American Phases

Pre-Columbian & Indigenous Eras.

1. Phase One

   30,000 BCE–15,000 BCE

   Indigenous Peoples / First Nations.

   Arrival: Earliest human stewards arriving via land-bridge routes (Beringia) and Pacific coastal waterways.

   Context: Established sovereign nations, urban centers (e.g., Cahokia), and agricultural systems thousands of years prior to transatlantic contact.

2. Phase Two

   c. 700 CE–1200 CE

   Polynesian Navigators.

   Arrival: Transoceanic Pacific sea voyages.

   Context: Non-Western transoceanic contact evidenced by shared agricultural crops (e.g., sweet potato), linguistic traits, and genetic markers between Pacific Islanders and South/Meso-American coastlines.

3. Phase Three

   c. 1000 CE

   Norse / Scandinavian Explorers.

   Arrival: L'Anse aux Meadows (Newfoundland).

   Context: Early Northern European trans-Atlantic voyages establishing short-lived seasonal settlements.

4. Phase Four

   c. 1310 CE–1312 CE

   Malian / West African Voyagers.

   Arrival: Atlantic ocean expeditions documented in West African oral tradition (Emperor Abu Bakr II of Mali).

   Context: Non-Eurocentric accounts of West African maritime navigation across the Atlantic ocean prior to European colonization.

1500s–1700s

Early Colonial Era.

1. Phase Five

   1565

   Spanish Settlers (Southern European).

   Arrival: St. Augustine (Florida), expanding across the Southwest and Caribbean.

   Context: Established the first continuous European colonial presence.

2. Phase Six

   1607

   English / British (Northern/Western European).

   Arrival: Jamestown (Virginia) and later Plymouth (1620).

   Context: Established political, legal, and linguistic frameworks across the Eastern seaboard.

3. Phase Seven

   1619

   West & Central Africans (Forced Migration / African Diaspora).

   Arrival: Jamestown, Virginia, continuing through the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

   Context: Unwilling arrival under systems of enslavement. Provided the labor, agricultural expertise, and infrastructure foundational to early American development.

4. Phase Eight

   1620s–1700s

   Dutch, French, German, & Scotch-Irish Settlers.

   Arrival: New Amsterdam (Dutch), Mississippi Valley/Canada (French), and Pennsylvania (German).

   Context: Agricultural settlement and trade networks expanding inland across Indigenous territories.

1840s–1880s

Mid-to-Late 19th Century.

1. Phase Nine

   1840s–1850s

   Irish Settlers.

   Arrival: Mass migration fleeing the Irish Potato Famine.

   Context: Provided urban industrial labor in Northeastern cities.

2. Phase Ten

   1848

   Mexican / Indigenous-Mestizo Peoples (Incorporation & Border Movement).

   Arrival/Incorporation: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848).

   Context: Rather than traditional immigration, tens of thousands of Indigenous-Mestizo residents were incorporated as the U.S. border shifted southward over their homeland ("The border crossed us").

3. Phase Eleven

   1849–1880s

   Chinese Migrants.

   Arrival: California Gold Rush and Transcontinental Railroad labor.

   Context: Built critical West Coast infrastructure before facing targeted exclusion under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

4. Phase Twelve

   1860s–1880s

   Scandinavians (Swedes, Norwegians, Danes).

   Arrival: Upper Midwest settlement under the Homestead Act of 1862.

1880s–1920s

Turn of the 20th Century.

1. Phase Thirteen

   1880s–1920s

   Southern Europeans (Italians, Greeks).

   Arrival: Industrial urban centers in the Northeast and Midwest.

2. Phase Fourteen

   1880s–1920s

   Eastern Europeans & Ashkenazi Jewish Communities.

   Arrival: Fleeing economic hardship and religious persecution (pogroms) in Eastern Europe.

3. Phase Fifteen

   1880s–1930s

   Japanese, Filipino, Korean, & South Asian Migrants.

   Arrival: Agricultural labor in Hawaii and the West Coast.

   Context: Expanded Pacific rim connection prior to national origin restrictions.

Post-1965 to Present

Modern Era.

The passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removed national origin quotas that had favored Western Europe, shifting global movement patterns:

1. Phase Sixteen

   1960s–Present

   Central & South American / Caribbean Peoples.

   Hemispheric movement across Latin America, including Mexico, Central America, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and South America.

2. Phase Seventeen

   1960s–Present

   South, East, and Southeast Asians.

   Migration from India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Korea, China, and Hmong communities via professional recruitment, family reunification, and refugee programs.

3. Phase Eighteen

   1970s–Present

   Sub-Saharan Africans & Afro-Caribbeans.

   Voluntary global migration from African nations (e.g., Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana) and Caribbean nations (e.g., Jamaica, Haiti).