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Poles in Chicago History


Krystal 5 | 94  
5 Nov 2009 /  #1
I come across this article. I think you will like it.

The traditional Polish community in Chicago, an organization-rich ethnic settlement that developed in the years after the Civil War, reached maturity and almost complete institutional self-sufficiency before World War I.

"Polish Chicago, sometimes referred to as "Polonia," has been shaped by at least three distinct immigration waves. The first and largest lasted from the 1850s to the early 1920s, and was driven primarily by economic and structural change in Poland. This immigration is often referred to as Za Chłebem (For Bread). Primarily a peasant migration, it drew first from the German Polish partition, and then from the Russian partition and Austrian Polish partition. Although restrictions during World War I and in the 1920s cut off this immigration, by 1930 Polish immigrants and their children had replaced Germans as the largest ethnic group in Chicago."

This is interesting story.
TheOther 6 | 3,674  
5 Nov 2009 /  #2
This is interesting story.

And partially wrong, too. There was no Poland between 1850 and the end of WW1.
OP Krystal 5 | 94  
5 Nov 2009 /  #3
Well, TheOther

I think they called Poland German or others.

That is why there isn't any Polish. Can't understand it at all.

Thanks for replying. I felt it is good to know.
TheOther 6 | 3,674  
5 Nov 2009 /  #4
I think they called Poland German or others

No, they actually give the impression that Poland never ceased to exists (see second paragraph), which is historically wrong.

Quote: "...the 1850s to the early 1920s, and was driven primarily by economic and structural change in Poland".
Tymoteusz 2 | 346  
5 Nov 2009 /  #5
My family immigrated in 1890s' and were listed as pol/ger and pol/russ. on their papers.

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