 600,000 Italians migrated to America, and by 1920 more than 4 million had entered the United States. Jews from Eastern Europe fleeing religious persecution also arrived in large numbers; over 2 million entered the United States between 1880 and 1920.
The peak year for admission of new immigrants was 1907, when approximately 1.3 million people entered the country legally. Within a decade, the outbreak of World War I (1914-1918) caused a decline in immigration. In 1917, Congress enacted legislation requiring immigrants over 16 to pass a literacy test, and in the early 1920s immigration quotas were established. The Immigration Act of 1924 created a quota system that restricted entry to 2 percent of the total number of people of each nationality in America as of the 1890 national census–a system that favored immigrants from Western Europe–and prohibited immigrants from Asia.
The Bracero Program was a series of diplomatic accords between Mexico and the United States signed in 1942 that brought millions of Mexican immigrants to the United States to work on short-term agricultural labor contracts. From 1942 to 1964, 4.6 million contracts were signed — making it the largest U.S. contract labor program to date.
The program also addressed Depression-era deportations and brought many Mexican Americans, who were largely targeted for deportation at the time, back to the states.
The program was criticized because workers often faced discrimination, harsh working conditions, and had virtually no job security. Once their contracts expired, some Braceros returned home with little money because of debts incurred to the stores located in employer-operated housing camps, while others stayed in the United States illegally and sought additional work.
Immigration plummeted during the global depression of the 1930s and World War II (1939-1945). Between 1930 and 1950, America’s foreign-born population decreased from 14.2 to 10.3 million, or from 11.6 to 6.9 percent of the total population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. After the war, Congress passed special legislation enabling refugees from Europe and the Soviet Union to enter the United States. Following the communist revolution in Cuba in 1959, hundreds of thousands of refugees from that island nation also gained admittance to the United States.
In 1965, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, which did away with quotas based on nationality and allowed Americans to sponsor relatives from their countries of origin. As a result of this act and subsequent legislation, the nation experienced a shift in immigration patterns. Today, the majority of U.S. immigrants come from Asia and Latin America rather than Europe.
1 / 12: Geo. P. Hall & Son/The New York Historical Society/Getty Images
1 / 20: Augustus Sherman/New York Public Library
1 / 6: Bettmann/CORBIS | https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/u-s-immigration-before-1965 | 57 |
when did the first immigrants come to america | U.S. Immigration Before 1965 | The United States experienced major waves of immigration during the colonial era, the first part of the 19th century and from the 1880s to 1920. Many immigrants came to America seeking greater economic opportunity, while some, such as the Pilgrims in the early 1600s, arrived in search of religious freedom. From the 17th to 19th centuries, hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans came to America against their will. The first significant federal legislation restricting immigration was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Individual states regulated immigration prior to the 1892 opening of Ellis Island, the country’s first federal immigration station. New laws in 1965 ended the quota system that favored European immigrants, and today, the majority of the country’s immigrants hail from Asia and Latin America.
From its earliest days, America has been a nation of immigrants, starting with its original inhabitants, who crossed the land bridge connecting Asia and North America tens of thousands of years ago. By the 1500s, the first Europeans, led by the Spanish and French, had begun establishing settlements in what would become the United States. In 1607, the English founded their first permanent settlement in present-day America at Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.
Did you know? On January 1, 1892, Annie Moore, a teenager from County Cork, Ireland, was the first immigrant processed at Ellis Island. She had made the nearly two-week journey across the Atlantic Ocean in steerage with her two younger brothers. Annie later raised a family on New York City’s Lower East Side.
Some of America’s first settlers came in search of freedom to practice their faith. In 1620, a group of roughly 100 people later known as the Pilgrims fled religious persecution in Europe and arrived at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts , where they established a colony. They were soon followed by a larger group seeking religious freedom, the Puritans, who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. By some estimates, 20,000 Puritans migrated to the region between 1630 and 1640.
A larger share of immigrants came to America seeking economic opportunities. However, because the price of passage was steep, an estimated one-half or more of the white Europeans who made the voyage did so by becoming indentured servants. Although some people voluntarily indentured themselves, others were kidnapped in European cities and forced into servitude in America. Additionally, thousands of English convicts were shipped across the Atlantic as indentured servants.
Another group of immigrants who arrived against their will during the colonial period were enslaved people from West Africa. The earliest records of slavery in America include a group of approximately 20 Africans who were forced into indentured servitude in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. By 1680, there were some 7,000 Africans in the American colonies, a number that ballooned to 700,000 by 1790, according to some estimates. Congress outlawed the importation of enslaved people to the United States as of 1808, but the practice continued. The U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) resulted in the emancipation of approximately 4 million enslaved people. Although the exact numbers will never be known, it is believed that 500,000 to 650,000 Africans were brought to America and sold into slavery between the 17th and 19th centuries.
The Gold Rush of 1849
Another major wave of immigration occurred from around 1815 to 1865. The majority of these newcomers hailed from Northern and Western Europe. Approximately one-third came from Ireland, which experienced a massive famine in the mid-19th century. In the 1840s, almost half of America’s immigrants were from Ireland alone. Typically impoverished, these Irish immigrants settled near their point of arrival in cities along the East Coast. Between 1820 and 1930, some 4.5 million Irish migrated to the United States.
Also in the 19th century, the United States received some 5 million German immigrants. Many of them journeyed to the present-day Midwest to buy farms or congregated in such cities as Milwaukee, St. Louis and Cincinnati. In the national census of 2000, more Americans claimed German ancestry than any other group.
During the mid-1800s, a significant number of Asian immigrants settled in the United States. Lured by news of the California gold rush, some 25,000 Chinese had migrated there by the early 1850s.
The influx of newcomers resulted in anti-immigrant sentiment among certain factions of America’s native-born, predominantly Anglo-Saxon Protestant population. The new arrivals were often seen as unwanted competition for jobs, while many Catholics–especially the Irish–experienced discrimination for their religious beliefs. In the 1850s, the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic American Party (also called the Know-Nothings) tried to severely curb immigration, and even ran a candidate, former U.S. president Millard Fillmore (1800-1874), in the presidential election of 1856.
Following the Civil War, the United States experienced a depression in the 1870s that contributed to a slowdown in immigration.
Immigrants at Ellis Island
One of the first significant pieces of federal legislation aimed at restricting immigration was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese laborers from coming to America. Californians had agitated for the new law, blaming the Chinese, who were willing to work for less, for a decline in wages.
For much of the 1800s, the federal government had left immigration policy to individual states. However, by the final decade of the century, the government decided it needed to step in to handle the ever-increasing influx of newcomers. In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901) designated Ellis Island , located in New York Harbor near the Statue of Liberty , as a federal immigration station. More than 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island during its years of operation from 1892 to 1954.
Between 1880 and 1920, a time of rapid industrialization and urbanization, America received more than 20 million immigrants. Beginning in the 1890s, the majority of arrivals were from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. In that decade alone, some 600,000 Italians migrated to America, and by 1920 more than 4 million had entered the United States. Jews from Eastern Europe fleeing religious persecution also arrived in large numbers; over 2 million entered the United States between 1880 and 1920.
The peak year for admission of new immigrants was 1907, when approximately 1.3 million people entered the country legally. Within a decade, the outbreak of World War I (1914-1918) caused a decline in immigration. In 1917, Congress enacted legislation requiring immigrants over 16 to pass a literacy test, and in the early 1920s immigration quotas were established. The Immigration Act of 1924 created a quota system that restricted entry to 2 percent of the total number of people of each nationality in America as of the 1890 national census–a system that favored immigrants from Western Europe–and prohibited immigrants from Asia.
The Bracero Program was a series of diplomatic accords between Mexico and the United States signed in 1942 that brought millions of Mexican immigrants to the United States to work on short-term agricultural labor contracts. From 1942 to 1964, 4.6 million contracts were signed — making it the largest U.S. contract labor program to date.
The program also addressed Depression-era deportations and brought many Mexican Americans, who were largely targeted for deportation at the time, back to the states.
The program was criticized because workers often faced discrimination, harsh working conditions, and had virtually no job security. Once their contracts expired, some Braceros returned home with little money because of debts incurred to the stores located in employer-operated housing camps, while others stayed in the United States illegally and sought additional work.
Immigration plummeted during the global depression of the 1930s and World War II (1939-1945). Between 1930 and 1950, America’s foreign-born population decreased from 14.2 to 10.3 million, or from 11.6 to 6.9 percent of the total population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. After the war, Congress passed special legislation enabling refugees from Europe and the Soviet Union to enter the United States. Following the communist revolution in Cuba in 1959, hundreds of thousands of refugees from that island nation also gained admittance to the United States.
In 1965, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, which did away with quotas based on nationality and allowed Americans to sponsor relatives from their countries of origin. As a result of this act and subsequent legislation, the nation experienced a shift in immigration patterns. Today, the majority of U.S. immigrants come from Asia and Latin America rather than Europe.
1 / 12: Geo. P. Hall & Son/The New York Historical Society/Getty Images
1 / 20: Augustus Sherman/New York Public Library
1 / 6: Bettmann/CORBIS | https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/u-s-immigration-before-1965 | 57 |
when did the first immigrants come to america | History of immigration to the United States | The history of immigration to the United States details the movement of people to the United States , from the colonial era to the present. The United States experienced successive waves of immigration, particularly from Europe, and later from Asia and Latin America. Colonial era immigrants often repaid the cost of transoceanic transportation by becoming indentured servants where the new employer paid the ship's captain. Starting in the late 19th century, immigration was restricted from China and Japan. In the 1920s, restrictive immigration quotas were imposed, although political refugees had special status. Numerical restrictions ended in 1965. In recent years, the largest numbers have come from Asia and Central America.
Attitudes towards new immigrants have cycled between favorable and hostile since the 1790s. Recent debates focus on the Southern border, and on the status of "dreamers" who have lived almost their entire life in the U.S. after illegally migrating with their families as children.
In 1607, the first successful English colony settled in Jamestown, Virginia . Once tobacco was found to be a profitable cash crop , many plantations were established along the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and Maryland .
Thus began the first and longest era of immigration, lasting until the American Revolution in 1775; during this time settlements grew from initial English toe-holds from the New World to British America . It brought Northern European immigrants, primarily of British, German, and Dutch extraction. The British ruled from the mid-17th century and they were by far the largest group of arrivals, remaining within the British Empire . Over 90% of these early immigrants became farmers. [1]
Large numbers of young men and women came alone as indentured servants. Their passage was paid by employers in the colonies who needed help on the farms or in shops. Indentured servants were provided food, housing, clothing and training but they did not receive wages. At the end of the indenture (usually around age 21, or after a service of seven years) they were free to marry and start their own farms. [2]
Seeking religious freedom in the New World, one hundred English Pilgrims established a small settlement near Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. Tens of thousands of English Puritans arrived, mostly from the East Anglian parts of England ( Norfolk , Suffolk , East Sussex ., [3] and settled in Boston, Massachusetts and adjacent areas from around 1629 to 1640 to create a land dedicated to their religion. The earliest New English colonies, Massachusetts , Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire , were established along the northeast coast. Large scale immigration to this region ended before 1700, though a small but steady trickle of later arrivals continued. [4]
The New English colonists were the most urban and educated of all their contemporaries, and they had many skilled farmers, tradesmen and craftsmen among them. They started the first university , Harvard , in 1635 in order to train their ministers. They mostly settled in small villages for mutual support (nearly all of them had their own militias) and common religious activities. Shipbuilding, commerce, agriculture, and fishing were their main sources of income. New England's healthy climate (the cold winters killed the mosquitoes and other disease-bearing insects), small widespread villages (minimizing the spread of disease), and an abundant food supply resulted in the lowest death rate and the highest birth rate of any of the colonies. The Eastern and Northern frontier around the initial New England settlements was mainly settled by the descendants of the original New Englanders. Immigration to the New England colonies after 1640 and the start of the English Civil War decreased to less than 1% (about equal to the death rate) in nearly all of the years prior to 1845. The rapid growth of the New England colonies (approximately 900,000 by 1790) was almost entirely due to the high birth rate (>3%) and the low death rate (<1%) per year. [5]
The Dutch colonies, organized by the United East Indian Company , were first established along the Hudson River in present-day New York state starting about 1626. Wealthy Dutch patroons set up large landed estates along the Hudson River and brought in farmers who became renters. Others established rich trading posts to trade with Native Americans and started cities such as New Amsterdam (now New York City) and Albany, New York . [6] After the British seized the colony and renamed it New York, Germans (from the Palatinate ) and Yankees (from New England) began arriving. [7]
Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware formed the middle colonies . Pennsylvania was settled by Quakers from Britain, followed by Ulster Scots (Northern Ireland) on the frontier and numerous German Protestant sects, including the German Palatines . The earlier colony of New Sweden had small settlements on the lower Delaware River , with immigrants of Swedes and Finns . These colonies were absorbed by 1676. [8]
The middle colonies were scattered west of New York City (established 1626; taken over by the English in 1664) and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (established 1682). New Amsterdam/New York had the most diverse residents from different nations and prospered as a major trading and commercial center after about 1700. From around 1680 to 1725, Pennsylvania was controlled by the Quakers. The commercial center of Philadelphia was run mostly by prosperous Quakers, supplemented by many small farming and trading communities, with a strong German contingent located in villages in the Delaware River valley. [9]
Starting around 1680, when Pennsylvania was founded, many more settlers arrived to the middle colonies. Many Protestant sects were attracted by freedom of religion and good, cheap land. They were about 60% British and 33% German. By 1780, New York's population were around 27% descendants of Dutch settlers, about 6% were African, and the remainder were mostly English with a wide mixture of other Europeans. New Jersey, and Delaware had a British majority, with 7–11% German-descendants, about 6% African population, and a small contingent of the Swedish descendants of New Sweden.
The fourth major center of settlement was the western frontier , located in the inland parts of Pennsylvania and south colonies. It was mainly settled from about 1717 to 1775 by Presbyterian farmers from North England border lands, Scotland , and Ulster , fleeing hard times and religious persecution. [10] Between 250,000 and 400,000 Scots-Irish migrated to America in the 18th century. [10] The Scots-Irish soon became the dominant culture of the Appalachians from Pennsylvania to Georgia . Areas where 20th-century censuses reported mostly ' American ' ancestry were the places where, historically, northern English, Scottish and Scots-Irish Protestants settled: in the interior of the South , and the Appalachian region. Scots-Irish American immigrants, were made up of people from the southernmost counties of Scotland who had initially settled in Ireland. They were heavily Presbyterian, and largely self-sufficient. The Scots-Irish arrived in large numbers during the early 18th century and they often preferred to settle in the back country and the frontier from Pennsylvania to Georgia, where they mingled with second generation and later English settlers. They enjoyed the very cheap land and independence from established governments common to frontier settlements. [11]
The mostly agricultural Southern English colonies initially had very high death rates for new settlers due to malaria , yellow fever , and other diseases as well as skirmishes with Native Americans . Despite this, a steady flow of new immigrants, mostly from Central England and the London area, kept up population growth. As early as 1630, initial areas of settlement had been largely cleared of Native Americans by major outbreaks of measles , smallpox , and bubonic plague beginning already decades before European settlers began arriving in large numbers. The leading killer was smallpox, which arrived in the New World around 1510–1530. [12]
Initially, the plantations established in these colonies were mostly owned by friends (mostly minor aristocrats and gentry) of the British-appointed governors. A group of Gaelic-speaking Scottish Highlanders created a settlement at Cape Fear in North Carolina, which remained culturally distinct until the mid-18th century, at which point it was swallowed up by the dominant English-origin culture. [13] Many settlers from Europe arrived as indentured servants, having had their passage paid for, in return for five to seven years of work, including free room and board, clothing, and training, but without cash wages. After their periods of indenture expired, many of these former servants founded small farms on the frontier.
By the early 18th century, the involuntary migration of African slaves was a significant component of the immigrant population in the Southern colonies. Between 1700 and 1740, a large majority of the net overseas migration to these colonies were Africans. In the third quarter of the 18th century, the population of that region amounted to roughly 55% British, 38% black, and 7% German . In 1790, 42% of the population in South Carolina and Georgia was of African origin. [14] Before 1800, the growing of tobacco, rice and indigo in plantations in the Southern colonies relied heavily on the labor of slaves from Africa. [15] The Atlantic slave trade to mainland North America stopped during the Revolution and was outlawed in most states by 1800 and the entire nation in 1808 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves , although some slaves continued to be smuggled in illegally. [16]
While the thirteen colonies differed in how they were settled and by whom, they had many similarities. Nearly all were settled and financed by privately organized British settlers or families using free enterprise without any significant Royal or Parliamentary government support. Nearly all commercial activity comprised small, privately owned businesses with good credit both in America and in England, which was essential since they were often cash poor. Most settlements were largely independent of British trade, since they grew or manufactured nearly everything they needed; the average cost of imports per household was 5–15 pounds sterling per year. Most settlements consisted of complete family groups with several generations present. The population was rural, with close to 80% owning the land on which they lived and farmed. After 1700, as the Industrial Revolution progressed, more of the population started to move to cities, as had happened in Britain. Initially, the Dutch and German settlers spoke languages brought over from Europe, but English was the main language of commerce. Governments and laws mainly copied English models. The only major British institution to be abandoned was the aristocracy , which was almost totally absent. The settlers generally established their own law-courts and popularly elected governments. This self-ruling pattern became so ingrained that for the next 200 years almost all new settlements had their own government up and running shortly after arrival.
After the colonies were established, their population growth comprised almost entirely organic growth, with foreign-born immigrant populations rarely exceeding 10%. The last significant colonies to be settled primarily by immigrants were Pennsylvania (post-1680s), the Carolinas (post-1663), and Georgia (post-1732). Even here, the immigrants came mostly from England and Scotland, with the exception of Pennsylvania's large Germanic contingent. Elsewhere, internal American migration from other colonies provided nearly all of the settlers for each new colony or state. [17] Populations grew by about 80% over a 20-year period, at a "natural" annual growth rate of 3%.
Over half of all new British immigrants in the South initially arrived as indentured servants , [18] mostly poor young people who could not find work in England nor afford passage to America. In addition, about 60,000 British convicts guilty of minor offences were transported to the British colonies in the 18th century, with the "serious" criminals generally having been executed. Ironically, these convicts are often the only immigrants with nearly complete immigration records, as other immigrants typically arrived with few or no records. [19]
Although Spain set up a few forts in Florida , notably San Agustín (present-day Saint Augustine ) in 1565, they sent few settlers to Florida. Spaniards moving north from Mexico founded the San Juan on the Rio Grande in 1598 and Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1607–1608. The settlers were forced to leave temporarily for 12 years (1680–1692) by the Pueblo Revolt before returning.
Spanish Texas lasted from 1690 to 1821, when Texas was governed as a colony that was separate from New Spain . In 1731, Canary Islanders (or "Isleños") arrived to establish San Antonio . [20] The majority of the few hundred Texan and New Mexican colonizers in the Spanish colonial period were Spaniards and criollos . [21] California, New Mexico and Arizona all had Spanish settlements. In 1781, Spanish settlers founded Los Angeles.
At the time the former Spanish colonies joined the United States, Californios in California numbered about 10,000 and Tejanos in Texas about 4,000. New Mexico had 47,000 Spanish settlers in 1842; Arizona was only thinly settled.
However, not all these settlers were of European descent. As in the rest of the American colonies, new settlements were based on the casta system, and although all could speak Spanish, it was a melting pot of whites, natives, and mestizos.
In the late 17th century, French expeditions established a foothold on the Saint Lawrence River , Mississippi River and Gulf Coast . Interior trading posts, forts and cities were thinly spread. The city of Detroit was the third-largest settlement in New France . New Orleans expanded when several thousand French-speaking refugees from the region of Acadia made their way to Louisiana following British expulsion, settling largely in the Southwest Louisiana region now called Acadiana . Their descendants are now called Cajun and still dominate the coastal areas. [22] About 7,000 French-speaking immigrants settled in Louisiana during the 18th century.
The following were the countries of origin for new arrivals to the United States before 1790. [23] The regions marked with an asterisk were part of Great Britain. The ancestry of the 3.9 million population in 1790 has been estimated by various sources by sampling last names from the 1790 census and assigning them a country of origin. The Irish in the 1790 census were mostly Scots-Irish. The French were primarily Huguenots . The total U.S. Catholic population in 1790 was probably less than 5%. The Native American population inside territorial U.S. boundaries was less than 100,000. [ citation needed ]
|U.S. historical populations|
|Country||Immigrants before 1790||Population 1790 [24]|
|Africa [25]||360,000||757,000|
|England*||230,000||2,100,000|
|Ulster Scots-Irish*||135,000||300,000|
|Germany [26]||103,000||270,000|
|Scotland *||48,500||150,000|
|Ireland*||8,000||(Incl. in Scot-Irish)|
|Netherlands||6,000||100,000|
|Wales *||4,000||10,000|
|France||3,000||15,000|
|Jewish [27]||1,000||2,000|
|Sweden||1,000||6,000|
|Other [28]||50,000||200,000|
|British Isles total||425,500||2,560,000|
|Total [29]||950,000||3,900,000|
The 1790 population reflected the loss of approximately 46,000 Loyalists , or "Tories", who immigrated to Canada at the end of the American Revolution, 10,000 who went to England and 6,000 to the Caribbean.
The 1790 census recorded 3.9 million inhabitants (not counting American Indians). Of the total white population of just under 3.2 million in 1790, approximately 86% was of British ancestry (60%, or 1.9 million, English, 4.3% Welsh, 5.4% Scots, 5.8% Irish (South), and 10.5% Scots-Irish. Among those whose ancestry was from outside of British Isles, Germans were 9%, Dutch 3.4%, French 2.1%, and Swedish 0.25%; blacks made up 19.3% (or 762,000) of the U.S. population. [30] The number of Scots was 200,000; Irish and Scot-Irish 625,000. The overwhelming majority of Southern Irish were Protestant, as there were only 60,000 Catholics in the United States in 1790, 1.6% of the population. Many U.S. Catholics were descendants of English Catholic settlers in the 17th century; the rest were Irish, German and some Acadians who remained. In this era, the population roughly doubled every 23 years, mostly due to natural increase. Relentless population expansion pushed the U.S. frontier to the Pacific by 1848. Most immigrants came long distances to settle in the United States. However, many Irish left Canada for the United States in the 1840s. French Canadians who moved south from Quebec after 1860, and the Mexicans who came north after 1911, found it easier to move back and forth. [ citation needed ]
If one excludes enslaved Africans, there was relatively little immigration from 1770 to 1830; while there was significant emigration from the U.S. to Canada, including about 75,000 Loyalists as well as Germans and others looking for better farmland in what is now Ontario. Large-scale immigration in the 1830s to 1850s came from Britain, Ireland, Germany. Most were attracted by the cheap farmland. Some were artisans and skilled factory workers attracted by the first stage of industrialization. The Irish Catholics were primarily unskilled workers who built a majority of the canals and railroads, settling in urban areas. Many Irish went to the emerging textile mill towns of the Northeast, while others became longshoremen in the growing Atlantic and Gulf port cities. Half the Germans headed to farms, especially in the Midwest (with some to Texas), while the other half became craftsmen in urban areas. [31]
Nativism took the form of political anti-Catholicism directed mostly at the Irish (as well as Germans). It became important briefly in the mid-1850s in the guise of the Know Nothing party. Most of the Catholics and German Lutherans became Democrats, and most of the other Protestants joined the new Republican Party. During the Civil War, ethnic communities supported the war and produced large numbers of soldiers on both sides. Riots broke out in New York City and other Irish and German strongholds in 1863 when a draft was instituted, particularly in light of the provision exempting those who could afford payment. [32]
Immigration totaled 8,385 in 1820, with immigration totals gradually increasing to 23,322 by the year 1830; for the 1820s decade immigration more than doubled to 143,000. Between 1831 and 1840, immigration more than quadrupled to a total of 599,000. These included about 207,000 Irish, starting to emigrate in large numbers following Britain's easing of travel restrictions, and about 152,000 Germans, 76,000 British, and 46,000 French, constituting the next largest immigrant groups of the decade.
Between 1841 and 1850, immigration nearly tripled again, totaling 1,713,000 immigrants, including at least 781,000 Irish, 435,000 Germans, 267,000 British, and 77,000 French. The Irish, driven by the Great Famine (1845–1849), emigrated directly from their homeland to escape poverty and death. The failed revolutions of 1848 brought many intellectuals and activists to exile in the U.S. Bad times and poor conditions in Europe drove people out, while land, relatives, freedom, opportunity, and jobs in the US lured them in.
| Population and foreign born 1790–1849 |
Census population, immigrants per decade
|Census||Population||Immigrants 1||Foreign born||%|
|1790||3,918,000||60,000|
|1800||5,236,000||60,000|
|1810||7,036,000||60,000|
|1820||10,086,000||60,000|
|1830||12,785,000||143,000||200,000 2||1.6%|
|1840||17,018,000||599,000||800,000 2||4.7%|
|1850||23,054,000||1,713,000||2,244,000||9.7%|
| 1. The total number immigrating in each decade from 1790 to 1820 are estimates. |
2. The number of foreign born in 1830 and 1840 decades are extrapolations.
Starting in 1820, some federal records, including ship passenger lists, were kept for immigration purposes, and a gradual increase in immigration was recorded; more complete immigration records provide data on immigration after 1830. Though conducted since 1790, the census of 1850 was the first in which place of birth was asked specifically. The foreign-born population in the U.S. likely reached its minimum around 1815, at approximately 100,000 or 1% of the population. By 1815, most of the immigrants who arrived before the American Revolution had died, and there had been almost no new immigration thereafter.
Nearly all population growth up to 1830 was by internal increase; around 98% of the population was native-born. By 1850, this shifted to about 90% native-born. The first significant Catholic immigration started in the mid-1840s, shifting the population from about 95% Protestant down to about 90% by 1850.
In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo , concluding the Mexican War, extended U.S. citizenship to approximately 60,000 Mexican residents of the New Mexico Territory and 10,000 living in Mexican California . An additional approximate 2,500 foreign-born California residents also became U.S. citizens.
In 1849, the California Gold Rush attracted 100,000 would-be miners from the Eastern U.S., Latin America, China, Australia, and Europe. California became a state in 1850 with a population of about 90,000.
Between 1850 and 1930, about 5 million Germans migrated to the United States, peaking between 1881 and 1885 when a million Germans settled primarily in the Midwest . Between 1820 and 1930, 3.5 million British and 4.5 million Irish entered America. Before 1845, most Irish immigrants were Protestants. After 1845, Irish Catholics began arriving in large numbers, largely driven by the Great Famine . [33]
After 1880, larger steam-powered oceangoing ships replaced sailing ships, which resulted in lower fares and greater immigrant mobility. In addition, the expansion of a railroad system in Europe made it easier for people to reach oceanic ports to board ships. Meanwhile, farming improvements in Southern Europe and the Russian Empire created surplus labor. Young people between the ages of 15 to 30 were predominant among newcomers. This wave of migration, constituting the third episode in the history of U.S. immigration, may be better referred to as a flood of immigrants, as nearly 25 million Europeans made the long trip. Italians, Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, and others speaking Slavic languages made up the bulk of this migration. 2.5 to 4 million Jews were among them. [ citation needed ]
2:23
Each group evinced a distinctive migration pattern in terms of the gender balance within the migratory pool, the permanence of their migration, their literacy rates, the balance between adults and children, and the like. But they shared one overarching characteristic: they flocked to urban destinations and made up the bulk of the U.S. industrial labor pool, making possible the emergence of such industries as steel, coal, automotive, textile, and garment production, enabling the United States to leap into the front ranks of the world's economic giants. [ citation needed ]
More than 23 million people immigrated to the United States from 1880-1930 alone. Although many of these immigrants settled in urban centers, not all of them stayed in the U.S. permanently. In some groups, like the Southern Italian contadini , it was common to return to their place of origin and about half of them did. Others, like 90% of eastern European Jews who immigrated to the United States, stayed permanently. [34] Within the first decade of the 20th century 14.7 percent of Americans were born in a different country, 22 percent of this population settled in Urban areas. [35]
Their urban destinations, numbers, and perhaps an antipathy towards foreigners, led to the emergence of the second wave of organized xenophobia. By the 1890s, many Americans, particularly from the ranks of the well-off, white, and native-born, considered immigration to pose a serious danger to the nation's health and security. In 1893 a group formed the Immigration Restriction League, and it, along with other similarly inclined organizations, began to press Congress for severe curtailment of foreign immigration. [ citation needed ]
Irish and German Catholic immigration was opposed in the 1850s by the nativist movement , originating in New York in 1843 as the American Republican Party (not to be confused with the modern Republican Party ). It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to American values and controlled by the Pope in Rome . Active mainly from 1854 to 1856, it strove to curb immigration and naturalization , though its efforts met with little success. There were few prominent leaders, and the largely middle-class and Protestant membership fragmented over the issue of slavery , most often joining the Republican Party by the time of the 1860 presidential election . [36] [37]
European immigrants joined the Union Army in large numbers, including 177,000 born in Germany and 144,000 born in Ireland, a full 16% of the Union Army. [38] Many Germans could see the parallels between slavery and serfdom in the old fatherland. [39]
Between 1840 and 1930, about 900,000 French Canadians left Quebec in order to immigrate to the United States and work mainly in New England . About half returned. Considering the fact that the population of Quebec was only 892,061 in 1851, [ citation needed ] this was a massive exodus. 13.6 million Americans claimed to have French ancestry in the 1980 census. A large portion of them have ancestors who emigrated from French Canada , since immigration from France was low throughout the history of the United States. The communities established by these immigrants became known as Little Canada .
Shortly after the American Civil War , some states started to pass their own immigration laws, which prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in 1875 that immigration was a federal responsibility. [40] In 1875, the nation passed its first immigration law, the Page Act of 1875 , also known as the Asian Exclusion Act, outlawing the importation of Asian contract laborers, any Asian woman who would engage in prostitution, and all people considered to be convicts in their own countries. [41]
In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act . By excluding all Chinese laborers from entering the country, the Chinese Exclusion Act severely curtailed the number of immigrants of Chinese descent allowed into the United States for 10 years. [42] The law was renewed in 1892 and 1902. During this period, Chinese migrants illegally entered the United States through the loosely guarded U.S.–Canadian border . [43] The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed with the passage of the Magnuson Act in 1943.
Prior to 1890, the individual states, rather than the federal government, regulated immigration into the United States. [44] The Immigration Act of 1891 established a Commissioner of Immigration in the Treasury Department. [45] The Canadian Agreement of 1894 extended U.S. immigration restrictions to Canadian ports.
The Dillingham Commission was set up by Congress in 1907 to investigate the effects of immigration on the country. The Commission's 40-volume analysis of immigration during the previous three decades led it to conclude that the major source of immigration had shifted from Central, Northern, and Western Europeans to Southern Europeans and Russians. It was, however, apt to make generalizations about regional groups that were subjective and failed to differentiate between distinct cultural attributes. [46] [47]
The 1910s marked the high point of Italian immigration to the United States. Over two million Italians immigrated in those years, with a total of 5.3 million between 1880 and 1920. [48] [49] About half returned to Italy, after working an average of five years in the U.S. [50]
About 1.5 million Swedes and Norwegians immigrated to the United States within this period, due to opportunity in America and poverty and religious oppression in united Sweden–Norway . This accounted for around 20% of the total population of the kingdom at that time. They settled mainly in the Midwest, especially Minnesota and the Dakotas. Danes had comparably low immigration rates due to a better economy [ citation needed ] ; after 1900 many Danish immigrants were Mormon converts who moved to Utah . [51]
Over two million Central Europeans , mainly Catholics and Jews, immigrated between 1880 and 1924. People of Polish ancestry are the largest Central European ancestry group in the United States after Germans. Immigration of Eastern Orthodox ethnic groups was much lower. [ citation needed ]
Lebanese and Syrian immigrants started to settle in large numbers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The vast majority of the immigrants from Lebanon and Syria were Christians , but smaller numbers of Jews , Muslims , and Druze also settled. Many lived in New York City's Little Syria and in Boston . In the 1920s and 1930s, a large number of these immigrants set out West, with Detroit getting a large number of Middle Eastern immigrants, as well as many Midwestern areas where the Arabs worked as farmers. [ citation needed ]
Congress passed a literacy requirement in 1917 to curb the influx of low-skilled immigrants from entering the country. [ citation needed ]
Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act in 1921, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924 , which supplanted earlier acts to effectively ban all immigration from Asia and set quotas for the Eastern Hemisphere so that no more than 2% of nationalities as represented in the 1890 census were allowed to immigrate to America.
"New immigration" was a term from the late 1880s that refers to the influx of Catholic and Jewish immigrants from southern and eastern Europe (areas that previously sent few immigrants). [52] The great majority came through Ellis Island in New York, thus making the Northeast a major target of settlement. However there were a few efforts, such as the Galveston Movement , to redirect immigrants to other ports and disperse some of the settlement to other areas of the country.
Nativists feared the new arrivals lacked the political, social, and occupational skills needed to successfully assimilate into American culture. This raised the issue of whether the U.S. was still a " melting pot ", or if it had just become a "dumping ground", and many old-stock Americans worried about negative effects on the economy, politics, and culture. [53] A major proposal was to impose a literacy test, whereby applicants had to be able to read and write in their own language before they were admitted. In Southern and Eastern Europe, literacy was low because the governments did not invest in schools. [54]
Restriction proceeded piecemeal over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but immediately after the end of World War I (1914–1918) and into the early 1920s, Congress changed the nation's basic policy about immigration. The National Origins Formula of 1921 (and its final form in 1924) not only restricted the number of immigrants who might enter the United States but also assigned slots according to quotas based on national origins. The bill was so limiting that the number of immigrants coming to the U.S. between 1921 and 1922 decreased by nearly 500,000. [55] A complicated piece of legislation, it essentially gave preference to immigrants from Central, Northern, and Western Europe, limiting the numbers from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe, and gave zero quotas to Asia. However close family members could come. [56]
The legislation excluded Latin America from the quota system. Immigrants could and did move quite freely from Mexico, the Caribbean (including Jamaica, Barbados, and Haiti), and other parts of Central and South America.
The era of the 1924 legislation lasted until 1965. During those 40 years, the United States began to admit, case by case, limited numbers of refugees. Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany before World War II, Jewish Holocaust survivors after the war, non-Jewish displaced persons fleeing communist rule in Central Europe and the Soviet Union , Hungarians seeking refuge after their failed uprising in 1956, and Cubans after the 1959 revolution managed to find haven in the United States when their plight moved the collective conscience of America, but the basic immigration law remained in place.
This law allowed foreign-born children of American mothers and alien fathers who had entered America before the age of 18 and had lived in America for five years to apply for American citizenship for the first time. [57] It also made the naturalization process quicker for the alien husbands of American wives. [57] This law equalized expatriation, immigration, naturalization, and repatriation between women and men. [57] [58] However, it was not applied retroactively, and was modified by later laws, such as the Nationality Act of 1940 . [57] [59]
In 1934, the Tydings–McDuffie Act provided independence of the Philippines on July 4, 1946. Until 1965, national origin quotas strictly limited immigration from the Philippines. In 1965, after revision of the immigration law, significant Filipino immigration began, totaling 1,728,000 by 2004. [60]
In 1945, the War Brides Act allowed foreign-born wives of U.S. citizens who had served in the U.S. Armed Forces to immigrate to the United States. In 1946, The War Brides Act was extended to include the fiancés of American soldiers. In 1946, the Luce–Celler Act extended the right to become naturalized citizens to those from the newly independent nation of the Philippines and to Asian Indians, the immigration quota being set at 100 people per year per country. [61]
At the end of World War II, "regular" immigration almost immediately increased under the official national origins quota system as refugees from war-torn Europe began immigrating to the U.S. After the war, there were jobs for nearly everyone who wanted one, when most women employed during the war went back into the home. From 1941 to 1950, 1,035,000 people immigrated to the U.S., including 226,000 from Germany, 139,000 from the UK, 171,000 from Canada, 60,000 from Mexico, and 57,000 from Italy. [63]
The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 finally allowed the displaced people of World War II to start immigrating. [64] Some 200,000 Europeans and 17,000 orphans displaced by World War II were initially allowed to immigrate to the United States outside of immigration quotas. President Harry S. Truman signed the first Displaced Persons (DP) act on June 25, 1948, allowing entry for 200,000 DPs, then followed with the more accommodating second DP act on June 16, 1950, allowing entry for another 200,000. This quota, including acceptance of 55,000 Volksdeutschen , required sponsorship for all immigrants. The American program was the most notoriously bureaucratic of all the DP programs and much of the humanitarian effort was undertaken by charitable organizations, such as the Lutheran World Federation as well as other ethnic groups. Along with an additional quota of 200,000 granted in 1953 and more in succeeding years, a total of nearly 600,000 refugees were allowed into the country outside the quota system, second only to Israel's 650,000. [ citation needed ]
In 1950, after the start of the Korean War , the Internal Security Act barred admission of communists, who might engage in activities "which would be prejudicial to the public interest, or would endanger the welfare or safety of the United States." Significant Korean immigration began in 1965, totaling 848,000 by 2004. [65]
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 affirmed the national-origins quota system of 1924 and limited total annual immigration to one-sixth of one percent of the population of the continental United States in 1920, or 175,455. This exempted the spouses and children of U.S. citizens and people born in the Western Hemisphere from the quota. In 1953, the Refugee Relief Act extended refugee status to non-Europeans.
In 1954, Operation Wetback forced the return of thousands of illegal immigrants to Mexico. [66] Between 1944 and 1954, "the decade of the wetback," the number of illegal immigrants coming from Mexico increased by 6,000 percent. It is estimated that before Operation Wetback got underway, more than a million workers had crossed the Rio Grande illegally. Cheap labor displaced native agricultural workers, and increased violation of labor laws and discrimination encouraged criminality, disease, and illiteracy. According to a study conducted in 1950 by the President's Commission on Migratory Labor in Texas, the Rio Grande Valley cotton growers were paying approximately half of the wages paid elsewhere in Texas. The United States Border Patrol aided by municipal, county, state, federal authorities, and the military, began a quasi-military operation of the search and seizure of all illegal immigrants. Fanning out from the lower Rio Grande Valley, Operation Wetback moved Northward. Initially, illegal immigrants were repatriated through Presidio because the Mexican city across the border, Ojinaga, had rail connections to the interior of Mexico by which workers could be quickly moved on to Durango. The forces used by the government were relatively small, perhaps no more than 700 men, but were augmented by border patrol officials who hoped to scare illegal workers into fleeing back to Mexico. Ships became a preferred mode of transport because they carried illegal workers farther from the border than buses, trucks, or trains. It is difficult to estimate the number of illegal immigrants that left due to the operation—most voluntarily. The INS claimed as many as 1,300,000, though the number officially apprehended did not come anywhere near this total. The program was ultimately abandoned due to questions surrounding the ethics of its implementation. Citizens of Mexican descent complained of police stopping all "Mexican looking" people and utilizing extreme "police-state" methods including deportation of American-born children who were citizens by law. [67]
The failed 1956 Hungarian Revolution , before being crushed by the Soviets, forged a temporary hole in the Iron Curtain that allowed a burst of refugees to escape, with 245,000 Hungarian families being admitted by 1960. From 1950 to 1960, the U.S. had 2,515,000 new immigrants with 477,000 arriving from Germany, 185,000 from Italy, 52,000 from the Netherlands, 203,000 from the UK, 46,000 from Japan, 300,000 from Mexico, and 377,000 from Canada.
The 1959 Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro drove the upper and middle classes to exile, and 409,000 families immigrated to the U.S. by 1970. [68] This was facilitated by the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act , which gave permanent resident status to Cubans physically present in the United States for one year if they entered after January 1, 1959.
This all changed with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 , a by-product of the civil rights movement and one of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs. The measure had not been intended to stimulate immigration from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and elsewhere in the developing world. Rather, by doing away with the racially-based quota system, its authors had expected that immigrants would come from "traditional" societies such as Italy, Greece, and Portugal, places subject to very small quotas in the 1924 Act. The 1965 Act replaced the quotas with preferential categories based on family relationships and job skills, giving particular preference to potential immigrants with relatives in the United States and with occupations deemed critical by the U.S. Department of Labor. After 1970, following an initial influx from European countries, immigrants from places like Korea, China, India, the Philippines, and Pakistan, as well as countries in Africa became more common. [69]
In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) was passed, creating, for the first time, penalties for employers who hired illegal immigrants. IRCA, as proposed in Congress, was projected to give amnesty to about 1,000,000 workers in the country illegally. In practice, amnesty for about 3,000,000 immigrants already in the United States was granted. Most were from Mexico. Legal Mexican immigrant family numbers were 2,198,000 in 1980, 4,289,000 in 1990 (includes IRCA), and 7,841,000 in 2000. Adding another 12,000,000 illegal immigrants of which about 80% are thought to be Mexicans would bring the Mexican family total to over 16,000,000—about 16% of the Mexican population. [ citation needed ]
Passed in September 1996, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) was a comprehensive immigration reform focused on restructuring the process for admitting or removing undocumented immigrants. [70] Its passing helped to strengthen U.S. immigration laws, restructured immigration law enforcement, and sought to limit immigration by addressing undocumented migration. These reforms affected legal immigrants, those seeking entry into the U.S., and those living undocumented in the U.S. [71]
IIRIRA created new barriers for refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. by narrowing asylum criteria previously established in the Refugee Act of 1980. [72] To prevent fraudulent asylum filings from people who were migrating for economic or work-related reasons, IIRIRA imposed an all-inclusive filing deadline called the "One Year Bar" to asylum. [73] IIRIRA provided limited exceptions to this rule when an "alien demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Attorney General either the existence of changed circumstances which materially affect the applicant's eligibility for asylum or extraordinary circumstances relating to the delay in filing the application." [74] IIRIRA also made the asylum process more difficult for refugees by allowing for the resettlement of refugees to third countries, "precluding appeals" to denied asylum applications, implementing higher processing fees, and having enforcement officers rather than judges determine the expedited removal of refugees. [70]
Law enforcement under IIRIRA was strengthened to restrict unlawful immigration. The Act sought to prevent illegal immigration by expanding the number of Border Patrol agents and allowing the Attorney General to obtain resources from other federal agencies. Provisions were also made to improve infrastructure and barriers along the U.S. border area. [75] IIRIRA also delegated law enforcement capabilities to state and local officers via 287(g) agreements. [75] Illegal entry into the U.S. was made more difficult by cooperation between federal and local law enforcement, in addition to stiffening penalties for illegal entry and racketeering activities which included alien smuggling and document fraud.
IIRIRA addressed unlawful migration already present in the U.S. through enhanced tracking systems that included detecting employment eligibility and visa stay violations as well as creating counterfeit-resistant forms of identification. [76] The Act also established the 3 and 10 year re-entry bars for immigrants who accumulated unlawful presence in the U.S. and become inadmissible upon leaving the country. [77]
The restructuring of law enforcement contributed to an increased number of arrests, detentions, and removals of immigrants. [78] Under IIRIRA, the mandatory detention of broad groups of immigrants occurred, including those who had legal residence status but upon removal could have their status be removed after committing violent crimes. Relief and access to federal services were also redefined for immigrants as IIRIRA reiterated the 1996 Welfare Reform Act's tier system between citizens, legal immigrants, refugees, and illegal immigrants which determined public benefits eligibility. [76] In addition, IIRIRA also redefined financial self-sufficiency guidelines of sponsors who previously did not have to meet an income requirement to sponsor an immigrant. [76]
The top ten birth countries of the foreign born population since 1830, according to the U.S. census, are shown below. Blank entries mean that the country did not make it into the top ten for that census, not that there is no data from that census. The 1830 numbers are from immigration statistics as listed in the 2004 Year Book of Immigration Statistics. [79]
The 1830 numbers list un-naturalized foreign citizens and does not include naturalized foreign born. The 1850 census is the first census that asks for place of birth. The historical census data can be found online in the Virginia Library Geostat Center. [80] Population numbers are in thousands.
|Country/Year||1830•||1850||1880||1900||1930||1960||1970||1980||1990||2000|
|Austria||305||214|
|Bohemia||85|
|Canada||2||148||717||1,180||1,310||953||812||843||745||678|
|China||104||1,391|
|Cuba||439||608||737||952|
|Czechoslovakia||492|
|Dominican Republic||692|
|El Salvador||765|
|France||9||54||107|
|Germany||8||584||1,967||2,663||1,609||990||833||849||712|
|Hungary||245|
|India||2,000|
|Ireland||54||962||1,855||1,615||745||339|
|Italy||484||1,790||1,257||1,009||832||581|
|Korea||290||568||701|
|Mexico||11||13||641||576||760||2,199||4,298||7,841|
|Netherlands||1||10|
|Norway||13||182||336|
|Pakistan||724|
|Philippines||501||913||1,222|
|Poland||1,269||748||548||418|
|Sweden||194||582||595|
|Switzerland||3||13||89|
|United Kingdom||27||379||918||1,168||1,403||833||686||669||640|
|Vietnam||543||863|
|Former Soviet Republics||424||1,154||691||463||406|
|Total foreign born||108*||2,244||6,679||10,341||14,204||10,347||9,619||14,079||19,763||31,100|
|% Foreign born||0.8%*||9.7%||13.3%||13.6%||11.6%||5.8%||4.7%||6.2%||7.9%||11.1%|
|Native born||12,677||20,947||43,476||65,653||108,571||168,978||193,591||212,466||228,946||250,321|
|% Native born||99.2%||90.3%||86.7%||86.4%||88.4%||94.2%||95.3%||94%||92.1%||88.9%|
|Total population||12,785||23,191||50,155||75,994||122,775||179,325||203,210||226,545||248,709||281,421|
|1830||1850||1880||1900||1930||1960||1970||1980||1990||2000|
|Year||Year||Year|
|1820||8,385||1885||395,346||1950||249,187|
|1825||10,199||1890||455,302||1955||237,790|
|1830||23,322||1895||258,536||1960||265,398|
|1835||45,374||1900||448,572||1965||296,697|
|1840||84,066||1905||1,026,499||1970||373,326|
|1845||114,371||1910||1,041,570||1975||385,378|
|1850||369,980||1915||326,700||1980||524,295|
|1855||200,877||1920||430,001||1985||568,149|
|1860||153,640||1925||294,314||1990||1,535,872|
|1865||248,120||1930||241,700||1995||720,177|
|1870||387,203||1935||34,956||2000||841,002|
|1875||227,498||1940||70,756||2005||1,122,257|
|1880||457,257||1945||38,119||2010||1,042,625|
|State/Territory||1850||1860||1870||1880||1890||1900||1910||1920||1930||1940||1950||1960||1970||1980||1990||2000||2010|
|United States of America||9.7%||13.2%||14.4%||13.3%||14.8%||13.6%||14.7%||13.2%||11.6%||8.8%||6.9%||5.4%||4.7%||6.2%||7.9%||11.1%||12.9%|
|Alabama||1.0%||1.3%||1.0%||0.8%||1.0%||0.8%||0.9%||0.8%||0.6%||0.4%||0.4%||0.5%||0.5%||1.0%||1.1%||2.0%||3.5%|
|Alaska||3.6%||2.6%||4.0%||4.5%||5.9%||6.9%|
|Arizona||60.1%||39.7%||31.5%||19.7%||23.9%||24.1%||15.1%||7.8%||6.3%||5.4%||4.3%||6.0%||7.6%||12.8%||13.4%|
|Arkansas||0.7%||0.8%||1.0%||1.3%||1.3%||1.1%||1.1%||0.8%||0.6%||0.4%||0.5%||0.4%||0.4%||1.0%||1.1%||2.8%||4.5%|
|California||23.5%||38.6%||37.5%||33.9%||30.3%||24.7%||24.7%||22.1%||18.9%||13.4%||10.0%||8.5%||8.8%||15.1%||21.7%||26.2%||27.2%|
|Colorado||7.8%||16.6%||20.5%||20.4%||16.9%||16.2%||12.7%||9.6%||6.4%||4.6%||3.4%||2.7%||3.9%||4.3%||8.6%||9.8%|
|Connecticut||10.4%||17.5%||21.1%||20.9%||24.6%||26.2%||29.6%||27.4%||23.9%||19.3%||14.8%||10.9%||8.6%||8.6%||8.5%||10.9%||13.6%|
|Delaware||5.7%||8.2%||7.3%||6.5%||7.8%||7.5%||8.6%||8.9%||7.1%||5.6%||4.1%||3.3%||2.9%||3.2%||3.3%||5.7%||8.0%|
|District of Columbia||9.5%||16.6%||12.3%||9.6%||8.1%||7.2%||7.5%||6.7%||6.3%||5.3%||5.3%||5.1%||4.4%||6.4%||9.7%||12.9%||13.5%|
|Florida||3.2%||2.4%||2.6%||3.7%||5.9%||4.5%||5.4%||5.6%||4.8%||4.1%||4.7%||5.5%||8.0%||10.9%||12.9%||16.7%||19.4%|
|Georgia||0.7%||1.1%||0.9%||0.7%||0.7%||0.6%||0.6%||0.6%||0.5%||0.4%||0.5%||0.6%||0.7%||1.7%||2.7%||7.1%||9.7%|
|Hawaii||10.9%||9.8%||14.2%||14.7%||17.5%||18.2%|
|Idaho||52.6%||30.6%||20.7%||15.2%||13.1%||9.4%||7.3%||4.7%||3.4%||2.3%||1.8%||2.5%||2.9%||5.0%||5.5%|
|Illinois||13.1%||19.0%||20.3%||19.0%||22.0%||20.1%||21.4%||18.7%||16.3%||12.3%||9.1%||6.8%||5.7%||7.2%||8.3%||12.3%||13.7%|
|Indiana||5.6%||8.8%||8.4%||7.3%||6.7%||5.6%||5.9%||5.2%||4.4%||3.2%||2.5%||2.0%||1.6%||1.9%||1.7%||3.1%||4.6%|
|Iowa||10.9%||15.7%||17.1%||16.1%||17.0%||13.7%||12.3%||9.4%||6.8%||4.6%||3.2%||2.0%||1.4%||1.6%||1.6%||3.1%||4.6%|
|Kansas||11.8%||13.3%||11.1%||10.4%||8.6%||8.0%||6.3%||4.3%||2.9%||2.0%||1.5%||1.2%||2.0%||2.5%||5.0%||6.5%|
|Kentucky||3.2%||5.2%||4.8%||3.6%||3.2%||2.3%||1.8%||1.3%||0.8%||0.6%||0.5%||0.6%||0.5%||0.9%||0.9%||2.0%||3.2%|
|Louisiana||13.2%||11.4%||8.5%||5.8%||4.4%||3.8%||3.2%||2.6%||1.8%||1.2%||1.1%||0.9%||1.1%||2.0%||2.1%||2.6%||3.8%|
|Maine||5.5%||6.0%||7.8%||9.1%||11.9%||13.4%||14.9%||14.0%||12.6%||9.9%||8.2%||6.2%||4.3%||3.9%||3.0%||2.9%||3.4%|
|Maryland||8.8%||11.3%||10.7%||8.9%||9.0%||7.9%||8.1%||7.1%||5.9%||4.5%||3.7%||3.0%||3.2%||4.6%||6.6%||9.8%||13.9%|
|Massachusetts||16.5%||21.1%||24.2%||24.9%||29.4%||30.2%||31.5%||28.3%||25.1%||19.9%||15.4%||11.2%||8.7%||8.7%||9.5%||12.2%||15.0%|
|Michigan||13.8%||19.9%||22.6%||23.7%||26.0%||22.4%||21.3%||19.9%||17.6%||13.1%||9.5%||6.8%||4.8%||4.5%||3.8%||5.3%||6.0%|
|Minnesota||32.5%||34.1%||36.5%||34.3%||35.9%||28.9%||26.2%||20.4%||15.2%||10.6%||7.1%||4.2%||2.6%||2.6%||2.6%||5.3%||7.1%|
|Mississippi||0.8%||1.1%||1.4%||0.8%||0.6%||0.5%||0.5%||0.5%||0.4%||0.3%||0.4%||0.4%||0.4%||0.9%||0.8%||1.4%||2.1%|
|Missouri||11.2%||13.6%||12.9%||9.8%||8.8%||7.0%||7.0%||5.5%||4.2%||3.0%||2.3%||1.8%||1.4%||1.7%||1.6%||2.7%||3.9%|
|Montana||38.7%||29.4%||32.6%||27.6%||25.2%||17.4%||14.1%||10.1%||7.4%||4.5%||2.8%||2.3%||1.7%||1.8%||2.0%|
|Nebraska||22.0%||25.0%||21.5%||19.1%||16.6%||14.8%||11.6%||8.7%||6.2%||4.4%||2.9%||1.9%||2.0%||1.8%||4.4%||6.1%|
|Nevada||30.1%||44.2%||41.2%||32.1%||23.8%||24.1%||20.7%||16.6%||10.0%||6.7%||4.6%||3.7%||6.7%||8.7%||15.8%||18.8%|
|New Hampshire||4.5%||6.4%||9.3%||13.3%||19.2%||21.4%||22.5%||20.6%||17.8%||13.9%||10.9%||7.4%||5.0%||4.4%||3.7%||4.4%||5.3%|
|New Jersey||12.2%||18.3%||20.9%||19.6%||22.8%||22.9%||26.0%||23.5%||21.0%||16.8%||13.2%||10.1%||8.9%||10.3%||12.5%||17.5%||21.0%|
|New Mexico||3.5%||7.2%||6.1%||6.7%||7.3%||7.0%||7.1%||8.3%||5.7%||2.9%||2.6%||2.3%||2.2%||4.0%||5.3%||8.2%||9.9%|
|New York||21.2%||25.8%||26.0%||23.8%||26.2%||26.1%||30.2%||27.2%||25.9%||21.6%||17.4%||13.6%||11.6%||13.6%||15.9%||20.4%||22.2%|
|North Carolina||0.3%||0.3%||0.3%||0.3%||0.2%||0.2%||0.3%||0.3%||0.3%||0.3%||0.4%||0.5%||0.6%||1.3%||1.7%||5.3%||7.5%|
|North Dakota||44.6%||35.4%||27.1%||20.4%||15.5%||11.6%||7.8%||4.7%||3.0%||2.3%||1.5%||1.9%||2.5%|
|Ohio||11.0%||14.0%||14.0%||12.3%||12.5%||11.0%||12.6%||11.8%||9.8%||7.5%||5.6%||4.1%||3.0%||2.8%||2.4%||3.0%||4.1%|
|Oklahoma||4.4%||2.6%||2.4%||2.0%||1.3%||0.9%||0.8%||0.9%||0.8%||1.9%||2.1%||3.8%||5.5%|
|Oregon||7.7%||9.8%||12.8%||17.5%||18.3%||15.9%||16.8%||13.7%||11.6%||8.3%||5.6%||4.0%||3.2%||4.1%||4.9%||8.5%||9.8%|
|Pennsylvania||13.1%||14.8%||15.5%||13.7%||16.1%||15.6%||18.8%||16.0%||12.9%||9.9%||7.5%||5.3%||3.8%||3.4%||3.1%||4.1%||5.8%|
|Rhode Island||16.2%||21.4%||25.5%||26.8%||30.8%||31.4%||33.0%||29.0%||25.0%||19.5%||14.4%||10.0%||7.8%||8.9%||9.5%||11.4%||12.8%|
|South Carolina||1.3%||1.4%||1.1%||0.8%||0.5%||0.4%||0.4%||0.4%||0.3%||0.3%||0.3%||0.5%||0.6%||1.5%||1.4%||2.9%||4.7%|
|South Dakota||36.7%||34.0%||38.3%||27.7%||22.0%||17.3%||13.0%||9.5%||6.9%||4.7%||2.7%||1.6%||1.4%||1.1%||1.8%||2.7%|
|Tennessee||0.6%||1.9%||1.5%||1.1%||1.1%||0.9%||0.9%||0.7%||0.5%||0.4%||0.4%||0.4%||0.5%||1.1%||1.2%||2.8%||4.5%|
|Texas||8.3%||7.2%||7.6%||7.2%||6.8%||5.9%||6.2%||7.8%||6.2%||3.7%||3.6%||3.1%||2.8%||6.0%||9.0%||13.9%||16.4%|
|Utah||18.0%||31.7%||35.4%||30.6%||25.5%||19.4%||17.6%||13.2%||9.5%||6.0%||4.5%||3.6%||2.8%||3.5%||3.4%||7.1%||8.0%|
|Vermont||10.7%||10.4%||14.3%||12.3%||13.3%||13.0%||14.0%||12.6%||12.0%||8.8%||7.6%||6.0%||4.2%||4.1%||3.1%||3.8%||4.4%|
|Virginia||1.6%||2.2%||1.1%||1.0%||1.1%||1.0%||1.3%||1.4%||1.0%||0.9%||1.1%||1.2%||1.6%||3.3%||5.0%||8.1%||11.4%|
|Washington||27.1%||21.0%||21.0%||25.8%||21.5%||22.4%||19.6%||16.3%||12.1%||8.3%||6.3%||4.6%||5.8%||6.6%||10.4%||13.1%|
|West Virginia||3.9%||3.0%||2.5%||2.3%||4.7%||4.2%||3.0%||2.2%||1.7%||1.3%||1.0%||1.1%||0.9%||1.1%||1.2%|
|Wisconsin||36.2%||35.7%||34.6%||30.8%||30.8%||24.9%||22.0%||17.5%||13.2%||9.2%||6.3%||4.3%||3.0%||2.7%||2.5%||3.6%||4.5%|
|Wyoming||38.5%||28.1%||24.6%||18.8%||19.9%||13.7%||10.3%||6.8%||4.6%||2.9%||2.1%||2.0%||1.7%||2.3%||2.8%|
- ^ Bailyn, Bernard (1988). Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution . New York: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-394-75778-0 .
- ^ Salinger, Sharon V. (2000). To Serve Well and Faithfully: Labor and Indentured Servants in Pennsylvania, 1682–1800 . Westminster, MD: Heritage Books. ISBN 978-0-7884-1666-8 .
- ^ "England County Boundaries" . Virtualjamestown.org . Retrieved 2012-08-18 .
- ^ Anderson, Virginia DeJohn (1992). New England's Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century . ISBN 978-0-521-44764-5 .
- ^ Smith, Daniel Scott (1972). "The Demographic History of Colonial New England". Journal of Economic History . 32 (1): 165–83. doi : 10.1017/S0022050700075458 . JSTOR 2117183 . PMID 11632252 . S2CID 27931796 .
- ^ Panetta, Roger; Shorto, Russell, eds. (2009). Dutch New York: The Roots of Hudson Valley Culture . New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-3039-6 .
- ^ Otterness, Philip (2007). Becoming German: The 1709 Palatine Migration to New York . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-7344-9 .
- ^ Wittke, Carl (1939). We Who Built America: The Saga of the Immigrant . Cleveland: Press of Western Reserve University.
- ^ Grieco, Elizabeth M.; Trevelyan, Edward; Larsen, Luke; Acosta, Yesenia D.; Gambino, Christine; de la Cruz, Patricia; Gryn, Tom; Walters, Nathan (October 2012). "The Size, Place of Birth, and Geographic Distribution of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States: 1960 to 2010" (PDF) . Population Division Working Paper No. 96 . Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 20, 2012.
- Anderson, Kristen L. Immigration in American History (Routledge, 2021). excerpt
- Barkan, Elliott Robert. And Still They Come: Immigrants and American Society, 1920 to the 1990s (1996), by leading historian
- Barkan, Elliott Robert, ed. A Nation of Peoples: A Sourcebook on America's Multicultural Heritage (1999), 600 pp; essays by scholars on 27 groups
- Barone, Michael. The New Americans: How the Melting Pot Can Work Again (2006)
- Bayor, Ronald H., ed. The Oxford Handbook of American Immigration and Ethnicity (2015)
- Bodnar, John. The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America (1985)
- Dassanowsky, Robert, and Jeffrey Lehman, eds. Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America (2nd ed. 3 vol 2000), anthropological approach to 150 culture groups; 1974 pp
- Gerber, David A. American immigration: A very short introduction (2021). excerpt
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- Kenny, Kevin. "Mobility and Sovereignty: The Nineteenth-Century Origins of Immigration Restriction." Journal of American History 109.2 (2022): 284-297. https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaac233
- Levinson, David and Melvin Ember, eds. American Immigrant Cultures 2 vol (1997) covers all major and minor groups
- Meier, Matt S. and Gutierrez, Margo, eds. The Mexican American Experience: An Encyclopedia (2003) ( ISBN 0-313-31643-0 )
- Thernstrom, Stephan ; Orlov, Ann; Handlin, Oscar , eds. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups , Harvard University Press, ISBN 0674375122 , the standard reference, covering all major groups and most minor groups online
- Wyman, Mark. Round-Trip to America: The Immigrants Return to Europe, 1880–1930 (Cornell UP, 1993).
- Borjas, George J. "Does Immigration Grease the Wheels of the Labor Market?" Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2001
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- Hernández, Kelly Lytle . "The Crimes and Consequences of Illegal Immigration: A Cross-Border Examination of Operation Wetback, 1943 to 1954," Western Historical Quarterly , 37 (Winter 2006), 421–44.
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when did the first immigrants come to america | immigration to the United States | Probably no other country in the world has a wider range of ethnic and cultural groups than does the United States . The reason for this extraordinary diversity is immigration . A steady stream of immigrants, notably from the 1830s onward, has enriched and constantly redefined the country’s character. By and large, immigrants have come to the United States hoping for greater social, political, and economic opportunities than they had in the places they left.
Immigration inspires strong opinions among Americans, both in support and in opposition. It has been a controversial topic in the United States since the first big wave of immigrants arrived in the 1800s. Fears about immigration and its effects have given rise to racial discrimination and even violence. In the 21st century politicians and the public continue to argue over immigration and its impact on the country’s economy, culture, and security.
The land that is now the United States was originally settled by migrants from Asia. These ancestors of the Native Americans , known as Paleo-Indians , arrived sometime between 30,000 and 10,000 bc . They made their way from Asia to Alaska over a land bridge that crossed the Bering Strait in prehistoric times. North and South America were then presumably empty of human habitation. Over thousands of years the Paleo-Indians and their descendants moved south and east. Eventually American Indians established settlements throughout the land that would become the United States.
Migration from Europe to the Americas began after Christopher Columbus landed in what became known as the New World in 1492. His voyage led to the European exploration and colonization of the Americas over the next three centuries. Spain, France, England, the Netherlands, and Sweden all set up colonies in what is now the United States.
The origins of the United States lay in the 13 colonies established on the Atlantic coast. The English founded nearly all of these colonies, and they ultimately took control of the others. People from England and the rest of the British Isles—Wales, Scotland, and Ireland—made up most of the colonial population. But the remainder of the settlers represented a great many ethnic groups. The 17th and 18th centuries saw the arrival of Germans, Bohemians, Poles, Jews, Dutch, French, Italians, Swiss, Finns, Swedes, Danes, south Slavs, and other nationalities. ( See also United States history, “Colonial Regions.” )
Many of these Europeans emigrated to the colonies seeking economic opportunity or religious freedom. Another large ethnic group, however, came to the colonies not by choice but rather by force. The slave trade brought tens of thousands of blacks to the colonies from western Africa. African slaves were especially numerous in the Southern colonies beginning in the mid-1700s. The population of the United States in 1790 was about 4 million, of whom 60,000 were free blacks and 400,000 were slaves.
During the period from 1789 to 1815, migration from Europe was greatly hindered by the wars that grew out of the French Revolution and the activities of Napoleon , emperor of France. The War of 1812 , fought by the United States and Britain, further slowed immigration. Once peace had settled over Europe, however, the greatest mass migration in history began.
The largest migration in history was the movement of Europeans across the Atlantic Ocean to North America. The first major wave of the so-called Great Atlantic Migration began in the 1840s with mass emigration from Ireland and Germany . A second and larger wave beginning in the 1880s brought migrants from eastern and southern Europe. Between 1880 and 1910 some 17 million Europeans entered the United States.
German farmers swarmed into Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri as early as 1830, when land sold for $1.25 an acre. Norwegians and Swedes followed during the next few decades, and many of them found new homes amid congenial surroundings in Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Wisconsin.
Famine in Ireland in the early 1840s, brought on by the failure of the potato crop, caused the deaths of about a million people. American relief ships that went to Ireland with food returned with immigrants. These newcomers settled first in New York City and Boston, Massachusetts. Some worked as unskilled factory laborers. Others drifted west with construction crews. The Irish were ambitious, especially for their children. Irish-born parents made sacrifices to keep their children in school and took pride in seeing them fill positions in various professions and attain power in political offices.
At about the same time, the collapse of a revolutionary movement in Germany forced thousands to seek safety in America. These refugees were men and women of high ideals. Many were university students or graduates. Those whose roots were in the soil were excellent farmers. They took with them their continental customs, their music, and their cuisine and left an indelible imprint on such cities as Chicago, Illinois; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Cincinnati, Ohio; and St. Louis, Missouri. In the decades that followed, the German and Irish tides were joined by those from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
During the American Civil War , the flow of immigration decreased. However, an act of 1864 called for the president to appoint a commissioner of immigration. It laid down plans to encourage immigration to fill jobs left vacant as a result of wartime casualties and to settle unpopulated areas of the country. Many states made special efforts to attract settlers and even sent agents to European ports of embarkation to recruit them. Western railroads competed with the states in inducing immigrants to take up the land that the government had granted them. The railroads offered reduced steamship and rail fares along with other incentives the states could not provide.
A further impetus to European immigration was the agricultural distress in Europe during the 1880s. Wheat from Minnesota and the Dakotas was selling more cheaply than European grain, and European farmers went bankrupt. Farmers from northwestern Europe poured into the Mississippi River valley and westward.
At first, the United States held out open arms to the Europeans. There were canals to be dug, railroads to be built, minerals to be mined, forests to be cut, farmlands and prairies to be cultivated, and industrial plants to be manned. In the early 1880s, however, a significant change occurred. Whereas most earlier immigrants had shared the northern and western European origin of most early settlers, arrivals from southern and eastern Europe were now becoming more numerous.
In the 1851–60 decade, only about 1 percent of all immigrants to the United States were from southern or eastern Europe. By the 1881–90 decade, the percentage had risen to almost 20 percent, and by the 1901–10 decade, it was more than 70 percent. Italians, Portuguese, and Spaniards, as well as Greeks, Jews, Russians, and other eastern Europeans, continued to arrive in the United States in large numbers until World War I (1914–18).
The newcomers differed from the earlier immigrants in several respects. Some were men who had left their families in Europe and planned to return to them when they had saved a little money. Most settled in large cities, where they found work only in the hardest and lowest-paying jobs. Many had little or no education. Faced with employment and language handicaps, they tended to congregate in communities of their own people. Many clung to their Old World customs, thus delaying “Americanization.” Unscrupulous politicians gained votes by making special appeals to national groups. A number of foreign-language communities became badly overcrowded and degenerated into slums. Yet despite these challenges, many European immigrants stayed to marry, raise families, and become loyal U.S. citizens .
The large migrations from southern and eastern Europe alarmed Americans. Many already believed that immigrants had too much political power or that they were taking jobs away from Americans. Now they also feared that the newcomers were so different that they would never be “Americanized.” These fears echoed the reaction to the immigration of Chinese miners and railroad workers decades earlier. This so-called “yellow peril” had fueled years of anti-Chinese hostility on the West Coast.
Mounting resistance to immigration brought about demands for restrictive laws. After the American Civil War (1861–65), some states passed their own immigration laws. In 1875 the United States Supreme Court declared that the regulation of immigration was the responsibility of the federal government. Soon Congress began to pass immigration laws. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the United States. (For the text of the Chinese Exclusion Act, click here .) Later that year the first general immigration law was passed. The Immigration Act of 1882 required each immigrant to pay a 50-cent tax upon entering the country. The act also prohibited the entry of “any convict, lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge.”
New laws placed further restrictions on immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Alien Contract Labor Law of 1886 prohibited American employers from importing workers from Europe under contract. An act of 1917 required a literacy test for immigrants over 16 years old. It also built on the Chinese Exclusion Act by prohibiting immigration from nearly all parts of Asia. An act of 1918 excluded anarchists and members of any group advocating the violent overthrow of government.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 cut immigration from Europe, but the end of the war brought about an exodus from war-stricken countries. In 1920, 246,295 people entered the United States from Europe; in 1921, it was 652,364. Unemployment was widespread, and the flood of immigrants added to the difficulties. Farmers and labor unions wanted immigration curtailed. Other groups pressed for restrictions on cultural grounds.
Congress introduced a new immigration policy by passing a quota law in 1921. For the first time, numerical limits were established on the basis of the national origins of immigrants. The quota system was amended and made permanent by the Immigration Act of 1924. It limited the number of immigrants from each European country to 2 percent of the number of people of that national origin counted in the U.S. census of 1890. The quotas greatly reduced immigration from southern and eastern Europe in favor of the countries of northwestern Europe. Spouses of U.S. citizens and their children under 18 years of age were admitted outside the quotas. No restrictions were placed on immigration from the Western Hemisphere. The 1924 act set a total annual quota of 180,000 immigrants. This number was lowered to 150,000 in 1929.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 had set a precedent for later restrictions against immigration of Asians. As mentioned above, the Immigration Act of 1917 halted immigration from nearly all of Asia. The 1924 act established immigration quotas by country but banned Asian immigration altogether. China’s heroic stand on the side of the Allies in World War II changed public opinion, and the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943. A total of 105 Chinese immigrants was allowed each year, and Chinese living in the United States were made eligible for citizenship . (For more information about Asian immigration see Asian Americans .)
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 reorganized previous laws into one comprehensive act. It set the total number of immigrants permitted annually at 154,277 and revised the quota calculations. It ended the ban on immigration from Asian countries and introduced quotas for immigrants from newly independent countries. Spouses and children of U.S. citizens and natives of the Western Hemisphere remained exempt from the quotas.
The quota system based on national origins was the foundation of U.S. immigration policy for four decades. This changed with passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965. The new law abolished quotas by country in favor of a mainly first-come, first-served policy. The law set an annual limit of 170,000 visas for countries in the Eastern Hemisphere, with a maximum of 20,000 allotted to any one country. A total of 120,000 immigrants were available annually to countries of the Western Hemisphere. All countries in each hemisphere potentially had an equal quantity of immigrant visas available to them. Preference was given to two categories of immigrants, however. Family-based preference was given to relatives of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, who hold “green cards.” Employment-based preference favored professional and skilled individuals.
The new policy radically changed the pattern of immigration. For the first time, European immigrants were outnumbered by new arrivals from Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. From 1965 to 1975 the largest source of immigrants was Mexico, followed by Cuba, the Philippines, Italy, and Taiwan. By 1978, in the wake of the Vietnam War , Indochinese refugees fleeing Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia were arriving in large numbers. Of the more than 800,000 persons who entered the United States in 1980, more than 150,000 were refugees from Indochina , and some 125,000 were Cubans seeking political asylum. From 1981 to 1989 almost 2.5 million people emigrated from Asia and were granted legal permanent residence in the United States. By 1990 the Asian population had increased by nearly 108 percent from its level a decade before.
In the early 1980s illegal immigration became a growing problem in the United States. It was estimated that 1.5 million people entered the country illegally in 1980, joining the 2 million undocumented immigrants or more already there. Most of the unauthorized immigrants came to the United States across its southern land border with Mexico .
Congress attempted to address the issue with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. The law gave legal status, or amnesty , to undocumented immigrants who could prove that they had lived in the United States since before January 1, 1982. The law also offered amnesty to undocumented agricultural workers who had worked in the United States for three months out of the year ending May 1, 1986. Alongside the amnesty provisions, the law tried to prevent future illegal immigration by prohibiting the hiring of undocumented immigrants. Employers who knowingly hired undocumented immigrants were subject to fines and even prison terms.
Congress changed immigration regulations yet again with the Immigration Act of 1990. The act raised the total number of immigrants allowed each year to 700,000 from 1992 to 1994; in 1995 the total dropped to 675,000. The law kept the family- and employment-based preferences established by the 1965 law. It also reserved a certain number of visas for residents of countries from which few immigrants had come in recent years. These visas would be awarded through a so-called “diversity lottery.”
Border security was the focus of a major immigration law passed in 1996. The law authorized the hiring of more border patrol agents and the construction of fencing along sections of the U.S.-Mexico border. It called for an increase in the number of officers charged with investigating immigration violations. The law also increased penalties for trying to cross the border illegally.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , had a major impact on both public opinion and government policy on immigration. The terrorists had come to the United States with valid visas despite the fact that some of them had been on government watch lists. The failure to prevent them from entering the country brought the immigration system under close scrutiny. In 2003 responsibility for overseeing immigration was given to the newly created Department of Homeland Security . New laws strengthened border security and expanded the government’s authority to screen, track, and deport foreign-born individuals. A law passed in 2006 provided for the construction of 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) of fencing along the Mexican border.
A number of attempts to pass a comprehensive immigration reform law failed in the 2000s and 2010s. Some lawmakers favored a strict policy that focused on border security and enforcement. Others wanted to increase legal immigration and provide opportunities for undocumented residents to obtain citizenship. These competing approaches stalled immigration reform in Congress.
During this period, changes to immigration policy instead came about through executive orders issued by the president. Such orders do not require the approval of Congress. In 2012 President Barack Obama issued an executive order creating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. It gave unauthorized immigrants who had been brought to the United States as children protection from deportation for two years.
Obama’s successor, Donald Trump , used executive orders to implement hard-line immigration policies. One of these orders called for the construction of a wall along the entire border with Mexico. Another reinstated a deportation program discontinued by Obama and imposed penalties on “sanctuary cities,” which sheltered undocumented immigrants. The Trump administration also tried to end the DACA program. These policies won approval from conservatives but faced strong opposition as well. Public protests against raids and deportations showed that immigration continued to be one of the most volatile issues in the United States.
The proportion of immigrants in the U.S. population grew in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In 1970 fewer than 5 percent of the people living in the United States were immigrants. By 2017 that figure had climbed to 14 percent. The immigrant population in 2017 was about 45 million, including more than 11 million undocumented residents. Mexico accounted for one-fourth of the total, the largest share of any country by far. The next three leading sources of immigrants were Asian countries: India , China , and the Philippines . More than half of the unauthorized immigrants came from Mexico. California was home to the largest number of immigrants, followed by Texas , New York , and Florida . California also had the greatest number of unauthorized immigrants. | https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/immigration-to-the-United-States/631487 | 57 |
when did the first immigrants come to america | The First Immigrant Landed on Ellis Island | Immigrants walk off the ship and onto Ellis Island
January 1, 1892
When 15-year-old Annie Moore arrived here from Ireland on this day in 1892, she was the first person to enter the United States through Ellis Island. As the boat she was on drew closer to her new home, she must have seen the Statue of Liberty, whose torch rises 305 feet above the waters of the New York Harbor. The statue is on an island next to Ellis Island. Can you guess how many people entered the United States through Ellis Island? | https://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/progress/jb_progress_ellis_1.html | 57 |
when did the first immigrants come to america | A Brief History of U.S. Immigration Policy from the Colonial Period to the Present Day | More than 86 million people have legally immigrated to the United States between 1783 and 2019. The legal regime under which they immigrated has changed radically over that time; the politics surrounding those changes have remained contentious, and past immigration policies inform the current political debate. Conflicting visions and piecemeal legislation have left the United States with an archaic and barely coherent immigration system with outdated policy objectives that is primarily controlled by the executive branch of government. We review the history of U.S. immigration policy, including the legal controversies that empowered Congress with its immigration plenary power and the historical policy decisions that still guide the U.S. immigration system, in order to contextualize the current political debate over immigration at the beginning of the Biden administration.
In 1952, President Harry S. Truman lamented that “in no other realm of our national life are we so hampered and stultified by the dead hand of the past, as we are in this field of immigration.” 1 From the colonial period through the Industrial Revolution, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and up to today, radical swings in immigration policy have had their connections to earlier debates and policies. It’s important to understand how immigration policy got to this point because many of the same debates keep recurring and the Biden administration will likely start to remove some of the immigration restrictions imposed by former president Donald J. Trump. We review the history of U.S. immigration policy, including the legal controversies that empowered Congress with its immigration plenary power and the historical policy decisions that still guide the U.S. immigration system, in order to contextualize the current political debate over immigration.
Between the 16th and the late 18th century, European governments implemented mercantilist economic policies to increase their trade surpluses via import tariffs and the subsidization of export industries. Mercantilists treated their citizenry like resources and restricted or compelled their movement based on factors such as class or social status. 2 Britain, for example, fiercely protected citizenship by limiting naturalization and forcibly populating its colonies with criminals and other social pariahs that the British government deemed undesirable. Naturalization was economically important because only British citizens, known as “subjects,” could own real estate and bequeath it to their heirs under English common law. 3 Thus, limitations on naturalization constrained the economic options for new immigrants from other nations. Britain’s unwillingness to naturalize immigrants relegated most of its alien residents to a legal position called “denizen,” similar to the Athenian metic (a foreign resident of Athens), which gave them limited economic rights, reduced their political rights, and placed restrictions on bequeathing their estates under English common law. 4
Whereas European countries discouraged interior migration of their citizens, they typically encouraged the immigration of skilled workers without encouraging naturalization. 5 European governments also encouraged immigration to their colonies and colonial governments offered quick naturalization, land grants, and debt relief. 6 In North America, the British Crown’s desire to settle its colonies caused it to ignore the lax naturalization processes in the colonies, which granted immigrants the rights of Englishmen within the colonies in which they resided. Eventually, however, in 1700 Parliament limited the colonies’ ability to grant naturalization and other group rights because it believed that the colonial naturalization policies weakened English citizens’ trading positions.
Thereafter, many colonies relied on local naturalization and grants of denizenship until Parliament passed the Plantation Act of 1740 to ease the colonial naturalization process and spur settlement. 7 The Pact created a uniform naturalization system that granted new, non‐Catholic colonial settlers English naturalization after seven years of residency contingent upon a religious test, a pledge of allegiance, and a statement of Christian belief to which some people, such as Jews, were exempt. 8 Despite the Plantation Act, the colonies preferred to rely on more rapid local naturalization processes to further incentivize immigration.
Individuals arrived in the British colonies via two very different paths. Some were forced to immigrate, either through transportation or slavery, while others came voluntarily. “Transportation,” a criminal term for forced emigration, allowed Britain to expel its social undesirables, criminals, and others to populate its North American colonies. In practice, criminals sentenced to death could either choose transportation or hanging, and so forced emigration was a common choice since death was the only punishment for a felony conviction under English common law. In North America, transported persons began landing in British colonies as early as 1615. 9
By 1717, the Transportation Act granted English courts the ability to sentence convicts to transportation, thus streamlining the process. The courts could effectively banish convicts for up to 14 years and turn them into indentured servants. Before the American Revolution, Britain transported about 50,000 convicts to the American colonies. 10 While colonists opposed transportation, the colonies were unable to prevent the migration of British subjects who were exempted from many colonial immigration restrictions.
The largest population of forced migrants to North America were not criminals from Britain but 388,000 African slaves. 11 Slavery was different from the other forced migrations as, unlike in the case of convicts, there was no possibility of earning freedom, although some slaves were manumitted in the centuries before the American Civil War. African slaves and their descendants have comprised a substantial part of the population in the British colonies and the United States since the 1600s, but thinking of slaves as immigrants stretches the meaning of that word to its breaking point. Enslavement was an experience so radically different from what was experienced by other migrants that the story of slavery does not fit into this paper’s narrative.
Those who migrated to the colonies on their own volition were drawn by the allure of cheap land, high wages, and the freedom of conscience in British North America. 12 Many of these individuals financed their passage by entering into indentured servitude contracts. This arrangement meant that migrants exchanged future years of their labor for passage to North America. At the end of their contracts, the indentured servants would be discharged with a small amount of cash, skills, and sometimes land on the new continent. During the 1700s, a significant share of Europeans coming to British North America were indentured servants.
While the colonies were eager to attract immigrants, colonial cities and towns still regulated immigration by barring entry of the poor, applying head taxes, and using banishment. However, these small and heterogeneous colonial communities were less meticulous than European governments in enforcing their immigration laws and generally granted equal rights to accepted foreigners. For example, Massachusetts applied its laws against pauperism equally to all members, regardless of citizenship status. Other states extended voting rights to aliens and, sometimes, to “servants, Negroes, Aliens, Jews, and Common sailors.” 13
By 1755, the colonial population surpassed one million residents, which worried some in England. In 1763, Britain prohibited colonists from settling the land acquired from France during the Seven Years War and subsequently curtailed colonial naturalization authority in 1773. 14 Parliament’s actions infuriated colonialists to such an extent that they complained about them in the Declaration of Independence, charging King George III with preventing “the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.” 15 The colonial population had increased to roughly 2.2 million residents by the beginning of the American Revolution, much of that growth fueled by the 346,000 European immigrants and their descendants. 16
More than 86 million immigrants have entered the United States from 1783 to the end of 2019 (Figure 1). 17 That large flow was shaped by many legal issues that were first addressed during the early days of the American Republic. Citizenship was one of the earliest issues that American politicians grappled with. Three fundamental concepts underlie U.S. citizenship law, and their relative importance shifts depending on the needs and the norms of the era. 18 The first is jus soli , the right of the soil, which means that those born on U.S. soil are automatically granted citizenship. The second is jus sanguinis , the right of blood, which means that those born to U.S. citizens in other countries automatically earn U.S. citizenship under most conditions. The third is pledged allegiance, whereby those who civically commit to the United States become U.S. citizens. Pledged allegiance is related to the concept of naturalization, the process by which an immigrant voluntarily moves to the United States and swears allegiance to the government to fully enter American political life through citizenship.
Immediately after issuing the Declaration of Independence, the Founders thought that pledged allegiance would confer citizenship through consent. This approach diminished the new country’s reliance on jus soli and jus sanguinis . It is unsurprising that during the American Revolution, when the American Founders feared that the British would punish their disloyalty with death, that loyalty trumped one’s birth country or bloodline as a matter of importance. Thus, a pledge of allegiance was the ticket to receive the full panoply of political rights in a new and struggling nation.
This situation effectively divided the population into three categories: former British citizens who supported the revolution and became American citizens, British citizens who still supported the British government and became enemy aliens, and a murky middle ground of fair‐weather residents. 19 After the war, the presence of former loyalists and those in the murky middle prompted the U.S. government to view citizenship as “both a matter of place of birth and one of consent.” 20
The Constitution gave Congress the power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization in Article I, Section 8, and made immigrants eligible for all federal offices except the presidency and, later, the vice presidency. 21 St. George Tucker, a prominent lawyer from Virginia and a delegate to the Annapolis Convention of 1786, wrote that excluding immigrants from the office of the president would limit foreign influence on the government. 22 But Tucker also argued that foreign‐born people should not be kept out of the councils of power entirely, nor deprived of federal employment for the same reasons, because such efforts would be ultimately unsuccessful, breed resentment, and be undesirable in a country as open to foreign ideas and peoples as the United States. 23 In the first Congress in 1789, almost 10 percent of all members of the House of Representatives and the Senate were foreign‐born, compared to just 3 percent in 2021. 24 Ultimately, the Constitution did not create an enumerated power to control free people’s immigration into the United States. 25 The Constitution enumerates other powers that are considered inherent to a sovereign, but the Founders did not include immigration as one of them.
The Constitutional Convention’s decision to only grant the federal government authority over naturalization meant that states regulated immigration as part of their policing powers—banishing criminals and noncitizens, denying entry to the poor, and even attempting to ban whole races. 26 Although many of the Founders were concerned about Catholicism, alien voting rights, non‐English languages, and cultural assimilation, Thomas Jefferson summarized their overall position when he stated, before listing his concerns, that “the present desire of America is to produce rapid population, by as great importations of foreigners as possible.” 27 Beyond ideological motivations, several other factors likely influenced the Founders, including the desire to populate the United States, the need to pay the country’s debts, and the demand for new laborers.
The 1790 U.S. Census, which excluded Native Americans, revealed that the United States’ population had grown significantly since the 1770s, reaching roughly 3.9 million residents. The Census also showed that about 80.7 percent of the United States’ population was white, while the remainder (19.3 percent) were almost all African slaves. 28 In terms of ethnicity, only 69.3 percent of the U.S. population could trace their origins to either England, Scotland, or Wales. 29 Compared to other European countries, the U.S. population was ethnically and racially heterogeneous in 1790. 30
In the same year, Congress passed the Naturalization Act of 1790, extending citizenship to free white persons of good character who had resided in the United States for two years and took an oath of allegiance. 31 The law excluded indentured servants, non‐whites, and slaves from naturalization. Despite these exclusions, the Naturalization Act of 1790 was arguably the most liberal naturalization law to date, as it created a short and uniform path to citizenship that lacked gender requirements, religious tests, skills tests, or country of origin requirements.
However, some Congressmen were unsatisfied with the Naturalization Act of 1790 because they feared that a large foreign‐born population with voting rights could undermine national security, especially when the United States faced the prospect of war. As a result, Congress passed the Naturalization Act of 1795. The new act increased the residency requirement for naturalization to five years and added a clause requiring prospective citizens to declare their intention to naturalize three years before doing so. 32 Notably, the Naturalization Act of 1795 held a religious and moral subtext that changed “good character” to “good moral character.” 33
After a close election and a looming war with France, Congress passed a series of bills in 1798 collectively known as the Alien and Sedition Acts that expanded the federal government’s involvement in immigration policy. Together these acts subjected aliens to the threat of national surveillance and arbitrary arrest and granted a new power to the president to deport noncitizens via decree. 34 Notably, these acts increased the residency period for naturalization to 14 years and required that prospective citizens declare their intent to naturalize five years before doing so. 35
During congressional debate, a partisan schism arose over whether noncitizens had rights under the Constitution. Democratic‐Republicans argued that noncitizens possessed all rights under the Constitution because it often used the words “people” or “persons” rather than “citizens.” James Madison denounced the idea that noncitizens didn’t have rights under the Constitution and argued that even if they didn’t, the government would still not have absolute authority over them. Congressmen also decried that deportation by presidential decree violated the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. 36 Although these acts empowered the federal government, much of the Alien and Sedition Acts expired by 1801. In 1802, Congress passed the Naturalization Law of 1802 that reverted the residency requirements for naturalization to five years. However, the 14‐year waiting period remains the longest legally mandated residency time required for prospective citizens before becoming eligible for naturalization in American history. (Today’s immigrants who entered on student visas, adjusted to H‑1B visas, and then earned green cards may wait longer for citizenship, but those are not mandated wait times as they arise from a combination of different legal requirements.)
After the 1800 election, both parties courted the support of the approximately 250,000 European immigrants who arrived between 1783 and 1815. 37 By 1819, economic depression and the worry that Britain might ship their poor to the United States tempered Congress’ pro‐immigration position. While Congress lacked an enumerated power under the Constitution to control immigration, in 1819 it indirectly regulated immigration under the guise of safety by limiting the number of passengers that a ship could carry based on its tonnage. 38 This legislation lowered the carrying capacity of passenger ships and increased the price of travel, consequently reducing the number of poor immigrants who could afford passage. The bill also required ship captains to provide a passenger manifest to customs officials that allowed the federal government to track immigration flows for the first time.
The next wave of immigrants began to arrive around 1830, when the U.S. population was nearly 12.9 million. 39 Most immigrants in this second wave relied on credit or family remittances to pay for their passage to the United States. These funding methods caused the number of indentured servants to decline and nearly disappear. 40 International developments—such as the Irish Potato Famine, beginning in 1845, and the European political revolutions of 1848—helped push immigrants to the United States. Overall, international and domestic conditions increased the number of immigrants from 599,125 during the 1830s to 1,713,251 during the 1840s. 41
During the Antebellum Period, immigrants were mainly German, Irish, English, Canadian, and French. These immigrants had different cultures and religions, particularly the German craftworkers and Irish Catholics, both of which created political backlash and prompted the emergence of nativist political parties in the United States. 42 Beyond these issues, nativists also worried about wage competition, immigrants’ use of outdoor relief (welfare consumed outside of institutions) and other welfare programs, and the religious dichotomy between the new Catholic immigrants and the native‐born Americans, who were primarily Protestant. 43 Moreover, nativists were also concerned that Catholic immigrants would oppose slavery.
These sentiments spawned the American Party, also called the Know Nothings, in the 1850s. Among its many nativist policies, the party’s central goal was increasing the residency period for naturalization to 21 years. 44 The Know Nothings initially won several elections. However, the party’s popularity subsided after immigration slowed in 1855. Despite slowing immigration flows, between 1820 and 1860 the 30‐year‐long wave of immigrants altered U.S. demography, increasing the foreign‐born population to 13.2 percent by 1860 (Figure 2). 45 Regionally, the proportion of the population that was foreign‐born could be far higher. In New York City, 51 percent of the population was foreign‐born, while in California more than 63 percent of the population was foreign‐born in 1855. 46
When the Civil War began in 1861, demand for workers in war industries increased. To fill the void, pro‐immigration Republicans sought to discredit nativists. President Abraham Lincoln contended that “our immigrants [are] one of the principal replenishing streams which are appointed by Providence to repair the ravages of internal war and its waste of national strength and wealth.” 47 Under the Lincoln administration, Congress passed both the Homestead Act in 1862 and the Act to Encourage Immigration of 1864, also known as the Contract Labor Act. The Homestead Act offered land grants to both U.S. citizens and immigrants who were eligible for naturalization and who were willing to settle and develop the land for five years. The last consequential immigration law passed during Lincoln’s administration was the Contract Labor Act of 1864, which allowed private employers to recruit foreign workers, pay their transportation costs, and contract their labor. 48
The Lincoln administration had a longer‐term effect on American immigration policy when it appointed Anson Burlingame as the U.S. Minister to China in 1861. Burlingame negotiated the Burlingame‐Seward trade treaty with China in 1868. Recognizing the “mutual advantage of the free migration and emigration of their citizens,” the Burlingame‐Seward Treaty ensured that Chinese citizens had the right to emigrate and enter the United States. 49 Although the treaty didn’t secure naturalization rights for Chinese immigrants, it secured their ability to legally emigrate, which had previously been illegal under Chinese law. In other words, the U.S. government negotiated a treaty where the major provision required the Chinese government to allow emigration to the United States. As a result, Chinese immigrants joined an increasing flow that pushed the U.S. foreign‐born population up to about 14.4 percent of the total in 1870. 50
With the Civil War concluded, Congress set about reforming naturalization law to be consistent with the end of slavery. However, Congress members disagreed on how far they should extend the rights afforded by naturalization. Sen. Charles Sumner (R‑MA) wanted to liberalize existing naturalization legislation by striking out “the word ‘white’ wherever it occurs so that there shall be no distinction of race or color in naturalization.” 51 Other congressmen refused to extend naturalization rights to Asians and American Indians. Ultimately, the Naturalization Act of 1870 only granted naturalization rights to “aliens being free white persons, and to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent.” 52
The federal government even seemed to initially interpret the newly ratified Fourteenth Amendment, which stated that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” to prohibit birthright citizenship for the descendants of Chinese immigrants. 53 The federal government held this position until the Supreme Court ruled otherwise in the 1898 United States v. Wong Kim Ark decision. 54 In response to growing anti‐Chinese sentiment nationwide, and especially in California, Congress passed the Page Act of 1875. The Page Act restricted the immigration of Chinese contract laborers, convicts, and many Chinese women, most of whom were the wives of male workers, on the spurious grounds that they were prostitutes. These restrictions were in violation of the Burlingame‐Seward Treaty.
Throughout the 1870s, the federal government adopted and began enforcing many state‐level restrictions that had been on the books for decades but were rarely enforced. Congress also passed the Immigration Act of 1882 and the Chinese Exclusion Act in the same year. The former bill imposed a $0.50 federal head tax on each alien passenger to fund immigration enforcement. 55 It also mandated that state officials identify and deny entry to “any convict, lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge.” 56 The Chinese Exclusion Act emulated previous California legislation that attempted to impose blanket bans on immigrants from China. Although the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 only imposed a 10‐year ban on Chinese laborers, Congress extended this ban through 1943. 57
While the Supreme Court initially ruled that states had the authority to regulate immigration, it expanded the federal government’s immigration authority over time. For example, the Supreme Court found, in the case of Corfield v. Coryell (1823), that “[c]ommerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, can mean nothing more than intercourse with those nations, and among those states, for purposes of trade.” 58 However, the Supreme Court did not consider free immigrants to be articles of commerce, so they were not subject to federal regulation. Similarly, the Supreme Court’s 1837 New York v. Miln ruling noted that “[p]ersons are not the subjects of commerce, and not being imported goods, they do not fall within the reasoning founded upon the construction of a power given to Congress to regulate commerce and the prohibition of the states from imposing a duty on imported goods.” 59 Thus, states could pass laws excluding various kinds of immigrants, reaffirming the lack of federal jurisdiction.
Twelve years later, however, the Supreme Court’s rulings in the Passenger Cases struck down several state laws that restricted immigration on the grounds that they interfered with the commerce clause and federal jurisdiction over taxation and indirect regulation of immigrants. 60 By 1875, the Supreme Court’s Henderson v. Mayor of New York ruling struck down a New York state law that required both a bond for ship captains and an immigrant fee because it infringed on Congress’s power to regulate commerce. In this case, the Justices noted that the power to regulate commerce ended when the passengers landed in the United States. 61 In the 1884 Head Money Cases , the Supreme Court decided that Congress had “the power to pass a law regulating immigration as a part of the commerce of this country with foreign nations” and overrode state immigration policies. 62 Although many of these cases expanded Congress’ authority, they were minor encroachments relative to the Supreme Court’s decision in Chae Chan Ping v. United States in 1889.
Prompted by a provision of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Supreme Court determined that Congress had an extra‐constitutional plenary power over immigration based on the “incident of sovereignty” rather than any specifically enumerated power. The Court reached this conclusion despite the fact that the Constitution explicitly enumerates other powers that are unquestionably an “incident of sovereignty,” such as regulating international commerce, raising an army, and declaring war. 63 In the Court’s opinion, Justice Stephen Field recounted California’s constitutional convention, which had found that “the presence of Chinese laborers had a baneful effect upon the material interests of the state, and upon public morals; that their immigration was in numbers approaching the character of an Oriental invasion, and was a menace to our civilization.” 64 Field then reasoned that the United States had the power to “preserve its independence, and give security against foreign aggression and encroachment,” such as Chinese migration. The Supreme Court’s decision created a “constitutional oddity” that subsequently decreased judicial oversight of immigration law. 65
Between 1861 and 1890, 10.4 million immigrants arrived in the United States, mainly of Southern and Eastern European descent. This wave was more than twice the size of the previous wave, which had 4.9 million immigrants of mostly Northern European descent, who migrated to the United States between 1831 and 1860. 66 By 1890, decades of immigration increased the foreign‐born portion of the U.S. population to 14.8 percent. 67 In this new wave, many migrants desired to work temporarily in the United States before returning home. While return migration was not a new phenomenon, lower transportation costs made the option more viable.
Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1891 after a congressional investigation found “widespread violations and circumventions” of existing immigration laws. 68 The new legislation expanded the list of excluded immigrants, 69 enabled the deportation of immigrants present for less than a year if government authorities later found them excludable, and established the Office of the Superintendent of Immigration within the Treasury Department—later reformed as the Bureau of Immigration. 70 The act also made immigration inspectors’ rulings final and ended the possibility of judicial review, although the Treasury Secretary could still review them. 71 Twelve years later, the Immigration Act of 1903 expanded the list of excludable immigrants and excluded aliens from “due process protection hitherto provided by the Fourteenth Amendment to all ‘persons’ rather than ‘citizens.’” 72 In 1903, Congress also relocated the Bureau of Immigration to the Department of Commerce and Labor.
During the early 1900s, many Progressives argued that immigrants impeded the achievement of an ideal society, committed crimes, and abused welfare. 73 Others proposed that the government had a duty to protect natives from immigrants who supposedly depressed innovation and lowered native‐born American wages. 74 Scholars of the era contended that certain ethnicities possessed immutable intrinsic characteristics that would prevent assimilation into American society. 75 To combat these perceived ills, Progressives championed mandatory literacy tests, as well as various other eugenics‐inspired racial and ethnic exclusions of Jews, Asians, and Africans. 76
The confluence of pseudo‐scientific eugenic claims and a desire for an activist federal government engendered several immigration acts between 1890 and 1907, some of which have already been discussed, that increased the number of inadmissible classes of immigrants, expanded the power of deportation, and raised the head tax on immigrants to $4. Anti‐immigrant sentiment also prompted the United States to block the immigration of Japanese laborers via the informal Gentlemen’s Agreement. 77 Additional immigration restrictions were politically popular but divisive for the Republican Party. 78
Progressives and nativists bolstered their anti‐immigration position by using the Dillingham Commission report as evidence that “‘new immigrants’ were fundamentally different from old immigrants who came from Western and Northern Europe.” 79 The Dillingham Commission was staffed with members who had previously supported immigration restrictions, with the single exception of one member named William S. Bennet, of New York. 80 Its members cherry‐picked data to reach the predetermined conclusion that immigrants from Northern and Western Europe were innately superior to those from Southern and Eastern Europe. When data revealed large numbers of Northern and Western Europeans seeking welfare in American cities, the Dillingham Commission returned the data “for further information or for corrections.” 81 Despite its methodological flaws, policymakers embraced the report and its recommendations because it confirmed their prejudices.
Citing concerns about the intelligence of new immigrants and how well they would assimilate, the Americanization movement started as a collective of private nonprofit organizations that backed civics classes, language lessons, and the destruction of the “hyphenated American.” This movement eventually morphed into a series of government programs that wrote school curricula to push for immigrant assimilation, including banning the German language from being spoken in public schools. 82 These anti‐German laws actually slowed assimilation but were very popular, especially during World War I. 83 Politically, anti‐immigration sentiment prompted Congress to pass the restrictive Immigration Act of 1917—overruling President Woodrow Wilson’s veto. This act sanctioned legal immigrants’ detention and deportation if they committed a deportable crime within five years of their arrival. It also imposed literacy tests and other restrictive measures aimed at limiting immigration flows from African and Asian countries. 84
After the end of World War I, the demobilization of four million soldiers and the anticipation of a wave of post‐war migration caused Congress to consider further immigration restrictions. 85 Restrictionists and eugenicists strengthened their position during this time by providing their own dubious accounts of immigration’s role in American history. 86 Others used improperly administered intelligence tests to prove the intellectual inferiority of black Americans and new immigrants, biasing their results by intentionally surveying a disproportionate number of immigrants and blacks who were mentally handicapped for their final report and then omitting that crucial detail in their conclusions. 87 With support mounting, Congress passed restrictive legislation again in 1921.
The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 broke with previous immigration laws by establishing a cap on the number of quota admissions equal to roughly 358,000 for immigrants from the Eastern Hemisphere, exempting immediate relatives. This was the first American immigration law that substantially emphasized family‐based immigration over economic immigrants. Of the total quota admissions, the bill allocated 55 percent to Northern and Western European countries. The bill’s provisions favored family members of U.S. citizens by exempting admissions of certain immediate relatives. Before 1921, immigration laws pertained primarily to which immigrants to exclude, while any immigrant not specifically excluded could migrate. However, beginning in 1921 and continuing until today, the opposite has been the status quo: federal agencies decide which immigrants to admit and deny entry to those not explicitly approved.
The Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the National Origins Act, refined the system that had been established in 1921. The new law reduced the annual quota from roughly 358,000 to about 164,000. The law also established per country cap allocations that awarded 82 percent of the world quota to immigrants from Western and Northern European countries, 14 percent to immigrants from Eastern and Southern European countries, and a mere 4 percent to immigrants from the remaining Eastern Hemisphere. 88 Like the 1921 act, the 1924 act did not put restrictions on immigrants from the Western Hemisphere. The 1924 act also categorized wives and children as nonquota admissions, exempting them from the quota caps. Under the 1924 act, there were three categories of aliens: quota immigrants entering under immigration statutes as permanent residents, nonquota immigrants entering as spouses and unmarried children of quota immigrants, and nonimmigrants entering temporarily. 89
Few politicians opposed the 1921 Emergency Quota and 1924 National Origins acts. These laws were politically popular because of widespread notions of eugenics, nationalism, and xenophobia. For example, even popular books, such as The Melting Pot Mistake by New York University sociologist Henry Pratt Fairchild, defended the new restrictionist regime by using the crudest elements of nationalism, eugenics, and xenophobia. 90 Former state senator Edwin E. Grant, a Democrat, summed up these sentiments when he wrote, “the prosperity made possible by our forefathers has lured the parasites of Europe—the scum that could have so well been eliminated from the melting‐pot.” 91
Since eugenics was a significant motivation, it is initially perplexing that the Immigration Act of 1924 established quotas based on the country of origin rather than the immigrants’ race or genetics, especially considering how the latter characteristics were most important to the progressive demographic central planners of the time. A proponent of the law, Fairchild noticed this peculiarity and commented that:
The question will probably at once arise, why, if this legislation was a response to a demand for racial discrimination, was it expressed in terms of nationality? The answer is simple. As has already been shown, our actual knowledge of the racial composition of the American people, to say nothing of the various foreign groups, is so utterly inadequate that the attempt to use it as a basis of legislation would have led to endless confusion and intolerable litigation. So Congress substituted the term nationality, and defined nationality as country of birth. It is clear, then, that “nationality,” as used in this connection, does not conform exactly to the correct definition of either nationality or race. But in effect it affords a rough approximation to the racial character of the different immigrant streams. 92
The 1924 Immigration Act did not place numerical quotas on immigrants from countries in the Western Hemisphere. 93 As a result, immigration from Mexico and Canada spiked as immigrants from these regions replaced Asian and European immigrant laborers. In response, immigration restrictionists argued that Mexicans could not legally immigrate because they were ineligible for citizenship as “mixed breeds”—a legal argument based on a statute that limited immigration to only those who could naturalize. 94 Specifically, economist Roy L. Garis reasoned that “to admit peons from Mexico… while restricting Europeans and excluding Orientals is not only ridiculous and illogical—it destroys the biological, social, and economic advantages to be secured from the restriction of immigration.” 95 Eventually, the federal government resolved this disagreement by classifying Mexicans as white. 96 The Supreme Court, however, decided not to confer the racial status of “white” to high‐caste Hindus, in United States v. Bhaghat Singh Thind , even though racial theorists deemed Asian Indians to be Aryans. 97
Regardless of the motivations behind the 1924 Immigration Act, it created a complex quota system that was tough to impose and took years to establish, in part due to the Bureau of Immigration’s lack of administrative capacity. 98 For example, the 1924 Immigration Act required the prescreening of immigrants at embassies and consulates abroad, implementing a visa system, and deporting illegal arrivals. 99 To enforce the law, Congress also created the U.S. Border Patrol . Additionally, Congress allowed Immigration Bureau agents to arrest illegal border crossers without obtaining warrants, to board and search vessels, and to access private lands within 25 miles of the border. 100 Despite these powers, an estimated 175,000 illegal entries occurred annually. 101 When the act went into force as it was intended to be in 1929, Congress allowed illegal immigrants who were eligible for naturalization and who were present since 1921 to regularize their status. 102
The 1924 act significantly reduced the number of legal immigrants entering the United States. Five years before the act, an average of 554,920 legal immigrants arrived each year; during the five years after the act, the average number of legal immigrants arriving each year dropped to 304,182. By 1932, the inflow of legal immigrants had fallen to 35,576. Throughout the entire decade of the 1930s, legal immigration averaged 69,938 annually. The number of immigrants arriving in the United States dropped by 90 percent from 1924 to 1940. The annual immigrant inflow in 1924 was equal to 0.63 percent of the total U.S. population. By 1940, that figure had collapsed to 0.05 percent of the population.
In 1933, an Executive Order merged the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization into the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) with the Department of Labor. As the country entered the Great Depression, Secretary of Labor William N. Doak thought that deporting illegal immigrants would create jobs for natives. 103 As a result, the federal government deported more than one million Mexicans and persons of Mexican ancestry in what was euphemistically known as “repatriation,” even though approximately 60 percent of the deportees were U.S. citizens, having been born in the United States to Mexican parents. 104 Despite its intended goal, the repatriation efforts increased unemployment rates for native‐born Americans. 105 Although Congress passed no additional significant immigration restrictions during the Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover did establish new administrative barriers by instructing immigration officials to interpret existing public charge statutes to exclude non‐wealthy immigrants. 106
Before World War II, politicians and bureaucrats applied immigration laws selectively to meet the demands of labor unions, denaturalize and deport political activists, and prosecute criminals. 107 In 1940, Congress passed the Alien Registration Act that forced noncitizens to register with the federal government, provide fingerprints, and notify the government in the event of an address change. The law also made prior involvement in the Communist, Fascist, or Nazi political parties grounds for deportation. 108 In the same year, the Department of Justice took over the INS. 109 Congressman Thomas F. Ford (D‑CA) noted that “the mood in the House is such that if you brought in the Ten Commandments today and asked for their repeal, and attached to that request an alien law, you could get it.” 110 Under these conditions, and just two months after the United States entered into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, establishing concentration and detention camps for Japanese and Germans inside the United States. 111
Historically, the United States was a refuge for displaced persons and those fleeing persecution. These refugees included, but were not limited to, expelled British political and religious dissidents, Jews escaping the pogroms in Eastern Europe and Russia, and Europeans escaping nationalist uprisings. However, the 1920s immigration laws did not allow exceptions to the quotas for refugees. 112 As Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany in the 1930s, a refugee crisis mounted that Western countries mostly ignored or actively worsened. The lack of a humanitarian response caused the U.S. commissioner overseeing the League of Nations to resign in protest, stating, “when domestic policies threaten the demoralization and exile of hundreds of thousands of human beings, considerations of diplomatic correctness must yield to those of common humanity.” 113
Even after the Nazi government indicated at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee on behalf of refugees that it would allow 40,000 refugees to leave with some of their assets, thus reducing the likelihood that immigrants would become a public charge, few countries were eager to accept them. 114 In the United States, Congress was so indifferent to the refugee crisis that it defeated a 1939 proposal that would have facilitated the migration of 20,000 children from Nazi Germany, even though all of the children had U.S. family sponsors. 115
The federal government did allow about 127,000 German Jews to enter the United States between 1933 and 1940. However, the quota for German immigrants, as set by the 1920s immigration laws, was underfilled by about 110,000 for the entirety of the 1930s. 116 That many more German Jews could likely have escaped Germany before World War II if the meager quota were fully utilized. One estimate reported by author and Holocaust historian Henry L. Feingold was that 62,000 to 75,000 Jewish refugees could have left Europe between 1940 and 1942, but enforcement of the U.S. public charge rule blocked them. 117 By the time World War II began in 1939, approximately three‐fifths of the Jews in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia had escaped, but about 250,000 to 300,000 people were still left behind. 118 If the pre‐1920s immigration laws had been in effect, then there is little doubt that virtually all German Jews—and many others from Eastern Europe—could have escaped to the United States before the outbreak of the war.
The voyage of the St. Louis neatly summarizes the tragedy of U.S. immigration policy. The St. Louis sailed from Europe in 1939 with 900 Jewish passengers. The Cuban government denied the ships’ passengers the ability to disembark, prompting the St. Louis to sail to the United States, where the U.S. government denied the refugees entry. Without a port to dock at, the St. Louis returned to Europe, where European countries admitted some of the refugees. Ultimately, 254 of the 900 passengers perished during the war. 119 The disconnect between the actions and words of Western governments prompted Hitler to remark that “it is a shameful example to observe today how the entire democratic world dissolves in tears of pity, but then, in spite of its obvious duty to help, closes its heart to the poor, tortured people.” 120
The postwar revelation of the Holocaust shamed the United States for its pre‐war anti‐refugee policy and generated political support for the passage of the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 and the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. These two pieces of legislation helped facilitate the post‐war immigration of refugees. 121 As a result of these and other provisions, the United States admitted more than a half million refugees between 1945 and 1953. 122 Another motivating factor for liberalizing refugee flows after World War II was the realization that the United States could use refugee policy to increase its international prestige relative to that of the Soviet Union in order to combat Soviet propaganda. 123 Congress made the first moves in this direction during World War II when it lifted the ban on Chinese immigrants and established a meager quota in 1943 to limit the effectiveness of Japanese propaganda. 124
Amid World War II, the federal government instituted the Mexican Labor Program, commonly known as the Bracero Program. The Bracero Program was similar to the temporary‐worker programs of 1917 and 1922 that allowed for the entry of 50,000 to 80,000 Mexican laborers. 125 This program gave farmers, who faced severe labor scarcity and wage controls during the war, access to Mexican laborers under certain conditions. Along with a minimum wage standard and housing protections, the program also established terms of return for Mexican workers, who would labor in agriculture while Americans were employed in war industries or serving in the military. The Mexican government was allowed to select participants for the program. 126
Some U.S. farmers refused to use the program because of the precedent it set for government control of the labor market. Other farmers hired lower‐cost illegal immigrant workers. A third group paid braceros less than the mandated minimum wage. 127 Enforcement remained lax, and many farmers abused bracero workers. 128 Between 1942 and 1964, the Bracero Program facilitated roughly 4.5 million Mexican agricultural workers’ legal entry. 129
During the Great Depression and World War II, few immigrants wanted to come to the United States illegally, and the program allowed some of those who might have otherwise come illegally to enter on a visa instead. 130 During this period, immigration enforcement was performed relatively well, but it quickly broke down in the face of sustained postwar immigration flows. In 1946, an INS report recorded a massive increase in illegal entries that were “riddling the country of aliens illegally in the United States” with more illegal entries than any previous year. 131 In subsequent years, reports described a steady increase in the number of illegal immigrants as “virtually an invasion.” 132
Illegal immigration increased substantially in 1947 when the Bracero Program temporarily ended. This influx of illegal immigrants prompted the federal government to arrest 142,000 illegal workers between 1947 and 1949 before returning them to the border to grant them temporary work visas, a process that eventually morphed into a revamped Bracero Program. 133 However, the small liberalization under the Bracero Program did not legalize the entire population of illegal workers and left two million illegal Mexican immigrants living in the American Southwest in the early 1950s. 134
The federal government also responded to these inflows with two additional interrelated actions. The first was a legal reform and expansion of the bracero guest worker visa program in 1951. 135 The second was Operation Wetback in 1954, an ill‐conceived immigration enforcement operation that removed almost a million illegal Mexican immigrants. Between 1953 and 1954, the federal government removed or returned more than two million illegal immigrants. 136 It is important to note that the government legalized many of those apprehended in Operation Wetback and gave them bracero work visas as an extension of the 1947–1949 legalization program. The government derogatorily referred to this legalization process as “drying out.” 137
Some illegal immigrants took “a walk‐around the statute” to gain a bracero worker visa—a process where they were driven down to the Mexican border by the INS or Border Patrol and made to take one step across the border and then immediately reenter the United States legally with a bracero work visa. 138 The combination of a legal migration pathway with consequences for breaking immigration laws incentivized Mexican migrants to come legally. As a result, the number of removals in 1955 fell significantly and those who would have previously entered illegally instead signed up to become braceros. 139
Before the expansion and partial deregulation of the program in 1951, employers in the Rio Grande Valley referred to the Border Patrol as a “Gestapo outfit” that wrenched their willing illegal workers away from employment. 140 The INS commissioner, Joseph Swing, realized that he would have to reduce both the demand for, and supply of, illegal immigrant workers to have any hope of success, which he accomplished by telling farmers that they could hire as many legal Mexican workers as they demanded if they followed the rules. 141 Farmers who did not comply were punished, but this rarely happened because compliance was easy and cheap. Commissioner Swing characterized the success as an “exchange” of illegal workers for legal guest workers. 142
A Border Patrol official warned that if the Bracero Program was ever “repealed or a restriction placed on the number of Braceros allowed to enter the United States, we can look forward to a large increase in the number of illegal alien entrants into the United States.” 143 After Congress canceled the program in 1964 in response to political pressure from labor unions and labor organizers, illegal immigration jumped because Congress failed to replace it with another effective lower‐skilled guest worker visa program. 144 By the time Congress canceled the program in 1964, regulations promulgated by the Department of Labor had whittled the number of guest‐worker visas down to just 200,000. 145 The department’s wage regulations and labor certification requirements raised costs for farmers and migrants, incentivizing them to move into the informal, underground economy. 146 Ending the Bracero Program did not end temporary worker migration to the United States; it merely made such migration illegal. 147
Eugenicist, progressive, and nationalist justifications for the 1924 National Origins Act were less popular after World War II, but immigration restrictionists still hoped to achieve “the preservation of whiteness” through the immigration system. 148 The 1950s McCarran Report defended the National Origin Act’s system of allocating quotas as the best way to “preserve the sociological and cultural balance of the United States.” 149 Despite Truman’s veto, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. This bill increased the quota for Europeans from outside of Northern and Western Europe, granted the Department of State the ability to deny entry to those it thought would lower native wages, repealed the 1880s’ prohibitions against contract labor, and set a minimum quota of a hundred visas for immigrants from every country. The bill promoted family reunification by continuing the exemption of children and spouses of citizens from the numerical caps. 150
The 1952 act introduced four preference categories, allotting 50 percent of the quota admissions to immigrants with needed skills, 30 percent to parents of adult citizens, 20 percent to the spouses and children of legal residents, and any unused green cards to the siblings and adult children of citizens. 151 Further, the act created nonimmigrant visa categories that are familiar to us today, such as treaty trader or investor (E), student (F‑1), temporary worker of distinguished ability or merit (H‑1), and others. 152 The bill favored Europeans, and because few wanted to immigrate at that time, many of the available visas went unused between 1952–1965.
The Immigration and Nationality Act also removed the ban on Asian immigration and many due‐process safeguards that protected immigrants from deportation abuses. 153 Senators Hubert Humphrey (D‑MN) and Herbert Lehman (D‑NY) lamented that the act subjected deportees to the tyranny of bureaucrats and that deportations “without hearings or findings, and without the possibility of judicial review, would be the beginning of a police state.” 154 In 1958, Congress expanded its 1929 regularization provisions to illegal entrants and overstayers eligible for naturalization who had resided in the United States since 1940.
Between 1952 and 1960, immigration rebounded from its World War II lows and averaged 257,000 immigrants per year, but the 1960 census revealed that only 5.4 percent of the United States’ population was foreign‐born. 155 The Civil Rights movement and the rejection of eugenics positioned public opinion against the national quota system, laying the groundwork for reform. 156
Sen. Philip Hart (D‑MI) and Rep. Emanuel Celler (D‑NY) championed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which would end the national quota system and replace it entirely with a preference system for immigrants from the Eastern Hemisphere. 157 The 1965 act created categories of immigrants that included the unmarried and married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens; siblings of U.S. citizens; spouses and unmarried sons and daughters of green card holders; members of the professions that include, but are not limited to, architects, engineers, lawyers, physicians, surgeons, and teachers; scientists and artists of exceptional ability; skilled and unskilled workers in occupations for which labor was in short supply; and some refugees. 158 Congress set aside 74 percent of the available green cards for family members, 20 percent for workers, and 6 percent for refugees. 159
Early versions of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 allocated fewer green cards for family members and more for workers. Those who supported the national origins system and opposed non‐European immigration pushed for the expanded family‐based immigration system to maintain European favoritism in the law. Rep. Michael Feighan (D‑OH) introduced amendments that would set aside 74 percent of the 1965 act’s green cards for family members because he believed that the current stock of European‐American immigrants would use them to create and maintain ties to Europe. 160 He did not anticipate, however, that Latin Americans and Asians would be the primary beneficiaries.
As with the 1921, 1924, and 1952 acts, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality (Hart‐Celler) Act did not count spouses, minor children, or the parents of U.S. citizens over the age of 21 against the numerical cap. 161 The bill also mandated that employment‐based immigrants must receive certification from the Department of Labor that “the employment of such aliens will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of the workers in the United States similarly employed.” 162 Prior to the 1965 act, the government had to demonstrate that a new worker would depress American citizens’ wages in order to deny the new worker a visa, but the new bill put the onus on the applicant to show that no adverse effect would result—this was a substantial burden shift that increased visa denial rates. 163
Further provisions of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act limited immigration from both hemispheres to 290,000 annually—170,000 for the Eastern Hemisphere and 120,000 for the Western Hemisphere. 164 The act limited immigration from any individual country in the Eastern Hemisphere to 20,000 annually. By 1976, this provision also applied to Western Hemisphere countries. 165 Lastly, the act extended the administrative amnesty of 1929 to those who were illegally present in 1948, legalizing about 44,106 illegal immigrants by 1981. 166
Immigration policy is the most debated and controversial issue of our time. Across the developed world, political parties have greatly diverged on this issue. In Europe, political parties with a nativist bent have won elections and governed in coalition with other mainstream parties. But even mainstream parties, such as the Danish Social Democrats, have adopted anti‐immigration platforms as they adapt to the opinions of voters skeptical of immigration—and have maintained power as a result.
Under the new system, the number of immigrants from the Western Hemisphere increased because the family‐reunification portions of immigration law expanded chain migration from Latin America. 167 Moreover, the 1965 act did not replace the Bracero Program with another functional guest worker program, all but guaranteeing an increase in illegal migration. 168 Demographically, the removal of racial restrictions significantly increased the number of Asian immigrants and slightly increased the number of Hispanic immigrants. Geographically, Florida, California, New York, Texas, Illinois, and New Jersey received the bulk of new immigrants. 169
In 1968, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D‑MA) secured the federal government’s agreement to the 1967 United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. 170 From 1967 to 1980, waves of refugees fleeing communism arrived in the United States through a mixture of special legislative remedies and presidential parole power. Congress replaced this ad hoc system with a formal admission process in the Refugee Act of 1980. This bill restricted the use of presidential parole, temporarily raised the refugee limits from 17,600 to 50,000, and established a new category for asylum seekers. The bill mandated that the president, in consultation with Congress, determine the number of future refugees admitted annually. Moreover, this bill amended the Immigration and Nationality Act to conform with the 1967 United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, recognizing individuals with certain characteristics as refugees. From 1980 to 2000, the federal government accepted an average of 97,000 refugees per year. 171
Legal immigration expanded in the wake of the 1965 act. Between 1966 and 1980, the average annual number of immigrants increased by roughly 150,000, compared to the yearly averages between 1952 and 1965. By 1980, 6.2 percent of the 226 million U.S. population was foreign‐born, and 524,295 immigrants entered legally that year. 172 The number of illegal immigrants also grew, in part, because the 1965 act did not create a way for lower‐skilled workers to enter the country and legally work. Estimates suggest that there were 28 million illegal immigrant entries to the United States from 1965 to 1986; these were offset by 23.4 million departures, yielding a net difference of about 4.6 million over 21 years. 173
The influx of illegal immigrants forged a contentious political alliance between Democrats who were interested in amnesty for illegal immigrants and Republicans who wanted to end illegal immigration. This overlap allowed Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R‑WY) and Rep. Romano Mazzoli (D‑KY) to submit immigration reform bills based on policy recommendations made by the 1980 Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. Despite being delayed by political posturing, a transmuted version of the bill, called the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), passed in 1986. 174
This act consisted of two main components: amnesty for illegal immigrants who had lived continuously in the country since January 1, 1982; and penalties for employers who willingly hired illegal immigrants. The bill granted roughly three million illegal immigrants amnesty and created 109 new INS offices to enforce immigration laws. 175 The act slightly lowered illegal immigrant wages, but failed to dim the wage magnet entirely because employer sanctions incentivized illegal immigrant workers to purchase fake documents on the black market, to steal identity documents, and to borrow valid documents from those with legal work authorization. 176
The legalization component of the law did succeed, however, as immigrants earned green cards and saw substantial wage gains in the years after legalization. 177 The IRCA also attempted to deregulate and expand low‐skilled guest worker visas, but it had virtually no effect on migration. Ultimately, IRCA did not create a way for future low‐skilled migrants from Mexico and Central America to enter lawfully. And although IRCA boosted the number of Border Patrol agents along the southwest border to roughly 3,350 agents by 1988, illegal immigration nevertheless increased.
The Anti‐Drug Abuse Act of 1988 created a category of offenses called aggravated felonies that subjected noncitizens to deportation after completing their prison sentence. 178 Although the bill defined aggravated felonies as murder, drug trafficking, and illicit trafficking in arms, Congress has since increased the number of crimes that are considered aggravated felonies. By 2016, more than 30 types of offenses were deemed aggravated felonies, including minor crimes with a sentence of one year or more. 179 An aggravated felony conviction subjects a noncitizen to deportation, removes all possibility of deportation relief, and bans them from the United States for life, even if the immigrant committed the crime before it was considered an aggravated felony. 180
Legal immigration flows surpassed one million in 1989, the first time since 1914. 181 By 1990, the immigrant stock was 19.8 million, accounting for 7.9 percent of the U.S. population. 182 In 1960, 84 percent of the U.S. foreign‐born population in the United States were either from Europe or Canada—in 1990, about 7 percent of green cards were issued to those from Europe, 22 percent to those from Asia, and 59 percent to those from either Mexico, Central America, or South America. 183 Legislation was partially responsible for the change in origin regions, but much of the shift was due to economic development globally. Whereas Europe and Canada were wealthy regions relative to the rest of the world, developing nations were wealthy enough that their citizens could emigrate, but not yet wealthy enough to entice them to stay.
Following on the expansion of legal immigration after 1968, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1990 to liberalize the immigration of skilled workers and increased the number of green cards issued annually to 675,000. 184 Similar to earlier legislation, the law allowed immediate relatives—children, spouses, and parents of U.S. citizens—and a few other classes of immigrants to immigrate outside the direct numerical limits. It provided, at minimum, another 226,000 green cards for family reunification and 140,000 green cards to employment‐based immigrants divided among five preference categories. The 1990 act also raised the annual per country ceilings to 7 percent (25,620) of the total familial and employment‐based allowance. Lastly, the Immigration Act of 1990 added and reformed nonimmigrant visas for skilled workers, such as the H‑1B visa for skilled workers in specialty occupations and the O‑1 visa for individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement.
Finally, the bill allocated 55,000 immigration visas to a Diversity Visa program that awarded visas to nationals from countries with low levels of immigration to the United States. Despite the program’s name, Congress created it not to increase immigrants flows from Africa and Asia but rather Ireland. Congressmen began to realize that the 1965 reforms, which allocated the majority of green cards on a family reunification basis, favored recent non‐European immigrants over others. The program was an attempt to accommodate these newly disfavored European immigrants.
Unsurprisingly, given congressional intent and a temporary allocation of 40 percent of the diversity visas to the Irish, in 1994 almost all diversity visa recipients were from European countries. 185 From 1995 to 2000, an average of 42 percent of diversity visas were issued to European countries, but over time the composition of recipients shifted. 186 In 2016, the percent of diversity visas issued to European countries fell to 24 percent, while the percent of diversity visas issued to Africans and Asians increased to 40 percent and 31 percent, respectively. 187
Despite the 1990 act, the illegal immigrant population increased from about 3.5 million in 1990 to 5.7 million in 1995. 188 Restrictionists argued that immigrants had negative economic effects, failed to assimilate culturally, used an abundance of welfare, and amplified the perceptions of lawlessness and social chaos along the border with Mexico caused by illegal immigration. 189 Restrictionists also introduced a new argument based on a relatively new concern regarding immigrants’ supposed environmental damage.
Politicians and activists of the era hashed out many immigration debates at the state level, California Propositions 187 and 227 being the two most well‐known examples. 190 The former curtailed welfare for illegal immigrants and required every state employee to report suspected illegal immigrants to the INS, while the latter eliminated bilingual education in public schools. 191 Both passed by wide margins. At the federal level, the Clinton administration attempted to reduce illegal immigration administratively via border operations such as Operation Hold the Line in 1993 and Operation Gatekeeper in 1994.
In the same vein, Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act in 1996. These bills increased the penalties for illegal entry, created mandatory detention for many classes of noncitizens, and expedited deportation procedures for certain cases. The bills also limited judicial review of certain types of deportations and allowed secret evidence in removal proceedings for noncitizens accused of terrorist activity. 192 Additionally, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act increased the interior deportation apparatus in the United States and prevented illegal immigrants from using the legal system to earn a green card through the so‐called three‐and‐ten‐year bars, which prevented illegally present immigrants who leave the United States from legally returning for any reason, thus guaranteeing that the number of illegal immigrants would grow more rapidly than in the pre‐IRCA period. 193
Congress also passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The act made most noncitizens ineligible for means‐tested welfare, authorized the states to deny providing welfare such as Medicaid to immigrants, and delayed the possibility to receive welfare for most immigrants for five years. 194 While initially impactful, the act became less effective as the federal government rolled backed some of its welfare restrictions and states started providing social services to ineligible immigrants.
By 1997, the number of Border Patrol agents along the southwest border increased to 6,315—roughly double the number who were employed in 1987. The additional enforcement measures increased the cost of crossing the border illegally, increased illegal immigrants’ use of smugglers, inflated smugglers’ fees, and decreased the incentive for illegal immigrants to return home after successfully entering the United States. 195
In 2000, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush appealed to Hispanic voters by supporting expanded legal immigration and legalization for illegal immigrants, a lesson he learned after winning two gubernatorial elections in Texas. 196 Bush’s pro‐immigration tactic in Texas was at odds with that of California Republican Governor Pete Wilson, who devastated his party’s popularity among Hispanic voters. 197 The Bush administration hoped to create a large guest worker program and legalize illegal immigrants even after the 9/11 attacks.
Congress passed the USA Patriot Act shortly after the 9/11 attacks. The Patriot Act reduced the rights of immigrants by expanding deportation powers to suspected terrorists and allowed the attorney general to detain aliens without charge or recourse to due process. 198 In 2002, after the INS issued visa extensions to two of the deceased 9/11 terrorists, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act, which consolidated 22 federal departments and agencies into the new Department of Homeland Security. 199 This act moved many federal agencies that were responsible for immigration enforcement under the department’s purview and restructured them as Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Citizenship and Immigration Services.
During Bush’s terms in office, he signed both the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 and the Secure Fence Act of 2006, and renewed the USA Patriot Act. These laws reaffirmed the government’s power to detain immigrants without trial, authorized about 850 miles of fencing along the southwest border, and expanded the size of the Border Patrol. 200 Congressional actions also increased nonimmigrant visa security screening through reforming or implementing various programs, such as the Automated Biometric Identification System, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, and the Electronic System for Travel Authorization. 201
On the nonsecurity side of immigration, Congress passed the H‑1B Visa Reform Act of 2004, which provided 20,000 additional H‑1B visas to high‐skilled temporary workers with advanced degrees from American universities. This act came only four years after Congress passed the American Competitiveness in the Twenty‐First Century Act in 2000, which temporarily raised the annual H‑1B cap and permanently exempted universities and nonprofit research institutions from the visa cap. In 2006, the Republican‐led Senate passed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, which, among other things, would have legalized illegal immigrants and expanded legal immigration, but the House of Representatives did not ratify the act. Similar bills also died in the Senate in 2007 and 2008.
The Pew Research Center estimated that the illegal immigration population peaked at 12.2 million in 2007, and the issue moved to the forefront of the 2008 presidential election. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama ran on a platform of increased employer sanctions and earned legalization for noncriminal immigrants. His Republican opponent John McCain, who had recently helped write the failed 2007 immigration bill, supported comprehensive immigration reform. 202 After Obama’s victory, Congress reintroduced the DREAM Act in 2009 to legalize many illegal immigrants who entered the country as children, but it ultimately failed in the Senate after passing in the House of Representatives. 203
In 2012, Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which granted a two‐year work permit and a reprieve from deportation to illegal immigrants who met many of the latest DREAM Act requirements. 204 By the 2012 presidential election, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney rejected a pathway to citizenship, opposed DACA, and argued that strict enforcement of existing laws would lead to illegal immigrants’ self‐deportation. 205 Conversely, Obama continued to support comprehensive immigration reform and the targeted deportation of illegal immigrants. 206 Obama’s administration removed more illegal immigrants than any other administration, earning him the nickname “Deporter‐in‐Chief.” 207 Obama removed 1,242,486 illegal immigrants from the interior of the United States during his full eight years, averaging 155,311 removals per year. President George W. Bush removed 819,964 illegal immigrants from the interior of the United States during the last six years of his administration, equal to an average of 136,661 removals per year. Estimating the number of illegal immigrants deported in 2001 and 2002, based on those deported during the 2003–2006 period, shows that Bush’s administration would have deported 1,000,653 illegal immigrants from the interior of the United States, with an annual average of 125,082. In comparison, President Trump only managed to remove 325,660 people from the interior of the United States during his entire term in office. On average, Trump removed an average of 81,415 illegal immigrants per year (Figure 3). 208
In 2013, eight senators—including John McCain (R‑AZ), Charles Schumer (D‑NY), and Lindsey Graham (R‑SC)—introduced the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, colloquially known as the “Gang of Eight” Bill. This bill proposed a myriad of immigration reforms. Among these were that it allowed many illegal immigrants to obtain Registered Provisional Immigration status, which would eventually permit them to naturalize. It also created a W visa program that provided temporary work visas for less‐skilled immigrants. The bill exempted the family of immigrants who obtained employment‐based green cards from the numerical cap, established a merit‐based system for admitting low‐skilled and high‐skilled workers, and ended the diversity visa program. Congressional Budget Office estimates indicated that the bill would decrease the federal deficit, increase legal immigration, and reduce illegal immigration. 209 However, despite passing the Senate 68 to 32, the bill languished and died in the House.
In 2014, Obama issued the Immigration Accountability Executive Action, which granted three years of temporary revocable relief and work authorization to four to five million illegal immigrants by expanding DACA to cover the parents of U.S. citizens. This order increased and redirected enforcement resources to the southern border. The memo also prioritized deportation for “national security threats, serious criminals, and recent border crossers.” 210 The executive action altered administrative procedures to allow visa processing for illegal immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens without their needing to leave the country, help high‐skilled workers on H1‑B visas to change their jobs easier, and reduce barriers to the immigration of foreign‐born entrepreneurs. The courts blocked Obama’s executive action in late 2014, and in 2016 the Supreme Court deadlocked at a 4–4 decision, thereby defaulting to the lower court’s decision. 211
By 2016, the illegal population receded to 10.7 million, and in 2016 there were 17,000 Border Patrol agents and 654 miles of primary fencing on the southwest border. 212 During the 2016 presidential elections, immigration became a focal point. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I‑VT) criticized open borders as “a Koch brothers’ proposal.” 213 Sanders acknowledged that a liberal U.S. immigration policy would improve immigrants’ well‐being, but stated that his first obligation was to U.S. children, whom he argued would be injured by immigration. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said that he would “put America first” by denying entry to immigrants who, he argued, take Americans jobs, commit crimes, and represent national security threats. 214
Trump won the Republican nomination—beating Republicans who held more traditional positions on immigration—by calling for a wall on the southern border, ending birthright citizenship, banning Muslim entry into the United States, and terminating DACA. 215 Conversely, the Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, advocated for almost the opposite approach. Instead of increased enforcement, Clinton promised that, in her first 100 days, she would introduce comprehensive immigration reform, defend DACA, and expand the Affordable Care Act subsidies to all immigrants. 216
Upon taking office, Trump issued multiple executive orders to stop the issuance of visas to immigrants and nonimmigrants from several mostly Muslim majority countries based on the assertion that they would be detrimental to national security. 217 The Trump administration also halted DACA and lent support to the RAISE Act in 2017, which would have cut legal immigration by half. 218 There was little congressional action on immigration under the Trump administration, but various federal agencies utilized the regulatory state in order to reduce legal immigration. 219 For example, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have attempted to expand immigration enforcement both in the interior of the United States and along the border. Similarly, the Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a final rule that altered the public charge grounds of inadmissibility, which could substantially reduce the number of new green cards issued. 220 Trump campaigned on building a wall across the length of the southern border. Regardless of Trump’s efforts, the number of lawful permanent residents entering the United States had not declined much by the end of 2019.
Trump issued his largest immigration executive actions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing recession. In April 2020, Trump practically ended the issuance of green cards to people abroad, which usually accounts for about half of new green cards issued annually. In the last six months of the 2020 fiscal year (April to September) the federal government only issued about 29,000 green cards. During the same period in 2016, it had issued approximately 309,000 green cards. Compared to the last half of 2016, the number of green cards issued in the last half of the 2020 fiscal year fell by 90.5 percent (Figure 4). 221 During the period from January 2017 to February 2020, the average number of green cards issued per month to immigrants abroad was down about 0.5 percent under Trump compared to the January 2013 to February 2016 period under Obama, with cumulative numbers down just over 3.2 percent. 222 In other words, Trump’s lasting impact on the issuance of green cards to immigrants abroad was very small prior to his COVID-19 executive orders.
As with immigrant visas, Trump greatly reduced the issuance of nonimmigrant visas (NIVs) in response to the recession and the COVID-19 pandemic (Figure 5). In the last six months of the 2020 fiscal year (April to September), the federal government issued 397,596 NIVs. In the same period in 2016 during Obama’s last full year in office, it issued more than 5.6 million NIVs. Compared with the last half of the 2016 fiscal year, the number of nonimmigrant visas issued in the last half of the 2020 fiscal year fell by almost 93 percent. 223 During the period from January 2017 to February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the average number of monthly NIVs issued was down about 12 percent under Trump compared to the January 2013 to February 2016 period under Obama, and the cumulative numbers were down by just over 14 percent. Beginning in mid to late March, the Trump administration virtually halted the issuance of NIVs to people abroad. Comparing the decline in the number of visas issued abroad under Trump through November 2020 with the second term of the Obama administration, Trump reduced the number of green cards issued by approximately 418,453 and the number of NIVs by about 11,178,668. That’s roughly an 18 percent decline in the number of green cards issued abroad and approximately a 28 percent decline in the number of NIVs compared to Obama’s second term. The COVID‐19–related restrictions were the most severe and impactful immigration policies adopted by the Trump administration. 224
Refugee admissions sharply declined during the Trump administration, from 84,995 in 2016 to a mere 11,841 in 2020. 225 This decline was precipitous and occurred annually due to Trump’s orders. Under the Refugee Act of 1980, the president sets worldwide and regional refugee numbers. In every year, Trump cut the numbers and refugee admissions fell. Trump’s control over legal immigration and the reduced number of refugee admissions exposed just how much power the executive branch of government has over immigration. 226 Congress has given an enormous amount of power to the president to set immigration policy. The biggest institutional change in immigration policy is that Congress’ importance is shrinking while the executive branch’s power is growing. How this will affect future immigration policy and the political debate over the issue remains to be seen.
In 2019, the United States issued just over one million green cards. Of these green cards, 63 percent were based on familial relationships (81 percent of which went to immediate family relatives of U.S. citizens and green card holders); 5 percent were based on employment; and the remainder were based on various humanitarian concerns or the diversity green card lottery. 227 More than half of those obtaining a green card were adjustments of status, meaning that they were already in the United States, as opposed to new arrivals from abroad. The demand to immigrate to the United States, combined with numerical limits and per country caps on family and employment‐based migration, has created a backlog of individuals who have been approved for green cards but who are not yet able to receive them. As of 2019, roughly one million foreign workers and family members were awaiting their employment‐based green cards in the United States, while another 3.6 million prospective immigrants were awaiting their immigration visas. 228 For immigrants from some countries, such as those from India, this means that they will not receive their employment‐based green cards for roughly a decade. 229
While estimates of the size of the illegal immigrant population continue to fall, the demand for nonimmigrant visas continues to rise. 230 In 2018, the Department of State issued nearly 196,409 H‑2A visas for temporary agricultural workers, compared with the 11,004 visas it issued in 1996. Similarly, the issuance of H‑2B visas for temporary nonagricultural workers has grown significantly, increasing from 12,200 in 1996 to 97,623 in 2018. 231 Demand for high‐skilled workers has been so high “that the annual H‑1B cap was reached within the first five business days on eight occasions” between 2008 and 2020. 232 Since the academic year 2008–2009, more than 600,000 international students have enrolled in American academic institutions each year, and many of those students have been unable to obtain green cards, given the current numerical constraints. 233
Overall, the U.S. immigration system remains fragmented as of early 2021. Relative to a system that prioritizes economic contributions and creates pathways for immigrants to work in the United States legally, the current system constrains economic growth. Path dependency and politics preserve the status quo and make it difficult to reach consensus on immigration, despite seemingly straightforward opportunities to harness prospective immigrants’ desire to live and work in the United States. Although regulatory changes can generate meaningful improvements to the United States immigration system, congressional reform is likely necessary to replace the patchwork of current immigration policies with a coherent system that channels the constructive powers of immigration rather than disrupting them.
Baxter, Andrew M., and Alex Nowrasteh. “A Brief History of U.S. Immigration Policy from the Colonial Period to the Present Day,” Policy Analysis no. 919, Cato Institute, Washington, DC, August 3, 2021. https://doi.org/10.36009/PA.919 . | https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/brief-history-us-immigration-policy-colonial-period-present-day | 57 |
when did the first immigrants come to america | History of immigration to the United States | The history of immigration to the United States details the movement of people to the United States , from the colonial era to the present. The United States experienced successive waves of immigration, particularly from Europe, and later from Asia and Latin America. Colonial era immigrants often repaid the cost of transoceanic transportation by becoming indentured servants where the new employer paid the ship's captain. Starting in the late 19th century, immigration was restricted from China and Japan. In the 1920s, restrictive immigration quotas were imposed, although political refugees had special status. Numerical restrictions ended in 1965. In recent years, the largest numbers have come from Asia and Central America.
Attitudes towards new immigrants have cycled between favorable and hostile since the 1790s. Recent debates focus on the Southern border, and on the status of "dreamers" who have lived almost their entire life in the U.S. after illegally migrating with their families as children.
In 1607, the first successful English colony settled in Jamestown, Virginia . Once tobacco was found to be a profitable cash crop , many plantations were established along the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and Maryland .
Thus began the first and longest era of immigration, lasting until the American Revolution in 1775; during this time settlements grew from initial English toe-holds from the New World to British America . It brought Northern European immigrants, primarily of British, German, and Dutch extraction. The British ruled from the mid-17th century and they were by far the largest group of arrivals, remaining within the British Empire . Over 90% of these early immigrants became farmers. [1]
Large numbers of young men and women came alone as indentured servants. Their passage was paid by employers in the colonies who needed help on the farms or in shops. Indentured servants were provided food, housing, clothing and training but they did not receive wages. At the end of the indenture (usually around age 21, or after a service of seven years) they were free to marry and start their own farms. [2]
Seeking religious freedom in the New World, one hundred English Pilgrims established a small settlement near Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. Tens of thousands of English Puritans arrived, mostly from the East Anglian parts of England ( Norfolk , Suffolk , East Sussex ., [3] and settled in Boston, Massachusetts and adjacent areas from around 1629 to 1640 to create a land dedicated to their religion. The earliest New English colonies, Massachusetts , Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire , were established along the northeast coast. Large scale immigration to this region ended before 1700, though a small but steady trickle of later arrivals continued. [4]
The New English colonists were the most urban and educated of all their contemporaries, and they had many skilled farmers, tradesmen and craftsmen among them. They started the first university , Harvard , in 1635 in order to train their ministers. They mostly settled in small villages for mutual support (nearly all of them had their own militias) and common religious activities. Shipbuilding, commerce, agriculture, and fishing were their main sources of income. New England's healthy climate (the cold winters killed the mosquitoes and other disease-bearing insects), small widespread villages (minimizing the spread of disease), and an abundant food supply resulted in the lowest death rate and the highest birth rate of any of the colonies. The Eastern and Northern frontier around the initial New England settlements was mainly settled by the descendants of the original New Englanders. Immigration to the New England colonies after 1640 and the start of the English Civil War decreased to less than 1% (about equal to the death rate) in nearly all of the years prior to 1845. The rapid growth of the New England colonies (approximately 900,000 by 1790) was almost entirely due to the high birth rate (>3%) and the low death rate (<1%) per year. [5]
The Dutch colonies, organized by the United East Indian Company , were first established along the Hudson River in present-day New York state starting about 1626. Wealthy Dutch patroons set up large landed estates along the Hudson River and brought in farmers who became renters. Others established rich trading posts to trade with Native Americans and started cities such as New Amsterdam (now New York City) and Albany, New York . [6] After the British seized the colony and renamed it New York, Germans (from the Palatinate ) and Yankees (from New England) began arriving. [7]
Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware formed the middle colonies . Pennsylvania was settled by Quakers from Britain, followed by Ulster Scots (Northern Ireland) on the frontier and numerous German Protestant sects, including the German Palatines . The earlier colony of New Sweden had small settlements on the lower Delaware River , with immigrants of Swedes and Finns . These colonies were absorbed by 1676. [8]
The middle colonies were scattered west of New York City (established 1626; taken over by the English in 1664) and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (established 1682). New Amsterdam/New York had the most diverse residents from different nations and prospered as a major trading and commercial center after about 1700. From around 1680 to 1725, Pennsylvania was controlled by the Quakers. The commercial center of Philadelphia was run mostly by prosperous Quakers, supplemented by many small farming and trading communities, with a strong German contingent located in villages in the Delaware River valley. [9]
Starting around 1680, when Pennsylvania was founded, many more settlers arrived to the middle colonies. Many Protestant sects were attracted by freedom of religion and good, cheap land. They were about 60% British and 33% German. By 1780, New York's population were around 27% descendants of Dutch settlers, about 6% were African, and the remainder were mostly English with a wide mixture of other Europeans. New Jersey, and Delaware had a British majority, with 7–11% German-descendants, about 6% African population, and a small contingent of the Swedish descendants of New Sweden.
The fourth major center of settlement was the western frontier , located in the inland parts of Pennsylvania and south colonies. It was mainly settled from about 1717 to 1775 by Presbyterian farmers from North England border lands, Scotland , and Ulster , fleeing hard times and religious persecution. [10] Between 250,000 and 400,000 Scots-Irish migrated to America in the 18th century. [10] The Scots-Irish soon became the dominant culture of the Appalachians from Pennsylvania to Georgia . Areas where 20th-century censuses reported mostly ' American ' ancestry were the places where, historically, northern English, Scottish and Scots-Irish Protestants settled: in the interior of the South , and the Appalachian region. Scots-Irish American immigrants, were made up of people from the southernmost counties of Scotland who had initially settled in Ireland. They were heavily Presbyterian, and largely self-sufficient. The Scots-Irish arrived in large numbers during the early 18th century and they often preferred to settle in the back country and the frontier from Pennsylvania to Georgia, where they mingled with second generation and later English settlers. They enjoyed the very cheap land and independence from established governments common to frontier settlements. [11]
The mostly agricultural Southern English colonies initially had very high death rates for new settlers due to malaria , yellow fever , and other diseases as well as skirmishes with Native Americans . Despite this, a steady flow of new immigrants, mostly from Central England and the London area, kept up population growth. As early as 1630, initial areas of settlement had been largely cleared of Native Americans by major outbreaks of measles , smallpox , and bubonic plague beginning already decades before European settlers began arriving in large numbers. The leading killer was smallpox, which arrived in the New World around 1510–1530. [12]
Initially, the plantations established in these colonies were mostly owned by friends (mostly minor aristocrats and gentry) of the British-appointed governors. A group of Gaelic-speaking Scottish Highlanders created a settlement at Cape Fear in North Carolina, which remained culturally distinct until the mid-18th century, at which point it was swallowed up by the dominant English-origin culture. [13] Many settlers from Europe arrived as indentured servants, having had their passage paid for, in return for five to seven years of work, including free room and board, clothing, and training, but without cash wages. After their periods of indenture expired, many of these former servants founded small farms on the frontier.
By the early 18th century, the involuntary migration of African slaves was a significant component of the immigrant population in the Southern colonies. Between 1700 and 1740, a large majority of the net overseas migration to these colonies were Africans. In the third quarter of the 18th century, the population of that region amounted to roughly 55% British, 38% black, and 7% German . In 1790, 42% of the population in South Carolina and Georgia was of African origin. [14] Before 1800, the growing of tobacco, rice and indigo in plantations in the Southern colonies relied heavily on the labor of slaves from Africa. [15] The Atlantic slave trade to mainland North America stopped during the Revolution and was outlawed in most states by 1800 and the entire nation in 1808 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves , although some slaves continued to be smuggled in illegally. [16]
While the thirteen colonies differed in how they were settled and by whom, they had many similarities. Nearly all were settled and financed by privately organized British settlers or families using free enterprise without any significant Royal or Parliamentary government support. Nearly all commercial activity comprised small, privately owned businesses with good credit both in America and in England, which was essential since they were often cash poor. Most settlements were largely independent of British trade, since they grew or manufactured nearly everything they needed; the average cost of imports per household was 5–15 pounds sterling per year. Most settlements consisted of complete family groups with several generations present. The population was rural, with close to 80% owning the land on which they lived and farmed. After 1700, as the Industrial Revolution progressed, more of the population started to move to cities, as had happened in Britain. Initially, the Dutch and German settlers spoke languages brought over from Europe, but English was the main language of commerce. Governments and laws mainly copied English models. The only major British institution to be abandoned was the aristocracy , which was almost totally absent. The settlers generally established their own law-courts and popularly elected governments. This self-ruling pattern became so ingrained that for the next 200 years almost all new settlements had their own government up and running shortly after arrival.
After the colonies were established, their population growth comprised almost entirely organic growth, with foreign-born immigrant populations rarely exceeding 10%. The last significant colonies to be settled primarily by immigrants were Pennsylvania (post-1680s), the Carolinas (post-1663), and Georgia (post-1732). Even here, the immigrants came mostly from England and Scotland, with the exception of Pennsylvania's large Germanic contingent. Elsewhere, internal American migration from other colonies provided nearly all of the settlers for each new colony or state. [17] Populations grew by about 80% over a 20-year period, at a "natural" annual growth rate of 3%.
Over half of all new British immigrants in the South initially arrived as indentured servants , [18] mostly poor young people who could not find work in England nor afford passage to America. In addition, about 60,000 British convicts guilty of minor offences were transported to the British colonies in the 18th century, with the "serious" criminals generally having been executed. Ironically, these convicts are often the only immigrants with nearly complete immigration records, as other immigrants typically arrived with few or no records. [19]
Although Spain set up a few forts in Florida , notably San Agustín (present-day Saint Augustine ) in 1565, they sent few settlers to Florida. Spaniards moving north from Mexico founded the San Juan on the Rio Grande in 1598 and Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1607–1608. The settlers were forced to leave temporarily for 12 years (1680–1692) by the Pueblo Revolt before returning.
Spanish Texas lasted from 1690 to 1821, when Texas was governed as a colony that was separate from New Spain . In 1731, Canary Islanders (or "Isleños") arrived to establish San Antonio . [20] The majority of the few hundred Texan and New Mexican colonizers in the Spanish colonial period were Spaniards and criollos . [21] California, New Mexico and Arizona all had Spanish settlements. In 1781, Spanish settlers founded Los Angeles.
At the time the former Spanish colonies joined the United States, Californios in California numbered about 10,000 and Tejanos in Texas about 4,000. New Mexico had 47,000 Spanish settlers in 1842; Arizona was only thinly settled.
However, not all these settlers were of European descent. As in the rest of the American colonies, new settlements were based on the casta system, and although all could speak Spanish, it was a melting pot of whites, natives, and mestizos.
In the late 17th century, French expeditions established a foothold on the Saint Lawrence River , Mississippi River and Gulf Coast . Interior trading posts, forts and cities were thinly spread. The city of Detroit was the third-largest settlement in New France . New Orleans expanded when several thousand French-speaking refugees from the region of Acadia made their way to Louisiana following British expulsion, settling largely in the Southwest Louisiana region now called Acadiana . Their descendants are now called Cajun and still dominate the coastal areas. [22] About 7,000 French-speaking immigrants settled in Louisiana during the 18th century.
The following were the countries of origin for new arrivals to the United States before 1790. [23] The regions marked with an asterisk were part of Great Britain. The ancestry of the 3.9 million population in 1790 has been estimated by various sources by sampling last names from the 1790 census and assigning them a country of origin. The Irish in the 1790 census were mostly Scots-Irish. The French were primarily Huguenots . The total U.S. Catholic population in 1790 was probably less than 5%. The Native American population inside territorial U.S. boundaries was less than 100,000. [ citation needed ]
|U.S. historical populations|
|Country||Immigrants before 1790||Population 1790 [24]|
|Africa [25]||360,000||757,000|
|England*||230,000||2,100,000|
|Ulster Scots-Irish*||135,000||300,000|
|Germany [26]||103,000||270,000|
|Scotland *||48,500||150,000|
|Ireland*||8,000||(Incl. in Scot-Irish)|
|Netherlands||6,000||100,000|
|Wales *||4,000||10,000|
|France||3,000||15,000|
|Jewish [27]||1,000||2,000|
|Sweden||1,000||6,000|
|Other [28]||50,000||200,000|
|British Isles total||425,500||2,560,000|
|Total [29]||950,000||3,900,000|
The 1790 population reflected the loss of approximately 46,000 Loyalists , or "Tories", who immigrated to Canada at the end of the American Revolution, 10,000 who went to England and 6,000 to the Caribbean.
The 1790 census recorded 3.9 million inhabitants (not counting American Indians). Of the total white population of just under 3.2 million in 1790, approximately 86% was of British ancestry (60%, or 1.9 million, English, 4.3% Welsh, 5.4% Scots, 5.8% Irish (South), and 10.5% Scots-Irish. Among those whose ancestry was from outside of British Isles, Germans were 9%, Dutch 3.4%, French 2.1%, and Swedish 0.25%; blacks made up 19.3% (or 762,000) of the U.S. population. [30] The number of Scots was 200,000; Irish and Scot-Irish 625,000. The overwhelming majority of Southern Irish were Protestant, as there were only 60,000 Catholics in the United States in 1790, 1.6% of the population. Many U.S. Catholics were descendants of English Catholic settlers in the 17th century; the rest were Irish, German and some Acadians who remained. In this era, the population roughly doubled every 23 years, mostly due to natural increase. Relentless population expansion pushed the U.S. frontier to the Pacific by 1848. Most immigrants came long distances to settle in the United States. However, many Irish left Canada for the United States in the 1840s. French Canadians who moved south from Quebec after 1860, and the Mexicans who came north after 1911, found it easier to move back and forth. [ citation needed ]
If one excludes enslaved Africans, there was relatively little immigration from 1770 to 1830; while there was significant emigration from the U.S. to Canada, including about 75,000 Loyalists as well as Germans and others looking for better farmland in what is now Ontario. Large-scale immigration in the 1830s to 1850s came from Britain, Ireland, Germany. Most were attracted by the cheap farmland. Some were artisans and skilled factory workers attracted by the first stage of industrialization. The Irish Catholics were primarily unskilled workers who built a majority of the canals and railroads, settling in urban areas. Many Irish went to the emerging textile mill towns of the Northeast, while others became longshoremen in the growing Atlantic and Gulf port cities. Half the Germans headed to farms, especially in the Midwest (with some to Texas), while the other half became craftsmen in urban areas. [31]
Nativism took the form of political anti-Catholicism directed mostly at the Irish (as well as Germans). It became important briefly in the mid-1850s in the guise of the Know Nothing party. Most of the Catholics and German Lutherans became Democrats, and most of the other Protestants joined the new Republican Party. During the Civil War, ethnic communities supported the war and produced large numbers of soldiers on both sides. Riots broke out in New York City and other Irish and German strongholds in 1863 when a draft was instituted, particularly in light of the provision exempting those who could afford payment. [32]
Immigration totaled 8,385 in 1820, with immigration totals gradually increasing to 23,322 by the year 1830; for the 1820s decade immigration more than doubled to 143,000. Between 1831 and 1840, immigration more than quadrupled to a total of 599,000. These included about 207,000 Irish, starting to emigrate in large numbers following Britain's easing of travel restrictions, and about 152,000 Germans, 76,000 British, and 46,000 French, constituting the next largest immigrant groups of the decade.
Between 1841 and 1850, immigration nearly tripled again, totaling 1,713,000 immigrants, including at least 781,000 Irish, 435,000 Germans, 267,000 British, and 77,000 French. The Irish, driven by the Great Famine (1845–1849), emigrated directly from their homeland to escape poverty and death. The failed revolutions of 1848 brought many intellectuals and activists to exile in the U.S. Bad times and poor conditions in Europe drove people out, while land, relatives, freedom, opportunity, and jobs in the US lured them in.
| Population and foreign born 1790–1849 |
Census population, immigrants per decade
|Census||Population||Immigrants 1||Foreign born||%|
|1790||3,918,000||60,000|
|1800||5,236,000||60,000|
|1810||7,036,000||60,000|
|1820||10,086,000||60,000|
|1830||12,785,000||143,000||200,000 2||1.6%|
|1840||17,018,000||599,000||800,000 2||4.7%|
|1850||23,054,000||1,713,000||2,244,000||9.7%|
| 1. The total number immigrating in each decade from 1790 to 1820 are estimates. |
2. The number of foreign born in 1830 and 1840 decades are extrapolations.
Starting in 1820, some federal records, including ship passenger lists, were kept for immigration purposes, and a gradual increase in immigration was recorded; more complete immigration records provide data on immigration after 1830. Though conducted since 1790, the census of 1850 was the first in which place of birth was asked specifically. The foreign-born population in the U.S. likely reached its minimum around 1815, at approximately 100,000 or 1% of the population. By 1815, most of the immigrants who arrived before the American Revolution had died, and there had been almost no new immigration thereafter.
Nearly all population growth up to 1830 was by internal increase; around 98% of the population was native-born. By 1850, this shifted to about 90% native-born. The first significant Catholic immigration started in the mid-1840s, shifting the population from about 95% Protestant down to about 90% by 1850.
In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo , concluding the Mexican War, extended U.S. citizenship to approximately 60,000 Mexican residents of the New Mexico Territory and 10,000 living in Mexican California . An additional approximate 2,500 foreign-born California residents also became U.S. citizens.
In 1849, the California Gold Rush attracted 100,000 would-be miners from the Eastern U.S., Latin America, China, Australia, and Europe. California became a state in 1850 with a population of about 90,000.
Between 1850 and 1930, about 5 million Germans migrated to the United States, peaking between 1881 and 1885 when a million Germans settled primarily in the Midwest . Between 1820 and 1930, 3.5 million British and 4.5 million Irish entered America. Before 1845, most Irish immigrants were Protestants. After 1845, Irish Catholics began arriving in large numbers, largely driven by the Great Famine . [33]
After 1880, larger steam-powered oceangoing ships replaced sailing ships, which resulted in lower fares and greater immigrant mobility. In addition, the expansion of a railroad system in Europe made it easier for people to reach oceanic ports to board ships. Meanwhile, farming improvements in Southern Europe and the Russian Empire created surplus labor. Young people between the ages of 15 to 30 were predominant among newcomers. This wave of migration, constituting the third episode in the history of U.S. immigration, may be better referred to as a flood of immigrants, as nearly 25 million Europeans made the long trip. Italians, Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, and others speaking Slavic languages made up the bulk of this migration. 2.5 to 4 million Jews were among them. [ citation needed ]
2:23
Each group evinced a distinctive migration pattern in terms of the gender balance within the migratory pool, the permanence of their migration, their literacy rates, the balance between adults and children, and the like. But they shared one overarching characteristic: they flocked to urban destinations and made up the bulk of the U.S. industrial labor pool, making possible the emergence of such industries as steel, coal, automotive, textile, and garment production, enabling the United States to leap into the front ranks of the world's economic giants. [ citation needed ]
More than 23 million people immigrated to the United States from 1880-1930 alone. Although many of these immigrants settled in urban centers, not all of them stayed in the U.S. permanently. In some groups, like the Southern Italian contadini , it was common to return to their place of origin and about half of them did. Others, like 90% of eastern European Jews who immigrated to the United States, stayed permanently. [34] Within the first decade of the 20th century 14.7 percent of Americans were born in a different country, 22 percent of this population settled in Urban areas. [35]
Their urban destinations, numbers, and perhaps an antipathy towards foreigners, led to the emergence of the second wave of organized xenophobia. By the 1890s, many Americans, particularly from the ranks of the well-off, white, and native-born, considered immigration to pose a serious danger to the nation's health and security. In 1893 a group formed the Immigration Restriction League, and it, along with other similarly inclined organizations, began to press Congress for severe curtailment of foreign immigration. [ citation needed ]
Irish and German Catholic immigration was opposed in the 1850s by the nativist movement , originating in New York in 1843 as the American Republican Party (not to be confused with the modern Republican Party ). It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to American values and controlled by the Pope in Rome . Active mainly from 1854 to 1856, it strove to curb immigration and naturalization , though its efforts met with little success. There were few prominent leaders, and the largely middle-class and Protestant membership fragmented over the issue of slavery , most often joining the Republican Party by the time of the 1860 presidential election . [36] [37]
European immigrants joined the Union Army in large numbers, including 177,000 born in Germany and 144,000 born in Ireland, a full 16% of the Union Army. [38] Many Germans could see the parallels between slavery and serfdom in the old fatherland. [39]
Between 1840 and 1930, about 900,000 French Canadians left Quebec in order to immigrate to the United States and work mainly in New England . About half returned. Considering the fact that the population of Quebec was only 892,061 in 1851, [ citation needed ] this was a massive exodus. 13.6 million Americans claimed to have French ancestry in the 1980 census. A large portion of them have ancestors who emigrated from French Canada , since immigration from France was low throughout the history of the United States. The communities established by these immigrants became known as Little Canada .
Shortly after the American Civil War , some states started to pass their own immigration laws, which prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in 1875 that immigration was a federal responsibility. [40] In 1875, the nation passed its first immigration law, the Page Act of 1875 , also known as the Asian Exclusion Act, outlawing the importation of Asian contract laborers, any Asian woman who would engage in prostitution, and all people considered to be convicts in their own countries. [41]
In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act . By excluding all Chinese laborers from entering the country, the Chinese Exclusion Act severely curtailed the number of immigrants of Chinese descent allowed into the United States for 10 years. [42] The law was renewed in 1892 and 1902. During this period, Chinese migrants illegally entered the United States through the loosely guarded U.S.–Canadian border . [43] The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed with the passage of the Magnuson Act in 1943.
Prior to 1890, the individual states, rather than the federal government, regulated immigration into the United States. [44] The Immigration Act of 1891 established a Commissioner of Immigration in the Treasury Department. [45] The Canadian Agreement of 1894 extended U.S. immigration restrictions to Canadian ports.
The Dillingham Commission was set up by Congress in 1907 to investigate the effects of immigration on the country. The Commission's 40-volume analysis of immigration during the previous three decades led it to conclude that the major source of immigration had shifted from Central, Northern, and Western Europeans to Southern Europeans and Russians. It was, however, apt to make generalizations about regional groups that were subjective and failed to differentiate between distinct cultural attributes. [46] [47]
The 1910s marked the high point of Italian immigration to the United States. Over two million Italians immigrated in those years, with a total of 5.3 million between 1880 and 1920. [48] [49] About half returned to Italy, after working an average of five years in the U.S. [50]
About 1.5 million Swedes and Norwegians immigrated to the United States within this period, due to opportunity in America and poverty and religious oppression in united Sweden–Norway . This accounted for around 20% of the total population of the kingdom at that time. They settled mainly in the Midwest, especially Minnesota and the Dakotas. Danes had comparably low immigration rates due to a better economy [ citation needed ] ; after 1900 many Danish immigrants were Mormon converts who moved to Utah . [51]
Over two million Central Europeans , mainly Catholics and Jews, immigrated between 1880 and 1924. People of Polish ancestry are the largest Central European ancestry group in the United States after Germans. Immigration of Eastern Orthodox ethnic groups was much lower. [ citation needed ]
Lebanese and Syrian immigrants started to settle in large numbers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The vast majority of the immigrants from Lebanon and Syria were Christians , but smaller numbers of Jews , Muslims , and Druze also settled. Many lived in New York City's Little Syria and in Boston . In the 1920s and 1930s, a large number of these immigrants set out West, with Detroit getting a large number of Middle Eastern immigrants, as well as many Midwestern areas where the Arabs worked as farmers. [ citation needed ]
Congress passed a literacy requirement in 1917 to curb the influx of low-skilled immigrants from entering the country. [ citation needed ]
Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act in 1921, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924 , which supplanted earlier acts to effectively ban all immigration from Asia and set quotas for the Eastern Hemisphere so that no more than 2% of nationalities as represented in the 1890 census were allowed to immigrate to America.
"New immigration" was a term from the late 1880s that refers to the influx of Catholic and Jewish immigrants from southern and eastern Europe (areas that previously sent few immigrants). [52] The great majority came through Ellis Island in New York, thus making the Northeast a major target of settlement. However there were a few efforts, such as the Galveston Movement , to redirect immigrants to other ports and disperse some of the settlement to other areas of the country.
Nativists feared the new arrivals lacked the political, social, and occupational skills needed to successfully assimilate into American culture. This raised the issue of whether the U.S. was still a " melting pot ", or if it had just become a "dumping ground", and many old-stock Americans worried about negative effects on the economy, politics, and culture. [53] A major proposal was to impose a literacy test, whereby applicants had to be able to read and write in their own language before they were admitted. In Southern and Eastern Europe, literacy was low because the governments did not invest in schools. [54]
Restriction proceeded piecemeal over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but immediately after the end of World War I (1914–1918) and into the early 1920s, Congress changed the nation's basic policy about immigration. The National Origins Formula of 1921 (and its final form in 1924) not only restricted the number of immigrants who might enter the United States but also assigned slots according to quotas based on national origins. The bill was so limiting that the number of immigrants coming to the U.S. between 1921 and 1922 decreased by nearly 500,000. [55] A complicated piece of legislation, it essentially gave preference to immigrants from Central, Northern, and Western Europe, limiting the numbers from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe, and gave zero quotas to Asia. However close family members could come. [56]
The legislation excluded Latin America from the quota system. Immigrants could and did move quite freely from Mexico, the Caribbean (including Jamaica, Barbados, and Haiti), and other parts of Central and South America.
The era of the 1924 legislation lasted until 1965. During those 40 years, the United States began to admit, case by case, limited numbers of refugees. Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany before World War II, Jewish Holocaust survivors after the war, non-Jewish displaced persons fleeing communist rule in Central Europe and the Soviet Union , Hungarians seeking refuge after their failed uprising in 1956, and Cubans after the 1959 revolution managed to find haven in the United States when their plight moved the collective conscience of America, but the basic immigration law remained in place.
This law allowed foreign-born children of American mothers and alien fathers who had entered America before the age of 18 and had lived in America for five years to apply for American citizenship for the first time. [57] It also made the naturalization process quicker for the alien husbands of American wives. [57] This law equalized expatriation, immigration, naturalization, and repatriation between women and men. [57] [58] However, it was not applied retroactively, and was modified by later laws, such as the Nationality Act of 1940 . [57] [59]
In 1934, the Tydings–McDuffie Act provided independence of the Philippines on July 4, 1946. Until 1965, national origin quotas strictly limited immigration from the Philippines. In 1965, after revision of the immigration law, significant Filipino immigration began, totaling 1,728,000 by 2004. [60]
In 1945, the War Brides Act allowed foreign-born wives of U.S. citizens who had served in the U.S. Armed Forces to immigrate to the United States. In 1946, The War Brides Act was extended to include the fiancés of American soldiers. In 1946, the Luce–Celler Act extended the right to become naturalized citizens to those from the newly independent nation of the Philippines and to Asian Indians, the immigration quota being set at 100 people per year per country. [61]
At the end of World War II, "regular" immigration almost immediately increased under the official national origins quota system as refugees from war-torn Europe began immigrating to the U.S. After the war, there were jobs for nearly everyone who wanted one, when most women employed during the war went back into the home. From 1941 to 1950, 1,035,000 people immigrated to the U.S., including 226,000 from Germany, 139,000 from the UK, 171,000 from Canada, 60,000 from Mexico, and 57,000 from Italy. [63]
The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 finally allowed the displaced people of World War II to start immigrating. [64] Some 200,000 Europeans and 17,000 orphans displaced by World War II were initially allowed to immigrate to the United States outside of immigration quotas. President Harry S. Truman signed the first Displaced Persons (DP) act on June 25, 1948, allowing entry for 200,000 DPs, then followed with the more accommodating second DP act on June 16, 1950, allowing entry for another 200,000. This quota, including acceptance of 55,000 Volksdeutschen , required sponsorship for all immigrants. The American program was the most notoriously bureaucratic of all the DP programs and much of the humanitarian effort was undertaken by charitable organizations, such as the Lutheran World Federation as well as other ethnic groups. Along with an additional quota of 200,000 granted in 1953 and more in succeeding years, a total of nearly 600,000 refugees were allowed into the country outside the quota system, second only to Israel's 650,000. [ citation needed ]
In 1950, after the start of the Korean War , the Internal Security Act barred admission of communists, who might engage in activities "which would be prejudicial to the public interest, or would endanger the welfare or safety of the United States." Significant Korean immigration began in 1965, totaling 848,000 by 2004. [65]
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 affirmed the national-origins quota system of 1924 and limited total annual immigration to one-sixth of one percent of the population of the continental United States in 1920, or 175,455. This exempted the spouses and children of U.S. citizens and people born in the Western Hemisphere from the quota. In 1953, the Refugee Relief Act extended refugee status to non-Europeans.
In 1954, Operation Wetback forced the return of thousands of illegal immigrants to Mexico. [66] Between 1944 and 1954, "the decade of the wetback," the number of illegal immigrants coming from Mexico increased by 6,000 percent. It is estimated that before Operation Wetback got underway, more than a million workers had crossed the Rio Grande illegally. Cheap labor displaced native agricultural workers, and increased violation of labor laws and discrimination encouraged criminality, disease, and illiteracy. According to a study conducted in 1950 by the President's Commission on Migratory Labor in Texas, the Rio Grande Valley cotton growers were paying approximately half of the wages paid elsewhere in Texas. The United States Border Patrol aided by municipal, county, state, federal authorities, and the military, began a quasi-military operation of the search and seizure of all illegal immigrants. Fanning out from the lower Rio Grande Valley, Operation Wetback moved Northward. Initially, illegal immigrants were repatriated through Presidio because the Mexican city across the border, Ojinaga, had rail connections to the interior of Mexico by which workers could be quickly moved on to Durango. The forces used by the government were relatively small, perhaps no more than 700 men, but were augmented by border patrol officials who hoped to scare illegal workers into fleeing back to Mexico. Ships became a preferred mode of transport because they carried illegal workers farther from the border than buses, trucks, or trains. It is difficult to estimate the number of illegal immigrants that left due to the operation—most voluntarily. The INS claimed as many as 1,300,000, though the number officially apprehended did not come anywhere near this total. The program was ultimately abandoned due to questions surrounding the ethics of its implementation. Citizens of Mexican descent complained of police stopping all "Mexican looking" people and utilizing extreme "police-state" methods including deportation of American-born children who were citizens by law. [67]
The failed 1956 Hungarian Revolution , before being crushed by the Soviets, forged a temporary hole in the Iron Curtain that allowed a burst of refugees to escape, with 245,000 Hungarian families being admitted by 1960. From 1950 to 1960, the U.S. had 2,515,000 new immigrants with 477,000 arriving from Germany, 185,000 from Italy, 52,000 from the Netherlands, 203,000 from the UK, 46,000 from Japan, 300,000 from Mexico, and 377,000 from Canada.
The 1959 Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro drove the upper and middle classes to exile, and 409,000 families immigrated to the U.S. by 1970. [68] This was facilitated by the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act , which gave permanent resident status to Cubans physically present in the United States for one year if they entered after January 1, 1959.
This all changed with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 , a by-product of the civil rights movement and one of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs. The measure had not been intended to stimulate immigration from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and elsewhere in the developing world. Rather, by doing away with the racially-based quota system, its authors had expected that immigrants would come from "traditional" societies such as Italy, Greece, and Portugal, places subject to very small quotas in the 1924 Act. The 1965 Act replaced the quotas with preferential categories based on family relationships and job skills, giving particular preference to potential immigrants with relatives in the United States and with occupations deemed critical by the U.S. Department of Labor. After 1970, following an initial influx from European countries, immigrants from places like Korea, China, India, the Philippines, and Pakistan, as well as countries in Africa became more common. [69]
In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) was passed, creating, for the first time, penalties for employers who hired illegal immigrants. IRCA, as proposed in Congress, was projected to give amnesty to about 1,000,000 workers in the country illegally. In practice, amnesty for about 3,000,000 immigrants already in the United States was granted. Most were from Mexico. Legal Mexican immigrant family numbers were 2,198,000 in 1980, 4,289,000 in 1990 (includes IRCA), and 7,841,000 in 2000. Adding another 12,000,000 illegal immigrants of which about 80% are thought to be Mexicans would bring the Mexican family total to over 16,000,000—about 16% of the Mexican population. [ citation needed ]
Passed in September 1996, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) was a comprehensive immigration reform focused on restructuring the process for admitting or removing undocumented immigrants. [70] Its passing helped to strengthen U.S. immigration laws, restructured immigration law enforcement, and sought to limit immigration by addressing undocumented migration. These reforms affected legal immigrants, those seeking entry into the U.S., and those living undocumented in the U.S. [71]
IIRIRA created new barriers for refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. by narrowing asylum criteria previously established in the Refugee Act of 1980. [72] To prevent fraudulent asylum filings from people who were migrating for economic or work-related reasons, IIRIRA imposed an all-inclusive filing deadline called the "One Year Bar" to asylum. [73] IIRIRA provided limited exceptions to this rule when an "alien demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Attorney General either the existence of changed circumstances which materially affect the applicant's eligibility for asylum or extraordinary circumstances relating to the delay in filing the application." [74] IIRIRA also made the asylum process more difficult for refugees by allowing for the resettlement of refugees to third countries, "precluding appeals" to denied asylum applications, implementing higher processing fees, and having enforcement officers rather than judges determine the expedited removal of refugees. [70]
Law enforcement under IIRIRA was strengthened to restrict unlawful immigration. The Act sought to prevent illegal immigration by expanding the number of Border Patrol agents and allowing the Attorney General to obtain resources from other federal agencies. Provisions were also made to improve infrastructure and barriers along the U.S. border area. [75] IIRIRA also delegated law enforcement capabilities to state and local officers via 287(g) agreements. [75] Illegal entry into the U.S. was made more difficult by cooperation between federal and local law enforcement, in addition to stiffening penalties for illegal entry and racketeering activities which included alien smuggling and document fraud.
IIRIRA addressed unlawful migration already present in the U.S. through enhanced tracking systems that included detecting employment eligibility and visa stay violations as well as creating counterfeit-resistant forms of identification. [76] The Act also established the 3 and 10 year re-entry bars for immigrants who accumulated unlawful presence in the U.S. and become inadmissible upon leaving the country. [77]
The restructuring of law enforcement contributed to an increased number of arrests, detentions, and removals of immigrants. [78] Under IIRIRA, the mandatory detention of broad groups of immigrants occurred, including those who had legal residence status but upon removal could have their status be removed after committing violent crimes. Relief and access to federal services were also redefined for immigrants as IIRIRA reiterated the 1996 Welfare Reform Act's tier system between citizens, legal immigrants, refugees, and illegal immigrants which determined public benefits eligibility. [76] In addition, IIRIRA also redefined financial self-sufficiency guidelines of sponsors who previously did not have to meet an income requirement to sponsor an immigrant. [76]
The top ten birth countries of the foreign born population since 1830, according to the U.S. census, are shown below. Blank entries mean that the country did not make it into the top ten for that census, not that there is no data from that census. The 1830 numbers are from immigration statistics as listed in the 2004 Year Book of Immigration Statistics. [79]
The 1830 numbers list un-naturalized foreign citizens and does not include naturalized foreign born. The 1850 census is the first census that asks for place of birth. The historical census data can be found online in the Virginia Library Geostat Center. [80] Population numbers are in thousands.
|Country/Year||1830•||1850||1880||1900||1930||1960||1970||1980||1990||2000|
|Austria||305||214|
|Bohemia||85|
|Canada||2||148||717||1,180||1,310||953||812||843||745||678|
|China||104||1,391|
|Cuba||439||608||737||952|
|Czechoslovakia||492|
|Dominican Republic||692|
|El Salvador||765|
|France||9||54||107|
|Germany||8||584||1,967||2,663||1,609||990||833||849||712|
|Hungary||245|
|India||2,000|
|Ireland||54||962||1,855||1,615||745||339|
|Italy||484||1,790||1,257||1,009||832||581|
|Korea||290||568||701|
|Mexico||11||13||641||576||760||2,199||4,298||7,841|
|Netherlands||1||10|
|Norway||13||182||336|
|Pakistan||724|
|Philippines||501||913||1,222|
|Poland||1,269||748||548||418|
|Sweden||194||582||595|
|Switzerland||3||13||89|
|United Kingdom||27||379||918||1,168||1,403||833||686||669||640|
|Vietnam||543||863|
|Former Soviet Republics||424||1,154||691||463||406|
|Total foreign born||108*||2,244||6,679||10,341||14,204||10,347||9,619||14,079||19,763||31,100|
|% Foreign born||0.8%*||9.7%||13.3%||13.6%||11.6%||5.8%||4.7%||6.2%||7.9%||11.1%|
|Native born||12,677||20,947||43,476||65,653||108,571||168,978||193,591||212,466||228,946||250,321|
|% Native born||99.2%||90.3%||86.7%||86.4%||88.4%||94.2%||95.3%||94%||92.1%||88.9%|
|Total population||12,785||23,191||50,155||75,994||122,775||179,325||203,210||226,545||248,709||281,421|
|1830||1850||1880||1900||1930||1960||1970||1980||1990||2000|
|Year||Year||Year|
|1820||8,385||1885||395,346||1950||249,187|
|1825||10,199||1890||455,302||1955||237,790|
|1830||23,322||1895||258,536||1960||265,398|
|1835||45,374||1900||448,572||1965||296,697|
|1840||84,066||1905||1,026,499||1970||373,326|
|1845||114,371||1910||1,041,570||1975||385,378|
|1850||369,980||1915||326,700||1980||524,295|
|1855||200,877||1920||430,001||1985||568,149|
|1860||153,640||1925||294,314||1990||1,535,872|
|1865||248,120||1930||241,700||1995||720,177|
|1870||387,203||1935||34,956||2000||841,002|
|1875||227,498||1940||70,756||2005||1,122,257|
|1880||457,257||1945||38,119||2010||1,042,625|
|State/Territory||1850||1860||1870||1880||1890||1900||1910||1920||1930||1940||1950||1960||1970||1980||1990||2000||2010|
|United States of America||9.7%||13.2%||14.4%||13.3%||14.8%||13.6%||14.7%||13.2%||11.6%||8.8%||6.9%||5.4%||4.7%||6.2%||7.9%||11.1%||12.9%|
|Alabama||1.0%||1.3%||1.0%||0.8%||1.0%||0.8%||0.9%||0.8%||0.6%||0.4%||0.4%||0.5%||0.5%||1.0%||1.1%||2.0%||3.5%|
|Alaska||3.6%||2.6%||4.0%||4.5%||5.9%||6.9%|
|Arizona||60.1%||39.7%||31.5%||19.7%||23.9%||24.1%||15.1%||7.8%||6.3%||5.4%||4.3%||6.0%||7.6%||12.8%||13.4%|
|Arkansas||0.7%||0.8%||1.0%||1.3%||1.3%||1.1%||1.1%||0.8%||0.6%||0.4%||0.5%||0.4%||0.4%||1.0%||1.1%||2.8%||4.5%|
|California||23.5%||38.6%||37.5%||33.9%||30.3%||24.7%||24.7%||22.1%||18.9%||13.4%||10.0%||8.5%||8.8%||15.1%||21.7%||26.2%||27.2%|
|Colorado||7.8%||16.6%||20.5%||20.4%||16.9%||16.2%||12.7%||9.6%||6.4%||4.6%||3.4%||2.7%||3.9%||4.3%||8.6%||9.8%|
|Connecticut||10.4%||17.5%||21.1%||20.9%||24.6%||26.2%||29.6%||27.4%||23.9%||19.3%||14.8%||10.9%||8.6%||8.6%||8.5%||10.9%||13.6%|
|Delaware||5.7%||8.2%||7.3%||6.5%||7.8%||7.5%||8.6%||8.9%||7.1%||5.6%||4.1%||3.3%||2.9%||3.2%||3.3%||5.7%||8.0%|
|District of Columbia||9.5%||16.6%||12.3%||9.6%||8.1%||7.2%||7.5%||6.7%||6.3%||5.3%||5.3%||5.1%||4.4%||6.4%||9.7%||12.9%||13.5%|
|Florida||3.2%||2.4%||2.6%||3.7%||5.9%||4.5%||5.4%||5.6%||4.8%||4.1%||4.7%||5.5%||8.0%||10.9%||12.9%||16.7%||19.4%|
|Georgia||0.7%||1.1%||0.9%||0.7%||0.7%||0.6%||0.6%||0.6%||0.5%||0.4%||0.5%||0.6%||0.7%||1.7%||2.7%||7.1%||9.7%|
|Hawaii||10.9%||9.8%||14.2%||14.7%||17.5%||18.2%|
|Idaho||52.6%||30.6%||20.7%||15.2%||13.1%||9.4%||7.3%||4.7%||3.4%||2.3%||1.8%||2.5%||2.9%||5.0%||5.5%|
|Illinois||13.1%||19.0%||20.3%||19.0%||22.0%||20.1%||21.4%||18.7%||16.3%||12.3%||9.1%||6.8%||5.7%||7.2%||8.3%||12.3%||13.7%|
|Indiana||5.6%||8.8%||8.4%||7.3%||6.7%||5.6%||5.9%||5.2%||4.4%||3.2%||2.5%||2.0%||1.6%||1.9%||1.7%||3.1%||4.6%|
|Iowa||10.9%||15.7%||17.1%||16.1%||17.0%||13.7%||12.3%||9.4%||6.8%||4.6%||3.2%||2.0%||1.4%||1.6%||1.6%||3.1%||4.6%|
|Kansas||11.8%||13.3%||11.1%||10.4%||8.6%||8.0%||6.3%||4.3%||2.9%||2.0%||1.5%||1.2%||2.0%||2.5%||5.0%||6.5%|
|Kentucky||3.2%||5.2%||4.8%||3.6%||3.2%||2.3%||1.8%||1.3%||0.8%||0.6%||0.5%||0.6%||0.5%||0.9%||0.9%||2.0%||3.2%|
|Louisiana||13.2%||11.4%||8.5%||5.8%||4.4%||3.8%||3.2%||2.6%||1.8%||1.2%||1.1%||0.9%||1.1%||2.0%||2.1%||2.6%||3.8%|
|Maine||5.5%||6.0%||7.8%||9.1%||11.9%||13.4%||14.9%||14.0%||12.6%||9.9%||8.2%||6.2%||4.3%||3.9%||3.0%||2.9%||3.4%|
|Maryland||8.8%||11.3%||10.7%||8.9%||9.0%||7.9%||8.1%||7.1%||5.9%||4.5%||3.7%||3.0%||3.2%||4.6%||6.6%||9.8%||13.9%|
|Massachusetts||16.5%||21.1%||24.2%||24.9%||29.4%||30.2%||31.5%||28.3%||25.1%||19.9%||15.4%||11.2%||8.7%||8.7%||9.5%||12.2%||15.0%|
|Michigan||13.8%||19.9%||22.6%||23.7%||26.0%||22.4%||21.3%||19.9%||17.6%||13.1%||9.5%||6.8%||4.8%||4.5%||3.8%||5.3%||6.0%|
|Minnesota||32.5%||34.1%||36.5%||34.3%||35.9%||28.9%||26.2%||20.4%||15.2%||10.6%||7.1%||4.2%||2.6%||2.6%||2.6%||5.3%||7.1%|
|Mississippi||0.8%||1.1%||1.4%||0.8%||0.6%||0.5%||0.5%||0.5%||0.4%||0.3%||0.4%||0.4%||0.4%||0.9%||0.8%||1.4%||2.1%|
|Missouri||11.2%||13.6%||12.9%||9.8%||8.8%||7.0%||7.0%||5.5%||4.2%||3.0%||2.3%||1.8%||1.4%||1.7%||1.6%||2.7%||3.9%|
|Montana||38.7%||29.4%||32.6%||27.6%||25.2%||17.4%||14.1%||10.1%||7.4%||4.5%||2.8%||2.3%||1.7%||1.8%||2.0%|
|Nebraska||22.0%||25.0%||21.5%||19.1%||16.6%||14.8%||11.6%||8.7%||6.2%||4.4%||2.9%||1.9%||2.0%||1.8%||4.4%||6.1%|
|Nevada||30.1%||44.2%||41.2%||32.1%||23.8%||24.1%||20.7%||16.6%||10.0%||6.7%||4.6%||3.7%||6.7%||8.7%||15.8%||18.8%|
|New Hampshire||4.5%||6.4%||9.3%||13.3%||19.2%||21.4%||22.5%||20.6%||17.8%||13.9%||10.9%||7.4%||5.0%||4.4%||3.7%||4.4%||5.3%|
|New Jersey||12.2%||18.3%||20.9%||19.6%||22.8%||22.9%||26.0%||23.5%||21.0%||16.8%||13.2%||10.1%||8.9%||10.3%||12.5%||17.5%||21.0%|
|New Mexico||3.5%||7.2%||6.1%||6.7%||7.3%||7.0%||7.1%||8.3%||5.7%||2.9%||2.6%||2.3%||2.2%||4.0%||5.3%||8.2%||9.9%|
|New York||21.2%||25.8%||26.0%||23.8%||26.2%||26.1%||30.2%||27.2%||25.9%||21.6%||17.4%||13.6%||11.6%||13.6%||15.9%||20.4%||22.2%|
|North Carolina||0.3%||0.3%||0.3%||0.3%||0.2%||0.2%||0.3%||0.3%||0.3%||0.3%||0.4%||0.5%||0.6%||1.3%||1.7%||5.3%||7.5%|
|North Dakota||44.6%||35.4%||27.1%||20.4%||15.5%||11.6%||7.8%||4.7%||3.0%||2.3%||1.5%||1.9%||2.5%|
|Ohio||11.0%||14.0%||14.0%||12.3%||12.5%||11.0%||12.6%||11.8%||9.8%||7.5%||5.6%||4.1%||3.0%||2.8%||2.4%||3.0%||4.1%|
|Oklahoma||4.4%||2.6%||2.4%||2.0%||1.3%||0.9%||0.8%||0.9%||0.8%||1.9%||2.1%||3.8%||5.5%|
|Oregon||7.7%||9.8%||12.8%||17.5%||18.3%||15.9%||16.8%||13.7%||11.6%||8.3%||5.6%||4.0%||3.2%||4.1%||4.9%||8.5%||9.8%|
|Pennsylvania||13.1%||14.8%||15.5%||13.7%||16.1%||15.6%||18.8%||16.0%||12.9%||9.9%||7.5%||5.3%||3.8%||3.4%||3.1%||4.1%||5.8%|
|Rhode Island||16.2%||21.4%||25.5%||26.8%||30.8%||31.4%||33.0%||29.0%||25.0%||19.5%||14.4%||10.0%||7.8%||8.9%||9.5%||11.4%||12.8%|
|South Carolina||1.3%||1.4%||1.1%||0.8%||0.5%||0.4%||0.4%||0.4%||0.3%||0.3%||0.3%||0.5%||0.6%||1.5%||1.4%||2.9%||4.7%|
|South Dakota||36.7%||34.0%||38.3%||27.7%||22.0%||17.3%||13.0%||9.5%||6.9%||4.7%||2.7%||1.6%||1.4%||1.1%||1.8%||2.7%|
|Tennessee||0.6%||1.9%||1.5%||1.1%||1.1%||0.9%||0.9%||0.7%||0.5%||0.4%||0.4%||0.4%||0.5%||1.1%||1.2%||2.8%||4.5%|
|Texas||8.3%||7.2%||7.6%||7.2%||6.8%||5.9%||6.2%||7.8%||6.2%||3.7%||3.6%||3.1%||2.8%||6.0%||9.0%||13.9%||16.4%|
|Utah||18.0%||31.7%||35.4%||30.6%||25.5%||19.4%||17.6%||13.2%||9.5%||6.0%||4.5%||3.6%||2.8%||3.5%||3.4%||7.1%||8.0%|
|Vermont||10.7%||10.4%||14.3%||12.3%||13.3%||13.0%||14.0%||12.6%||12.0%||8.8%||7.6%||6.0%||4.2%||4.1%||3.1%||3.8%||4.4%|
|Virginia||1.6%||2.2%||1.1%||1.0%||1.1%||1.0%||1.3%||1.4%||1.0%||0.9%||1.1%||1.2%||1.6%||3.3%||5.0%||8.1%||11.4%|
|Washington||27.1%||21.0%||21.0%||25.8%||21.5%||22.4%||19.6%||16.3%||12.1%||8.3%||6.3%||4.6%||5.8%||6.6%||10.4%||13.1%|
|West Virginia||3.9%||3.0%||2.5%||2.3%||4.7%||4.2%||3.0%||2.2%||1.7%||1.3%||1.0%||1.1%||0.9%||1.1%||1.2%|
|Wisconsin||36.2%||35.7%||34.6%||30.8%||30.8%||24.9%||22.0%||17.5%||13.2%||9.2%||6.3%||4.3%||3.0%||2.7%||2.5%||3.6%||4.5%|
|Wyoming||38.5%||28.1%||24.6%||18.8%||19.9%||13.7%||10.3%||6.8%||4.6%||2.9%||2.1%||2.0%||1.7%||2.3%||2.8%|
- ^ Bailyn, Bernard (1988). Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution . New York: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-394-75778-0 .
- ^ Salinger, Sharon V. (2000). To Serve Well and Faithfully: Labor and Indentured Servants in Pennsylvania, 1682–1800 . Westminster, MD: Heritage Books. ISBN 978-0-7884-1666-8 .
- ^ "England County Boundaries" . Virtualjamestown.org . Retrieved 2012-08-18 .
- ^ Anderson, Virginia DeJohn (1992). New England's Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century . ISBN 978-0-521-44764-5 .
- ^ Smith, Daniel Scott (1972). "The Demographic History of Colonial New England". Journal of Economic History . 32 (1): 165–83. doi : 10.1017/S0022050700075458 . JSTOR 2117183 . PMID 11632252 . S2CID 27931796 .
- ^ Panetta, Roger; Shorto, Russell, eds. (2009). Dutch New York: The Roots of Hudson Valley Culture . New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-3039-6 .
- ^ Otterness, Philip (2007). Becoming German: The 1709 Palatine Migration to New York . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-7344-9 .
- ^ Wittke, Carl (1939). We Who Built America: The Saga of the Immigrant . Cleveland: Press of Western Reserve University.
- ^ Grieco, Elizabeth M.; Trevelyan, Edward; Larsen, Luke; Acosta, Yesenia D.; Gambino, Christine; de la Cruz, Patricia; Gryn, Tom; Walters, Nathan (October 2012). "The Size, Place of Birth, and Geographic Distribution of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States: 1960 to 2010" (PDF) . Population Division Working Paper No. 96 . Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 20, 2012.
- Anderson, Kristen L. Immigration in American History (Routledge, 2021). excerpt
- Barkan, Elliott Robert. And Still They Come: Immigrants and American Society, 1920 to the 1990s (1996), by leading historian
- Barkan, Elliott Robert, ed. A Nation of Peoples: A Sourcebook on America's Multicultural Heritage (1999), 600 pp; essays by scholars on 27 groups
- Barone, Michael. The New Americans: How the Melting Pot Can Work Again (2006)
- Bayor, Ronald H., ed. The Oxford Handbook of American Immigration and Ethnicity (2015)
- Bodnar, John. The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America (1985)
- Dassanowsky, Robert, and Jeffrey Lehman, eds. Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America (2nd ed. 3 vol 2000), anthropological approach to 150 culture groups; 1974 pp
- Gerber, David A. American immigration: A very short introduction (2021). excerpt
- Gjerde, Jon, ed. Major Problems in American Immigration and Ethnic History (1998) primary sources and excerpts from scholars.
- Kenny, Kevin. "Mobility and Sovereignty: The Nineteenth-Century Origins of Immigration Restriction." Journal of American History 109.2 (2022): 284-297. https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaac233
- Levinson, David and Melvin Ember, eds. American Immigrant Cultures 2 vol (1997) covers all major and minor groups
- Meier, Matt S. and Gutierrez, Margo, eds. The Mexican American Experience: An Encyclopedia (2003) ( ISBN 0-313-31643-0 )
- Thernstrom, Stephan ; Orlov, Ann; Handlin, Oscar , eds. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups , Harvard University Press, ISBN 0674375122 , the standard reference, covering all major groups and most minor groups online
- Wyman, Mark. Round-Trip to America: The Immigrants Return to Europe, 1880–1930 (Cornell UP, 1993).
- Borjas, George J. "Does Immigration Grease the Wheels of the Labor Market?" Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2001
- Fragomen Jr, Austin T. "The illegal immigration reform and immigrant responsibility act of 1996: An overview." International Migration Review 31.2 (1997): 438–60.
- Hernández, Kelly Lytle . "The Crimes and Consequences of Illegal Immigration: A Cross-Border Examination of Operation Wetback, 1943 to 1954," Western Historical Quarterly , 37 (Winter 2006), 421–44.
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- Mullan, Fitzhugh. "The Metrics of the Physician Brain Drain." New England Journal of Medicine , Volume 353:1810–18 October 27, 2005 Number 17 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_immigration_to_the_United_States | 57 |
when was burma included as one of the provinces of british india | British rule in Burma - Wikipedia | 1:04
British rule in Burma lasted from 1824 to 1948, from the successive three Anglo-Burmese wars through the creation of Burma as a province of British India to the establishment of an independently administered colony, and finally independence. The region under British control was known as British Burma , and officially known as Burma ( Burmese : မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် ) [1] from 1886. [2] Various portions of Burmese territories, including Arakan and Tenasserim were annexed by the British after their victory in the First Anglo-Burmese War ; Lower Burma was annexed in 1852 after the Second Anglo-Burmese War . The annexed territories were designated the minor province (a chief commissionership) of British India in 1862. [3]
After the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885, Upper Burma was annexed, and the following year, the province of Burma in British India was created, becoming a major province (a lieutenant-governorship) in 1897. [3] This arrangement lasted until 1937, when Burma began to be administered separately by the Burma Office under the Secretary of State for India and Burma . British rule was disrupted during the Japanese occupation of much of the country during World War II . Burma achieved independence from British rule on 4 January 1948.
Burma is sometimes referred to as "the Scottish Colony" owing to the heavy role played by Scotsmen in colonising and running the country, one of the most notable being Sir James Scott . It was also known for the heavy role played by Indian elites in managing and administering the colony, especially while it was still a part of the British Raj; some historians have called this a case of co-colonialism. [4]
Because of its location, trade routes between China and India passed through the country, keeping Burma wealthy through trade, although self-sufficient agriculture was still the basis of the economy. Indian merchants travelled along the coasts and rivers (especially the Irrawaddy River ) throughout the regions where the majority of Burmese lived, bringing Indian cultural influences into the country that still exist there today. [ citation needed ] As Burma had been one of the first Southeast Asian countries to adopt Buddhism on a large scale, it continued under the British as the officially patronised religion of most of the population. [5]
Before the British conquest and colonisation, the ruling Konbaung dynasty practised a tightly centralized form of government. The king was the chief executive with the final say on all matters, but he could not make new laws and could only issue administrative edicts. The country had two codes of law, the Dhammathat and the Hluttaw , the centre of government, was divided into three branches—fiscal, executive, and judicial. In theory, the king was in charge of all of the Hluttaw, but none of his orders got put into place until the Hluttaw approved them, thus checking his power. Further dividing the country, provinces were ruled by governors, who were appointed by the Hluttaw, and villages were ruled by hereditary headmen approved by the king. [6]
Conflict began between Burma and the British when the Konbaung dynasty decided to expand into Arakan in the state of Assam , close to British-held Chittagong in India. This led to the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–26). The British dispatched a large seaborne expedition that took Rangoon without a fight in 1824. In Danuphyu , at the Ayeyarwadddy Delta, Burmese General Maha Bandula was killed and his armies routed. Burma was forced to cede Assam and other northern provinces. [7] The 1826 Treaty of Yandabo formally ended the First Anglo-Burmese War, the longest and the most expensive war in the history of British India . Fifteen thousand European and Indian soldiers died, together with an unknown number of Burmese army and civilian casualties. [8] The campaign cost the British between 5 and 13 million pounds sterling (between 18 and 48 billion in 2020 U.S. dollars ) [9] which led to an economic crisis in British India in 1833. [10]
In 1852, the Second Anglo-Burmese War was provoked by the British, who sought the teak forests in Lower Burma as well as a port between Calcutta and Singapore . After 25 years of peace, British and Burmese fighting started afresh and continued until the British occupied all of Lower Burma. The British were victorious in this war and as a result obtained access to the teak, oil, and rubies of their newly conquered territories.
In Upper Burma, the still unoccupied part of the country, King Mindon had tried to adjust to the thrust of imperialism. He enacted administrative reforms and made Burma more receptive to foreign interests. But the British initiated the Third Anglo-Burmese War , which lasted less than two weeks during November 1885. The British government justified their actions by claiming that the last independent king of Burma, Thibaw Min , was a tyrant and that he was conspiring to give France more influence in the country. British troops entered Mandalay on 28 November 1885. Thus, after three wars gaining various parts of the country, the British occupied all the area of present-day Myanmar, making the territory a Province of British India on 1 January 1886. [6] [11]
Burmese armed resistance continued sporadically for several years , and the British commander had to coerce the High Court of Justice to continue to function. Though war officially ended after only a couple of weeks, resistance continued in northern Burma until 1890, with the British finally resorting to systematic destruction of villages and appointment of new officials to finally halt all guerrilla activity.
Traditional Burmese society was drastically altered by the demise of the monarchy and the separation of religion and state. Intermarriage between Europeans and Burmese gave birth to an indigenous Eurasian community known as the Anglo-Burmese who would come to dominate the colonial society, hovering above the Burmese but below the British.
After Britain took over all of Burma, they continued to send tribute to China to avoid offending them, but this unknowingly lowered the status they held in Chinese minds. [12] It was agreed at the Burma convention in 1886 that China would recognise Britain's occupation of Upper Burma while Britain continued the Burmese payment of tribute every ten years to Peking. [13]
The British controlled their new province through direct rule , making many changes to the previous governmental structure. The monarchy was abolished, King Thibaw sent into exile, and religion and state separated. This was particularly harmful, because the Buddhist monks, collectively known as the Sangha , were strongly dependent on the sponsorship of the monarchy. At the same time, the monarchy was given legitimacy by the Sangha, and monks as representatives of Buddhism gave the public the opportunity to understand national politics to a greater degree. [6]
The British also implemented a secular education system. The colonial Government of India , which was given control of the new colony, founded secular schools, teaching in both English and Burmese , while also encouraging Christian missionaries to visit and found schools. In both of these types of schools, Buddhism and traditional Burmese culture was frowned upon. [6]
The province of Burma, after 1885 was administered as follows: [ citation needed ]
- Ministerial Burma (Burma proper)
- Arakan Division ( Akyab , Northern Arakan or Arakan Hill Tracts, Kyaukpyu and Sandoway Districts )
- Scheduled Areas (Frontier Areas)
- Pakokku Chin Hills
The " Frontier Areas ", also known as the "Excluded Areas" or the " Scheduled Areas ", compose the majority of states within Burma today. They were administered separately by the British with a Burma Frontier Service and later united with Burma proper to form Myanmar's geographic composition today. The Frontier Areas were inhabited by ethnic minorities such as the Chin , the Shan , the Kachin and the Karenni .
By 1931 Burma had 9 divisions, split into a number of districts. [ citation needed ]
The traditional Burmese economy was one of redistribution with the prices of the most important commodities set by the state. For the majority of the population, trade was not as important as self-sufficient agriculture, but the country's position on major trade routes from India to China meant that it did gain a significant amount of money from facilitating foreign trade. With the arrival of the British, the Burmese economy became tied to global market forces and was forced to become a part of the colonial export economy. [6]
Burma's annexation ushered in a new period of economic growth. The economic nature of society also changed dramatically. The British began exploiting the rich soil of the land around the Irrawaddy delta and cleared away the dense mangrove forests. Rice, which was in high demand in Europe, especially after the building of the Suez Canal in 1869, was the main export. To increase the production of rice, many Burmese migrated from the northern heartland to the delta, shifting the population concentration and changing the basis of wealth and power. [6]
To prepare the new land for cultivation, farmers borrowed money from Indian moneylenders called chettiars at high interest rates, as British banks would not grant mortgages . The Indian moneylenders offered mortgage loans but foreclosed on them quickly if the borrowers defaulted.
At the same time, thousands of Indian labourers migrated to Burma ( Burmese Indians ) and, because of their willingness to work for less money, quickly displaced Burmese farmers. As the Encyclopædia Britannica states: "Burmese villagers, unemployed and lost in a disintegrating society, sometimes took to petty theft and robbery and were soon characterized by the British as lazy and undisciplined. The level of dysfunction in Burmese society was revealed by the dramatic rise in homicides." [14]
With this quickly growing economy came industrialisation to a certain degree, with a railway being built throughout the valley of the Irrawaddy, and hundreds of steamboats travelled along the river. All of these modes of transportation were owned by the British. Thus, although the balance of trade was in favour of British Burma, the society was changed so fundamentally that many people did not gain from the rapidly growing economy. [6]
The civil service was largely staffed by Anglo-Burmese and Indians, and the ethnic Burmese were excluded almost entirely from military service, which was staffed primarily with Indians, Anglo-Burmese, Karens and other Burmese minority groups. A British General Hospital Burmah was set up in Rangoon in 1887. [15] Though the country prospered, the Burmese people largely failed to reap the rewards. (See George Orwell 's novel Burmese Days for a fictional account of the British in Burma.) An account by a British official describing the conditions of the Burmese people's livelihoods in 1941 describes the Burmese hardships:
“Foreign landlordism and the operations of foreign moneylenders had led to increasing exportation of a considerable proportion of the country’s resources and to the progressive impoverishment of the agriculturist and of the country as a whole…. The peasant had grown factually poorer and unemployment had increased….The collapse of the Burmese social system led to a decay of the social conscience which, in the circumstances of poverty and unemployment caused a great increase in crime.” [16]
By the turn of the century, a nationalist movement began to take shape in the form of the Young Men's Buddhist Association (YMBA), modelled after the YMCA , as religious associations were allowed by the colonial authorities. They were later superseded by the General Council of Burmese Associations (GCBA) which was linked with Wunthanu athin or National Associations that sprang up in villages throughout Burma Proper. [17] Between 1900 and 1911 the "Irish Buddhist" U Dhammaloka publicly challenged Christianity and imperial power, leading to two trials for sedition .
A new generation of Burmese leaders arose in the early twentieth century from amongst the educated classes, some of whom were permitted to go to London to study law. They returned with the belief that the Burmese situation could be improved through reform. Progressive constitutional reform in the early 1920s led to a legislature with limited powers, a university and more autonomy for Burma within the administration of India. Efforts were undertaken to increase the representation of Burmese in the civil service. Some people began to feel that the rate of change was not fast enough and the reforms not extensive enough.
In 1920 a student strike broke out in protest against the new University Act which the students believed would only benefit the elite and perpetuate colonial rule. 'National Schools' sprang up across the country in protest against the colonial education system, and the strike came to be commemorated as ' National Day '. [17] There were further strikes and anti-tax protests in the later 1920s led by the Wunthanu athin s. Prominent among the political activists were Buddhist monks ( hpongyi ), such as U Ottama and U Seinda in the Arakan who subsequently led an armed rebellion against the British and later the nationalist government after independence, and U Wisara, the first martyr of the movement to die after a protracted hunger strike in prison. [17]
In December 1930, a local tax protest by Saya San in Tharrawaddy quickly grew into first a regional and then a national insurrection against the government. Lasting for two years, the Galon Rebellion , named after the mythical bird Garuda – enemy of the Nagas i.e. the British – emblazoned on the pennants the rebels carried, required thousands of British troops to suppress along with promises of further political reform. The eventual trial of Saya San, who was executed, allowed several future national leaders, including Dr Ba Maw and U Saw , who participated in his defence, to rise to prominence. [17]
In May 1930, the Dobama Asiayone (We Burmans Association) was founded, whose members called themselves thakin (an ironic name as thakin means "master" in the Burmese language – rather like the Indian 'sahib' – proclaiming that they were the true masters of the country entitled to the term usurped by the colonial masters). [17] The second university student strike in 1936 was triggered by the expulsion of Aung San and Ko Nu , leaders of the Rangoon University Students Union, for refusing to reveal the name of the author who had written an article in their university magazine, making a scathing attack on one of the senior university officials. It spread to Mandalay leading to the formation of the All Burma Students Union. Aung San and Nu subsequently joined the Thakin movement progressing from student to national politics. [17]
The British separated Burma Province from British India on 1st April 1937 [18] and granted the colony a new constitution calling for a fully elected assembly, with many powers given to the Burmese, but this proved to be a divisive issue as some Burmese felt that this was a ploy to exclude them from any further Indian reforms. Ba Maw served as the first prime minister of Burma, but he was forced out by U Saw in 1939, who served as prime minister from 1940 until he was arrested on 19 January 1942 by the British for communicating with the Japanese.
A wave of strikes and protests that started from the oilfields of central Burma in 1938 became a general strike with far-reaching consequences. In Rangoon student protesters, after successfully picketing the Secretariat, the seat of the colonial government, were charged by the British mounted police wielding batons and killing Rangoon University student. In Mandalay, the police shot into a crowd of protesters led by Buddhist monks killing 17 people. The movement became known as Htaung thoun ya byei ayeidawbon (the '1300 Revolution' named after the Burmese calendar year), [17] and 20 December, the day the first martyr Aung Kyaw fell, commemorated by students as ' Bo Aung Kyaw Day '. [19]
The Empire of Japan invaded Burma in December 1941 and by the end of 1942 controlled much of the colony. In 1943 the State of Burma was proclaimed in Rangoon, with the government run as a puppet state under Japanese control, led by head of state Ba Maw who escaped from prison in April 1942. Japan never succeeded in fully conquering all of the colony, however, and insurgent activity was pervasive, though not as much of an issue as it was in other former colonies. By 1945, British-led troops, mainly from the British Indian Army , had regained control over most of the colony with Rangoon being recaptured in May 1945.
The surrender of the Japanese brought a military administration to Burma. The British administration sought to try Aung San and other members of the British Indian Army for treason and collaboration with the Japanese. [20] Lord Mountbatten realised that a trial was an impossibility considering Aung San's popular appeal. [17] After the war ended, the British governor, Colonel Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith , returned. The restored government established a political programme that focused on the physical reconstruction of the country and delayed discussion of independence. The Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) opposed the government leading to political instability in the country. A rift had also developed in the AFPFL between the communists and Aung San together with the socialists over strategy, which led to Than Tun being forced to resign as general secretary in July 1946 and the expulsion of the CPB from the AFPFL the following October. [17]
Dorman-Smith was replaced by Major-General Sir Hubert Rance as the new governor, and the Rangoon police went on strike. The strike, starting in September 1946, then spread from the police to government employees and came close to becoming a general strike. Rance calmed the situation by meeting with Aung San and convincing him to join the governor's Executive Council along with other members of the AFPFL. [17] The new executive council, which now had increased credibility in the country, began negotiations for Burmese independence, which were concluded successfully in London as the Aung San- Attlee Agreement on 27 January 1947. [17]
The agreement left parts of the communist and conservative branches of the AFPFL dissatisfied, sending the Red Flag Communists led by Thakin Soe underground and the conservatives into opposition. Aung San also succeeded in concluding an agreement with ethnic minorities for a unified Burma at the Panglong Conference on 12 February, celebrated since as 'Union Day'. [17] [21] Shortly after, rebellion broke out in the Arakan led by the veteran monk U Seinda, and it began to spread to other districts. [17] The popularity of the AFPFL, dominated by Aung San and the socialists, was eventually confirmed when it won an overwhelming victory in the April 1947 constituent assembly elections. [17]
Then a momentous event stunned the nation on 19 July 1947. U Saw, a conservative pre-war prime minister of Burma, engineered the assassination of Aung San and several members of his cabinet including his eldest brother Ba Win , the father of today's National League for Democracy exile-government leader Dr Sein Win , while meeting in the Secretariat. [17] [22] Since then, 19 July has been commemorated as Martyrs' Day in Burma. Thakin Nu , the Socialist leader, was now asked to form a new cabinet, and he presided over Burmese independence instituted under the Burma Independence Act 1947 on 4 January 1948. Burma chose to become a fully independent republic, and not a British Dominion upon independence. This was in contrast to the independence of India and Pakistan which both resulted in the attainment of dominion status. This may have been on account of anti-British popular sentiment being strong in Burma at the time. [17]
- ^ "Who Killed Aung San? – an interview with Gen. Kyaw Zaw" . The Irrawaddy . August 1997. Archived from the original on 19 August 2006 . Retrieved 30 October 2006 .
- Chew, Ernest (1969). "The Withdrawal of the Last British Residency from Upper Burma in 1879". Journal of Southeast Asian History . 10 (2): 253–278. doi : 10.1017/S0217781100004403 . JSTOR 20067745 .
- "Burma" . The World Factbook . Central Intelligence Agency.
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Web. 1 March 2010. < https://web.archive.org/web/20110726001100/http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/35/4035-004-4ECC016C.gif%3E .
- Furnivall, J. S. (1953). "Burma, Past and Present". Far Eastern Survey . 22 (3): 21–26. doi : 10.2307/3024126 . JSTOR 3024126 . S2CID 155018749 .
- Guyot, James F. "Myanmar." The World Book Encyclopedia ; Vol. 13. Chicago: World Book, 2004. 970-70e. Print.
- Marshall, Andrew. The Trouser People: A Story of Burma in the Shadow of the Empire. Washington D.C.: Counterpoint, 2002. Print.
- "Myanmar (Burma) – Charles' George Orwell Links." Charles' George Orwell Links – Biographies, Essays, Novels, Reviews, Images. Web. 4 March 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20110923185216/http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/col-burma.htm
- "Myanmar." Encyclopædia Britannica. 15th ed. 2005. Print.
- Tucker, Shelby. Burma: The Curse of Independence. London: Pluto, 2001. Print.
- This article incorporates text from China and her mysteries , by Alfred Stead, a publication from 1901, now in the public domain in the United States.
- This article incorporates text from China's intercourse with Korea from the XVth century to 1895 , by William Woodville Rockhill, a publication from 1905, now in the public domain in the United States.
- Baird-Murray, Maureen [1998]. A World Overturned: a Burmese Childhood 1933–47 . London: Constable. ISBN 0094789207 Memoirs of the Anglo-Irish-Burmese daughter of a Burma Frontier Service officer, including her stay in an Italian convent during the Japanese occupation.
- Charney, Michael (2009). A History of Modern Burma . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Desai, Walter Sadgun (1968). History of the British Residency in Burma . London: Gregg International. ISBN 0-576-03152-6 .
- Fryer, Frederick William Richards (1905). "Burma" . The Empire and the century . London: John Murray. pp. 716–727.
- Harvey, Godfrey (1992). British Rule in Burma 1824–1942 . London: AMS Pr. ISBN 0-404-54834-2 .
- Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. IV (1908), The Indian Empire, Administrative , Published under the authority of His Majesty's Secretary of State for India in Council, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, pp. xxx, 1 map, 552
- Naono, Atsuko (2009). State of Vaccination: The Fight Against Smallpox in Colonial Burma . Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan. p. 238. ISBN 978-81-250-3546-6 . ( http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4729301/Cite )
- Richell, Judith L. (2006). Disease and Demography in Colonial Burma . Singapore: NUS Press. p. 238.
- Myint-U, Thant (2008). The River of Lost Footsteps: a Personal History of Burma . London: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Furnivall, J. S. (1953). "Burma, Past and Present". Far Eastern Survey . 22 (3): 21–26. doi : 10.2307/3024126 . JSTOR 3024126 . S2CID 155018749 .
- Chew, Ernest (1969). "The Withdrawal of the Last British Residency from Upper Burma in 1879". Journal of Southeast Asian History . 10 (2): 253–278. doi : 10.1017/S0217781100004403 . JSTOR 20067745 . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_rule_in_Burma | 58 |
when was burma included as one of the provinces of british india | When Burma Was Still Part of British India | When Burma became Burma and India became India.
The British colony of Burma was part of the British run-state in India, the Empire of India , from 1824 to 1937. Burma was separated from the rest of the Indian Empire in 1937, just ten years before India became an independent country, in 1947. Imagine, then if Burma had remained a part of India, instead of becoming a separate entity in 1937.
Like many regions that were not necessarily part of the historical empires of India, Burma was acquired by the British in order to protect their Indian empire. For similar reasons, Aden, Egypt, and other places came under British protection or control throughout the 19th century.
Burma acquired a border with British Bengal in 1785, when Burmese forces seized the coastal kingdom of Arakan. A Burmese invasion of Assam, north of Bengal, was seen as a threat to British India, and led to the first Anglo-Burmese War (1824-1826). As a result of this war, the British acquired parts of Lower Burma (in southern Myanmar). Further wars in 1852 and 1885 led to the conquest of the rest of Lower Burma and Upper Burma.
The entirety of today’s nation of Myanmar was constituted as the province of Burma within the Indian Empire. While Burma was actually the geographically largest province in India, it only had 9 million people in 1908. The neighboring province of Bengal, meanwhile, had 75 million people . This obviously caused great fear among ethnic Buddhist Bamar (Burmese) of economic competition and demographic replacement in their homeland. As noted in Scroll :
All this led to a desire for separation from the rest of British India by the 1930s; however, support was far from universal. In an election held for the local legislature in the province in 1932, The Anti-Separation League [from India] won 42 seats compared to the Separation League’s 29. As many minorities, both native ethnic groups like the Karen, Kachin, and Shan, and new groups, like the Indians and Chinese, knew, a separate Burma would be one not very hospitable to diversity. One argument made for the separation of Burma from the rest of British India was the fact that Burma was never part of India. But, then, in the broadest sense, neither was the Kingdom of Assam. Or the Andaman Islands. Or Tawang, which formerly lay in southern Tibet. So a particular need for a separate colony from the rest of India was not clearly evident.
Nonetheless, Burma was separated from the rest of India in 1937 with little opposition from Indian nationalist leaders agitating for independence from Britain, as they were concerned primarily with obtaining independence for the historical region of India itself. The British feared that violence and riots by Bamar against ethnic Indians and other groups would grow out of control unless they separated Burma from India.
This may not have been the best thing for most of Burma’s minorities, though. As Frontier Myanmar notes , the “emphasis on anti-immigration rhetoric during the campaign for separation contributed to the rise of Burmese ethno-nationalism that would have implications for the country in the decades ahead.”
Simply put, because of the chauvinism prevalent in much of the majority Bamar (Burmese) ethnic group in Myanmar, the country has been the home of some of the world’s longest conflicts. Since Burma became independent in 1948, it has been in a constant state of civil war between the central government and minority groups. There are at least 15 armed rebellions throughout the country, many of which control territory; most are resisting domination by the majority Bamar.
One wonders if instead, these various groups could have been better accommodated in independent India’s system, with is made up of ethno-linguistic states and a federal system granting a wide range of powers to local units. The Burmese dream of restoring a sort of ethnic purity to their nation is simply anachronistic. Whether for good or not, people flowed around colonial empires, and settled in new places. Whites in South Africa, Chinese in Singapore, and Indians in Fiji are all testament to this. Despite all these people originating in other places, they are still living in their new homelands, where they have a voice in politics and society. When the British left India, Anglo-Indians were granted two parliamentary seats, and in general, all major ethnic and religious groups were accommodated in the new nation. On the other hand, in Burma, many groups have suffered since the 1962 military coup, in particular those of South Asian descent. Not only the Rohingya of Arakan, but also Indians, are deprived of full citizenship, and the right to participate in many sectors of the economy, and hold certain jobs.
Perhaps Burma should have remained a part of India, after all. The condition of almost all its ethnic groups would be better off, including the Bamar, who would be free to participate in the affairs of their own state, as well as that of a larger nation. | https://thediplomat.com/2017/10/when-burma-was-still-part-of-british-india/ | 58 |
when was burma included as one of the provinces of british india | When Burma Was Still Part of British India | When Burma became Burma and India became India.
The British colony of Burma was part of the British run-state in India, the Empire of India , from 1824 to 1937. Burma was separated from the rest of the Indian Empire in 1937, just ten years before India became an independent country, in 1947. Imagine, then if Burma had remained a part of India, instead of becoming a separate entity in 1937.
Like many regions that were not necessarily part of the historical empires of India, Burma was acquired by the British in order to protect their Indian empire. For similar reasons, Aden, Egypt, and other places came under British protection or control throughout the 19th century.
Burma acquired a border with British Bengal in 1785, when Burmese forces seized the coastal kingdom of Arakan. A Burmese invasion of Assam, north of Bengal, was seen as a threat to British India, and led to the first Anglo-Burmese War (1824-1826). As a result of this war, the British acquired parts of Lower Burma (in southern Myanmar). Further wars in 1852 and 1885 led to the conquest of the rest of Lower Burma and Upper Burma.
The entirety of today’s nation of Myanmar was constituted as the province of Burma within the Indian Empire. While Burma was actually the geographically largest province in India, it only had 9 million people in 1908. The neighboring province of Bengal, meanwhile, had 75 million people . This obviously caused great fear among ethnic Buddhist Bamar (Burmese) of economic competition and demographic replacement in their homeland. As noted in Scroll :
All this led to a desire for separation from the rest of British India by the 1930s; however, support was far from universal. In an election held for the local legislature in the province in 1932, The Anti-Separation League [from India] won 42 seats compared to the Separation League’s 29. As many minorities, both native ethnic groups like the Karen, Kachin, and Shan, and new groups, like the Indians and Chinese, knew, a separate Burma would be one not very hospitable to diversity. One argument made for the separation of Burma from the rest of British India was the fact that Burma was never part of India. But, then, in the broadest sense, neither was the Kingdom of Assam. Or the Andaman Islands. Or Tawang, which formerly lay in southern Tibet. So a particular need for a separate colony from the rest of India was not clearly evident.
Nonetheless, Burma was separated from the rest of India in 1937 with little opposition from Indian nationalist leaders agitating for independence from Britain, as they were concerned primarily with obtaining independence for the historical region of India itself. The British feared that violence and riots by Bamar against ethnic Indians and other groups would grow out of control unless they separated Burma from India.
This may not have been the best thing for most of Burma’s minorities, though. As Frontier Myanmar notes , the “emphasis on anti-immigration rhetoric during the campaign for separation contributed to the rise of Burmese ethno-nationalism that would have implications for the country in the decades ahead.”
Simply put, because of the chauvinism prevalent in much of the majority Bamar (Burmese) ethnic group in Myanmar, the country has been the home of some of the world’s longest conflicts. Since Burma became independent in 1948, it has been in a constant state of civil war between the central government and minority groups. There are at least 15 armed rebellions throughout the country, many of which control territory; most are resisting domination by the majority Bamar.
One wonders if instead, these various groups could have been better accommodated in independent India’s system, with is made up of ethno-linguistic states and a federal system granting a wide range of powers to local units. The Burmese dream of restoring a sort of ethnic purity to their nation is simply anachronistic. Whether for good or not, people flowed around colonial empires, and settled in new places. Whites in South Africa, Chinese in Singapore, and Indians in Fiji are all testament to this. Despite all these people originating in other places, they are still living in their new homelands, where they have a voice in politics and society. When the British left India, Anglo-Indians were granted two parliamentary seats, and in general, all major ethnic and religious groups were accommodated in the new nation. On the other hand, in Burma, many groups have suffered since the 1962 military coup, in particular those of South Asian descent. Not only the Rohingya of Arakan, but also Indians, are deprived of full citizenship, and the right to participate in many sectors of the economy, and hold certain jobs.
Perhaps Burma should have remained a part of India, after all. The condition of almost all its ethnic groups would be better off, including the Bamar, who would be free to participate in the affairs of their own state, as well as that of a larger nation. | https://thediplomat.com/2017/10/when-burma-was-still-part-of-british-india/ | 58 |
when was burma included as one of the provinces of british india | British rule in Burma - Wikipedia | 1:04
British rule in Burma lasted from 1824 to 1948, from the successive three Anglo-Burmese wars through the creation of Burma as a province of British India to the establishment of an independently administered colony, and finally independence. The region under British control was known as British Burma , and officially known as Burma ( Burmese : မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် ) [1] from 1886. [2] Various portions of Burmese territories, including Arakan and Tenasserim were annexed by the British after their victory in the First Anglo-Burmese War ; Lower Burma was annexed in 1852 after the Second Anglo-Burmese War . The annexed territories were designated the minor province (a chief commissionership) of British India in 1862. [3]
After the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885, Upper Burma was annexed, and the following year, the province of Burma in British India was created, becoming a major province (a lieutenant-governorship) in 1897. [3] This arrangement lasted until 1937, when Burma began to be administered separately by the Burma Office under the Secretary of State for India and Burma . British rule was disrupted during the Japanese occupation of much of the country during World War II . Burma achieved independence from British rule on 4 January 1948.
Burma is sometimes referred to as "the Scottish Colony" owing to the heavy role played by Scotsmen in colonising and running the country, one of the most notable being Sir James Scott . It was also known for the heavy role played by Indian elites in managing and administering the colony, especially while it was still a part of the British Raj; some historians have called this a case of co-colonialism. [4]
Because of its location, trade routes between China and India passed through the country, keeping Burma wealthy through trade, although self-sufficient agriculture was still the basis of the economy. Indian merchants travelled along the coasts and rivers (especially the Irrawaddy River ) throughout the regions where the majority of Burmese lived, bringing Indian cultural influences into the country that still exist there today. [ citation needed ] As Burma had been one of the first Southeast Asian countries to adopt Buddhism on a large scale, it continued under the British as the officially patronised religion of most of the population. [5]
Before the British conquest and colonisation, the ruling Konbaung dynasty practised a tightly centralized form of government. The king was the chief executive with the final say on all matters, but he could not make new laws and could only issue administrative edicts. The country had two codes of law, the Dhammathat and the Hluttaw , the centre of government, was divided into three branches—fiscal, executive, and judicial. In theory, the king was in charge of all of the Hluttaw, but none of his orders got put into place until the Hluttaw approved them, thus checking his power. Further dividing the country, provinces were ruled by governors, who were appointed by the Hluttaw, and villages were ruled by hereditary headmen approved by the king. [6]
Conflict began between Burma and the British when the Konbaung dynasty decided to expand into Arakan in the state of Assam , close to British-held Chittagong in India. This led to the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–26). The British dispatched a large seaborne expedition that took Rangoon without a fight in 1824. In Danuphyu , at the Ayeyarwadddy Delta, Burmese General Maha Bandula was killed and his armies routed. Burma was forced to cede Assam and other northern provinces. [7] The 1826 Treaty of Yandabo formally ended the First Anglo-Burmese War, the longest and the most expensive war in the history of British India . Fifteen thousand European and Indian soldiers died, together with an unknown number of Burmese army and civilian casualties. [8] The campaign cost the British between 5 and 13 million pounds sterling (between 18 and 48 billion in 2020 U.S. dollars ) [9] which led to an economic crisis in British India in 1833. [10]
In 1852, the Second Anglo-Burmese War was provoked by the British, who sought the teak forests in Lower Burma as well as a port between Calcutta and Singapore . After 25 years of peace, British and Burmese fighting started afresh and continued until the British occupied all of Lower Burma. The British were victorious in this war and as a result obtained access to the teak, oil, and rubies of their newly conquered territories.
In Upper Burma, the still unoccupied part of the country, King Mindon had tried to adjust to the thrust of imperialism. He enacted administrative reforms and made Burma more receptive to foreign interests. But the British initiated the Third Anglo-Burmese War , which lasted less than two weeks during November 1885. The British government justified their actions by claiming that the last independent king of Burma, Thibaw Min , was a tyrant and that he was conspiring to give France more influence in the country. British troops entered Mandalay on 28 November 1885. Thus, after three wars gaining various parts of the country, the British occupied all the area of present-day Myanmar, making the territory a Province of British India on 1 January 1886. [6] [11]
Burmese armed resistance continued sporadically for several years , and the British commander had to coerce the High Court of Justice to continue to function. Though war officially ended after only a couple of weeks, resistance continued in northern Burma until 1890, with the British finally resorting to systematic destruction of villages and appointment of new officials to finally halt all guerrilla activity.
Traditional Burmese society was drastically altered by the demise of the monarchy and the separation of religion and state. Intermarriage between Europeans and Burmese gave birth to an indigenous Eurasian community known as the Anglo-Burmese who would come to dominate the colonial society, hovering above the Burmese but below the British.
After Britain took over all of Burma, they continued to send tribute to China to avoid offending them, but this unknowingly lowered the status they held in Chinese minds. [12] It was agreed at the Burma convention in 1886 that China would recognise Britain's occupation of Upper Burma while Britain continued the Burmese payment of tribute every ten years to Peking. [13]
The British controlled their new province through direct rule , making many changes to the previous governmental structure. The monarchy was abolished, King Thibaw sent into exile, and religion and state separated. This was particularly harmful, because the Buddhist monks, collectively known as the Sangha , were strongly dependent on the sponsorship of the monarchy. At the same time, the monarchy was given legitimacy by the Sangha, and monks as representatives of Buddhism gave the public the opportunity to understand national politics to a greater degree. [6]
The British also implemented a secular education system. The colonial Government of India , which was given control of the new colony, founded secular schools, teaching in both English and Burmese , while also encouraging Christian missionaries to visit and found schools. In both of these types of schools, Buddhism and traditional Burmese culture was frowned upon. [6]
The province of Burma, after 1885 was administered as follows: [ citation needed ]
- Ministerial Burma (Burma proper)
- Arakan Division ( Akyab , Northern Arakan or Arakan Hill Tracts, Kyaukpyu and Sandoway Districts )
- Scheduled Areas (Frontier Areas)
- Pakokku Chin Hills
The " Frontier Areas ", also known as the "Excluded Areas" or the " Scheduled Areas ", compose the majority of states within Burma today. They were administered separately by the British with a Burma Frontier Service and later united with Burma proper to form Myanmar's geographic composition today. The Frontier Areas were inhabited by ethnic minorities such as the Chin , the Shan , the Kachin and the Karenni .
By 1931 Burma had 9 divisions, split into a number of districts. [ citation needed ]
The traditional Burmese economy was one of redistribution with the prices of the most important commodities set by the state. For the majority of the population, trade was not as important as self-sufficient agriculture, but the country's position on major trade routes from India to China meant that it did gain a significant amount of money from facilitating foreign trade. With the arrival of the British, the Burmese economy became tied to global market forces and was forced to become a part of the colonial export economy. [6]
Burma's annexation ushered in a new period of economic growth. The economic nature of society also changed dramatically. The British began exploiting the rich soil of the land around the Irrawaddy delta and cleared away the dense mangrove forests. Rice, which was in high demand in Europe, especially after the building of the Suez Canal in 1869, was the main export. To increase the production of rice, many Burmese migrated from the northern heartland to the delta, shifting the population concentration and changing the basis of wealth and power. [6]
To prepare the new land for cultivation, farmers borrowed money from Indian moneylenders called chettiars at high interest rates, as British banks would not grant mortgages . The Indian moneylenders offered mortgage loans but foreclosed on them quickly if the borrowers defaulted.
At the same time, thousands of Indian labourers migrated to Burma ( Burmese Indians ) and, because of their willingness to work for less money, quickly displaced Burmese farmers. As the Encyclopædia Britannica states: "Burmese villagers, unemployed and lost in a disintegrating society, sometimes took to petty theft and robbery and were soon characterized by the British as lazy and undisciplined. The level of dysfunction in Burmese society was revealed by the dramatic rise in homicides." [14]
With this quickly growing economy came industrialisation to a certain degree, with a railway being built throughout the valley of the Irrawaddy, and hundreds of steamboats travelled along the river. All of these modes of transportation were owned by the British. Thus, although the balance of trade was in favour of British Burma, the society was changed so fundamentally that many people did not gain from the rapidly growing economy. [6]
The civil service was largely staffed by Anglo-Burmese and Indians, and the ethnic Burmese were excluded almost entirely from military service, which was staffed primarily with Indians, Anglo-Burmese, Karens and other Burmese minority groups. A British General Hospital Burmah was set up in Rangoon in 1887. [15] Though the country prospered, the Burmese people largely failed to reap the rewards. (See George Orwell 's novel Burmese Days for a fictional account of the British in Burma.) An account by a British official describing the conditions of the Burmese people's livelihoods in 1941 describes the Burmese hardships:
“Foreign landlordism and the operations of foreign moneylenders had led to increasing exportation of a considerable proportion of the country’s resources and to the progressive impoverishment of the agriculturist and of the country as a whole…. The peasant had grown factually poorer and unemployment had increased….The collapse of the Burmese social system led to a decay of the social conscience which, in the circumstances of poverty and unemployment caused a great increase in crime.” [16]
By the turn of the century, a nationalist movement began to take shape in the form of the Young Men's Buddhist Association (YMBA), modelled after the YMCA , as religious associations were allowed by the colonial authorities. They were later superseded by the General Council of Burmese Associations (GCBA) which was linked with Wunthanu athin or National Associations that sprang up in villages throughout Burma Proper. [17] Between 1900 and 1911 the "Irish Buddhist" U Dhammaloka publicly challenged Christianity and imperial power, leading to two trials for sedition .
A new generation of Burmese leaders arose in the early twentieth century from amongst the educated classes, some of whom were permitted to go to London to study law. They returned with the belief that the Burmese situation could be improved through reform. Progressive constitutional reform in the early 1920s led to a legislature with limited powers, a university and more autonomy for Burma within the administration of India. Efforts were undertaken to increase the representation of Burmese in the civil service. Some people began to feel that the rate of change was not fast enough and the reforms not extensive enough.
In 1920 a student strike broke out in protest against the new University Act which the students believed would only benefit the elite and perpetuate colonial rule. 'National Schools' sprang up across the country in protest against the colonial education system, and the strike came to be commemorated as ' National Day '. [17] There were further strikes and anti-tax protests in the later 1920s led by the Wunthanu athin s. Prominent among the political activists were Buddhist monks ( hpongyi ), such as U Ottama and U Seinda in the Arakan who subsequently led an armed rebellion against the British and later the nationalist government after independence, and U Wisara, the first martyr of the movement to die after a protracted hunger strike in prison. [17]
In December 1930, a local tax protest by Saya San in Tharrawaddy quickly grew into first a regional and then a national insurrection against the government. Lasting for two years, the Galon Rebellion , named after the mythical bird Garuda – enemy of the Nagas i.e. the British – emblazoned on the pennants the rebels carried, required thousands of British troops to suppress along with promises of further political reform. The eventual trial of Saya San, who was executed, allowed several future national leaders, including Dr Ba Maw and U Saw , who participated in his defence, to rise to prominence. [17]
In May 1930, the Dobama Asiayone (We Burmans Association) was founded, whose members called themselves thakin (an ironic name as thakin means "master" in the Burmese language – rather like the Indian 'sahib' – proclaiming that they were the true masters of the country entitled to the term usurped by the colonial masters). [17] The second university student strike in 1936 was triggered by the expulsion of Aung San and Ko Nu , leaders of the Rangoon University Students Union, for refusing to reveal the name of the author who had written an article in their university magazine, making a scathing attack on one of the senior university officials. It spread to Mandalay leading to the formation of the All Burma Students Union. Aung San and Nu subsequently joined the Thakin movement progressing from student to national politics. [17]
The British separated Burma Province from British India on 1st April 1937 [18] and granted the colony a new constitution calling for a fully elected assembly, with many powers given to the Burmese, but this proved to be a divisive issue as some Burmese felt that this was a ploy to exclude them from any further Indian reforms. Ba Maw served as the first prime minister of Burma, but he was forced out by U Saw in 1939, who served as prime minister from 1940 until he was arrested on 19 January 1942 by the British for communicating with the Japanese.
A wave of strikes and protests that started from the oilfields of central Burma in 1938 became a general strike with far-reaching consequences. In Rangoon student protesters, after successfully picketing the Secretariat, the seat of the colonial government, were charged by the British mounted police wielding batons and killing Rangoon University student. In Mandalay, the police shot into a crowd of protesters led by Buddhist monks killing 17 people. The movement became known as Htaung thoun ya byei ayeidawbon (the '1300 Revolution' named after the Burmese calendar year), [17] and 20 December, the day the first martyr Aung Kyaw fell, commemorated by students as ' Bo Aung Kyaw Day '. [19]
The Empire of Japan invaded Burma in December 1941 and by the end of 1942 controlled much of the colony. In 1943 the State of Burma was proclaimed in Rangoon, with the government run as a puppet state under Japanese control, led by head of state Ba Maw who escaped from prison in April 1942. Japan never succeeded in fully conquering all of the colony, however, and insurgent activity was pervasive, though not as much of an issue as it was in other former colonies. By 1945, British-led troops, mainly from the British Indian Army , had regained control over most of the colony with Rangoon being recaptured in May 1945.
The surrender of the Japanese brought a military administration to Burma. The British administration sought to try Aung San and other members of the British Indian Army for treason and collaboration with the Japanese. [20] Lord Mountbatten realised that a trial was an impossibility considering Aung San's popular appeal. [17] After the war ended, the British governor, Colonel Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith , returned. The restored government established a political programme that focused on the physical reconstruction of the country and delayed discussion of independence. The Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) opposed the government leading to political instability in the country. A rift had also developed in the AFPFL between the communists and Aung San together with the socialists over strategy, which led to Than Tun being forced to resign as general secretary in July 1946 and the expulsion of the CPB from the AFPFL the following October. [17]
Dorman-Smith was replaced by Major-General Sir Hubert Rance as the new governor, and the Rangoon police went on strike. The strike, starting in September 1946, then spread from the police to government employees and came close to becoming a general strike. Rance calmed the situation by meeting with Aung San and convincing him to join the governor's Executive Council along with other members of the AFPFL. [17] The new executive council, which now had increased credibility in the country, began negotiations for Burmese independence, which were concluded successfully in London as the Aung San- Attlee Agreement on 27 January 1947. [17]
The agreement left parts of the communist and conservative branches of the AFPFL dissatisfied, sending the Red Flag Communists led by Thakin Soe underground and the conservatives into opposition. Aung San also succeeded in concluding an agreement with ethnic minorities for a unified Burma at the Panglong Conference on 12 February, celebrated since as 'Union Day'. [17] [21] Shortly after, rebellion broke out in the Arakan led by the veteran monk U Seinda, and it began to spread to other districts. [17] The popularity of the AFPFL, dominated by Aung San and the socialists, was eventually confirmed when it won an overwhelming victory in the April 1947 constituent assembly elections. [17]
Then a momentous event stunned the nation on 19 July 1947. U Saw, a conservative pre-war prime minister of Burma, engineered the assassination of Aung San and several members of his cabinet including his eldest brother Ba Win , the father of today's National League for Democracy exile-government leader Dr Sein Win , while meeting in the Secretariat. [17] [22] Since then, 19 July has been commemorated as Martyrs' Day in Burma. Thakin Nu , the Socialist leader, was now asked to form a new cabinet, and he presided over Burmese independence instituted under the Burma Independence Act 1947 on 4 January 1948. Burma chose to become a fully independent republic, and not a British Dominion upon independence. This was in contrast to the independence of India and Pakistan which both resulted in the attainment of dominion status. This may have been on account of anti-British popular sentiment being strong in Burma at the time. [17]
- ^ "Who Killed Aung San? – an interview with Gen. Kyaw Zaw" . The Irrawaddy . August 1997. Archived from the original on 19 August 2006 . Retrieved 30 October 2006 .
- Chew, Ernest (1969). "The Withdrawal of the Last British Residency from Upper Burma in 1879". Journal of Southeast Asian History . 10 (2): 253–278. doi : 10.1017/S0217781100004403 . JSTOR 20067745 .
- "Burma" . The World Factbook . Central Intelligence Agency.
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Web. 1 March 2010. < https://web.archive.org/web/20110726001100/http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/35/4035-004-4ECC016C.gif%3E .
- Furnivall, J. S. (1953). "Burma, Past and Present". Far Eastern Survey . 22 (3): 21–26. doi : 10.2307/3024126 . JSTOR 3024126 . S2CID 155018749 .
- Guyot, James F. "Myanmar." The World Book Encyclopedia ; Vol. 13. Chicago: World Book, 2004. 970-70e. Print.
- Marshall, Andrew. The Trouser People: A Story of Burma in the Shadow of the Empire. Washington D.C.: Counterpoint, 2002. Print.
- "Myanmar (Burma) – Charles' George Orwell Links." Charles' George Orwell Links – Biographies, Essays, Novels, Reviews, Images. Web. 4 March 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20110923185216/http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/col-burma.htm
- "Myanmar." Encyclopædia Britannica. 15th ed. 2005. Print.
- Tucker, Shelby. Burma: The Curse of Independence. London: Pluto, 2001. Print.
- This article incorporates text from China and her mysteries , by Alfred Stead, a publication from 1901, now in the public domain in the United States.
- This article incorporates text from China's intercourse with Korea from the XVth century to 1895 , by William Woodville Rockhill, a publication from 1905, now in the public domain in the United States.
- Baird-Murray, Maureen [1998]. A World Overturned: a Burmese Childhood 1933–47 . London: Constable. ISBN 0094789207 Memoirs of the Anglo-Irish-Burmese daughter of a Burma Frontier Service officer, including her stay in an Italian convent during the Japanese occupation.
- Charney, Michael (2009). A History of Modern Burma . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Desai, Walter Sadgun (1968). History of the British Residency in Burma . London: Gregg International. ISBN 0-576-03152-6 .
- Fryer, Frederick William Richards (1905). "Burma" . The Empire and the century . London: John Murray. pp. 716–727.
- Harvey, Godfrey (1992). British Rule in Burma 1824–1942 . London: AMS Pr. ISBN 0-404-54834-2 .
- Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. IV (1908), The Indian Empire, Administrative , Published under the authority of His Majesty's Secretary of State for India in Council, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, pp. xxx, 1 map, 552
- Naono, Atsuko (2009). State of Vaccination: The Fight Against Smallpox in Colonial Burma . Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan. p. 238. ISBN 978-81-250-3546-6 . ( http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4729301/Cite )
- Richell, Judith L. (2006). Disease and Demography in Colonial Burma . Singapore: NUS Press. p. 238.
- Myint-U, Thant (2008). The River of Lost Footsteps: a Personal History of Burma . London: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Furnivall, J. S. (1953). "Burma, Past and Present". Far Eastern Survey . 22 (3): 21–26. doi : 10.2307/3024126 . JSTOR 3024126 . S2CID 155018749 .
- Chew, Ernest (1969). "The Withdrawal of the Last British Residency from Upper Burma in 1879". Journal of Southeast Asian History . 10 (2): 253–278. doi : 10.1017/S0217781100004403 . JSTOR 20067745 . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_rule_in_Burma | 58 |
when was burma included as one of the provinces of british india | When Burma Was Still Part of British India | When Burma became Burma and India became India.
The British colony of Burma was part of the British run-state in India, the Empire of India , from 1824 to 1937. Burma was separated from the rest of the Indian Empire in 1937, just ten years before India became an independent country, in 1947. Imagine, then if Burma had remained a part of India, instead of becoming a separate entity in 1937.
Like many regions that were not necessarily part of the historical empires of India, Burma was acquired by the British in order to protect their Indian empire. For similar reasons, Aden, Egypt, and other places came under British protection or control throughout the 19th century.
Burma acquired a border with British Bengal in 1785, when Burmese forces seized the coastal kingdom of Arakan. A Burmese invasion of Assam, north of Bengal, was seen as a threat to British India, and led to the first Anglo-Burmese War (1824-1826). As a result of this war, the British acquired parts of Lower Burma (in southern Myanmar). Further wars in 1852 and 1885 led to the conquest of the rest of Lower Burma and Upper Burma.
The entirety of today’s nation of Myanmar was constituted as the province of Burma within the Indian Empire. While Burma was actually the geographically largest province in India, it only had 9 million people in 1908. The neighboring province of Bengal, meanwhile, had 75 million people . This obviously caused great fear among ethnic Buddhist Bamar (Burmese) of economic competition and demographic replacement in their homeland. As noted in Scroll :
All this led to a desire for separation from the rest of British India by the 1930s; however, support was far from universal. In an election held for the local legislature in the province in 1932, The Anti-Separation League [from India] won 42 seats compared to the Separation League’s 29. As many minorities, both native ethnic groups like the Karen, Kachin, and Shan, and new groups, like the Indians and Chinese, knew, a separate Burma would be one not very hospitable to diversity. One argument made for the separation of Burma from the rest of British India was the fact that Burma was never part of India. But, then, in the broadest sense, neither was the Kingdom of Assam. Or the Andaman Islands. Or Tawang, which formerly lay in southern Tibet. So a particular need for a separate colony from the rest of India was not clearly evident.
Nonetheless, Burma was separated from the rest of India in 1937 with little opposition from Indian nationalist leaders agitating for independence from Britain, as they were concerned primarily with obtaining independence for the historical region of India itself. The British feared that violence and riots by Bamar against ethnic Indians and other groups would grow out of control unless they separated Burma from India.
This may not have been the best thing for most of Burma’s minorities, though. As Frontier Myanmar notes , the “emphasis on anti-immigration rhetoric during the campaign for separation contributed to the rise of Burmese ethno-nationalism that would have implications for the country in the decades ahead.”
Simply put, because of the chauvinism prevalent in much of the majority Bamar (Burmese) ethnic group in Myanmar, the country has been the home of some of the world’s longest conflicts. Since Burma became independent in 1948, it has been in a constant state of civil war between the central government and minority groups. There are at least 15 armed rebellions throughout the country, many of which control territory; most are resisting domination by the majority Bamar.
One wonders if instead, these various groups could have been better accommodated in independent India’s system, with is made up of ethno-linguistic states and a federal system granting a wide range of powers to local units. The Burmese dream of restoring a sort of ethnic purity to their nation is simply anachronistic. Whether for good or not, people flowed around colonial empires, and settled in new places. Whites in South Africa, Chinese in Singapore, and Indians in Fiji are all testament to this. Despite all these people originating in other places, they are still living in their new homelands, where they have a voice in politics and society. When the British left India, Anglo-Indians were granted two parliamentary seats, and in general, all major ethnic and religious groups were accommodated in the new nation. On the other hand, in Burma, many groups have suffered since the 1962 military coup, in particular those of South Asian descent. Not only the Rohingya of Arakan, but also Indians, are deprived of full citizenship, and the right to participate in many sectors of the economy, and hold certain jobs.
Perhaps Burma should have remained a part of India, after all. The condition of almost all its ethnic groups would be better off, including the Bamar, who would be free to participate in the affairs of their own state, as well as that of a larger nation. | https://thediplomat.com/2017/10/when-burma-was-still-part-of-british-india/ | 58 |
when was burma included as one of the provinces of british india | BRITISH RULE OF BURMA | Facts and Details | British rule in Burma lasted from 1824 to 1948, from the Anglo-Burmese Wars through the creation of Burma as a province of British India to the establishment of an independently administered colony, and finally independence. After three Anglo-Burma Wars (1825, 1852 and 1885) Burma was conquered and transformed into a British colony. Burma became an official colony on January 1, 1886. The British ruled Burma as a part of India from 1919 until 1937. In 1937, Burma was made a crown colony of Britain. Britain in part used Burma as a buffer zone between India and the rest of Asia.
The British named the country Burma in honor of the Burmans, the dominant ethnic group. Initially the British called it “Further India.” The Burmese called it "myanma naing ngan"—the source of the name Myanmar—or more colloquially as "bama pyi" or "country of Burma." Both these usages persist, and the national anthem still refers to "bama pyi." The British "imperial tongue" stumbled over Myanmar and adopted Burma, reportedly similar to the name Birmania given to the country by Portuguese traders.
Different portions of Burmese territories were annexed at different times. Tenasserim and Arakan were taken in 1826 by the British after their victory in the First Anglo-Burmese War. The delta region including Rangoon (Lower Burma) was annexed in 1852 after the Second Anglo-Burmese War. The annexed territories were designated the minor province (a Chief Commissionership), British Burma, of British India in 1862. Upper Burma fell to the British and the Mandalay-based peacock throne was toppled after the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885. The last monarch, the cruel king Thibaw and his queen, were exiled to India: carried out of Mandalay in an oxcart. The following year, the province of Burma in British India was created, becoming a major province (a Lieutenant-Governorship) in 1897. This arrangement lasted until 1937, when Burma began to be administered separately by the Burma Office under the Secretary of State for India and Burma. Burma achieved independence from British rule on 4 January 1948.
Burma is sometimes referred to as the Scottish Colony, due to the heavy role played by Scotsmen in colonising and running the country – one of the most notable being Sir James George Scott, and the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company. George Orwell served in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma for five years, an experience that was the inspiration for his 1934 novel “Burmese Days.”
Divisions of British Burma: The province of Burma, after 1885 was administered as follows: 1) Ministerial Burma (Burma proper); 2) Tenasserim Division (Toungoo, Thaton, Amherst, Salween, Tavoy, and Mergui Districts); 3) Arakan Division (Akyab, Northern Arakan or Arakan Hill Tracts, Kyaukpyu and Sandoway Districts); 4) Pegu Division (Rangoon City, Hanthawaddy, Pegu, Tharrawaddy and Prome Districts); 5) Irrawaddy Division (Bassein, Henzada, Thayetmyo, Maubin, Myaungmya and Pyapon Districts); 6) Scheduled Areas (Frontier Areas); 7) Shan States; 8) Chin Hills; 9) Kachin tracts. The "Frontier Areas", also known as the "Excluded Areas" or the "Scheduled Areas", compose the majority of states within Burma today. They were administered separately by the British, and were united with Burma proper to form Myanmar's geographic composition today. The Frontier Areas were inhabited by ethnic minorities such as the Chin, the Shan, the Kachin and the Karenni. [Source: Wikipedia]
Britain made Burma a province of India in 1886 with the capital at Rangoon and ushered in a new period of economic growth. Traditional Burmese society was drastically altered by the demise of the monarchy and the separation of religion and state. Though war officially ended after only a couple of weeks, resistance continued in northern Burma until 1890, with the British finally resorting to a systematic destruction of villages and appointment of new officials to finally halt all guerrilla activity. Intermarriage between Europeans and Burmese gave birth to an indigenous Eurasian community known as the Anglo-Burmese who would come to dominate the colonial society, hovering above the Burmese but below the British. After Britain took over Burma, they maintained the sending of tribute to China, putting themselves in a lower status than in their previous relations. It was agreed in the Burmah convention in 1886, that China would recognise Britain's occupation of Upper Burmah while Britain continued the Burmese payment of tribute every ten years to Beijing. [Source: Wikipedia +]
The economic nature of society also changed dramatically. After the opening of the Suez Canal, the demand for Burmese rice grew and vast tracts of land were opened up for cultivation. However, in order to prepare the new land for cultivation, farmers were forced to borrow money from Indian moneylenders called chettiars at high interest rates and were often foreclosed on and evicted losing land and livestock. Most of the jobs also went to indentured Indian labourers, and whole villages became outlawed as they resorted to 'dacoity' (armed robbery). While the Burmese economy grew, all the power and wealth remained in the hands of several British firms and migrants from India. The civil service was largely staffed by Anglo-Burmese and Indians, and Burmese were excluded almost entirely from military service, which was staffed primarily with Indians, Anglo-Burmese, Karens and other Burmese minority groups. Though the country prospered, the Burmese people failed to reap the rewards.(See George Orwell's novel Burmese Days for a fictional account of the British in Burma.) +
Burma was grafted onto India despite the incompatibility of India and the Burmese heartland, which lacked a "Burma lobby" to explain it in Britain. Hugh Tinker wrote in “The Union of Burma”: The British community in Burma was so small and the period of British rule so brief that no comparable Burma connection ever developed. [Hugh Tinker, The Union of Burma, Oxford University Press 1937, ch.XII.]
One British chronicler wrote: “What will our descendants think of us when they read that the British banished the King of Burma, annexed his country, and proceeded to govern it by officials of their own race? Historians will add that we saw no harm in this, though we always resisted such a fate to the death when it threatened our own land. [cited in Maurice Collis:Diaries,1949-1969, Heinemann, 1977]
George Webb of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs wrote: “Burma's apartness from India was paradoxically among the complex causes of the Third Burmese War. Certainly external strategic considerations, prompted by French expansionism in the region, played a part...Certainly also there was a persistent commercial illusion of a practical trade route along which British goods might flow through Upper Burma to the imagined markets of Chinese Yunnan. This excited the Chambers of Commerce and influenced the annexation. It was a myth, resembling the monomanie du Mékong from which the French suffered. It [Source: George Webb, Royal Society for Asian Affairs, June 16, 1983 //\]
“Such wider motives of strategy or commerce apart, Theebaw's cruelties and follies were enough to make Burma an intolerable adjacent state for an outward looking Indian Empire rising to the zenith of its power and self-respect. Here was one of the casualties of the nineteenth Century, knocked over by a momentum beyond its understanding. By processes familiar to Imperial historians, static Burma and dynamic British India had become provocatively incompatible. When the irresistible force was applied, the object in its path was too fragile to survive. //\
“Burma's tragedy, through every stage of British penetration from 1826 to 1948, was on the one hand to be self-centerd, traditionalist, conservative, desiring only to be left alone; and on the other hand to be so situated as to be exposed to external pressures which she was powerless to repulse. This dilemma has contributed to a national frame of mind well known today for its determined preference for non-involvement and a "Burmese Way" in politics. It was not always so. In the eighteenth century it was not Burma's isolationism but her almost manic imperialism, ruthlessly asserted against her neighbours and in the end suicidally over-extended, that brought her up against the East India Company. The three wars that ensued led by stages to the ultimate surrender in 1885 at Mandalay. Kipling's view of Burma was acquired in the aftermath of that surrender, and must be understood in the light of preceding historical events, today largely forgotten. //\
Theebaw, deposed in 1885, was the last of the Konbaungset dynasty of the Kingdom of Inwa, or Ava. The founder of the line, Alaungpaya, emerged in 1752 as a national resistance leader against the Mons to the south. Within fifty years he and his successors had defeated and in many cases subjugated most of the adjacent peoples, creating in the process an expanded nation-state with frontiers resembling those of modern Burma but in the north-west more extensive. It was an extraordinary explosion of military effort. The historian D.G.E. Hall wrote: “The most glorious moment in their history. . .the exploits of Alaungpaya had given the Burmese an entirely new estimation of themselves. They had become a conquering race and feared no one on earth.” //\
“On the British side, there was at first no wish to tackle Burma, a profoundly mysterious country, alleged to have a huge population, certainly able to raise great armies. For generations, British merchants, like their military and commercial rivals the French, had dealt with the Burmese; but this was peripheral trafficking by outsiders, only tolerated for their wares. //\
Before the British colonisation the ruling Konbaung Dynasty practised a tightly centralised form of government. The king was the chief executive with final say on all matters but he couldn’t make laws and could only issue administrative edicts. The country had two codes of law, the Rajathat and Dammathat, and the Hluttaw, the center of government, was divided into three branches—fiscal, executive, and judicial. In theory the king was in charge of all of the Hluttaw but none of his orders got put into place until the Hluttaw approved them, thus checking his power. Further dividing the country, provinces were ruled by governors who were all appointed by the Hluttaw, and villages were ruled by hereditary headmen who were approved by the king. [Source: Wikipedia +]
The British controlled their new province through direct rule, making many changes to the previous governmental structure. The monarchy was abolished, King Thibaw sent into exile, and church and state separated. This was particularly harmful because the Buddhist monks were so dependent on the sponsorship of the monarchy. At the same time, the monarchy was given legitimacy by the Buddhist organisation, and the “church” gave the public the opportunity to understand national politics to a greater degree. +
Another way in which the British controlled their new colony directly was through their implementation of a secular education system. The colonial government of India, which was given control of the new colony, founded secular schools teaching in both English and Burmese, while also encouraging Christian missionaries to visit and found schools. In both of these types of schools, Buddhism and traditional Burmese culture were frowned upon in an attempt to rid the Burmese people of a cultural unity separate from the British. +
Finally, in order to control the country on the village level, the British implemented a “strategic hamlet” strategy in which they burned villages and uprooted families who had supplied villages with their headmen, sending them to lower Burma. Once these troublesome or unloyal Burmese were forced out, the British replaced them with strangers they approved of. If the British considered any Burmese to be criminals, they would act as both judge and jury, giving the Burmese no chance to a fair trial.+
G.E. Harvey wrote in his chapter on Burma in the Cambridge History of the British Empire: The real reason for imposing direct administration was that it was the fashion of the age, and modern standards of efficiency were the only standards intelligible to the men who entered Upper Burma. Few of them spoke the language, and those who did, came with preconceptions gained in Lower Burma.
Although Burma was the wealthiest country in Southeast Asia under British rule, as a colony it was seen very much as a backwater. Among its exports, the country produced 75 percent of the world's teak from up-country forests. The British made southern Burma into one of the world’s largest rice exporting regions and also exploited rubies and other products that they sold on the world market. When George Orwell arrived in Burma in 1924, the Irrawaddy Delta was leading Burma's exports of over 3 million tons of rice - half the world's supply.
The British ruthlessly exploited the countries resources and left little in return. The country was very much shaken. The system in which the wealthy patronized the monasteries was broken. The British became the wealthy and elite class. Most Burmans provided labor for the Burmese export economy. The British also brought in lots of Indians to Burma to perform labor, serve as clerks and run businesses. Large Indian communities still remain in Yangon and Mandalay.
The traditional Burmese economy was one of redistribution with the prices of the most important commodities set by the state and supply and demand mostly unimportant. Trade itself was not as important as self-sufficient agriculture, but the country’s position on major trade routes from India to China, meant that it did gain a fair amount of money from foreign trade passing through. Wikipedia +]
With the arrival of the British, the Burmese economy became tied to global market forces and was forced to become a part of the colonial export economy. The British immediately began exploiting the rich soil of the land around the Irawaddy delta and cleared away the dense mangrove forests. Rice, which was in high demand in Europe, especially after the building of the Suez Canal in 1869, was the main crop grown in and exported out of Myanmar. In order to increase the production of rice, many Burmese migrated from the northern heartland to the delta, shifting the population concentration, and changing the basis of wealth and power. In order to prepare land for cultivation, farmers had to borrow capital from Indian moneylenders at high interest rates as the British banks wouldn’t grant mortgages. Instead, the Indian moneylenders gave the mortgage loans out, but foreclosed them quickly as the rice prices and land costs soared. +
At the same time, thousands of Indian labourers migrated to Burma and, because of their willingness to work for less money, quickly displaced the Burmese farmers, who instead began to take part in crime, giving themselves a bad reputation. With this quickly growing economy, came industrialisation to a certain degree, with a railway being built throughout the valley of the Irawaddy, and hundreds of steamboats travelling along it. All of these mechanisms of transportation were owned by the British, however, and this meant that the Burmese had to pay higher rates to transport their goods to market. Thus, although the balance of trade was supposed to be in favour of Burma, the society was changed so fundamentally that many people did not gain from the rapidly growing economy. +
When the British began their imperial take over of Burma, the colony was immediately thrown into a world of exportation in which they had not ever been exposed to before colonisation by the British. This massive move towards foreign trade hurt the Burmese economy initially because suddenly a large amount of their resources were being exported for Britain’s benefit, thereby taking with it the resources needed by the Burmese natives to continue living their lives as they had before colonisation.
An account by a British official describing the conditions of the Burmese people’s livelihoods in 1941 describes the Burmese hardships as they must quickly adapt to foreign trade: “Foreign landlordism and the operations of foreign moneylenders had led to an increasing exportation of a considerable proportion of the country’s resources and to the progressive impoverishment of the agriculturist and of the country as a whole…. The peasant had grown factually poorer and unemployment had increased….The collapse of the Burmese social system led to a decay of the social conscience which, in the circumstances of poverty and unemployment caused a great increase in crime.” +
According to Lonely Planet: The colonial era wrought great changes in Myanmar’s demographics and infrastructure. Large numbers of Indians were brought in to work as civil servants, and Chinese were encouraged to immigrate and stimulate trade. The British built railways and ports, and many British companies grew wealthy trading in teak and rice. Many Burmese were unhappy with the colonial status quo. A nationalist movement developed, and there were demonstrations, often led, in true Burmese fashion, by Buddhist monks. Two famous nationalist monks, U Ottama and U Wizaya, died in a British prison and are revered to this day. [Source: Lonely Planet]
Indian immigration to Burma was a nationwide phenomenon, not just restricted to Arakan—the region of Burma that bordered India. Historian Thant Myint-U writes: "At the beginning of the 20th century, Indians were arriving in Burma at the rate of no less than a quarter million per year. The numbers rose steadily until the peak year of 1927, immigration reached 480,000 people, with Rangoon exceeding New York City as the greatest immigration port in the world. This was out of a total population of only 13 million; it was equivalent to the United Kingdom today taking 2 million people a year." By then, in most of the largest cities in Burma, Rangoon (Yangon), Akyab (Sittwe), Bassein (Pathein), Moulmein, the Indian immigrants formed a majority of the population. The Burmese under the British rule felt helpless, and reacted with a "racism that combined feelings of superiority and fear." [Source: Wikipedia]
Under British rule, as a colony Burma was seen very much as a backwater. The image which the English people were meant to uphold in these communities was a huge burden and the majority of them carried expectations all the way from Britain with the intention of maintaining their customs and rule.
There were never really that many Britons in Burma. India. They were characterized by their English mother tongue, Christian religion, European lifestyle at home, Western clothes and employment in administration and service positions. The invention of the steam ship really opened up travel between Britain and Asia. The first run of the P&O steamer around the Cape of Good Hope took 91 days to to travel from Southhampton, England to Calcutta, with eight days spent taking in coal.
In his book “Ornamentalism; How the British Saw Their Empire” the historian David Cannadine said British empire had its roots in transplanting the British class system abroad not on racial pride and argues the whole thing was kind of as show. He wrote: the British Empire “was about antiquity and anachronism, tradition and honor, order and subordination; about glory and chivalry, horses and elephants, knights and peers, processions and ceremony, plumed hats and ermine robes; about chiefs and emirs, sultans and nawabs, viceroys and proconsuls; about thrones and crowns, dominion and hierarchy, ostentation and ornamentalism.”
Most of the British residents In India-Burma were male. With no English wives to tie them down, these Englishmen were fond of attending parties which featured food, drink, opium and fun with dancing girls who usually doubled as prostitutes. It was customary for unmarried British men to keep a local mistress-housekeeper who would raise their children. After the Suez canal opened in 1868, and travel was shorter and easier, more married English men and their families became more common and more British women arrived and married the single English men. After that the British community became more self-sufficient and more insular and separated from the India community.
Many Englishmen didn't last long enough to enjoy these fruit in climate where "two monsoons was the age of a man." Many dropped dead in the first six months from cholera, malaria, heatstroke, small pox, cobra bites or accidents. Other wasted away more slowly from syphilis, exotic jungle diseases and doctors who treated cholera with a red hot iron on the heel. Method for treating and avoiding disease left a lot to be desired. The English didn't boil their water but insisted on wearing red flannel underwear even in the sweltering heat.
Myanmar still uses English accounting systems and legal systems. One of the great chroniclers of life in Burma was Sir. J. George Scott, an adventurer and explorer who spent a lot of time in northern Burma studying and recording the habits of the Shan, Padang, Palaung and Wa.
Kipling’s Burma, See Literature
George Orwell in Burma, See Literature
Wade Guyitt wrote in the Myanmar Times, “It played host to British royalty, saw shocking racism and inspired a cocktail still served today. It also survived the battle for independence, the socialist era and the emergence of a new, democratic Myanmar. When the British conquered Pegu (now Bago) in 1852, they did so, according to one rather biased report, “in what may be called dashing style, while exposed to the fierce rays of a burning sun”. Nineteen years later, soldiers and officials in what was then called Rangoon found themselves looking for a place to escape those “fierce rays” and have a drink. Founded in 1871, their original watering hole appears lost in time. But they quickly grew in number, and their specially built teak-walled compound, completed in 1882, still stands today. [Source: Wade Guyitt, Myanmar Times, July 8, 2013 //\]
“In the Imperial Gazetteer of India of 1909, the Pegu Club is prominently labelled. Bounded by Prome Road (now Pyay), Newlyns Road (now Zagawar) and Budd’s Road (now Padonmar), its location – north of the city’s built-up waterfront downtown, but south of the cantonment (or garrison) line which marked the edge of the developed city just north of Shwedagon Pagoda – afforded easy access to the barracks, parade grounds, prisons, lunatic asylums and burial grounds which marked the British view of Rangoon at the time. To the south was a safe shipping route for the empire; to the north, successive lines of “coolies”, elephants, and rifles defended against all comers. The map shows plantations and villages outside the lines but does not name them. For those tasked with seeing Myanmar culture brought to bended knee by any means necessary, anything beyond seemed the end of the world. As Rudyard Kipling recalled after his one visit to Rangoon in 1889 as a young newspaperman, the club was “full of men on their way up or down”. He had time for only two stops in the city: that “beautiful winking wonder” the Shwedagon Pagoda, and the Pegu Club. Both astounded him. “‘Try the mutton,’” he was told. “‘I assure you the Club is the only place in Rangoon where you get mutton.’” But what stood out most was the morbid chatter about “battle, murder, and sudden death”. Its casual nature (“‘that jungle-fighting is the deuce and all. More ice please’”) gave him his first glimpse of the wars colonialism waged beyond its walls. //\
“One travelogue warned ladies should watch out for snakes upon exiting the club – living nearby: I can confirm this remains sound advice today. Inside, however, the club was the pinnacle of imperialist attempts to replicate England in foreign lands. Membership was open to “all gentlemen interested in general society”, the club’s rules stated, but in practice that meant whites only. “Rank, wealth, and birth had no relevance,” wrote Wai Wai Myaing in A Journey in Time, a family memoir. “The color of the skin was the only feature that mattered.” By 1910 the Pegu Club boasted 350 members, 25 of whom lived on-site. //\
“The Prince of Wales came to dine in 1922. In “Burmese Days, “George Orwell reveals the garrison mentality of such clubs: “‘[N]atives are getting into all the Clubs nowadays. Even the Pegu Club, I’m told. Way this country’s going, you know. We’re about the last Club in Burma to hold out against ‘em.’” Orwell’s novel neatly skewers “those Englishmen – common, unfortunately – who should never be allowed to set foot in the East”. But set foot they had. The Straits Times commented on March 2, 1916, how “[a]t the Pegu Club in Rangoon you can meet lots of men who will tell you that if we had not made the usual mess in diplomacy and frontier dilimitation a considerable portion of Yunnan would be under the Union Jack”. The Pegu Club had become the sidelines from which the empire was run. //\
In the intense Indian summers, the English gentry and their servants fled the cities for the hill stations in the cooler mountains. The British built 96 hill stations in India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Burma. The Dutch built some in Indonesia, the French in Vietnam and the Americans in the Philippines. Most were built between 1820 and 1885. Simla, the largest hill station, was the capital of British India for most of the year and headquarters for the imperial army.
The first hill stations were built in 1820 after it was discovered that British soldiers fighting Gurhkas in the foothills of the Himalayas felt better and came down with less disease in the high altitude than soldiers stationed at low altitudes.
The hill stations began as sanatoriums and convalescent centers, but it wasn’t long before they became places where healthy upper class people went to escape the heat of the lowland plains. Most of the hill stations were located above 6,000 feet because that seemed to be the ceiling of malaria-carrying mosquitos. Naturally cool air proved to be the perfect remedy for world where air conditioning, insect repellant and antibiotics had not been invented.
Most hill stations we built on ridge tops. Now, while this had its advantages in fighting disease. It was not practical for supplying water, especially when trees were cut down and ground water levels drops. In the early days there were no scenic train rides. Visitors were brought up the slopes in bullock cars, on horseback, or in sedan chairs.
Book: “Great Hill Stations of Asia” by Barbara Crossette (Harper Collins/ Westview, 1998)
The hill station were complete town with sanitariums, churches, cottages, clubs, libraries and activities. Social activities went on almost around the clock and status and rank was rigidly defined. The hill stations were set up like towns back home. They featured comfortable cottages, steepled churches, clubs, schools, libraries, tearooms, and gardens with European flowers.
Barbara Crossete wrote the “Great Hill Stations of Asia”, despite the awful government Burma remains "blessed by nature, where there are always things to eat or sell and the means to live in dignity." The hill station at Taunggyi was described in 1902 as “not merely for house-building but for racecourses, pol-grounds and public gardens.”
The atmosphere at the hill stations was both formal, strange and hedonistic. People attended full dress balls, drank a lot, slept on closed rooms to avoid the "miasma," indulged in extramarital affairs and had sex with prostitutes. One chronicler wrote, "I verily believe that when the white man penetrates the interior to found a colony, his first act is to clear a space and build a clubhouse."
One journalist described hill station life as "ball after ball, each followed by a little backbiting." Another said, "There is theory that anyone who lives above 7,000 feet starts having delusions, illusions and hallucinations. People who, in the cities, are the models of respectability are known to fling more than stones and insults at each other when they come to live up here. “
Missionaries that came to India-Burma endured numerous hardships and had little success converting the local population. Upon arrival many went to their boat cabins and wept with shock and prayed for strength after seeing throngs of sweaty Indians naked except for their loincloths.
Missionaries were often expected to live out their lives abroad and they were discouraged from coming home even if they were fatally ill. "It is better that our missionaries should die on the field of battle," one missionary board warned, "than to return to camp in a wounded or disabled state."
The primary activity of missionaries was setting up schools. They usually set up numerous primary schools and, if they were there long enough to get primary school graduates, a secondary school. Many people died of malaria and death rates from cholera were also high. Missionaries had to protect themselves against snakes, scorpions, white ants, winged ants and bats. One missionary described a huge spider that made a home in his shoe. It "was nearly the size of the palm of my hand...olive brown and covered with a soft down.” The missionaries also had to put up with dust storms, torrential monsoons and 130°F heat that lasted for weeks at a time. "Between the rising and setting of the sun," one missionary wrote, "a foreigner should not leave his house without the shelter of a carriage or palanquin or a thick umbrella."
Traditional Myanmar society was drastically altered by the ending of the monarchy and the separation of church and state. Though the final Anglo-Burma war officially ended after only a couple of weeks in 1985, resistance continued in northern Myanmar until 1890, with the British finally resorting to a systematic destruction of villages and appointment of new officials to finally halt the guerilla activity. The economic nature of society also changed drastically. After the opening of the Suez Canal the demand for Burmese rice grew and vast tracts of land were opened up for cultivation. However. in order to prepare the new land for cultivation. farmers were forced to borrow money from Indian moneylenders at high interest rates and were often evicted for failure to pay back the loan. Imported Indian labor ended up with most of the jobs and whole villages became lawless dens full of the unemployed. While the Burmese economy grew all the power and wealth was in the hands of several British firms and the Burmese people did not reap the rewards. [Source: Myanmar Travel Information]
Ben Macintyre wrote in The Times, “Like every country, Burma is a product of its history, in which Britain played a defining role, sometimes for better, mostly for worse. Aung San Suu Kyi's long and courageous campaign for democracy can be properly understood only against the backdrop of Burma's fractured past: three Anglo-Burmese wars, a century of exploitative British colonial rule, a brutal Japanese invasion, a remarkably peaceful transition to independence and a brief, unforgotten period of prosperity. The history of British intervention in Burma should be a source of considerable shame and just a little pride. As Burma finally inches towards democracy, Britain's involvement in Burma's past offers a unique opportunity to help shape its future. Ever since the 1820s, the British had regarded Burma as a lucrative sideline to India, strategically vital and, more important, a place to get rich. "An empire is primarily a money-making concern," wrote George Orwell, brilliantly skewering "the lie that we're here to uplift our poor black brothers rather than to rob them". [Source: Ben Macintyre, The Times, April 10, 2012]
In the process of removing the monarchy, the British destroyed the structure of traditional Burmese society. Resistance to colonial rule was savagely put down. Tribal divisions were compounded. This humiliation paved the way for the extreme nationalist militarism that followed. According to Thant Myint-U, Burma's foremost historian, the colonial experience fractured and divided Burmese society in a way that encouraged dictatorship, undermining institutions that had held the state together since the Middle Ages, leaving the country "adrift, suddenly pushed into the modern world without an anchor to the past".
Although precious little profit trickled down to the Burmese, Burma boomed under British rule, becoming the largest rice exporter in the world, with teeming ports and busy railways. The colonial architecture of Rangoon, preserved because the developers were never allowed in and now in dire need of preservation, speaks of a flourishing metropolis. The few precious years of democracy after Britain left, peacefully, are "looked back on as the golden age of the Burmese middle classes", Thant writes. Burma's "relationship with the British empire", Orwell wrote, "is that of slave and master". For a half-century, Britain's relationship with Burma was effectively non-existent. Now there is an opportunity to forge a completely different relationship, based on acknowledging the many sins and few virtues of a shared history.
Burmese nationalism and patriotism arose in the late 19th century, finding initial support among the Buddhist monks (sangha), who traditionally had a central role in society. As elsewhere in Southeast Asia, World War II and the Japanese occupation were politically oppressive times.
The British did not move in large numbers to the colony in Burma in the way they did to other colonies such as India. Instead, it was Indian workers who migrated to the country once it was under British rule, and competed with the local Burmese for jobs, lowering the standard of living in the country. The Burmese resented both the British and the Indian migrants, and staged guerilla warfare against the British army of occupation. The guerrillas were led by former army officers of the Royal Burmese Army as well as other former leaders (headmen, etc.). The guerillas fought hard against the foreigners, but were often captured and punished harshly. Their actions and the crime that began when the villagers were displaced by Indian workers, led to the British impression of their Burmese colony as a restless and violent place. [Source: Wikipedia +]
By the turn of the century, a nationalist movement began to take shape in the form of Young Men's Buddhist Associations (YMBA), modelled after the YMCA, as religious associations were allowed by the colonial authorities. They were later superseded by the General Council of Burmese Associations (GCBA) which was linked with Wunthanu athin or National Associations that sprang up in villages throughout Burma Proper. Between 1900 and 1911 the "Irish Buddhist" U Dhammaloka publicly challenged Christianity and imperial power, leading to two trials for sedition. +
A new generation of Burmese leaders arose in the early twentieth century from amongst the educated classes that were permitted to go to London to study law. They came away from this experience with the belief that the Burmese situation could be improved through reform. Progressive constitutional reform in the early 1920s led to a legislature with limited powers, a university and more autonomy for Burma within the administration of India. Efforts were also undertaken to increase the representation of Burmese in the civil service. Some people began to feel that the rate of change was not fast enough and the reforms not expansive enough. +
In 1920 the first university students' strike in history broke out in protest against the new University Act which the students believed would only benefit the elite and perpetuate colonial rule. 'National Schools' sprang up across the country in protest against the colonial education system, and the strike came to be commemorated as 'National Day'. There were further strikes and anti-tax protests in the later 1920s led by the Wunthanu athins. Prominent among the political activists were Buddhist monks (hpongyi), such as U Ottama and U Seinda in the Arakan who subsequently led an armed rebellion against the British and later the nationalist government after independence, and U Wisara, the first martyr of the movement to die after a protracted hunger strike in prison. (One of the main thoroughfares in Yangon is named after U Wisara.) +
In 1930 some of these dissatisfied students founded a new group called the Dobama Asiayone (We Burmans Association) whose members called themselves Thakin (an ironic name as thakin means "master" in the Burmese language – rather like the Indian 'sahib' — proclaiming that they were the true masters of the country entitled to the term usurped by the colonial masters).
The Burmese export economy was hit hard by the world depression in the 1930s. A rising sense of nationalism combined with suffering lead to the Saya San rebellion, a peasant uprising which was brutally suppressed by the British. In December 1930, a local tax protest by Saya San in Tharrawaddy quickly grew into first a regional and then a national insurrection against the government. Lasting for two years, the Galon rebellion, named after the mythical bird Garuda – enemy of the Nagas i.e. the British – emblazoned on the pennants the rebels carried, required thousands of British troops to suppress along with promises of further political reform. The eventual trial of Saya San, who was executed, allowed several future national leaders, including Dr Ba Maw and U Saw, who participated in his defence, to rise to prominence. +
The Saya San rebellion gave the Thakin their chance. Though they did not actually participate in the rebellion. they did win the trust of the peasants and displaced the older generation of London-educated elites at the head of the Burmese nationalist movement. They staged a strike in 1936 which was notable because it was during this strike that Thakin Nu and Aung San joined the movement. +
The second university students strike in 1936 was triggered by the expulsion of Aung San and Ko Nu, leaders of the Rangoon University Students Union (RUSU), for refusing to reveal the name of the author who had written an article in their university magazine, making a scathing attack on one of the senior university officials. It spread to Mandalay leading to the formation of the All Burma Students Union (ABSU). Aung San and Nu subsequently joined the Thakin movement progressing from student to national politics.
Saya San (1876 and 1931) was the leader of the anti-British rebellion in 1930-32 that bore his name. Born on October 24, 1876, Saya San was a native of Shwebo, a center of nationalist-monarchist sentiment in north-central Myanmar that was the birthplace of the Konbaung (or Alaungpaya) dynasty, which controlled Myanmar from 1752 until the British annexation in 1886. He was a Buddhist monk, physician, and astrologer in Siam (Thailand) and Myanmar before the rebellion. Saya San joined the extreme nationalist faction of the General Council of Burmese Associations led by U Soe Thein. Saya San organized peasant discontent and proclaimed himself a pretender to the throne who, like Alaungpaya, would unite the people and expel the British invader. He organized his followers into the "Galon Army" (Galon, or Garuda, is a fabulous bird of Hindu mythology), and he was proclaimed "king" at Insein, near Rangoon (Yangon), on Oct. 28, 1930. [Source: Myanmar Travel Information ~]
On the night of December 22-2, 1930 the first outbreak of violence that became the Saya San rebellion occurred in the Tharrawaddy district; the revolt soon spread to other Irrawaddy delta districts. The Galon army rebels, like the Boxers of China, carried charms and tattoos to make themselves invulnerable to British bullets. Armed only with swords and spears, Saya San's rebels were no match for British troops with machine guns. ~ As the revolt collapsed, Saya San fled to the Shan Plateau in the east. On Aug. 2, 1931, he was captured at Hokho and brought back to Tharrawaddy to be tried by a special tribunal. Despite the efforts of his lawyer, Ba Maw, he was sentenced to death in March 1931 and was hanged at Tharrawaddy jail. The revolt was crushed. By some estimates more than 10,000 peasants were killed during it. ~
Although Saya San's revolt was basically political (it was the last genuine attempt to restore the Burmese monarchy) and possessed strong religious characteristics, its causes were basically economic. The peasants of southern Myanmar had been dispossessed by Indian moneylenders, were burdened with heavy taxes, and were left penniless when the price of rice dropped in an economic depression. Widespread support for Saya San betrayed the precarious and unpopular position of British rule in Myanmar.
The British separated Burma Province from British India in 1937 and granted the colony a new constitution calling for a fully elected assembly, with many powers given to the Burmese, but this proved to be a divisive issue as some Burmese felt that this was a ploy to exclude them from any further Indian reforms whereas other Burmese saw any action that removed Burma from the control of India to be a positive step. Ba Maw served as the first prime minister of Burma, but he was forced out by U Saw in 1939, who served as prime minister from 1940 until he was arrested on 19 January 1942 by the British for communicating with the Japanese. [Source: Wikipedia +]
A wave of strikes and protests that started from the oilfields of central Burma in 1938 became a general strike with far-reaching consequences. In Rangoon student protesters, after successfully picketing the Secretariat, the seat of the colonial government, were charged by the British mounted police wielding batons and killing a Rangoon University student called Aung Kyaw. In Mandalay, the police shot into a crowd of protesters led by Buddhist monks killing 17 people. The movement became known as Htaung thoun ya byei ayeidawbon (the '1300 Revolution' named after the Burmese calendar year), and 20 December, the day the first martyr Aung Kyaw fell, commemorated by students as 'Bo Aung Kyaw Day'. +
Image Sources:
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, The Irrawaddy, Myanmar Travel Information Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Global Viewpoint (Christian Science Monitor), Foreign Policy, burmalibrary.org, burmanet.org, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, NBC News, Fox News and various books and other publications.
Last updated May 2014 | https://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Myanmar/sub5_5a/entry-3007.html | 58 |
when the conveyor belt ocean circulation stops winters in europe are much | Atlantic Ocean circulation at weakest in a millennium, say scientists | This article is more than 2 years old
Decline in system underpinning Gulf Stream could lead to more extreme weather in Europe and higher sea levels on US east coast
The Atlantic Ocean circulation that underpins the Gulf Stream, the weather system that brings warm and mild weather to Europe, is at its weakest in more than a millennium, and climate breakdown is the probable cause, according to new data.
Further weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) could result in more storms battering the UK, more intense winters and an increase in damaging heatwaves and droughts across Europe.
Scientists predict that the AMOC will weaken further if global heating continues, and could reduce by about 34% to 45% by the end of this century, which could bring us close to a “tipping point” at which the system could become irrevocably unstable. A weakened Gulf Stream would also raise sea levels on the Atlantic coast of the US, with potentially disastrous consequences.
Stefan Rahmstorf, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who co-authored the study published on Thursday in Nature Geoscience , told the Guardian that a weakening AMOC would increase the number and severity of storms hitting Britain, and bring more heatwaves to Europe.
He said the circulation had already slowed by about 15%, and the impacts were being seen. “In 20 to 30 years it is likely to weaken further, and that will inevitably influence our weather, so we would see an increase in storms and heatwaves in Europe, and sea level rises on the east coast of the US,” he said.
Rahmstorf and scientists from Maynooth University in Ireland and University College London in the UK concluded that the current weakening had not been seen over at least the last 1,000 years, after studying sediments, Greenland ice cores and other proxy data that revealed past weather patterns over that time. The AMOC has only been measured directly since 2004.
The AMOC is one of the world’s biggest ocean circulation systems , carrying warm surface water from the Gulf of Mexico towards the north Atlantic, where it cools and becomes saltier until it sinks north of Iceland, which in turn pulls more warm water from the Caribbean. This circulation is accompanied by winds that also help to bring mild and wet weather to Ireland, the UK and other parts of western Europe.
Scientists have long predicted a weakening of the AMOC as a result of global heating, and have raised concerns that it could collapse altogether. The new study found that any such point was likely to be decades away, but that continued high greenhouse gas emissions would bring it closer.
Rahmstorf said: “We risk triggering [a tipping point] in this century, and the circulation would spin down within the next century. It is extremely unlikely that we have already triggered it, but if we do not stop global warming, it is increasingly likely that we will trigger it.
“The consequences of this are so massive that even a 10% chance of triggering a breakdown would be an unacceptable risk.”
Research in 2018 also showed a weakening of the AMOC , but the paper in Nature Geoscience says this was unprecedented over the last millennium, a clear indication that human actions are to blame. Scientists have previously said a weakening of the Gulf Stream could cause freezing winters in western Europe and unprecedented changes across the Atlantic.
The AMOC is a large part of the Gulf Stream, often described as the “conveyor belt” that brings warm water from the equator. But the bigger weather system would not break down entirely if the ocean circulation became unstable, because winds also play a key role. The circulation has broken down before, in different circumstances, for instance at the end of the last ice age.
The Gulf Stream is separate from the jet stream that has helped to bring extreme weather to the northern hemisphere in recent weeks, though like the jet stream it is also affected by the rising temperatures in the Arctic. Normally, the very cold temperatures over the Arctic create a polar vortex that keeps a steady jet stream of air currents keeping that cold air in place. But higher temperatures over the Arctic have resulted in a weak and wandering jet stream, which has helped cold weather to spread much further south in some cases, while bringing warmer weather further north in others, contributing to the extremes in weather seen in the UK, Europe and the US in recent weeks.
Similarly, the Gulf Stream is affected by the melting of Arctic ice , which dumps large quantities of cold water to the south of Greenland, disrupting the flow of the AMOC. The impacts of variations in the Gulf Stream are seen over much longer periods than variations in the jet stream, but will also bring more extreme weather as the climate warms.
As well as causing more extreme weather across Europe and the east coast of the US, the weakening of the AMOC could have severe consequences for Atlantic marine ecosystems, disrupting fish populations and other marine life.
Andrew Meijers, the deputy science leader of polar oceans at British Antarctic Survey, who was not involved in the study, said: “The AMOC has a profound influence on global climate, particularly in North America and Europe, so this evidence of an ongoing weakening of the circulation is critical new evidence for the interpretation of future projections of regional and global climate.
“The AMOC is frequently modelled as having a tipping point below some circulation strength, a point at which the relatively stable overturning circulation becomes unstable or even collapses. The ongoing weakening of the overturning means we risk finding that point, which would have profound and likely irreversible impacts on the climate.”
Karsten Haustein, of the Climate Services Center in Germany, also independent of the study, said the US could be at risk of stronger hurricanes as a result of the Gulf Stream’s weakening.
“While the AMOC won’t collapse any time soon, the authors warn that the current could become unstable by the end of this century if warming continues unabated,” he said. “It has already been increasing the risk for stronger hurricanes at the US east coast due to warmer ocean waters, as well as potentially altering circulation patterns over western Europe.”
Dr Levke Caesar, of Maynooth University in Ireland, and the lead author of the paper, said sea level rises on the east coast of the US were another potential consequence. “The northward surface flow of the AMOC leads to a deflection of water masses to the right, away from the US east coast. This is due to Earth’s rotation that diverts moving objects such as currents to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere,” she said. “As the current slows down, this effect weakens and more water can pile up at the US east coast, leading to an enhanced sea level rise.”
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when the conveyor belt ocean circulation stops winters in europe are much | What If the Gulf Stream Stopped? | The Gulf Stream is one of the strongest ocean currents in the world. What if it collapsed tomorrow?
Our planet has seen this before. Its ice has already melted. Water levels have risen. Ocean currents have already stopped.
The last time this happened was 13,000 years ago. Humans didn’t study climate back then.
Now, everything is coming full-circle. And we should be concerned. If all those events were to happen again today, you wouldn’t recognize the Earth you’re living in.
How would the melting ice change the world? Why would ocean currents throw us into a new Ice Age?
Ocean currents dictate the Earth’s climate. They push hot equatorial waters toward the poles and return cold polar waters to the equator.
In the northern hemisphere, it’s the Gulf Stream getting the job done. Moving water at roughly 2 m/s (6.5 ft/s), the Gulf Stream is one of the largest and fastest currents in the ocean.
It carries warm seawater all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to the eastern coastlines of the U.S. and Newfoundland, then across the Atlantic ocean, where it splits in two – crossing to Northern Europe and recirculating off West Africa. The Gulf Stream is a part of the global ocean conveyor belt.
What does ice have to do with all this?
Currents circulating through the oceans don’t just appear out of nowhere. They’re created out of differences in water density.
Warm water has a lower density and rises to the surface. Cold water has a higher density and therefore it sinks to the bottom.
But there’s one more thing that determines the density of water – the amount of salt in it. And that’s where the ice caps enter the game.
Polar ice is composed of fresh water. As it melts, it adds more fresh water into the sea making the water in the North Atlantic less dense. At some point, it won’t be able to sink anymore. The global ocean conveyor belt will stop circulating.
This would be the end of the Gulf Stream and the beginning of something else. A new Ice Age. You heard it right. We may be heating up the planet year by year, but climate isn’t that simple.
The Gulf Stream is a warm current. It’s what makes winters on the west coast of Europe so mild. It also keeps winter temperatures warmer and summer temperatures cooler on Florida’s east coast.
What would happen if this warmth-bearing current was cut off? Well, it would stop bringing warm waters to those areas.
Western Europe would get plunged into a deep freeze. And so would North America. The average temperature of Europe would drop by up to 10 °C (18°F).
Ice storms would rampage through Spain, France, Portugal and the UK. London, among other cities, would be covered in snow for weeks. Something is telling me, Londoners would never stop complaining about the weather.
The east coast of the U.S. would have a different problem – rising water levels. Normally, sea levels on the U.S. coast are lower compared to those on the coasts of Europe. That’s because the Gulf Stream is warmer when it gets to Europe. Take the Gulf Stream out of the equation, and the water would push back toward the U.S.
In the long term, that would disrupt agriculture in those areas, drowning the economies that rely on growing and distributing crops. And while the east coast of America and Western Europe get chilly in their local Ice Age, temperatures in the rest of the world would keep rising.
Climate change would trigger fires, tsunamis, hurricanes – all at the same time. That would be a different world. Nothing that the Earth hasn’t seen before. Except this time, civilization would be disrupted, and be left to deal with the changing climate when the ocean currents decide to take a break.
Subscribe to What-If on Youtube or follow the show on Facebook Watch. | https://insh.world/science/what-if-the-gulf-stream-stopped/ | 59 |
when the conveyor belt ocean circulation stops winters in europe are much | Concern grows over Atlantic Ocean ‘conveyor belt’ shutdown | Effects of climate change are slowing a key ocean circulation system with immense consequences for Earth’s climate if it collapses.
Published On 12 Nov 2021
12 Nov 2021
For thousands of years, the circulating currents of the Atlantic Ocean have continuously regulated the temperatures of Europe and North America, producing a warming effect that allows them to enjoy relatively moderate weather conditions.
But the effects of anthropogenic climate change have diminished the flow of this vast conveyor belt system, known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), and recent scientific research suggests it may even be headed for collapse.
The unprecedented slowdown of the vast system has been measured directly since 2004, but analysis of indirect data suggests a longer decline, beginning in the mid to late 19th century and accelerating after 1950.
One study, which looked at ice cores and ocean sediments, determined the AMOC was “in its weakest state in over a millennium”.
“Everything points to a weakening of the AMOC,” said Sybren Drijfhout, an oceanographer at the University of Southampton.
The timeline of a potential collapse of the AMOC remains unclear, but the consequences for the Earth’s climate would be immense.
Temperatures in Europe and the east of North America would drop by as much as 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit), leading to more extreme winter weather.
Coastal cities in North America would be flooded by rising sea levels. It would also disrupt the West African and Asian monsoons, which supply vital rainfall for crops that tens of millions of people depend upon.
An enormous system of ocean currents, the AMOC is driven by changing water density, which is determined by the water’s salt content and temperature.
Under a process known as “thermohaline circulation”, warm water moves north through the Gulf of Mexico towards Europe – the stretch known as the Gulf Stream – with the surface temperature decreasing as evaporation occurs and salinity increases.
Becoming denser, the water then sinks in the north Atlantic and whisks south along the ocean floor before “upwelling” to the surface again far into the southern hemisphere.
The effects of global warming on the AMOC are twofold. Warmer water is less dense, and freshwater runoff from ice melting in the polar region reduces salinity, which reduces density even further. These factors slow the sinking mechanism that propels the circulation.
The last time the AMOC shut down was towards the end of the last ice age, about 14,500 years ago. Then glacial melt flooded the North Atlantic with fresh water, collapsing the system and causing temperatures in Europe to plunge.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report published in August found with high confidence that the AMOC will likely weaken over the coming decades, but a total collapse before 2100 is unlikely.
“Even though the AMOC is very unlikely to collapse over the 21st century, its weakening may be substantial, which may therefore induce strong and large-scale climatic impacts with potential far-reaching impacts on natural and human systems,” it said.
Whether the decline of the AMOC will continue in a linear fashion, or reach some tipping point, after which the decline could accelerate precipitously, remains a point of discussion among scientists.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” said Niklas Boers, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “Whether it’s just linear, slowing down, or whether there’s actually a loss of stability.”
A paper published by Boers in the Nature Climate Change journal in August analysed eight separate indicators, making use of sea surface temperature and water salinity data that stretches back to the 19th century.
It found the AMOC may have evolved from a period of relative stability towards a “critical” transition that would signal a profound change in the global climate system. Such a tipping point could see the AMOC halt entirely over a relatively short period of decades.
“We have a situation where there’s a threshold … If we reached that threshold, then we will have a very, very massive impact that is possibly practically irreversible,” said Boers.
Discrepancies between observed data and existing climate models remain, and there is still no consensus on how long a full shutdown could take. Some estimates suggest as long as several hundred years.
“All models agree that in warmer climates that the AMOC will become weaker and weaker,” said Drijfhout. “That doesn’t have to mean a collapse. It could go very, very gradually.”
In either case, Western Africa will have to adapt to declining rainfall and Europe to increasingly unpredictable winter weather, on top of other effects already produced by climate change.
Further advances in climate modelling could provide a more accurate picture of things to come, but the evidence is already clear that reducing human-caused global heating will be crucial to maintaining stability in the Atlantic system.
The most important factor in how the AMOC develops is the amount of greenhouse gases that will be released into the atmosphere in the coming years and decades, said Boer.
“There’s not so much room for compromises. So you have to really reduce emissions as much as possible – and as fast as possible.”
Source: Al Jazeera | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/12/concern-grows-over-atlantic-ocean-conveyor-belt-shutdown#:~:text=Temperatures%20in%20Europe%20and%20eastern%20North%20America%20would,weather%20%5BFile%3A%20Kiichiro%20Sato%2FAP%20Photo%5D%20By%20Ruairi%20Casey | 59 |
when the conveyor belt ocean circulation stops winters in europe are much | Scientists Say Ocean Circulation Is Slowing. Here’s Why You Should Care. - Inside Climate News | Sign up to receive our latest reporting on climate change, energy and environmental justice, sent directly to your inbox. Subscribe here .
Scientists have found new evidence that the Atlantic Ocean’s circulation has slowed by about 15 percent since the middle of the last century. If it continues to slow, that could have profound consequences for Earth’s inhabitants.
Studies suggest it would mean much colder winters and hotter summers in Europe, changing rainfall patterns in the tropics, and warmer water building up along the U.S. coast that can fuel sea level rise and destructive storms. The changes in the North Atlantic could also intensify streams of icebergs into shipping lanes and coastal ice jams that hinder navigation.
There are already signs that the weakening is having an effect. In 2015, scientists traced the imminent collapse of the commercially important cod fishery in the region to rapidly warming water in the Gulf of Maine, which fits the pattern of slowing Atlantic circulation. Record-warm water off the East Coast that helped fuel 2011’s destructive Hurricane Irene , as well as Superstorm Sandy a year later, appears to fit that pattern, as well, according to NASA.
So what exactly is going on here?
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The oceans have thousands of currents, gyres and eddies that carry water around the planet. Their movements regulate the Earth’s climate and transport carbon, heat and nutrients.
Together, these currents act like a giant conveyor belt that transports heat from the tropics to the higher latitudes. As warm water from the tropics flows toward the poles in wind-driven currents near the surface, it cools, becoming denser and heavier, and eventually sinks. It then begins flowing back toward the equator in a slow journey deep in the ocean.
Scientists call this the thermohaline circulation because it’s driven by temperature and salinity.
“The ocean is the flywheel of the climate,” said oceanographer Lisa Beal, with the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. “It sets the timing of climate change. It can do things like store heat in one place and release it somewhere else 1,000 years later.”
In the Atlantic, the ocean conveyor belt is known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC for short. The Gulf Stream, a wind-driven current that brings warm water northward along the U.S. coast, is a key part of it.
If the AMOC continues to weaken at the pace shown by the new research, it would affect temperatures and weather patterns in all countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean, as well in the ocean itself by changing rainfall patterns around the equator.
Europe could see much colder winters and hotter summers, according to a new study published in in the journal Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology that also showed the potential for a weakening AMOC to cause abrupt climate shifts.
Scientists aren’t exactly sure how a weakening AMOC would affect Florida, the Gulf Coast and the rest of the U.S. East Coast, where the Gulf Stream influences temperatures, storm paths and rainfall, but there are some regional clues, including the warming ocean waters off New England.
Fisheries experts in the Northeast say continued weakening of the AMOC is expected to continue heating that area much faster than the average. That will “further impact fisheries and living marine resources in the region,” said researcher Vincent Saba of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center .
The center’s scientists say rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have affected the AMOC and slowed the redistribution of heat in the North Atlantic. Waters along the Northeast Continental Shelf have warmed, and the Gulf of Maine has warmed faster than 99 percent of the global ocean over the past 10 years, impacting the distribution of fish and other species and their prey.
At the far southern end of the Atlantic, the circulation of deep, cold water near Antarctica may also be vulnerable to disruption, a recent study in the journal Science Advances suggests.
Those concerns were also reinforced by new research led by scientists at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research who analyzed decades of ocean temperature data and found a weakening of the AMOC over time, particularly since the middle of the 20th century.
Scientists know the AMOC’s strength fluctuates. For example, previous NASA research looking at much shorter periods of time found no change from 2002 to 2009.
But the new analysis of longer data sets, published in the journal Nature , shows weakening that’s consistent with climate model projections of the ocean’s response to warming caused by rising carbon dioxide levels. The U.S. Global Research Program warns the AMOC could weaken further by mid-century.
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After ruling out most other causes, scientists say an influx of cold, fresh water from melting Greenland ice is probably disrupting the ocean conveyor belt at a delicate point, where the cooled surface water starts sinking.
Fresh water pouring off the Greenland Ice Sheet and increased rainfall make the water less saline, and less dense than saltier water. That makes it harder to sink and drive the current’s journey southward, explained Alexander Robinson of the University of Madrid, a co-author of the Nature study.
“If we do not rapidly stop global warming, we must expect a further long-term slowdown of the Atlantic overturning,” Robinson said. “We are only beginning to understand the consequences of this unprecedented process—but they might be disruptive.”
Satellite data above show Greenland losing mass as its ice melts. Credit: NASA
The same thing may be happening near Antarctica, according to University of Tasmania researcher Alessandro Silvano, who measured the freshening effect of melting glaciers.
“Our results suggest that increased glacial meltwater input in a warming climate will both reduce Antarctic Bottom Water formation and trigger increased mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet, with consequences for the global overturning circulation and sea level rise,” he concluded with co-authors in the Science Advances study.
There’s also evidence that suggests changes in the ocean’s circulation long ago were associated with extreme climate instability, including sharp and sudden surges in glaciation. Chemical tracers in ocean-bottom sediments show that link and also suggest that the AMOC is weaker now than at any time in at least the past 1,000 years.
Another study published in Nature last month describes changes starting about 150 years ago in the deep, cold current that heads southward from Greenland that suggests freshwater from ice melt at the end of the “Little Ice Age” may have had an impact. The researchers also found evidence that the AMOC has been weaker over the century and a half than in the previous 1,500 years.
We’re seeing that kind of melting from Greenland again today as global temperatures rise. Some scientists are warning that serious climate change impacts could be more abrupt than expected, like rapid sea level rise of 20 feet within a century, or a sudden switch to drought-deluge cycles in California.
The polar ice caps will continue to melt for centuries even if global greenhouse gas emissions stop immediately because of high levels of CO2 already built up in the atmosphere, so there’s no realistic way to quickly stop changes to ocean circulation.
The recent AMOC studies don’t show what the long-term implications are, so it’s uncertain if the circulation could stabilize at some new level if human-caused CO2 emissions are stopped, if the changes will gradually persist into the future, or if the oceans will pass a climate tipping point into some new, as-yet unknown state.
But understanding the effects can help people prepare. And if scientists can identify where circulation changes may cause oceans to warm exceptionally fast in coming decades, those areas could plan for storm potential and an extra measure of sea level rise that will happen as the oceans warm and expand.
Similarly, identifying how changes to ocean circulation affect adjacent land areas, with heat waves, droughts or flooding, would help communities develop more resilience to climate impacts.
Other parts of the ocean circulation system are also changing as the planet warms, Beal said. That includes the Indian Ocean, where sea surface temperatures have warmed 1 degree Celsius since 1950 compared to the global average 0.6 degrees ocean warming.
“The heat gain in the Indian Ocean has been massive. In the last 20 years, the Indian Ocean has accounted of one-quarter of the total global ocean heat gain, and we don’t know where this heat will end up,” she said.
In that region, the circulation includes big gyres that are important heat transporters. Understanding of those systems is still scant, but the changes are already affecting millions of people in some of the world’s most densely populated and poorest areas along the coasts of southern Asia. Sea level there is rising faster than the global average, increasing the chances of deadly heat waves and possibly altering the monsoon cycle.
The animation above shows surface currents around the world. Credit: NASA
In the wider Pacific Basin, surface currents spread heat from east to west. Overall, the circulation in the Pacific Ocean transports much more heat energy than the AMOC, making it important to understand how global warming will affect that system, as well, Beal said.
One such study in 2016 documented changes to major currents running along the eastern coasts of South Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America and found some of the currents were releasing 20 percent more heat than 50 years earlier, raising the risks of damaging storms along those coasts. | https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07052018/atlantic-ocean-circulation-slowing-climate-change-heat-temperature-rainfall-fish-why-you-should-care/ | 59 |
when the conveyor belt ocean circulation stops winters in europe are much | Atlantic Ocean circulation at weakest in a millennium, say scientists | This article is more than 2 years old
Decline in system underpinning Gulf Stream could lead to more extreme weather in Europe and higher sea levels on US east coast
The Atlantic Ocean circulation that underpins the Gulf Stream, the weather system that brings warm and mild weather to Europe, is at its weakest in more than a millennium, and climate breakdown is the probable cause, according to new data.
Further weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) could result in more storms battering the UK, more intense winters and an increase in damaging heatwaves and droughts across Europe.
Scientists predict that the AMOC will weaken further if global heating continues, and could reduce by about 34% to 45% by the end of this century, which could bring us close to a “tipping point” at which the system could become irrevocably unstable. A weakened Gulf Stream would also raise sea levels on the Atlantic coast of the US, with potentially disastrous consequences.
Stefan Rahmstorf, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who co-authored the study published on Thursday in Nature Geoscience , told the Guardian that a weakening AMOC would increase the number and severity of storms hitting Britain, and bring more heatwaves to Europe.
He said the circulation had already slowed by about 15%, and the impacts were being seen. “In 20 to 30 years it is likely to weaken further, and that will inevitably influence our weather, so we would see an increase in storms and heatwaves in Europe, and sea level rises on the east coast of the US,” he said.
Rahmstorf and scientists from Maynooth University in Ireland and University College London in the UK concluded that the current weakening had not been seen over at least the last 1,000 years, after studying sediments, Greenland ice cores and other proxy data that revealed past weather patterns over that time. The AMOC has only been measured directly since 2004.
The AMOC is one of the world’s biggest ocean circulation systems , carrying warm surface water from the Gulf of Mexico towards the north Atlantic, where it cools and becomes saltier until it sinks north of Iceland, which in turn pulls more warm water from the Caribbean. This circulation is accompanied by winds that also help to bring mild and wet weather to Ireland, the UK and other parts of western Europe.
Scientists have long predicted a weakening of the AMOC as a result of global heating, and have raised concerns that it could collapse altogether. The new study found that any such point was likely to be decades away, but that continued high greenhouse gas emissions would bring it closer.
Rahmstorf said: “We risk triggering [a tipping point] in this century, and the circulation would spin down within the next century. It is extremely unlikely that we have already triggered it, but if we do not stop global warming, it is increasingly likely that we will trigger it.
“The consequences of this are so massive that even a 10% chance of triggering a breakdown would be an unacceptable risk.”
Research in 2018 also showed a weakening of the AMOC , but the paper in Nature Geoscience says this was unprecedented over the last millennium, a clear indication that human actions are to blame. Scientists have previously said a weakening of the Gulf Stream could cause freezing winters in western Europe and unprecedented changes across the Atlantic.
The AMOC is a large part of the Gulf Stream, often described as the “conveyor belt” that brings warm water from the equator. But the bigger weather system would not break down entirely if the ocean circulation became unstable, because winds also play a key role. The circulation has broken down before, in different circumstances, for instance at the end of the last ice age.
The Gulf Stream is separate from the jet stream that has helped to bring extreme weather to the northern hemisphere in recent weeks, though like the jet stream it is also affected by the rising temperatures in the Arctic. Normally, the very cold temperatures over the Arctic create a polar vortex that keeps a steady jet stream of air currents keeping that cold air in place. But higher temperatures over the Arctic have resulted in a weak and wandering jet stream, which has helped cold weather to spread much further south in some cases, while bringing warmer weather further north in others, contributing to the extremes in weather seen in the UK, Europe and the US in recent weeks.
Similarly, the Gulf Stream is affected by the melting of Arctic ice , which dumps large quantities of cold water to the south of Greenland, disrupting the flow of the AMOC. The impacts of variations in the Gulf Stream are seen over much longer periods than variations in the jet stream, but will also bring more extreme weather as the climate warms.
As well as causing more extreme weather across Europe and the east coast of the US, the weakening of the AMOC could have severe consequences for Atlantic marine ecosystems, disrupting fish populations and other marine life.
Andrew Meijers, the deputy science leader of polar oceans at British Antarctic Survey, who was not involved in the study, said: “The AMOC has a profound influence on global climate, particularly in North America and Europe, so this evidence of an ongoing weakening of the circulation is critical new evidence for the interpretation of future projections of regional and global climate.
“The AMOC is frequently modelled as having a tipping point below some circulation strength, a point at which the relatively stable overturning circulation becomes unstable or even collapses. The ongoing weakening of the overturning means we risk finding that point, which would have profound and likely irreversible impacts on the climate.”
Karsten Haustein, of the Climate Services Center in Germany, also independent of the study, said the US could be at risk of stronger hurricanes as a result of the Gulf Stream’s weakening.
“While the AMOC won’t collapse any time soon, the authors warn that the current could become unstable by the end of this century if warming continues unabated,” he said. “It has already been increasing the risk for stronger hurricanes at the US east coast due to warmer ocean waters, as well as potentially altering circulation patterns over western Europe.”
Dr Levke Caesar, of Maynooth University in Ireland, and the lead author of the paper, said sea level rises on the east coast of the US were another potential consequence. “The northward surface flow of the AMOC leads to a deflection of water masses to the right, away from the US east coast. This is due to Earth’s rotation that diverts moving objects such as currents to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere,” she said. “As the current slows down, this effect weakens and more water can pile up at the US east coast, leading to an enhanced sea level rise.”
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when the conveyor belt ocean circulation stops winters in europe are much | Concern grows over Atlantic Ocean ‘conveyor belt’ shutdown | Effects of climate change are slowing a key ocean circulation system with immense consequences for Earth’s climate if it collapses.
Published On 12 Nov 2021
12 Nov 2021
For thousands of years, the circulating currents of the Atlantic Ocean have continuously regulated the temperatures of Europe and North America, producing a warming effect that allows them to enjoy relatively moderate weather conditions.
But the effects of anthropogenic climate change have diminished the flow of this vast conveyor belt system, known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), and recent scientific research suggests it may even be headed for collapse.
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The unprecedented slowdown of the vast system has been measured directly since 2004, but analysis of indirect data suggests a longer decline, beginning in the mid to late 19th century and accelerating after 1950.
One study, which looked at ice cores and ocean sediments, determined the AMOC was “in its weakest state in over a millennium”.
“Everything points to a weakening of the AMOC,” said Sybren Drijfhout, an oceanographer at the University of Southampton.
The timeline of a potential collapse of the AMOC remains unclear, but the consequences for the Earth’s climate would be immense.
Temperatures in Europe and the east of North America would drop by as much as 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit), leading to more extreme winter weather.
Coastal cities in North America would be flooded by rising sea levels. It would also disrupt the West African and Asian monsoons, which supply vital rainfall for crops that tens of millions of people depend upon.
Video Duration 03 minutes 13 seconds
03:13
An enormous system of ocean currents, the AMOC is driven by changing water density, which is determined by the water’s salt content and temperature.
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Under a process known as “thermohaline circulation”, warm water moves north through the Gulf of Mexico towards Europe – the stretch known as the Gulf Stream – with the surface temperature decreasing as evaporation occurs and salinity increases.
Becoming denser, the water then sinks in the north Atlantic and whisks south along the ocean floor before “upwelling” to the surface again far into the southern hemisphere.
The effects of global warming on the AMOC are twofold. Warmer water is less dense, and freshwater runoff from ice melting in the polar region reduces salinity, which reduces density even further. These factors slow the sinking mechanism that propels the circulation.
The last time the AMOC shut down was towards the end of the last ice age, about 14,500 years ago. Then glacial melt flooded the North Atlantic with fresh water, collapsing the system and causing temperatures in Europe to plunge.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report published in August found with high confidence that the AMOC will likely weaken over the coming decades, but a total collapse before 2100 is unlikely.
“Even though the AMOC is very unlikely to collapse over the 21st century, its weakening may be substantial, which may therefore induce strong and large-scale climatic impacts with potential far-reaching impacts on natural and human systems,” it said.
Whether the decline of the AMOC will continue in a linear fashion, or reach some tipping point, after which the decline could accelerate precipitously, remains a point of discussion among scientists.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” said Niklas Boers, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “Whether it’s just linear, slowing down, or whether there’s actually a loss of stability.”
A paper published by Boers in the Nature Climate Change journal in August analysed eight separate indicators, making use of sea surface temperature and water salinity data that stretches back to the 19th century.
It found the AMOC may have evolved from a period of relative stability towards a “critical” transition that would signal a profound change in the global climate system. Such a tipping point could see the AMOC halt entirely over a relatively short period of decades.
“We have a situation where there’s a threshold … If we reached that threshold, then we will have a very, very massive impact that is possibly practically irreversible,” said Boers.
Discrepancies between observed data and existing climate models remain, and there is still no consensus on how long a full shutdown could take. Some estimates suggest as long as several hundred years.
“All models agree that in warmer climates that the AMOC will become weaker and weaker,” said Drijfhout. “That doesn’t have to mean a collapse. It could go very, very gradually.”
In either case, Western Africa will have to adapt to declining rainfall and Europe to increasingly unpredictable winter weather, on top of other effects already produced by climate change.
Further advances in climate modelling could provide a more accurate picture of things to come, but the evidence is already clear that reducing human-caused global heating will be crucial to maintaining stability in the Atlantic system.
The most important factor in how the AMOC develops is the amount of greenhouse gases that will be released into the atmosphere in the coming years and decades, said Boer.
“There’s not so much room for compromises. So you have to really reduce emissions as much as possible – and as fast as possible.”
Video Duration 02 minutes 27 seconds
02:27
Source: Al Jazeera | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/12/concern-grows-over-atlantic-ocean-conveyor-belt-shutdown | 59 |
when the conveyor belt ocean circulation stops winters in europe are much | Ocean Conveyor Belt | The ocean is in constant motion. You can see this for yourself when you watch waves crash onto shore . If you go swimming, you may even feel an ocean current pulling you along. Surface currents, such as the Gulf Stream , move water across the globe like mighty rivers. Surface currents are powered by Earth’s various wind patterns.
The ocean also has deep underwater currents. These are more massive but move more slowly than surface currents. Underwater currents mix the ocean’s waters on a global scale. A process known as thermohaline circulation , or the ocean conveyor belt , drives these deep, underwater currents.
Thermohaline Circulation
Thermohaline circulation moves a massive current of water around the globe, from northern oceans to southern oceans, and back again. Currents slowly turn over water in the entire ocean, from top to bottom. It is somewhat like a giant conveyor belt, moving warm surface waters downward and forcing cold, nutrient -rich waters upward.
The term thermohaline combines the words thermo (heat) and haline (salt), both factors that influence the density of seawater. The ocean is constantly shifting and moving in reaction to changes in water density. To best understand ocean-water dynamics, or how water moves, there are a few simple principles to keep in mind:
- Water always flows down toward the lowest point.
- Water’s density is determined by the water’s temperature and salinity (amount of salt).
- Cold water is denser than warm water.
- Water with high salinity is denser than water with low salinity.
- Ocean water always moves toward an equilibrium , or balance. For example, if surface water cools and becomes denser, it will sink. The warmer water below will rise to balance out the missing surface water.
Ocean Layers
The ocean can be divided into several layers. The top layer of the ocean collects the warmth and energy of sunlight, while the bottom layers collect the rich, nutrient-filled sediment of decayed plant and animal matter.
The top ocean layer is about 100 meters (330 feet) deep. Enough sunlight reaches that depth for organisms, such as phytoplankton , to carry out photosynthesis . Phytoplankton makes up the first part of the marine food chain and is essential to all ocean life.
The middle, or barrier, layer is called the thermocline . The ocean’s temperature and density change very quickly at this layer. The barrier layer is about 200 to 1,000 meters (656 to 3,300 feet) deep.
Below the barrier layer is the bottom layer, referred to as the deep ocean. It averages about three kilometers (two miles) in depth.
The Conveyor Belt
Scientists have long understood how nutrients move from the ocean’s surface to its depths. As phytoplankton die, they sink and collect on the ocean floor. But if nutrients are continually sinking to the depths of the ocean, how are surface waters replenished with nutrients? Scientists discovered that in certain regions of the ocean, the nutrient-rich deep water was upwelling , or rising to the surface.
Scientists realized that the ocean was slowly turning over from top to bottom in a continuous global loop. Like a conveyor belt, thermohaline circulation moves nutrients from one part of the ocean to another.
Let’s start in the northern Atlantic Ocean and follow the conveyor belt as it moves water around the planet.
In the seas near Greenland and Norway, the water is cold. Some of it freezes, leaving salt behind. The cold, salty water becomes dense and sinks to the ocean floor. This water is known as the North Atlantic Deep Water, and it is one of the primary driving forces of the conveyor belt.
The force of the sinking, cold water pushes the existing North Atlantic Deep Water south, toward Antarctica, in a slow-moving underwater current. When it reaches Antarctica, the water flows east with the Antarctic Circum polar Current, a massive and powerful current that circles the continent .
Parts of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current flow northward and move into the Indian and Pacific Oceans. As the deep, cold water travels through the oceans, it mixes with warmer water. The water eventually becomes warm enough to rise, creating a slow upwelling that brings nutrients to the surface.
In the Pacific, the surface water flows through the Indonesian islands into the Indian Ocean, around southern Africa, and back into the Atlantic. The warm waters eventually travel back to the North Atlantic Deep Water, completing the global loop.
It takes about 500 years for the conveyor belt to turn over the ocean’s waters and make one complete trip around Earth.
The North Atlantic Deep Water
The deep water in the Greenland Sea flows along toward the lowest point on the floor of the North Atlantic. The water collects in a basin , the same way river water flows into a lake or pond. The basin is the North Atlantic Deep Water.
Other seas feed their cool ocean waters into the North Atlantic Deep Water. In the Labrador Sea, off the coast of northeastern Canada, the cold water sinks to depths of 3,000 meters (9,900 feet) at a rate of 10 centimeters (about four inches) per second.
Another source of the North Atlantic Deep Water is the Mediterranean Sea. As the warm surface water of the Mediterranean evaporates , the water grows saltier and denser. This water exits the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar, the narrow channel between Spain and Morocco that connects the sea to the Atlantic Ocean. The Mediterranean’s deep water pours into the Atlantic at a rate of two meters (about 6.5 feet) per second and helps raise the overall salinity of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current
When the conveyor belt reaches the southern part of the globe, it is driven back to the northern oceans by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
Western winds are very strong in the Antarctic. They help create the intensely powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The current moves a lot of water very quickly around the continent of Antarctica—about 140 million cubic meters (4.9 billion cubic feet) of water per second.
Overturning occurs in the waters around Antarctica. Overturning happens when the extremely frigid Antarctic surface water sinks. This forces the nutrient-rich deep water to rise. Overturning moves massive amounts of water. An estimated 35 million to 45 million cubic meters (between 1.2 billion and 1.6 billion cubic feet) of water per second are continually moved from the ocean bottom to the surface.
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current and overturning make the waters around Antarctica an ideal habitat for many marine mammals. Many types of whales, for instance, migrate to the waters around Antarctica every year to feed on phytoplankton and other tiny sea creatures churned up by overturning waters.
Climate Change
Ocean temperature plays a key role in the conveyor belt, so a change in Earth’s climate might have drastic effects on the system. If one part of the conveyor belt were to break down—if cold water is not lifted to the surface in upwelling, for instance—nutrients will not be distributed to start the food chain. Organisms, such as phytoplankton, need those nutrients to thrive. Severe climate change slows phytoplankton from forming the first link in the marine food chain. If the first link is threatened, all life in the oceans is threatened.
Fast Fact
Antarctic Circumpolar Current
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current moves 140 million cubic meters (4.9 billion cubic feet) of water per second around Antarctica. That single current moves more water than all the rivers on the planet combined. The world's rivers move 1.3 million cubic meters (46 million cubic feet) of water per second. | https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/ocean-conveyor-belt/ | 59 |
when the conveyor belt ocean circulation stops winters in europe are much | Effects of Climate Change - Currents: NOAA's National Ocean Service Education | The global conveyor belt is a strong, but easily disrupted process. Research suggests that the conveyor belt may be affected by climate change. If global warming results in increased rainfall in the North Atlantic, and the melting of glaciers and sea ice, the influx of warm freshwater onto the sea surface could block the formation of sea ice, disrupting the sinking of cold, salty water. This sequence of events could slow or even stop the conveyor belt, which could result in potentially drastic temperature changes in Europe. | https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_currents/05conveyor3.html | 59 |
where does the yadkin river begin and end | Yadkin River - Wikipedia | Not to be confused with South Yadkin River .
"Yadkin Valley" redirects here. For the North Carolina wine region, see Yadkin Valley AVA .
The Yadkin River is one of the longest rivers in the US state of North Carolina , flowing 215 miles (346 km). [2] It rises in the northwestern portion of the state near the Blue Ridge Parkway's Thunder Hill Overlook. Several parts of the river are impounded by dams for water, power, and flood control . The river becomes the Pee Dee River at the confluence of the Uwharrie River south of the community of Badin and east of the town of Albemarle . The river then flows into South Carolina near Cheraw , which is at the Fall Line . The entirety of the Yadkin River and the Great Pee Dee River is part of the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin .
The meaning of the word Yadkin, derived from Yattken , or Yattkin , a Siouan Indian word, is unknown. In Siouan terminology it may mean "big tree" or "place of big trees." [3]
Alternate names include: [1]
Yadkin County, North Carolina , and its county seat, the town of Yadkinville , are named after the river.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Yadkin basin was inhabited by Siouan-speaking tribes. The Saura and Tutelo tribes are mentioned in historic records of the area. Before the Revolutionary War , colonial settlers of primarily Scots-Irish , German , and English extraction migrated into the Yadkin basin from Virginia and Pennsylvania using the Great Wagon Road and the Carolina Road . Notably, these included Moravian colonists from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania who occupied the 100,000-acre Wachovia tract following its purchase in 1753 (See also Old Salem ).
On May 9, 1771, when marching to join Governor William Tryon 's army at the Battle of Alamance , a colonial force was intercepted along the Yadkin in Rowan County by a larger force of Regulators formed under Captain Benjamin Merrill . Realizing their forces were outnumbered, Tryon's men fell back to Salisbury , and were unable to join the governor until after the battle at Alamance was fought. [4]
In 1859 the NC Supreme court noted "it is certain that the Yadkin river is capable of private ownership and that some parts of the riverbed have been granted to private individuals." [5] The court determined that the owners of the dam across the Yadkin could not have his property taken without just compensation.
The river is extensively used for recreation. Fishing consists mostly of sunfish , catfish , largemouth bass and white bass in the spring and early summer. Canoeing and rafting are also possible. A portion of the river flows through Pilot Mountain State Park . Morrow Mountain State Park and the Uwharrie National Forest are along the banks of the river where the river's name changes to the Pee Dee River . [ citation needed ]
In 1985, the NC General Assembly established the Yadkin River State Trail as a paddle trail which follows the river for 130 miles (210 km). [6] The paddle trail is a part of the North Carolina State Trails System, which is a section of the NC Division of Parks and Recreation . [7] A system of launch points and camping locations were created along the river for the trail. [8]
Water supplies for many communities in North and South Carolina are taken from the Yadkin-Pee Dee and during drought years the division of the water is a contentious issue. [ citation needed ] The Mitchell River was impacted in the 1980s by massive runoff of sediment from land clearing at the Olde Beau development. Numerous citations from the NC EPA were issued against developer Earl Slick but the development proceeded. Today the golf course community near Roaring Gap is a good tax base for impoverished Allegheny County . [ citation needed ]
Cones Lake is a reservoir located immediately upstream of where the Yadkin River begins, marking it the one of the initial sources of the Yadkin River.
There are many reservoirs created by damming the Yadkin and Pee Dee rivers within the bounds of North Carolina, and are listed from upstream to downstream:
All but W. Kerr Scott generate hydroelectric power, and High Rock, Tuckertown, Badin, and Falls were managed by Alcoa under contract with the US Government, under oversight by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The contract with FERC expired in April 2008, [10] and was under review after the N.C. Division of Water Quality revoked their water-quality certificate that the company needs to continue operating its power-generating dams along the river. [11] The former governor of North Carolina, Bev Perdue , and other North Carolina politicians [12] made it a priority to recapture the Yadkin River water rights, but this has been denied. [13] On September 22, 2016, Alcoa received a license to operate until March 31, 2055, a period 12 years shorter than desired. The license requires a minimum water level and a swimming beach for High Rock Lake. The terms of the license will now apply to Cube Hydro Carolinas, which bought the hydroelectric power operations. [14] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yadkin_River | 60 |
where does the yadkin river begin and end | About the River — Yadkin Riverkeeper | Only 1% of the earth’s water is available fresh water. The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin is North Carolina’s second largest basin, including 5,862 stream miles and 22,988 lake acres, and spanning 21 counties and 93 municipalities. It is the principal source of water for the central Carolina region; however, it is threatened by industrial pollution and poor management. Yadkin Riverkeeper promotes, protects, and advocates for the river and the communities that depend on it.
The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin covers more than 7,200 square miles of the Carolinas.
The current population within the Yadkin Pee Dee River basin is about 1.6 million people in North Carolina, with an average population density of 222 persons per square mile .
The Yadkin River serves as the drinking water supply for over 841,000 people .
Approximately half of the watershed is forestland, most of which is privately owned. Nearly one-third of the watershed is used for agriculture, including cropland (15.6 percent) and pastureland (14.1 percent). Just 13 percent of the land is developed, although this figure is rising rapidly.
The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin bisects North Carolina, running north to south. From its headwaters near Blowing Rock, the Yadkin River flows east and then south across North Carolina’s densely populated midsection. It travels 203 miles — passing farmland; draining the urban landscapes of Winston-Salem, Statesville, Lexington and Salisbury; and fanning through seven man-made reservoirs before its name changes to the Pee Dee River below Lake Tillery.
The Pee Dee travels another 230 miles to the Atlantic, leaving North Carolina near McFarlan and ending its journey at Winyah Bay in South Carolina.
The Mitchell, Ararat, Uwharrie and Rocky Rivers and Dutchmans, Long and Abbotts creeks are major tributaries of the River. The uppermost reservoir is W. Kerr Scott Reservoir. The Yadkin chain of lakes is comprised of six reservoirs: High Rock, Tuckertown, Badin (Narrows), Falls, Tillery and Blewett Falls. They were built in the first half of the 20th century to power Alcoa’s (now Cube Hydro’s) aluminum smelters and Duke Energy’s electric utilities.
High Rock is the first and largest of the Yadkin chain lakes. Badin, the oldest, was built in 1917 just below the gorge called “the Narrows” to power an aluminum plant in Badin. Badin Lake has been described as a bassmaster’s paradise and the place to find largemouth.
Forests cover half of the basin, including the federal lands of the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Uwharrie National Forest, which lies completely within the basin.
Since it originates in the Blue Ridge and drains portions of the Piedmont, Sandhills and Coastal Plain, the Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin contains a wide variety of habitat types, as well as rare plants and animals. The basin’s rare species (including endangered, threatened, significantly rare or of special concern) include 38 aquatic animals. Two species are federally listed as endangered — the shortnose sturgeon, a migratory marine fish that once spawned in the river but has not been spotted in the basin since 1985; and the Carolina heelsplitter, a mussel now known from only nine populations in the world, including the lower basin’s Goose Creek. Five new species, all mollusks, have been added to the state’s endangered species list — the Carolina creekshell, brook floater, Atlantic pigtoe, yellow lampmussel and savannah lilliput.
THREATS
Yadkin Riverkeeper works to address threats to the river posed by long-term chemical contamination, coal ash storage, extreme weather events, climate change and sprawl, while redoubling our efforts to protect the Yadkin River’s vulnerable floodplains, tributaries and river access points.
We are working to increase our capacity to monitor and respond to other threats to the river and lake systems, particularly posed by plastic trash, algae blooms, large-scale animal production in the basin and increased recreational use as the population grows.
Sources: Yadkin Riverkeeper; N.C. Office of Environmental Education http://www.eenorthcarolina.org | https://www.yadkinriverkeeper.org/about-the-river | 60 |
where does the yadkin river begin and end | Yadkin Pee Dee River — | The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin covers more than 7,200 square miles of the Carolinas connecting the mountains of northwestern North Carolina to the Lowcountry of South Carolina. From its headwaters near Blowing Rock, the Yadkin River flows east and then south across North Carolina’s densely populated midsection. It travels 203 miles — passing farmland; draining the urban landscapes of Winston-Salem, Statesville, Lexington and Salisbury; and fanning through seven man-made reservoirs before its name changes to the Pee Dee or Great Pee Dee River below Lake Tillery. The Great Pee Dee is a free-flowing river for another 230 miles to the Atlantic, leaving North Carolina near McFarlan, meandering through the South Carolina towns of Cheraw and Gresham, and the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge and ending its journey at Winyah Bay in South Carolina. It is the principal source of water for the central Carolina region; however, it is threatened by industrial pollution, population growth and poor management.
Since it originates in the Blue Ridge and drains portions of the Piedmont, Sandhills and Coastal Plain, the Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin contains a wide variety of habitat types, as well as many rare plants and animals. The basin’s rare species (including endangered, threatened, significantly rare or of special concern) include 38 aquatic animals. Two species are federally listed as endangered — the shortnose sturgeon, a migratory marine fish that once spawned in the river but has not been spotted in the basin since 1985; and the Carolina heelsplitter, a mussel now known from only nine populations in the world, including the lower basin’s Goose Creek. Five new species, all mollusks, have been added to the state’s endangered species list — the Carolina creekshell, brook floater, Atlantic pigtoe, yellow lampmussel and savannah lilliput.
Forests cover half of the basin, including the federal lands of the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Uwharrie National Forest and the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge which lies completely within the basin. Most of the watershed’s forestland is privately owned though. Nearly one-third of the watershed is used for agriculture, including cropland (15.6 percent) and pastureland (14.1 percent). Just 13 percent of the land is developed, although this figure is rising rapidly.
The Yadkin Pee Dee River provides residents and visitors with a host of benefits, including scenic views, recreational and economic opportunities, clean drinking water and floodwater storage. However, the river and riverside lands that provide these values are at risk due to population growth and poorly planned development. Increasing water demand has led to more competition for the limited water resources available while outdated water reclamation facilities are causing unnecessary spikes in pollution. Riverside forests are also being cleared to make way for new development and forest products which increases polluted stormwater run-off that contaminates streams and pose challenges to drinking water treatment. High Rock Lake- south of Winston-Salem, NC- experiences dangerous and unnatural algal blooms due to the poor water management system in the upper portion of the river. Logging operations for wood pellet production have decimated wetlands critical to filtering pollutants out of stormwater and absorbing floodwaters. Additionally, numerous large and small dams clog the river disconnecting the natural flow through the system. These issues are exacerbated by the prolific growth of underregulated poultry farms that have questionable waste management strategies around water protection.
The Yadkin river has been significantly impacted by numerous dams built on it. The uppermost reservoir is W. Kerr Scott Reservoir. The southern portion of the Yadkin has been impounded by a chain of six reservoirs: High Rock, Tuckertown, Badin (Narrows), Falls, Tillery and Blewett Falls. The first four built in the first half of the 20th century to power Alcoa’s aluminum smelters and later two were built to provide power to the region. High Rock is the first and largest of the Yadkin chain lakes. Badin, the oldest, was built in 1917 just below the gorge called “the Narrows” to power an aluminum plant in Badin. Alcoa’s smelting operations have been closed in NC and Cube Hydro now operates those dams to sell power and Duke Energy is licensed to operate the other two for its electric utilities. The Pee Dee River is then free flowing through South Carolina to the ocean.
The region is also experiencing impacts from climate change. Frequent flooding has caused damage to infrastructure and loss of property. The frequency and intensity of storm events are expected to escalate as climate change causes greater hurricane activity and associated rainfall. Drought conditions have also affected natural and human communities in the basin. Combined, these changes are exacerbating existing water quality and quantity issues in critical habitats along the river, posing greater treatment challenges for the region’s utilities, and creating financial burdens for local governments, families and businesses.
The development pressures in the watershed require better water management. The upper portion of the Yadkin River is sandwiched between development occurring in Winston-Salem and the growth of Charlotte. In the lower portion coastal development is pushing into the floodplain endangering critical habitats, threatening water quality and placing infrastructure, homes and businesses in harms way. Investing in the protection and restoration of these rivers and riverside lands is a cost-effective and sustainable solution to these pressing climate and growth challenges and will ensure that they are preserved for generations to come.
Efforts that are designed to protect and restore rivers should center the voices of communities who are most impacted rivers and river-related decisions. Communities advocate for their rivers when they are connected to their rivers. Whether those connections include recreation, subsistence, advocacy, environmental education, sustainable economic development or other activities, communities should be supported in connecting to their local rivers in ways that address their needs, values and interests.
Collaboration between diverse partners including community leaders, local governments, conservation organizations and businesses is needed to build the financial support, knowledge, natural infrastructure, policies and community capacities needed to promote equitable watershed management strategies that safeguard clean water and build resilience for people and wildlife.
The growing communities of the watershed should look to use water management strategies that find the full value of water- such as an integrated water management or One Water approach. These strategies define the value of the natural landscapes and utilize water management strategies that mimic the natural processes- like green stormwater infrastructure and floodplain restoration.
The relicensing of the Cube Hydro and Duke Energy projects were completed between 2010 and 2018 and the projects will be improving their water quality and land protection investments in the coming years over the course of the license.
The poultry operations in the watershed continue to grow and more oversight is needed to ensure that ecological damage is avoided and sustainable agricultural operations are encouraged in the watershed.
Southeast | https://www.americanrivers.org/river/yadkin-pee-dee-river/ | 60 |
where does the yadkin river begin and end | About the River — Yadkin Riverkeeper | Only 1% of the earth’s water is available fresh water. The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin is North Carolina’s second largest basin, including 5,862 stream miles and 22,988 lake acres, and spanning 21 counties and 93 municipalities. It is the principal source of water for the central Carolina region; however, it is threatened by industrial pollution and poor management. Yadkin Riverkeeper promotes, protects, and advocates for the river and the communities that depend on it.
The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin covers more than 7,200 square miles of the Carolinas.
The current population within the Yadkin Pee Dee River basin is about 1.6 million people in North Carolina, with an average population density of 222 persons per square mile .
The Yadkin River serves as the drinking water supply for over 841,000 people .
Approximately half of the watershed is forestland, most of which is privately owned. Nearly one-third of the watershed is used for agriculture, including cropland (15.6 percent) and pastureland (14.1 percent). Just 13 percent of the land is developed, although this figure is rising rapidly.
The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin bisects North Carolina, running north to south. From its headwaters near Blowing Rock, the Yadkin River flows east and then south across North Carolina’s densely populated midsection. It travels 203 miles — passing farmland; draining the urban landscapes of Winston-Salem, Statesville, Lexington and Salisbury; and fanning through seven man-made reservoirs before its name changes to the Pee Dee River below Lake Tillery.
The Pee Dee travels another 230 miles to the Atlantic, leaving North Carolina near McFarlan and ending its journey at Winyah Bay in South Carolina.
The Mitchell, Ararat, Uwharrie and Rocky Rivers and Dutchmans, Long and Abbotts creeks are major tributaries of the River. The uppermost reservoir is W. Kerr Scott Reservoir. The Yadkin chain of lakes is comprised of six reservoirs: High Rock, Tuckertown, Badin (Narrows), Falls, Tillery and Blewett Falls. They were built in the first half of the 20th century to power Alcoa’s (now Cube Hydro’s) aluminum smelters and Duke Energy’s electric utilities.
High Rock is the first and largest of the Yadkin chain lakes. Badin, the oldest, was built in 1917 just below the gorge called “the Narrows” to power an aluminum plant in Badin. Badin Lake has been described as a bassmaster’s paradise and the place to find largemouth.
Forests cover half of the basin, including the federal lands of the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Uwharrie National Forest, which lies completely within the basin.
Since it originates in the Blue Ridge and drains portions of the Piedmont, Sandhills and Coastal Plain, the Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin contains a wide variety of habitat types, as well as rare plants and animals. The basin’s rare species (including endangered, threatened, significantly rare or of special concern) include 38 aquatic animals. Two species are federally listed as endangered — the shortnose sturgeon, a migratory marine fish that once spawned in the river but has not been spotted in the basin since 1985; and the Carolina heelsplitter, a mussel now known from only nine populations in the world, including the lower basin’s Goose Creek. Five new species, all mollusks, have been added to the state’s endangered species list — the Carolina creekshell, brook floater, Atlantic pigtoe, yellow lampmussel and savannah lilliput.
THREATS
Yadkin Riverkeeper works to address threats to the river posed by long-term chemical contamination, coal ash storage, extreme weather events, climate change and sprawl, while redoubling our efforts to protect the Yadkin River’s vulnerable floodplains, tributaries and river access points.
We are working to increase our capacity to monitor and respond to other threats to the river and lake systems, particularly posed by plastic trash, algae blooms, large-scale animal production in the basin and increased recreational use as the population grows.
Sources: Yadkin Riverkeeper; N.C. Office of Environmental Education http://www.eenorthcarolina.org | https://www.yadkinriverkeeper.org/about-the-river | 60 |
where does the yadkin river begin and end | About the River — Yadkin Riverkeeper | Only 1% of the earth’s water is available fresh water. The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin is North Carolina’s second largest basin, including 5,862 stream miles and 22,988 lake acres, and spanning 21 counties and 93 municipalities. It is the principal source of water for the central Carolina region; however, it is threatened by industrial pollution and poor management. Yadkin Riverkeeper promotes, protects, and advocates for the river and the communities that depend on it.
The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin covers more than 7,200 square miles of the Carolinas.
The current population within the Yadkin Pee Dee River basin is about 1.6 million people in North Carolina, with an average population density of 222 persons per square mile .
The Yadkin River serves as the drinking water supply for over 841,000 people .
Approximately half of the watershed is forestland, most of which is privately owned. Nearly one-third of the watershed is used for agriculture, including cropland (15.6 percent) and pastureland (14.1 percent). Just 13 percent of the land is developed, although this figure is rising rapidly.
The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin bisects North Carolina, running north to south. From its headwaters near Blowing Rock, the Yadkin River flows east and then south across North Carolina’s densely populated midsection. It travels 203 miles — passing farmland; draining the urban landscapes of Winston-Salem, Statesville, Lexington and Salisbury; and fanning through seven man-made reservoirs before its name changes to the Pee Dee River below Lake Tillery.
The Pee Dee travels another 230 miles to the Atlantic, leaving North Carolina near McFarlan and ending its journey at Winyah Bay in South Carolina.
The Mitchell, Ararat, Uwharrie and Rocky Rivers and Dutchmans, Long and Abbotts creeks are major tributaries of the River. The uppermost reservoir is W. Kerr Scott Reservoir. The Yadkin chain of lakes is comprised of six reservoirs: High Rock, Tuckertown, Badin (Narrows), Falls, Tillery and Blewett Falls. They were built in the first half of the 20th century to power Alcoa’s (now Cube Hydro’s) aluminum smelters and Duke Energy’s electric utilities.
High Rock is the first and largest of the Yadkin chain lakes. Badin, the oldest, was built in 1917 just below the gorge called “the Narrows” to power an aluminum plant in Badin. Badin Lake has been described as a bassmaster’s paradise and the place to find largemouth.
Forests cover half of the basin, including the federal lands of the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Uwharrie National Forest, which lies completely within the basin.
Since it originates in the Blue Ridge and drains portions of the Piedmont, Sandhills and Coastal Plain, the Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin contains a wide variety of habitat types, as well as rare plants and animals. The basin’s rare species (including endangered, threatened, significantly rare or of special concern) include 38 aquatic animals. Two species are federally listed as endangered — the shortnose sturgeon, a migratory marine fish that once spawned in the river but has not been spotted in the basin since 1985; and the Carolina heelsplitter, a mussel now known from only nine populations in the world, including the lower basin’s Goose Creek. Five new species, all mollusks, have been added to the state’s endangered species list — the Carolina creekshell, brook floater, Atlantic pigtoe, yellow lampmussel and savannah lilliput.
THREATS
Yadkin Riverkeeper works to address threats to the river posed by long-term chemical contamination, coal ash storage, extreme weather events, climate change and sprawl, while redoubling our efforts to protect the Yadkin River’s vulnerable floodplains, tributaries and river access points.
We are working to increase our capacity to monitor and respond to other threats to the river and lake systems, particularly posed by plastic trash, algae blooms, large-scale animal production in the basin and increased recreational use as the population grows.
Sources: Yadkin Riverkeeper; N.C. Office of Environmental Education http://www.eenorthcarolina.org | https://www.yadkinriverkeeper.org/about-the-river | 60 |
where does the yadkin river begin and end | Yadkin River - Wikipedia | Not to be confused with South Yadkin River .
"Yadkin Valley" redirects here. For the North Carolina wine region, see Yadkin Valley AVA .
The Yadkin River is one of the longest rivers in the US state of North Carolina , flowing 215 miles (346 km). [2] It rises in the northwestern portion of the state near the Blue Ridge Parkway's Thunder Hill Overlook. Several parts of the river are impounded by dams for water, power, and flood control . The river becomes the Pee Dee River at the confluence of the Uwharrie River south of the community of Badin and east of the town of Albemarle . The river then flows into South Carolina near Cheraw , which is at the Fall Line . The entirety of the Yadkin River and the Great Pee Dee River is part of the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin .
The meaning of the word Yadkin, derived from Yattken , or Yattkin , a Siouan Indian word, is unknown. In Siouan terminology it may mean "big tree" or "place of big trees." [3]
Alternate names include: [1]
Yadkin County, North Carolina , and its county seat, the town of Yadkinville , are named after the river.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Yadkin basin was inhabited by Siouan-speaking tribes. The Saura and Tutelo tribes are mentioned in historic records of the area. Before the Revolutionary War , colonial settlers of primarily Scots-Irish , German , and English extraction migrated into the Yadkin basin from Virginia and Pennsylvania using the Great Wagon Road and the Carolina Road . Notably, these included Moravian colonists from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania who occupied the 100,000-acre Wachovia tract following its purchase in 1753 (See also Old Salem ).
On May 9, 1771, when marching to join Governor William Tryon 's army at the Battle of Alamance , a colonial force was intercepted along the Yadkin in Rowan County by a larger force of Regulators formed under Captain Benjamin Merrill . Realizing their forces were outnumbered, Tryon's men fell back to Salisbury , and were unable to join the governor until after the battle at Alamance was fought. [4]
In 1859 the NC Supreme court noted "it is certain that the Yadkin river is capable of private ownership and that some parts of the riverbed have been granted to private individuals." [5] The court determined that the owners of the dam across the Yadkin could not have his property taken without just compensation.
The river is extensively used for recreation. Fishing consists mostly of sunfish , catfish , largemouth bass and white bass in the spring and early summer. Canoeing and rafting are also possible. A portion of the river flows through Pilot Mountain State Park . Morrow Mountain State Park and the Uwharrie National Forest are along the banks of the river where the river's name changes to the Pee Dee River . [ citation needed ]
In 1985, the NC General Assembly established the Yadkin River State Trail as a paddle trail which follows the river for 130 miles (210 km). [6] The paddle trail is a part of the North Carolina State Trails System, which is a section of the NC Division of Parks and Recreation . [7] A system of launch points and camping locations were created along the river for the trail. [8]
Water supplies for many communities in North and South Carolina are taken from the Yadkin-Pee Dee and during drought years the division of the water is a contentious issue. [ citation needed ] The Mitchell River was impacted in the 1980s by massive runoff of sediment from land clearing at the Olde Beau development. Numerous citations from the NC EPA were issued against developer Earl Slick but the development proceeded. Today the golf course community near Roaring Gap is a good tax base for impoverished Allegheny County . [ citation needed ]
Cones Lake is a reservoir located immediately upstream of where the Yadkin River begins, marking it the one of the initial sources of the Yadkin River.
There are many reservoirs created by damming the Yadkin and Pee Dee rivers within the bounds of North Carolina, and are listed from upstream to downstream:
All but W. Kerr Scott generate hydroelectric power, and High Rock, Tuckertown, Badin, and Falls were managed by Alcoa under contract with the US Government, under oversight by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The contract with FERC expired in April 2008, [10] and was under review after the N.C. Division of Water Quality revoked their water-quality certificate that the company needs to continue operating its power-generating dams along the river. [11] The former governor of North Carolina, Bev Perdue , and other North Carolina politicians [12] made it a priority to recapture the Yadkin River water rights, but this has been denied. [13] On September 22, 2016, Alcoa received a license to operate until March 31, 2055, a period 12 years shorter than desired. The license requires a minimum water level and a swimming beach for High Rock Lake. The terms of the license will now apply to Cube Hydro Carolinas, which bought the hydroelectric power operations. [14] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yadkin_River | 60 |
where does the yadkin river begin and end | Yadkin River - Wikipedia | Not to be confused with South Yadkin River .
"Yadkin Valley" redirects here. For the North Carolina wine region, see Yadkin Valley AVA .
The Yadkin River is one of the longest rivers in the US state of North Carolina , flowing 215 miles (346 km). [2] It rises in the northwestern portion of the state near the Blue Ridge Parkway's Thunder Hill Overlook. Several parts of the river are impounded by dams for water, power, and flood control . The river becomes the Pee Dee River at the confluence of the Uwharrie River south of the community of Badin and east of the town of Albemarle . The river then flows into South Carolina near Cheraw , which is at the Fall Line . The entirety of the Yadkin River and the Great Pee Dee River is part of the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin .
The meaning of the word Yadkin, derived from Yattken , or Yattkin , a Siouan Indian word, is unknown. In Siouan terminology it may mean "big tree" or "place of big trees." [3]
Alternate names include: [1]
Yadkin County, North Carolina , and its county seat, the town of Yadkinville , are named after the river.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Yadkin basin was inhabited by Siouan-speaking tribes. The Saura and Tutelo tribes are mentioned in historic records of the area. Before the Revolutionary War , colonial settlers of primarily Scots-Irish , German , and English extraction migrated into the Yadkin basin from Virginia and Pennsylvania using the Great Wagon Road and the Carolina Road . Notably, these included Moravian colonists from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania who occupied the 100,000-acre Wachovia tract following its purchase in 1753 (See also Old Salem ).
On May 9, 1771, when marching to join Governor William Tryon 's army at the Battle of Alamance , a colonial force was intercepted along the Yadkin in Rowan County by a larger force of Regulators formed under Captain Benjamin Merrill . Realizing their forces were outnumbered, Tryon's men fell back to Salisbury , and were unable to join the governor until after the battle at Alamance was fought. [4]
In 1859 the NC Supreme court noted "it is certain that the Yadkin river is capable of private ownership and that some parts of the riverbed have been granted to private individuals." [5] The court determined that the owners of the dam across the Yadkin could not have his property taken without just compensation.
The river is extensively used for recreation. Fishing consists mostly of sunfish , catfish , largemouth bass and white bass in the spring and early summer. Canoeing and rafting are also possible. A portion of the river flows through Pilot Mountain State Park . Morrow Mountain State Park and the Uwharrie National Forest are along the banks of the river where the river's name changes to the Pee Dee River . [ citation needed ]
In 1985, the NC General Assembly established the Yadkin River State Trail as a paddle trail which follows the river for 130 miles (210 km). [6] The paddle trail is a part of the North Carolina State Trails System, which is a section of the NC Division of Parks and Recreation . [7] A system of launch points and camping locations were created along the river for the trail. [8]
Water supplies for many communities in North and South Carolina are taken from the Yadkin-Pee Dee and during drought years the division of the water is a contentious issue. [ citation needed ] The Mitchell River was impacted in the 1980s by massive runoff of sediment from land clearing at the Olde Beau development. Numerous citations from the NC EPA were issued against developer Earl Slick but the development proceeded. Today the golf course community near Roaring Gap is a good tax base for impoverished Allegheny County . [ citation needed ]
Cones Lake is a reservoir located immediately upstream of where the Yadkin River begins, marking it the one of the initial sources of the Yadkin River.
There are many reservoirs created by damming the Yadkin and Pee Dee rivers within the bounds of North Carolina, and are listed from upstream to downstream:
All but W. Kerr Scott generate hydroelectric power, and High Rock, Tuckertown, Badin, and Falls were managed by Alcoa under contract with the US Government, under oversight by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The contract with FERC expired in April 2008, [10] and was under review after the N.C. Division of Water Quality revoked their water-quality certificate that the company needs to continue operating its power-generating dams along the river. [11] The former governor of North Carolina, Bev Perdue , and other North Carolina politicians [12] made it a priority to recapture the Yadkin River water rights, but this has been denied. [13] On September 22, 2016, Alcoa received a license to operate until March 31, 2055, a period 12 years shorter than desired. The license requires a minimum water level and a swimming beach for High Rock Lake. The terms of the license will now apply to Cube Hydro Carolinas, which bought the hydroelectric power operations. [14] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yadkin_River | 60 |
where does the yadkin river begin and end | About the River — Yadkin Riverkeeper | Only 1% of the earth’s water is available fresh water. The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin is North Carolina’s second largest basin, including 5,862 stream miles and 22,988 lake acres, and spanning 21 counties and 93 municipalities. It is the principal source of water for the central Carolina region; however, it is threatened by industrial pollution and poor management. Yadkin Riverkeeper promotes, protects, and advocates for the river and the communities that depend on it.
The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin covers more than 7,200 square miles of the Carolinas.
The current population within the Yadkin Pee Dee River basin is about 1.6 million people in North Carolina, with an average population density of 222 persons per square mile .
The Yadkin River serves as the drinking water supply for over 841,000 people .
Approximately half of the watershed is forestland, most of which is privately owned. Nearly one-third of the watershed is used for agriculture, including cropland (15.6 percent) and pastureland (14.1 percent). Just 13 percent of the land is developed, although this figure is rising rapidly.
The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin bisects North Carolina, running north to south. From its headwaters near Blowing Rock, the Yadkin River flows east and then south across North Carolina’s densely populated midsection. It travels 203 miles — passing farmland; draining the urban landscapes of Winston-Salem, Statesville, Lexington and Salisbury; and fanning through seven man-made reservoirs before its name changes to the Pee Dee River below Lake Tillery.
The Pee Dee travels another 230 miles to the Atlantic, leaving North Carolina near McFarlan and ending its journey at Winyah Bay in South Carolina.
The Mitchell, Ararat, Uwharrie and Rocky Rivers and Dutchmans, Long and Abbotts creeks are major tributaries of the River. The uppermost reservoir is W. Kerr Scott Reservoir. The Yadkin chain of lakes is comprised of six reservoirs: High Rock, Tuckertown, Badin (Narrows), Falls, Tillery and Blewett Falls. They were built in the first half of the 20th century to power Alcoa’s (now Cube Hydro’s) aluminum smelters and Duke Energy’s electric utilities.
High Rock is the first and largest of the Yadkin chain lakes. Badin, the oldest, was built in 1917 just below the gorge called “the Narrows” to power an aluminum plant in Badin. Badin Lake has been described as a bassmaster’s paradise and the place to find largemouth.
Forests cover half of the basin, including the federal lands of the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Uwharrie National Forest, which lies completely within the basin.
Since it originates in the Blue Ridge and drains portions of the Piedmont, Sandhills and Coastal Plain, the Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin contains a wide variety of habitat types, as well as rare plants and animals. The basin’s rare species (including endangered, threatened, significantly rare or of special concern) include 38 aquatic animals. Two species are federally listed as endangered — the shortnose sturgeon, a migratory marine fish that once spawned in the river but has not been spotted in the basin since 1985; and the Carolina heelsplitter, a mussel now known from only nine populations in the world, including the lower basin’s Goose Creek. Five new species, all mollusks, have been added to the state’s endangered species list — the Carolina creekshell, brook floater, Atlantic pigtoe, yellow lampmussel and savannah lilliput.
THREATS
Yadkin Riverkeeper works to address threats to the river posed by long-term chemical contamination, coal ash storage, extreme weather events, climate change and sprawl, while redoubling our efforts to protect the Yadkin River’s vulnerable floodplains, tributaries and river access points.
We are working to increase our capacity to monitor and respond to other threats to the river and lake systems, particularly posed by plastic trash, algae blooms, large-scale animal production in the basin and increased recreational use as the population grows.
Sources: Yadkin Riverkeeper; N.C. Office of Environmental Education http://www.eenorthcarolina.org | https://www.yadkinriverkeeper.org/about-the-river | 60 |
where does the yadkin river begin and end | Yadkin Pee Dee River — | The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin covers more than 7,200 square miles of the Carolinas connecting the mountains of northwestern North Carolina to the Lowcountry of South Carolina. From its headwaters near Blowing Rock, the Yadkin River flows east and then south across North Carolina’s densely populated midsection. It travels 203 miles — passing farmland; draining the urban landscapes of Winston-Salem, Statesville, Lexington and Salisbury; and fanning through seven man-made reservoirs before its name changes to the Pee Dee or Great Pee Dee River below Lake Tillery. The Great Pee Dee is a free-flowing river for another 230 miles to the Atlantic, leaving North Carolina near McFarlan, meandering through the South Carolina towns of Cheraw and Gresham, and the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge and ending its journey at Winyah Bay in South Carolina. It is the principal source of water for the central Carolina region; however, it is threatened by industrial pollution, population growth and poor management.
Since it originates in the Blue Ridge and drains portions of the Piedmont, Sandhills and Coastal Plain, the Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin contains a wide variety of habitat types, as well as many rare plants and animals. The basin’s rare species (including endangered, threatened, significantly rare or of special concern) include 38 aquatic animals. Two species are federally listed as endangered — the shortnose sturgeon, a migratory marine fish that once spawned in the river but has not been spotted in the basin since 1985; and the Carolina heelsplitter, a mussel now known from only nine populations in the world, including the lower basin’s Goose Creek. Five new species, all mollusks, have been added to the state’s endangered species list — the Carolina creekshell, brook floater, Atlantic pigtoe, yellow lampmussel and savannah lilliput.
Forests cover half of the basin, including the federal lands of the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Uwharrie National Forest and the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge which lies completely within the basin. Most of the watershed’s forestland is privately owned though. Nearly one-third of the watershed is used for agriculture, including cropland (15.6 percent) and pastureland (14.1 percent). Just 13 percent of the land is developed, although this figure is rising rapidly.
The Yadkin Pee Dee River provides residents and visitors with a host of benefits, including scenic views, recreational and economic opportunities, clean drinking water and floodwater storage. However, the river and riverside lands that provide these values are at risk due to population growth and poorly planned development. Increasing water demand has led to more competition for the limited water resources available while outdated water reclamation facilities are causing unnecessary spikes in pollution. Riverside forests are also being cleared to make way for new development and forest products which increases polluted stormwater run-off that contaminates streams and pose challenges to drinking water treatment. High Rock Lake- south of Winston-Salem, NC- experiences dangerous and unnatural algal blooms due to the poor water management system in the upper portion of the river. Logging operations for wood pellet production have decimated wetlands critical to filtering pollutants out of stormwater and absorbing floodwaters. Additionally, numerous large and small dams clog the river disconnecting the natural flow through the system. These issues are exacerbated by the prolific growth of underregulated poultry farms that have questionable waste management strategies around water protection.
The Yadkin river has been significantly impacted by numerous dams built on it. The uppermost reservoir is W. Kerr Scott Reservoir. The southern portion of the Yadkin has been impounded by a chain of six reservoirs: High Rock, Tuckertown, Badin (Narrows), Falls, Tillery and Blewett Falls. The first four built in the first half of the 20th century to power Alcoa’s aluminum smelters and later two were built to provide power to the region. High Rock is the first and largest of the Yadkin chain lakes. Badin, the oldest, was built in 1917 just below the gorge called “the Narrows” to power an aluminum plant in Badin. Alcoa’s smelting operations have been closed in NC and Cube Hydro now operates those dams to sell power and Duke Energy is licensed to operate the other two for its electric utilities. The Pee Dee River is then free flowing through South Carolina to the ocean.
The region is also experiencing impacts from climate change. Frequent flooding has caused damage to infrastructure and loss of property. The frequency and intensity of storm events are expected to escalate as climate change causes greater hurricane activity and associated rainfall. Drought conditions have also affected natural and human communities in the basin. Combined, these changes are exacerbating existing water quality and quantity issues in critical habitats along the river, posing greater treatment challenges for the region’s utilities, and creating financial burdens for local governments, families and businesses.
The development pressures in the watershed require better water management. The upper portion of the Yadkin River is sandwiched between development occurring in Winston-Salem and the growth of Charlotte. In the lower portion coastal development is pushing into the floodplain endangering critical habitats, threatening water quality and placing infrastructure, homes and businesses in harms way. Investing in the protection and restoration of these rivers and riverside lands is a cost-effective and sustainable solution to these pressing climate and growth challenges and will ensure that they are preserved for generations to come.
Efforts that are designed to protect and restore rivers should center the voices of communities who are most impacted rivers and river-related decisions. Communities advocate for their rivers when they are connected to their rivers. Whether those connections include recreation, subsistence, advocacy, environmental education, sustainable economic development or other activities, communities should be supported in connecting to their local rivers in ways that address their needs, values and interests.
Collaboration between diverse partners including community leaders, local governments, conservation organizations and businesses is needed to build the financial support, knowledge, natural infrastructure, policies and community capacities needed to promote equitable watershed management strategies that safeguard clean water and build resilience for people and wildlife.
The growing communities of the watershed should look to use water management strategies that find the full value of water- such as an integrated water management or One Water approach. These strategies define the value of the natural landscapes and utilize water management strategies that mimic the natural processes- like green stormwater infrastructure and floodplain restoration.
The relicensing of the Cube Hydro and Duke Energy projects were completed between 2010 and 2018 and the projects will be improving their water quality and land protection investments in the coming years over the course of the license.
The poultry operations in the watershed continue to grow and more oversight is needed to ensure that ecological damage is avoided and sustainable agricultural operations are encouraged in the watershed.
Southeast | https://www.americanrivers.org/river/yadkin-pee-dee-river/ | 60 |
where does the yadkin river begin and end | Yadkin-Pee Dee River | NCpedia | by Elizabeth Bayley, 2006
Yadkin–Pee Dee River rises as the Yadkin River in Watauga County near the town of Blowing Rock and flows southeast through Caldwell County ; it turns northeast and flows through Wilkes County and along the Surry - Yadkin , Davidson - Rowan , Davie - Forsyth , Yadkin-Forsyth, Davie- Davidson County lines, and part of the Montgomery - Stanly County line. It joins the Uwharrie River in Montgomery County to form the Pee Dee River. The Pee Dee River then travels along the Stanly- Montgomery and Anson - Richmond County lines into South Carolina, where it drains into Winyah Bay
The Yadkin River has been the site of human civilization for at least 12,000 years, earning it the nickname of the ‘‘Tigris and Euphrates of the Carolinas.’’ It was formerly called the Sapona River, after the peoples who originally inhabited its banks, until the name was changed between 1709 and 1733. The origin of the word ‘‘Yadkin’’ is unknown; different spellings appeared throughout the eighteenth century, including ‘‘Yatkin,’’ ‘‘Atkin,’’ and ‘‘Reaktin.’’ The name ‘‘Pee Dee’’ probably came from either the Catawba Indian word pi’ri (something good) or pfhere (smart, expert, or capable).
The size of the Yadkin–Pee Dee’s North Carolina watershed is 7,213 square miles, and the river is 435 miles long. There are 81 North Carolina municipalities within its river basin , including Wilkesboro, Salisbury, and Lexington. In the early 2000s the area had a population of more than 1.2 million. The river has experienced various environmental problems, most notably a huge amount of sediment generated by the farmland erosion along its banks. Various soil-conservation plans have begun to solve some of the river’s sediment problems, as scientists continue to study both that issue and others affecting the Yadkin’s water quality and overall health.
Reference:
T. Edward Nickens, "Father Yadkin," Wildlife in North Carolina 63 (November 1999).
Image credit:
Hairr, John. 2011. "The Yadkin River near Rockford in Surry County."
Subjects: | https://www.ncpedia.org/rivers/yadkin-pee-dee | 60 |
where does the yadkin river begin and end | Yadkin Pee Dee River — | The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin covers more than 7,200 square miles of the Carolinas connecting the mountains of northwestern North Carolina to the Lowcountry of South Carolina. From its headwaters near Blowing Rock, the Yadkin River flows east and then south across North Carolina’s densely populated midsection. It travels 203 miles — passing farmland; draining the urban landscapes of Winston-Salem, Statesville, Lexington and Salisbury; and fanning through seven man-made reservoirs before its name changes to the Pee Dee or Great Pee Dee River below Lake Tillery. The Great Pee Dee is a free-flowing river for another 230 miles to the Atlantic, leaving North Carolina near McFarlan, meandering through the South Carolina towns of Cheraw and Gresham, and the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge and ending its journey at Winyah Bay in South Carolina. It is the principal source of water for the central Carolina region; however, it is threatened by industrial pollution, population growth and poor management.
Since it originates in the Blue Ridge and drains portions of the Piedmont, Sandhills and Coastal Plain, the Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin contains a wide variety of habitat types, as well as many rare plants and animals. The basin’s rare species (including endangered, threatened, significantly rare or of special concern) include 38 aquatic animals. Two species are federally listed as endangered — the shortnose sturgeon, a migratory marine fish that once spawned in the river but has not been spotted in the basin since 1985; and the Carolina heelsplitter, a mussel now known from only nine populations in the world, including the lower basin’s Goose Creek. Five new species, all mollusks, have been added to the state’s endangered species list — the Carolina creekshell, brook floater, Atlantic pigtoe, yellow lampmussel and savannah lilliput.
Forests cover half of the basin, including the federal lands of the Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Uwharrie National Forest and the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge which lies completely within the basin. Most of the watershed’s forestland is privately owned though. Nearly one-third of the watershed is used for agriculture, including cropland (15.6 percent) and pastureland (14.1 percent). Just 13 percent of the land is developed, although this figure is rising rapidly.
The Yadkin Pee Dee River provides residents and visitors with a host of benefits, including scenic views, recreational and economic opportunities, clean drinking water and floodwater storage. However, the river and riverside lands that provide these values are at risk due to population growth and poorly planned development. Increasing water demand has led to more competition for the limited water resources available while outdated water reclamation facilities are causing unnecessary spikes in pollution. Riverside forests are also being cleared to make way for new development and forest products which increases polluted stormwater run-off that contaminates streams and pose challenges to drinking water treatment. High Rock Lake- south of Winston-Salem, NC- experiences dangerous and unnatural algal blooms due to the poor water management system in the upper portion of the river. Logging operations for wood pellet production have decimated wetlands critical to filtering pollutants out of stormwater and absorbing floodwaters. Additionally, numerous large and small dams clog the river disconnecting the natural flow through the system. These issues are exacerbated by the prolific growth of underregulated poultry farms that have questionable waste management strategies around water protection.
The Yadkin river has been significantly impacted by numerous dams built on it. The uppermost reservoir is W. Kerr Scott Reservoir. The southern portion of the Yadkin has been impounded by a chain of six reservoirs: High Rock, Tuckertown, Badin (Narrows), Falls, Tillery and Blewett Falls. The first four built in the first half of the 20th century to power Alcoa’s aluminum smelters and later two were built to provide power to the region. High Rock is the first and largest of the Yadkin chain lakes. Badin, the oldest, was built in 1917 just below the gorge called “the Narrows” to power an aluminum plant in Badin. Alcoa’s smelting operations have been closed in NC and Cube Hydro now operates those dams to sell power and Duke Energy is licensed to operate the other two for its electric utilities. The Pee Dee River is then free flowing through South Carolina to the ocean.
The region is also experiencing impacts from climate change. Frequent flooding has caused damage to infrastructure and loss of property. The frequency and intensity of storm events are expected to escalate as climate change causes greater hurricane activity and associated rainfall. Drought conditions have also affected natural and human communities in the basin. Combined, these changes are exacerbating existing water quality and quantity issues in critical habitats along the river, posing greater treatment challenges for the region’s utilities, and creating financial burdens for local governments, families and businesses.
The development pressures in the watershed require better water management. The upper portion of the Yadkin River is sandwiched between development occurring in Winston-Salem and the growth of Charlotte. In the lower portion coastal development is pushing into the floodplain endangering critical habitats, threatening water quality and placing infrastructure, homes and businesses in harms way. Investing in the protection and restoration of these rivers and riverside lands is a cost-effective and sustainable solution to these pressing climate and growth challenges and will ensure that they are preserved for generations to come.
Efforts that are designed to protect and restore rivers should center the voices of communities who are most impacted rivers and river-related decisions. Communities advocate for their rivers when they are connected to their rivers. Whether those connections include recreation, subsistence, advocacy, environmental education, sustainable economic development or other activities, communities should be supported in connecting to their local rivers in ways that address their needs, values and interests.
Collaboration between diverse partners including community leaders, local governments, conservation organizations and businesses is needed to build the financial support, knowledge, natural infrastructure, policies and community capacities needed to promote equitable watershed management strategies that safeguard clean water and build resilience for people and wildlife.
The growing communities of the watershed should look to use water management strategies that find the full value of water- such as an integrated water management or One Water approach. These strategies define the value of the natural landscapes and utilize water management strategies that mimic the natural processes- like green stormwater infrastructure and floodplain restoration.
The relicensing of the Cube Hydro and Duke Energy projects were completed between 2010 and 2018 and the projects will be improving their water quality and land protection investments in the coming years over the course of the license.
The poultry operations in the watershed continue to grow and more oversight is needed to ensure that ecological damage is avoided and sustainable agricultural operations are encouraged in the watershed.
Southeast | https://www.americanrivers.org/river/yadkin-pee-dee-river/ | 60 |
who plays lana winters in american horror story | American Horror Story (TV Series 2011– ) - IMDb | Sarah Paulson: Lana Winters, Bette Tattler, Dot Tattler, Cordelia Foxx, Sally McKenna, Ally Mayfair-Richards, Cordelia Goode, Ms. Wilhemina Venable, Tuberculosis Karen, Audrey Tindall, Billie Dean Howard, Shelby Miller, Mamie Eisenhower, Susan Atkins
Jump to: | https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1844624/characters/nm0005299 | 61 |
who plays lana winters in american horror story | AHS: Here's Every Character Sarah Paulson Has Played | By
Sarah Paulson is Ryan Murphy's most trusted actress in American Horror Story. Here are all the characters she has played in the horror anthology.
Here's every character Sarah Paulson has played throughout American Horror Story 's eight stories. The actress has appeared in every season of the horror anthology created by Ryan Murphy. American Horror Story season 9 , titled 1984 , premieres this September and a tenth season is currently in development, although Paulson will have a smaller part to play.
Paulson has been a mainstay for the AHS franchise since the series first aired in 2011. The actress served as a lead character for a majority of the installments and at times, has portrayed more than one character in the same season. It's no question why Murphy continued to ask Paulson to return considering her American Horror Story performances have garnered a slew of award nominations and wins. Paulson first worked with Murphy on his series, Nip/Tuck , but since AHS , she appeared in a number of his other series including American Crime Story and Feud, and the pair have a few more collaborations in the works.
Related:
Paulson remains as one of the faces of American Horror Story but she might not have a major presence in AHS: 1984 . It was first rumored that Paulson would be absent from season 9, along with Evan Peters . It has since been clarified that Paulson will appear in the upcoming season in a smaller role. As the new season draws near, let's take a look at all of the characters that Paulson has played thus far.
When Paulson made her AHS debut, she played the minor role as the medium, Billie Dean Howard. Constance Langdon introduced Billie Dean to Violet Harmon to provide insight into Tate's current state. Billie Dean also explained the afterlife to Violet after realizing that the young girl was a ghost herself. Before she left the house, Billie Dean warned that when a spirit has a child with a human, it would produce the Antichrist, hinting at the drama to come in American Horror Story season 8.
Paulson was promoted to a lead character in American Horror Story season 2. The actress portrayed the ambitious journalist, Lana Winters. In the 1960s, Lana traveled to Briarcliff Manor to interview Kit Walker, the man she thought was the infamous serial killer, "Bloody Face." While at the asylum, she had a few foul run-ins with Sister Jude and was later committed to Briarcliff under false pretenses. She faced torture and aversion therapy before she was taken hostage by the real Bloody Face, Dr. Thredson. He raped her before she found her way back to the asylum. With the help of Kit, Lana outed Dr. Thredson and was freed. Lana eventually wrote a book about her experiences and assisted with Briarcliff shutting its doors for good. At the age of 84, her son found her and wanted revenge for abandoning him. Lana then killed him with his own gun.
Paulson remained as one of the main characters in the third season of AHS , this time in a role she would later reprise down the line. She played Cordelia Foxx, the disappointing daughter of Fiona Goode, the current Supreme. Fiona was the headmistress of Miss Robichaux's Academy but Cordelia served as a mentor to many of the young witches. After Cordelia was blinded, she was gifted with Second Sight, giving her more clarity in life. As her mother weakened, Cordelia continued to get stronger with her powers. This gave her the confidence to move the coven in the right direction. Cordelia eventually took over as the Supreme after passing the Seven Wonders test.
Paulson did double-duty in American Horror Story season 4, portraying conjoined twins who worked for Elsa's freak show. Bette and Dot Tattler were known as The Siamese Sisters, twins who shared a torso, arms, and legs but they had two distinct heads. They were found after Bette murdered their mother for sheltering them their entire lives. Despite the murder, Bette was the friendlier twin whereas Dot was cynical towards everything. The twins contemplated getting surgery so they could be separated by they decide against the idea. In the end, both twins married Jimmy Darling and it was revealed they eventually had a child.
Sally McKenna, also known as Hypodermic Sally, was a drug addict who was killed at the Hotel Cortez in 1994 when Iris pushed her out of a window. Her spirit was stuck on the property ever since, which she used as an opportunity to haunt guests. Sally usually targeted drug addicts using The Addiction Demon. She then got involved with John, the new Ten Commandments Killer. When he left the hotel, Sally felt like her life no longer had a purpose so Iris gave her an iPhone. This allowed Sally to become a social media star.
Paulson also reprised her role as Billie Dean Howard for season 5. Since her first appearance, Billie Dean acquired a show on Lifetime. She was invited to the Hotel Cortez by Iris but all of the voices and unsettled spirits convinced her to film her show elsewhere. In 2022, Billie Dean returned to the hotel to talk to John's ghost on Devil's Night. She was met by Mr. March and an array of serial killers who threatened her off of the premises.
The cast list for American Horror Story season 6 might be a little confusing since it was a show within a show. Paulson portrayed Shelby Miller in the first half of the season. It was then revealed that her role as Shelby was just a reenactment for the production of a series called My Roanoke Nightmare . The real Shelby was played by Lily Rabe and Paulson was portraying an actress named Audrey Tindall. They came together along with the real-life figures and their on-screen counterparts for another reality series, Return to Roanoke: 3 Days in Hell . The group quickly realized that the mysterious happenings and deadly threats were real as they started getting picked off one by one. In the end, confusion with the police caused Audrey to get shot and killed.
Related:
Paulson also reprised her role as Lana Winters for a short cameo in Roanoke . The character came out of retirement in 2016 to interview Lee Harris for her show, The Lana Winters Special. Lee was one of the real-life people who lived through the Roanoke house and the murders she took part in. During the interview, the women are attacked by Lot Polk, a man who claimed Lee for his family's deaths.
When Ally Mayfair-Richards was introduced in AHS season 7, she was a weak-willed woman crippled by a number of phobias. Her anxiety and fears worsened after the 2016 Presidential Election which, in turn, affected her relationship with her wife Ivy and son, Ozzy. After hiring a young woman named Winter to look over Ozzy, Ally started to get attacked by clowns. She later learned that the clowns were members of a cult run by Winter's brother, Kai. To make matters worse, her own wife Ivy was in the cult which explained why Ally was targeted. Ally got her life back together and successfully took down the whole cult and killed many of the members including Ivy and Kai before successfully running for Senator.
In episode 10 of American Horror Story: Cult , Kai started to have visions of Charles Manson. He used the Sharon Tate murders as a lesson to his followers. The infamous murders played out during the episode and featured other cast members as the Manson "family." Paulson portrayed Susan Atkins, one of the women who carried out the murders.
Paulson truly upped her game for American Horror Story season 9, playing a total of three characters. In the early episodes of the season, Paulson portrayed Wilhemina Venable, the leader of Outpost 3. She thought she was working for the Cooperative, a group overseeing the survivors of the apocalypse. When Michael Langdon arrived at the Outpost, she tried to kill the other residents to convince Langdon into taking her to the new fallout shelter. Wilhemina was then killed at the request of Langdon.
Related:
Paulson's second character of the season was Cordelia, who was then going by her maiden name, Goode. The Supreme, along with Madison Montgomery, and Myrtle Snow arrived at Outpost 3 to revive their fellow witches, Mallory, Coco, and Dinah. It turned out that Cordelia envisioned the apocalypse so she infiltrated the Outpost with some of her coven witches . The flashbacks explained what the coven uncovered about Langdon and his identity as the Antichrist. Since Mallory was emerging as a powerful witch, Cordelia sacrificed herself so that the young woman could reach her full abilities. Mallory went back in time and stopped Langdon from carrying out the apocalypse and reset the timeline.
And, once again, Paulson reprised her American Horror Story season 1 role as Billie Dean Howard. The medium encountered Madison and Behold Chablis when the duo was investigating the Murder House. Billie Dean claimed that she was now a medium to the stars. She refused to reveal anything about Michael Langdon but Constance's ghost later arrived and told the truth about the boy.
Next: | https://screenrant.com/american-horror-story-sarah-paulson-every-character/ | 61 |
who plays lana winters in american horror story | American Horror Story: How Old Sarah Paulson's Lana Is In Asylum & Roanoke | By
Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) starred in the American Horror Story: Asylum before making a cameo in Roanoke. Here's a breakdown of the figure's age.
Lana Winters was a central figure in American Horror Story: Asylum , which documented multiple decades of the character's life before she returned in season 6's Roanoke . The investigative journalist was played by Sarah Paulson, who would go on to be one of the regular stars of the FX anthology series. Although Lana's story was tied up in a bittersweet fashion, Paulson reprised the role in Roanoke . The actress has a habit of playing more than one character in a respective season, but Lana emerged as a fan-favorite following the release of season 2.
Set primarily in the 1960s, Asylum followed Lana when she visited Briarcliff Manor to interview a serial killer known as Bloody Face. The journalist was then committed to the institution under false pretenses after trying to expose Briarcliff's darkest secrets. While trapped as a patient, Lana was subjected to Dr. Arthur Arden 's inhumane treatments before narrowly becoming a victim of the real Bloody Face, Dr. Oliver Thredson. Lana was raped by Thredson, resulting in the birth of her son, but that didn't stop her from killing her tormentor. She also found an opportunity to escape from Briarcliff, leading her to expose the asylum so it would get shut down. Decades later, Lana learned that her son followed in Bloody Face's footsteps until she killed him too.
Related:
The ages of the characters in the focus of Asylum weren't directly stated. To make matters more complicated, there are current contradictions regarding Lana's supposed age throughout the season, especially in her older state during the present-day timeline. An interview (via EW ) from 2013 with co-creator Ryan Murphy claimed " Paulson’s character was like 2 years younger than Barbra Walters " when referring to Lana's aged look. Based on the 2013 setting and Walters' age at the time, Lana would have been 82-years-old when she gave her interview in the Asylum finale. With that information, it's possible to calculate her age through the rest of her American Horror Story appearances.
Seeing as the figure was meant to be near the 82 age range in the 2013 timelines, she would have been born around the year 1931. When Lana was committed to Briarcliff, it was 1964, indicating that she was about 33-years-old during the bulk of season 2. Paulson, on the other hand, would have been in her late thirties when she portrayed the role, which wasn't too far off. Following her escape from Briarcliff Manor , Lana published an autobiographical book titled Maniac: One Woman's Story of Survival in 1968. At this point, she would have been about 37. Three years later, Lana and a film crew filmed a documentary to fully expose the horrors within Briarcliff, bringing the horror to an end when she was 40.
As previously stated, Lana was supposedly 82 when she finally reunited with her son. Moments prior, the interviewer for the TV special commented on how great she looked for age in which Lana replied she had a " talented surgeon in Paris and a great dermatologist ." Lana came out of retirement four years later to interview massacre survivor Lee Harris in Roanoke . The character would have been around the age of 86 when Lot Polk ambushed the interview, killing multiple production members before hitting Lana with the gun. Lana survived the event, but she hasn't been seen in American Horror Story since.
More: | https://screenrant.com/ahs-asylum-roanoke-lana-winters-sarah-paulson-age/ | 61 |
who plays lana winters in american horror story | How Old Is Lana Winters In American Horror Story? - Looper | By Helen A. Lee / April 28, 2021 7:33 pm EST
Over the multiple seasons of "American Horror Story" — and multiple ages in which she's been represented — Lana Winters, as played by Sarah Paulson , has become an iconic favorite character in the series. The investigative journalist first came on the scene during the second season, "Asylum," and then reappeared for a short time in the sixth season, "Roanoke," to interview Lee Harris (Adina Porter) about the similar experiences she faced. Her name was also dropped in the season finale episode during the "Cult" season (via Pop Sugar ), when Rachel Maddow comes calling to find out if Ally (also played by Paulson) would be willing to do an interview.
Given how much she's aged by the time "Roanoke" comes around, though, you might be wondering exactly how old she is during the traumatic events she experiences as part of the series. Most of the time, there's no mention of character ages in "American Horror Story," which leaves viewers guessing. However, in Winters' case, there's some behind-the-scenes information that can help us figure out exactly how old the character was, during the events of the second season.
FX
In the "Asylum" series, Winters goes through some hair-raising events, including electroshock therapy, rape, and being witness to murder. As a journalist, she's determined to expose the happenings at Briarcliff, which later turns her into a household name. But calculating Lana's age at this point in time is not necessarily a straightforward proposition, as it turns out, not least because she appears at several ages during the course of her appearance in "Asylum."
However, in an interview from 2013 that co-creator Ryan Murphy did with Entertainment Weekly , he indicated that Lana herself was inspired by journalist Barbara Walters (as well as writer Booke Astor), and her makeup look at an advanced age was also inspired by Walters. "When we were doing Sarah's make-up, we sorta did the math and I think Sarah Paulson's character was like two years younger than Barbara Walters so we really looked at photos today of Barbara and copied that makeup," he said.
A-ha — a clue! Looks like some extrapolation is in order here.
FX
Barbara Walters, aged 91 today, was born in September 1929. In 2013 — seven years ago, when "Asylum" was set in the present day — she would have been about 84 years old. Subtract two years, and Lana Winters would have been 82 for the interview in the season finale of "Asylum." She would also have been born in 1931. Placing the series within the American Horror Story timeline , the events at Briarcliff in "Asylum" took place mostly in 1964. She would have thus been about 33 years old. Lana published the autobiographical book "Maniac: One Woman's Story of Survival" in 1968, doing a book tour for it in 1969 — when she was 38. A fictional documentary called "Briarcliff Exposed" brought Lana back to the site in 1971, when she was 41 years old.
During the events of "Roanoke," when Lana comes out of retirement for a "Lana Winters Special," it's 2016 . She was 87 years old when Lot Polk ambushed that interview and attacked Lee and Lana, hitting her with a gun. She lived, though others on the set did not, and that was the last fans have seen of Lana — so far.
As for Paulson herself, she is 46 years old in 2021, making the actress in her late 30s at the time she filmed "Asylum" — and she's worn all those different ages well. While journalist Lana Winters might be getting on up there in years and happily retiring from the spotlight, viewers of "American Horror Story" will have plenty of time to enjoy Paulson's acting on the series (but maybe not as Lana!) in seasons to come, including the upcoming Season 10 . | https://www.looper.com/395609/how-old-is-lana-winters-in-american-horror-story/ | 61 |
who plays lana winters in american horror story | All 9 of Sarah Paulson’s ‘AHS’ characters ranked worst to best, including Cordelia Foxx and Lana Winters | “ American Horror Story ” fans who missed seeing Sarah Paulson during last year’s “1984” cycle can now breathe a sigh of relief: she’s returning for Season 10. Sure, the next installment has been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic , but Paulson will officially be back when it eventually airs on FX. ( See the Season 10 cast list .) This Emmy winner for “The People v. O.J. Simpson” has been nominated for five “AHS” seasons through the years: “Asylum,” “Coven,” “Freak Show,” “Hotel” and “Cult.”
In anticipation of Paulson’s return to the franchise, we’ve ranked all nine of her “American Horror Story” characters from worst to best. Does YOUR #1 choice match ours? Sound off in the comments section to let us know your personal rankings.
Captions by Kevin Jacobsen
9. Susan Atkins (“Cult”) — Paulson briefly played Susan Atkins, a member of Charles Manson’s murderous “family.” In her one episode, aptly titled “Charles (Manson) in Charge,” she is seen stabbing actress Sharon Tate and writing the word “pig” on the door. It is Paulson fully uninhibited, which is both fun and horrifying to watch, but the character doesn’t leave much impact beyond the one flashback.
8. Wilhelmina Venable (“Apocalypse”) — Wilhelmina Venable would only be on our screens for a brief period of time, but she still made a big impression. As the strict leader of an outpost after the end of the world, Ms. Venable was a rare villainous character for Paulson to play. Finding out that she was not just following protocol but actually making up her own rules as an authoritarian just made her all the more fascinating. She only appeared in the season’s first three episodes, so it was not quite enough to stand out among Paulson’s other characters.
7. Shelby Miller/Audrey Tindall (“Roanoke”) — For the first half of “Roanoke,” Paulson played Shelby Miller, a yoga teacher who is tormented by events happening in and out of her country home. It is a traditional scream queen role that does not pop as much as many of her other characters, even as she commits to what it requires. Of course, the unique setup of “Roanoke” reveals that Shelby is actually a character being played by a British actress named Audrey Tindall and what we have seen is a dramatized reenactment of what the real Shelby Miller went through at her Roanoke home. Audrey is Paulson’s most carefree character and it’s fun to see her letting loose.
6. Ally Mayfair-Richards (“Cult”) — As a woman overcome by anxiety after the election of Donald Trump, Ally Mayfair-Richards was arguably Paulson’s most complicated character she’s played on “American Horror Story.” Her paranoia and her crippling fear of clowns put her in a heightened state through much of “Cult,” making her difficult to truly love, but when she comes back after a stay at the psyche ward, ready to take down Kai (Evan Peters) and his murderous cult, she had us cheering alongside her.
5. Bette and Dot Tattler (“Freak Show”) — It is difficult to separate Paulson’s two “Freak Show” characters considering they are both metaphorically and literally linked. Playing Bette and Dot Tattler, a pair of conjoined twins, was Paulson’s most difficult and ambitious task yet, but she was up for the task and distinguished their personalities well. Bette is the more innocent, idealistic twin while Dot is more cynical, which provides some interesting conflict as they work at the freak show. How you feel about Bette and Dot may depend on your view of “Freak Show” as a season, but the Siamese Sisters are certainly the most unique characters Paulson has played thus far.
4. Billie Dean Howard (“Murder House”/“Hotel”/“Apocalypse”) — Billie Dean Howard was our first introduction to Sarah Paulson on “American Horror Story,” showing up a handful of times in “Murder House.” Billie Dean is a medium who helps Violet (Taissa Farmiga) understand more about Tate (Evan Peters) being a spirit lingering between our world and the afterlife. She returned again in “Hotel” to investigate the goings-on at the Hotel Cortez but is soon chased away. She also returned briefly in “Apocalypse.” There is an attitude and confidence in her own abilities that makes Billie Dean fun to watch even if she doesn’t leave the biggest impact.
3. Sally McKenna (“Hotel”) — “Hotel” found Paulson taking a bit of a backseat after major roles in the previous three seasons, but Sally McKenna still made one hell of an impression. Diverging from the typical moral protagonists she played in the past, Sally is reckless and impulsive after being doomed to the Hotel Cortez for eternity. She is able to find peace after Iris (Kathy Bates) gifts her with an iPhone and she discovers its glorious potential. It was arguably the most different role we’ve seen from Paulson during her run on “American Horror Story” but she clearly had a ball playing her just as much as we loved watching her.
2. Cordelia Foxx (“Coven”/“Apocalypse”) — Miss Robichaux’s Academy headmistress Cordelia Foxx is the daughter of the Supreme witch, Fiona (Jessica Lange), and despite harboring her own witchy powers, she tries to resolve conflicts peacefully at the start of “Coven.” That soon changes when her girls are threatened and she gets blinded by sulfuric acid. This gives her Second Sight and she eventually proves her skills enough to become the next Supreme, succeeding her mother. Cordelia fully reached iconic status when she returned for “Apocalypse,” which found her in a duel with the Antichrist for the fate of the world. Cordelia is a total badass and is the rare “AHS” character to be intrinsically important to multiple seasons.
1. Lana Winters (“Asylum”/“Roanoke”) — Journalist Lana Winters will forever be Sarah Paulson’s most iconic “American Horror Story” role. Lana goes through the wringer in “American Horror Story: Asylum” as she tries to expose the secrets of Briarcliff Manor only to find herself trapped there with little hope of escape. She suffers through conversion therapy and sexual abuse at the asylum but ultimately makes her way and must murder her own son in self-defense. She would return in “AHS: Roanoke” to interview Lee Harris (Adina Porter) about similar experiences she faced. While Billie Dean Howard offered a taste of what Paulson could do as an actress, the role of Lana Winters is where viewers really took notice of her strengths and we’ve been hooked ever since. | https://www.goldderby.com/article/2020/sarah-paulson-ahs-characters-ranked-american-horror-story/ | 61 |
who won the most recent hell's kitchen | Alex Belew, Hell’s Kitchen Season 21 winner, is ready for his next culinary chapter, interview | After opening the door to the victorious cheers , Alex Belew, Hell’s Kitchen Season 21 winner, joins the many successful chefs who have proceeded him. While the Gordon Ramsay and FOX culinary competition can be a resume builder, Alex understands that this title is just one aspect to building a robust career. During a recent conversation with FoodSided, the Southern chef shared some insight on his culinary influences, a glimpse into the challenges of Hell’s Kitchen, and what the future could hold.
While many Hell’s Kitchen contestants have certain accolades associated with their tenure, Alex might be the chef who served the most punishments in the FOX show’s history. Whether it was slicing garlic or picking out peppercorns, there were moments where it could feel “demoralizing.” Although he did earn the punishment pass early in the season, that one exemption did not balance out all the other tedious work. Still, the opportunity to work under Gordon Ramsay is one that he would not have passed over.
Alex shared that the whole process could be grueling. While he felt that there was a “fight or flight mode” going from challenge to challenge, the adrenaline when the phone rang would help him push through the fatigue. Still, looking back, he said that he could see the “pure exhaustion” that he felt.
Still, he felt that the group of chefs generally got along and supported each other. Even though it was a competition, there was a sense of community. Add to that aspect, his experience in the restaurant industry, he appreciated that the grind is often part of the job.
Since the Hell’s Kitchen Season 21 premise was “Battle of the Ages,” Alex shared his thoughts on why the dichotomy of experienced versus less experienced chefs is a concept that is not just limited to the FOX show. Alex believes that maturity and appreciation does not come in a single “light bulb moment but comes through a series of trials and tribulations, successes and failures. As a chef, you become more resilient, every test gets you ready for the next test.”
Alex believes that one of the reasons why he was chosen as the Hell’s Kitchen Season 21 winner is that he had the experience beyond cooking on the line or even manning the pass. The combination of leadership, running an actual restaurant, and understanding who you are as a chef comes into play for earning that respect.
Throughout the culinary competition, Alex Belew stayed true to the recipes and flavors that he knows well. From his winning chicken wing dish that brought together his foundational knowledge to mastering that always tricky Beef Welington, Alex could do it all. He explained how a winning dish needed all the elements, the salty, sweet, crispy, pureed, etc. For example, the crunchy peanuts to the pickled carrot in his chicken wings, it was the familiar flavors with a little bit of a twist. Overall, it was that perfectly balanced bite.
Alex believed that his signature dish was a prime example of who he is as a chef. Specifically, he said that his dish was “not being ridiculous with ingredients.” He likes to showcase regular, everyday ingredients and highlight them in a way that makes them shine. Whether it is using a Carolina Gold Rice or ensuring that the flavor is memorable, there is thought and care brought to every element.
While Alex admitted that “fried chicken is his love language,” he wants to cook good food and not be too pretentious about it. Throughout the season, that sentiment was clear in the food that he presented.
Now that his time on Hell’s Kitchen has come to a close, there are many opportunities ahead for Alex Belew. Whether it is a position in the Gordon Ramsay empire, another restaurant opportunity, or something within the food television world, the door is open and he is ready to run through it. | https://foodsided.com/2023/02/15/alex-belew-hells-kitchen-season-21-winner-is-ready-for-his-next-culinary-chapter-interview/ | 62 |
who won the most recent hell's kitchen | 'Hell's Kitchen' Season 20 Finale: And the Winner Is... | Who grabbed the Head Chef position at Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris Las Vegas?
Jennifer Maas | September 13, 2021 @ 7:00 PM
After weeks of fiery battles, “Hell’s Kitchen” Season 20 has come to an end and one competitor has come out on top, winning the Fox cooking competition and the Head Chef position at Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris Las Vegas. Congrats to… Trenton Garvey!
During the two-hour season finale, Chef Ramsay planned an emotional reunion for the three remaining chefs — Kiya Willhelm, Megan Gill and Trenton — before they were tasked with cooking a five-course dinner service scored by celebrity judges.
Megan and Trenton were chosen as the final two chefs, and in the second hour of the finale, they picked their brigades from a pool of their former competitors and competed in their final dinner service, after which the last chef standing was chosen. When all was said and done, it was Trenton who won “Hell’s Kitchen” Season 20.
The landmark 20th season of “Hell’s Kitchen” was dubbed “Young Guns,” and saw Chef Gordon Ramsay back in Las Vegas, home to five of his restaurants, including the world’s first Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen restaurant at Caesars Palace.
The “Hell’s Kitchen: Young Guns” installment marked the first time the show featured 18 aspiring chefs from across the country that were all aged 24 years old or younger at the start of the competition.
“Food in America has changed dramatically since we premiered,” Arthur Smith, who founded “Hell’s Kitchen” production company A. Smith & Co., told TheWrap at the beginning of Season 20. “The idea of doing a food show on network television was also groundbreaking, because there had never been one that worked. And, quite frankly, no one knew who Gordon was then. So if you think about what has happened during the course of our run: No. 1, Gordon is the most famous chef in the world. So that’s great. And the other thing is the show is now in a zillion countries and that’s great. But also, the food has changed. And also what happened is that not that long ago, when a child or a young person would tell their family that they wanted to work in a kitchen or be a chef, it was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ But now, being a chef is a very distinguished profession because of Gordon Ramsay and other celebrity chefs and how food has evolved in America and how our palates have changed in America and how we’re more adventurous with what we eat. And I think in some ways, ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ and shows like ‘Top Chef,’ which also has been on for a long time, they have contributed to changing how people look at food.”
“Hell’s Kitchen” is executive produced by Gordon Ramsay, Arthur Smith, Kent Weed, Kenny Rosen and Bernie Schaeffer. The series hails from ITV Entertainment in association with A. Smith & Co. Productions, Inc. | https://www.thewrap.com/hells-kitchen-winner-season-20-trenton-young-guns-finale/ | 62 |
who won the most recent hell's kitchen | Season 19 | Season 19 of Hell's Kitchen (stylized Hell's Kitchen: Las Vegas ) aired on FOX between January 7 and April 22, 2021. Executive Chef Kori Sutton was the winner of the season and was awarded the Head Chef position at Hell's Kitchen in Lake Tahoe, with a $250,000 salary.
18 contestants competed during this season. The teams were divided by gender, male contestants in the blue team and female contestants in the red team. The contestants were (in alphabetical order):
|Contestant||Age||Occupation||Hometown|
|Cody Candelario||26||Executive Sous Chef||Sherman Oaks, CA|
|Mary Lou Davis||28||Chef de Cuisine||San Antonio, TX|
|Fabiola Fuentes||32||Line Cook||Indio, CA|
|Nikki Hanna||25||Wolfeboro, NH|
|Declan Horgan||42||Executive Chef||Washington, DC|
|Amber Lancaster||30||Chicago, IL|
|Lauren Lawless||Private Chef||San Diego, CA|
|Peter Martinez||38||Sous Chef||Palisades Park, NJ|
|Kenneth McDuffie||35||Private Chef||Philadelphia, PA|
|Josh Oakley||28||Executive Chef||Denver, CO|
|Adam Pawlak||Milwaukee, WI|
|Marc Quinones||37||Albuquerque, NM|
|Brittani Ratcliff||30||Executive Sous Chef||Morehead, KY|
|Eliott Sanchez||23||Private Chef||Jersey City, NJ|
|Jordan Savell||29||Executive Chef||Fort Worth, TX|
|Kori Sutton||37||Los Angeles, CA|
|Drew Tingley||30||Line Cook||Millmont, PA|
|Syann Williams||26||Atlanta, GA|
At the end of each episode, one chef from the losing team is eliminated by Ramsay. This season marks the first time that a challenge resulted in the first elimination of the season, the second time where three people performed in the final challenge, and the third time that a once nominated chef defeated another chef that avoided nomination, after Seasons 9 and 17 . This season also featured a medical exit and a nomination voided by Ramsay for the first time since Season 14 .
|#||Chef||Original Teams||Team Switch|| Black |
Jackets
|Finals|
|1902||1903||1904||1905||1906||1907||1908||1909||1910||1911||1912||1913||1914||1915||1916|
|1||Kori||NOM||WINNER|
|2||Mary Lou||RUNNER-UP|
|3||Declan||NOM||OUT|
|4||Cody||BoB||NOM||OUT|
|5||Amber||NOM||NOM||NOM||OUT|
|6||Nikki||NOM||NOM||BoB||OUT|
|7||Jordan||NOM||NOM||NOM||NOM||OUT|
|8||Marc||NOM||NOM||NOM||NOM||OUT|
|9||Adam||OUT|
|10||Lauren||NOM||NOM||OUT|
|11||Syann||BoB||NOM||OUT|
|12||Josh||OUT|
|13||Peter||NOM||EJEC|
|14||Brittani||OUT|
|15||Drew||NOM||HOSP|
|16||Fabiola||OUT|
|17||Eliott||NOM||OUT|
|18||Kenneth||OUT|
|Final Service Brigades|
|Mary Lou||Kori|
|Cody||Declan|
|Nikki||Jordan|
|Amber||Adam|
|Lauren||Marc|
|Color Legend|
|NOM||Regular Nomination||Ramsay Nomination||Voided Nomination|
|OUT||Regular Elimination||Ramsay Nomination||Without Nomination|
|MISC||Ejected during service||Quit or Hospitalized||Best of the Best/Worst|
Here is the list of the episodes of that season, with links to detailed pages.
|#||Image||Title||Airdate|
|01||Episode 1901 - Welcome To Vegas|| October 21, 2020 (UK) |
January 7, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: The eighteen new chefs arrived at Las Vegas, visited the real Hell's Kitchen Restaurant, the Signature Dish Challenge was turned on its head, and conflicts began to rise in one team.|
|02||Episode 1902 - Shrimply Spectacular|| October 22, 2020 (UK) |
January 14, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: Shrimp was the main ingredient, Ramsay cut the fat early by sending somebody home in the challenge, one team imploded on opening night, and one chef made a terrible plea at elimination.|
|03||Episode 1903 - Hell Caesar!|| October 28, 2020 (UK) |
January 21, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: Caesar salad was the main dish, a hot reward caused on chef to grow ill, pants were lost at dinner service, and Ramsay overruled the losing team's poor nomination choices.|
|04||Episode 1904 - Wedding Bells In Hell|| November 4, 2020 (UK) |
January 28, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: Wedding bells rang in a service challenge, somebody was medically evacuated, a woman joined the blue team, and both teams performed poorly at dinner service.|
|05||Episode 1905 - Hell Starts Taking Its Toll|| November 5, 2020 (UK) |
February 4, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: Mexican cuisine was the main theme, an advantage was used, and one chef grew disillusioned about the competition, leading to a mid service elimination.|
|06||Episode 1906 - Metal & Marina|| November 11, 2020 (UK) |
February 11, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: Italian cuisine was the main theme, dinner service had a strict time limit for a Las Vegas show, and one person did not celebrate their birthday in a great way.|
|07||Episode 1907 - A Pair Of Aces|| November 12, 2020 (UK) |
February 18, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: Ramsay tested the chef's palates in identifying surf and turf dishes, trust issues were brought up, a communication breakdown occurred at dinner service, and Ramsay made a somewhat controversial nomination change.|
|08||Episode 1908 - Crapping Out in Hell|| November 18, 2020 (UK) |
February 25, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: The chefs rolled for their ingredients, four chefs cooked for their lives, and one failed to live up to their nickname.|
|09||Episode 1909 - Blind Taste Test|| November 19, 2020 (UK) |
March 4, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: The annual Blind Taste Test took place, one team had no communication during Steak Night, and a shocking elimination of an early front runner took place.|
|10||Episode 1910 - There's Something About Marc|| November 25, 2020 (UK) |
March 11, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: Burgers were the main dish, the chefs were allowed to assign their own stations, and one chef made a risky move at elimination in order to get rid of a problematic teammate.|
|11||Episode 1911 - Sink or Swim|| November 26, 2020 (UK) |
March 18, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: The chefs spelled for their ingredients, the weather affected one team's reward, a private dinner service took place, and one chef's luck ran out.|
|12||Episode 1912 - There's Magic In Hell?|| December 2, 2020 (UK) |
March 25, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: The six remaining chefs competed for black jackets, and a shocking elimination of the most improved chef of that season took place.|
|13||Episode 1913 - It's Time!|| December 3, 2020 (UK) |
April 1, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: A friendship started to show some sparks, the final five competed in their first Black Jacket challenge, and one chef's weakness finally became their undoing.|
|14||Episode 1914 - Snuggling with the Enemy|| December 9, 2020 (UK) |
April 8, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: The final four cooked for club dancers, ran the pass, and while a fan favorite was sent home, the final three was announced.|
|15||Episode 1915 - What Happens in Vegas...|| December 10, 2020 (UK) |
April 15, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: The final three reunited with their loved ones, competed in one last challenge, and two of them moved on for the final dinner service.|
|16||Episode 1916 - Hitting the Jackpot|| December 17, 2020 (UK) |
April 22, 2021 (US)
|Episode Rundown: Kori and Mary Lou competed in their final dinner service, and one of them was crowned the winner of Hell's Kitchen.|
- This is the first season to include strictly new talent since Season 16 , as well as returning to the 18 Contestants format that was left out of the two previous seasons.
- This season was announced on February 26, 2019, as FOX renewed it along with Season 20. [1] Both seasons took place at the Hell's Kitchen restaurant in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
- Before the season aired in America, it first aired on ITV2 in the United Kingdom between October 21 and December 17, 2020.
- In addition, when aired in the United Kingdom and streamed in Netflix, the 2019 logo of ITV Studios is used at the end of each episode instead of the 2013 logo which was used in America. This also happened when Season 20 was streamed in Netflix.
- This marks the first season where the opening sequence only features Chef Ramsay without the contestants.
- Season 7 runner-up Jay Santos replaced Sous Chef Jocky as the blue team's sous chef for this season and 20. [2] As a result, this is the first season where both the sous chefs are former contestants, as well as the first time a former contestant who did not win their season became a member of the Staff .
- In multiple episodes this season, "Pan-Seared Scallops" is misspelled as "Pan-Seared Scwallops " on the menu.
- This season is tied with Season 17 for having the most contestants getting eliminated after a challenge, with four, until it was beaten by Season 20.
- This season is tied with Season 20 for having the most elimination-based challenges, with four. While Season 17 had four chefs eliminated by challenge, there were only three challenges.
- This season marked the first time Ramsay eliminated a chef before the first dinner service.
- This season was originally planned to air in the Summer of 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was pushed back to January 2021.
- This season was filmed at Caesars Entertainment Studios in Las Vegas (4165 Koval Ln), as place of Hell's Kitchen restaurant.
- This season featured a new update to the chef jackets. The long sleeves were brought back, but the team colors were now on the collar of the jackets and on the buttons instead of the shoulders as they have been in previous seasons. Also, the the word "Bragard" is monogramed onto the left sleeve of the jacket.
- This is the second season since Season 15 which every contestant won at least one challenge and/or experienced and went on a reward.
- This is the second season, after Season 17 to feature three finalists in which the 3rd place finalist was eliminated at the Final Tasting Challenge , and joined as returning chef.
- This is the last season to date to feature a female winner.
- Future Reappearances: Kori, Mary Lou, and Cody would return in Season 21 as wedding guests for Trenton and Macee's wedding. | https://hellskitchen.fandom.com/wiki/Season_19 | 62 |
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