All of the talk of the immigration crisis in Europe has led me to do some research about historical mass migrations, and the effects that they had on human history. I'm going to list some notable mass migrations, and I would like some input on these conclusions. That being said, not all mass migrations had negative results. These views are not backed by academia, and as far as I know there is no evidence to support my claim. So in an extremely over-simplified summary, here is a list of some historical mass migrations and their results. Any thoughts?
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Western migration of Germanic peoples in the 5th century- The western expansion of Germanic peoples that helped expedite the fall of Rome resulted in the deaths of millions of people and the beginning of five centuries of "darkness", i.e., the loss of intellectual, artistic, legal, technological, and scientific progress that had been accumulated over the previous millennium. It wasn't until the Renaissance that a resurgence in these fields was begun.
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Transatlantic Slave Trade- Millions of people today in the western hemisphere are descendants of the original slaves taken to the New World by European slave trade. This subject is too broad to cover completely, but needless to say the impact on the world because of this is undeniable.
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Mass Immigration of Jews to Palestine after WWII- Zionism and the flow of Jewish people back to their ancestral lands has resulted in constant conflict between the country and their Arab neighbors. For right or for wrong, the massive influx of immigrants to that portion of the Levant has resulted in millions of deaths and the risk of another world war, because of geo-politics.
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Partition of India- After WWII, the British partitioned India into India, West Pakistan, and East Pakistan. East Pakistan later became Bangladesh, but millions of people trying to get on their side of the partition uprooted over 10 million people and resulted in animosity between the Islamic Pakistan and the Hindu India, who are playing a game of nuclear chicken as a result of the migrations.
This could be a lot more detailed, cited, and researched, but I'm a lazy bastard and I feel like I've given enough examples to give you an idea of what I mean. So, what do you think? Does the current migration crisis hold a candle to migration crises of the past, or is this uncharted territory?
Also, if you disagree, please explain why. This is meant to be a discussion and I want to hear what other people think. This is one source I used.History of human migration- wikipedia
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[–] escapefromredditbay ago (edited ago)
item number 1
blaming it all on the germanic people is, simplifying it a bit. in an expanded view, their migrations were more based on a domino effect from the asiatic plains, which, was almost the opposite of migration in that nomadic tribes were being forced out by the formation of non-nomadic groups, or at least that's a tiny tiny tldr. those nomads went west, time to shuffle all the geographical cards
(for more info, the book "war, what is it good for", really good read)
suffice to say, rome wasn't the only empire then, and things were unsettling themselves in all areas of the globe. and really, rome was, dying, then.
item number 2
um, slaverys bad yo? yeah, as you say, where to even start on that event.
item number 3
i cant say im really read on this one, no comment
item number 4
im not well versed enough on it, no comment