Global migration 1815–1939 – settlers, convicts and indentured labour
HistoryRevolutions & Industrial AgeAges 13–14
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Sign in to playA world flow map of the great migrations from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the Second World War. Students move through the decades and filter by group to compare European emigration to the Americas, settlement in Australia, New Zealand and southern Africa, convict transportation to Australia and indentured labour from India, China and the Pacific Islands. Further layers show arrivals and the origins of each diaspora, and the push factors, pull factors and laws that shaped the flows.
Lesson: Mass migration in the age of imperialism: push and pull factors, settler colonies, convicts and indentured labour
What it shows
Between 1815 and 1939 about 50 million Europeans crossed the oceans, most to the United States, Canada, Argentina and Brazil, while British and Irish settlers and about 160,000 convicts went to Australia and New Zealand. After slavery was abolished, more than a million Indians and hundreds of thousands of Chinese and Pacific Islanders were shipped on labour contracts to plantations. The map shows the main streams by decade with rounded estimates from national statistics and historians; splits between streams and figures before 1820 are approximate. Layers compare arrivals, the origins of each diaspora, and the crises, opportunities and laws that pushed, pulled or stopped migrants.
How to use
Drag Year or press Play to move through the decades, and choose a Group to show one kind of migration. Click a circle or an arrow to read a region's push or pull factors or a stream's numbers. Switch to Arrivals and diasporas to compare destinations and see where their migrants came from, and to Push, pull and laws to follow the events on the map and the chart.
Parameters you can change
- Year shown on the timeline 1815–1939 year
- Map layer Flows by decade, Arrivals and diasporas, Push, pull and laws
- Migrant group All groups, European emigration to the Americas, Settlers to Australasia and southern Africa, Convicts transported to Australia, Indentured labour, Chinese free and credit-ticket migration
- Timeline speed 1–20 years/second
Questions to explore
- Why did emigration from Ireland peak in the 1840s and 1850s, but emigration from Italy and Austria-Hungary only after 1900?
- How was indentured labour similar to slavery, and how was it different from both slavery and free migration?
- Which laws after 1880 restricted migration, and which groups of migrants did they target?
