Dutch Emigration

Emigration from the Netherlands in the United States

In Europe in the 19th century the economy developed badly bringing widespread poverty in many countries. This, combined with the need for working people in the United States, explains the huge masses of migrating people in this period.
In the Netherlands there was an additional reason for people not only to look for work and prosperity but also to find more freedom for their religion. Under King William I the Dutch Reformed state-church was reorganized and became a more and more liberal touch. Some religious leaders protested and pushed a more orthodox way of Christianity. They were mostly followed in the countryside by the lower classes of the society, in the larger places like Amsterdam the better few were supporting this more orthodox wave. The church-ministers were punished and even jailed for their belief, which culminated in the start of emigration in large groups to the United States.
The first areas where they settled were Pella, Iowa and Western Michigan. This emigration-wave started in the 1840's and continued also after the moment that the state refrained from church-politics. The main reason for emigration became thereafter more and more economic. Having settled in the States, and founding churches and schools especially for the Dutch, made it easier for the later immigrants to make the decision to leave their homes and countries.
The emigration from the Netherlands in the 20th century was diminishing year by year. After World War II the new emigration wave from the Netherlands was mainly to Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The United States lost the prime position.

Familynames of people that migrated from Friesland to the United States