Class: History of Minorities
Proffesor: Michael Spear
Student: Vlado Vukovic

Task: Reasearch Project
Title: Greeks in America



As the title suggests the topic of my project is the experiences of Greeks in America and their journey from sailors towards in Colombo times all the way until modern times. Greek immigration started in greater numbers towards the end of 19 century and it continued in the 20-century and first generation of arrivals and the ones that followed it have differences that I will touch in the text to come.


First contacts of Greeks with America can be traced during the discovery and colonial period when few were brave enough to dare to explore the newly discovered world while some of theories go as far as to connect Columbus's lineage to the Greek island of Chios and this variant makes the first European man to have discovered the continents of western hemisphere a Greek. With the exception of the few traces found in places such as New Smyrna and New Augustine, Florida, not much has been recorded about these earliest Greek arrivals in the new world.


Apart of these initial contacts it can be stated that Greeks were among the last European immigrants groups to have arrived in US. The first half of 19 century saw some arrivals although not nearly as much as during the second half of the 19 century. The biggest number of Greek arrivals occurred around the time of First World War. Government sources state that half a million Greeks arrived into US prior to 2WW while some sources believe that the figure is too conservative and put the numbers at as much as one million Greeks arriving into US. Some more came after 2WW but the peak Greek immigration years to U.S. was a period between 1905 and 1914.


The Greeks that arrived in US had different reasons for doing so and they could be ranging from education purposes (western missionaries during the course of Greek independence war encouraged gifted Greek youth to further their education in America), being representatives in America for Greek commercial firms and of course vast
majority of Greek immigrants arrived in search of better economic opportunities from a Balkan country impoverished and culturally and economically stagnated and backward country that was a direct result of the Ottoman rule which has set back all of Balkans considerable during its rule to such extent that all one needs to mention is that Byzantine Balkans prior to coming of Turks and especially Constantinople was the financial and cultural center for western world and not to mention the richest part of the western world. Greeks wanted also to escape political and religious discrimination of Turks.

Most of the early Greeks that arrived came from Peloponisos, from Sparta. Spartans began arriving during the 1870's and reach the peak between 1890 and 1910 and as the time passed Greeks from Arcadia outnumbered those from Sparta. These arrivals came mainly from rural regions and the conditions back home made is in many aspects practically impossible to soil the land and as a result were forced to arrive in US. Many of the early arrivals were young males and even many teenagers without parents who were providing for their families back home.

Class: History of Minorities
Proffesor: Michael Spear
Student: Vlado Vukovic

Task: Reasearch Project
Title: Greeks in America (prior to World War I)




As the title suggests the topic of my project is the experiences of Greeks in America and their journey that started very early on thus with sailors that accompanied Colombo in his voyages, in which he discovered the new continent for Europeans, all the way until more modern times that end with world war I.


Greek immigration started in greater numbers towards the end of 19 century and it continued in the 20-century and first generation of arrivals and the ones that followed it (around the years of second world war) have differences in a sense that first arrivals were from rural areas while later arrivals were more urban and with that also less traditional but here I will only touch the situation prior to world war I.


First contacts of Greeks with America can occurred during the discovery and colonial period when few were brave enough to dare to explore the newly discovered world while some of theories go as far as to connect Columbus's lineage to the Greek island of Chios and this variant makes the first European man to have discovered the continents of western hemisphere a Greek.


With the exception of the few traces found in places such as New Smyrna and New Augustine, Florida, not much has been recorded about these earliest Greek arrivals in the new world.


Apart of these initial contacts it can be stated that Greeks were among the last European immigrants groups to have arrived in US. The first half of 19 century saw some arrivals although not nearly as much as during the second half of the 19 century.
The biggest number of Greek arrivals occurred around the time of First World War. Government sources state that half a million Greeks arrived into US prior to 2WW while some sources believe that the figure is too conservative and put the numbers at as much as one million Greeks arriving into US. Some more came after 2WW but the peak Greek immigration years to U.S. was a period between 1905 and 1914.


The Greeks that arrived in US had different reasons for doing so and they could be ranging from education purposes (western missionaries during the course of Greek independence war encouraged gifted Greek youth to further their education in America), being representatives in America for Greek commercial firms.


Vast majority of Greek immigrants arrived in search of better economic opportunities from a Balkan country impoverished and culturally and economically stagnated and backward country that was a direct result of the Ottoman rule which has set back all of Balkans considerable during its rule to such extent that all one needs to mention is that Byzantine Balkans prior to coming of Turks and especially Constantinople was the financial and cultural center for western world and not to mention the richest part of the western world. Greeks wanted also to escape political and religious discrimination of Turks.


Most of the early Greeks that arrived came from Peloponnisos, from Sparta. Spartans began arriving during the 1870's and reach the peak numbers between 1890 and 1910 and as the time passed Greeks from Arcadia outnumbered those from Sparta.


These arrivals came mainly from rural regions and the conditions back home made is in many aspects practically impossible to soil the land and as a result were forced to arrive in US. Many of the early arrivals were young males and even many teenagers without parents who were providing for their families back home.





These early Greek immigrants settled many parts of United States but after some period of time a pattern started to emerge as far as what were the areas they preferred and those would have been cities in New England and other parts of northeastern United States as well as Chicago and other locations. One of the areas early Greek immigrants naturally avoided would have been the South, which were the most racist and nationalist parts of United States where immigrants were not liked.


When arriving in United States a New Greek immigrant would be helped and guided by another one that is already established here. Many of the arrivals preferred cities even though they were mainly from the rural regions themselves. The reason they preferred cities are various but the biggest ones are that cities offered more job opportunities as well as a chance to keep in close contact with other fellow Greeks.


One of the reasons why many early Greeks were confined to menial jobs associated with streets (such as street peddling, selling flowers/cigars/sweets, shining shows among many street oriented jobs) or mining was that they didn’t master speaking English language, a language that is so drastically different from Greek one while the fact that many were illiterate and from rural communities didn’t help either.


Many of these early Greeks, after much hard work and planning and saving money, were able to upgrade their position by moving from street trade to owning stores or even small hotels.


The early Greeks meet much hate and prejudice from the “native” Americans of from the children from earlier arrivals whose ancestors trace origins from countries such as Ireland, England, Germany or Holland but who now are assimilated into a new American culture and nativism (anti-immigrant movement) was rather strong at this period of time. The fact that early Greeks didn’t understand English or the ways of America only made matters worse and their distinct culture and appearance made natives hateful or at least weary towards them.



Early Greek arrivals carried with them in United States all the ideals and political and national sentiments from the old country, just like any other group of immigrants. Early Greeks who arrived in America were only detached from their Greek homeland physically and not in any other way so it is only natural that many went back to Greece during the course of First World War to defend their homeland but also, once the United States entered the war many early Greeks went to fight on the American side, an event that will help these early Greeks in gaining more respect among ‘natives’.


Many early Greeks that went to fight for motherland Greece came back to United States only this time they brought wives with them in order to proper start the family. It is estimated that close to 50,000 Greeks came from America to fight for Greece. Early Greeks helped United States war effort by purchasing government bonds. World War I Greeks (in both Greece and America) were devided in two political groups, one that favored neutral position for Greece (headed by King of Greece, who was of German origin) and one group that favored Greece to openly join the ranks of allies (headed by Eleutherios Venizelos) although American Greeks remained fully loyal to United States.


As far as the number of Greeks that fought for US armed forces in world war I goes the estimates range from 60,000 to 70,000 thousand (and all this from total of 400,000 of those early Greeks in the United states who were mainly males of military age).


Thus we can see that the total number of Greeks that joined the war effort, whether in Greek army or in American army (both of which were on the same side), numbered well over 100,000 which is one quarter of the total American Greek population of the time.


As far as community life of the American Greeks goes it can be said that they preferred living in sections of cities that had a higher concentration of Greek immigrants and in those sections they built churches, social clubs, schools, and generally speaking continued the cultural traditions from the old country in many ways one of them being sponsoring social events and community programs. Of course the most popular of all Greek male institutions is unavoidable – coffee houses where people can gather daily and interact.
One of the most important ways to keep in touch with the old country and news connected to Greece and Greeks was newspapers and among the better known ones were Atlantis and National Herald both of which were published in New York City which was the American Greek capital sort of speak.


Atlantis had a reputation of openly having pro-king Konstantine stands while National Herald served to mainly support the views of Eleutherios Venizelos among other things such as militant liberalism, which was their ideological trademark. National Herald came into existence in 1915.


Both papers had a very big influence on Greek Americans, in fact a bigger influence that even their own numbers suggested. Smaller newspapers existed (such as Greek Start, Prometheus,etc) but neither could rival Atlantis and National Herald.


One of the faults of American Greek press is that it effectively devided American Greek body into two factions which in effect was only a mirror image to the state of events in the motherland – Greece.


In conclusion Greeks in America (prior to world war I) went through many similar experience as many other newly arrived immigrants from other countries and were able to gradually improve (with a lot of hard work and planning) their economical status in a newly arrived land but not only that but also increase the respect of other ‘native’ Americans towards them which was mainly as a result of showing such affection for the newly adapted homeland that many went to even risk their very lives under its flag.

Class: History of Minorities
Professor: Michael Spear
Student: Vlado Vukovic

Task: Research Project
Title: Greeks in America (prior to World War I)




The topic of my project is the experiences of Greeks in America and their journey that started very early on thus with sailors that accompanied Colombo in his voyages, in which he discovered the new continent for Europeans, all the way until more modern times that end with world war I.


Greek immigration started in greater numbers towards the end of 19 century and it continued in the 20-century and first generation of arrivals and the ones that followed it (around the years of second world war) have differences in a sense that first arrivals were from rural areas while later arrivals were more urban and with that also less traditional but here I will only touch the situation prior to world war I.



First contacts of Greeks with America can occurred during the discovery and colonial period when few were brave enough to dare to explore the newly discovered world while some of theories go as far as to connect Columbus's lineage to the Greek island of Chios and this variant makes the first European man to have discovered the continents of western hemisphere a Greek.



With the exception of the few traces found in places such as New Smyrna and New Augustine, Florida, not much has been recorded about these earliest Greek arrivals in the new world (data here is taken from the book "Greek Americans", written by D.P.Maynikon).



Apart of these initial contacts it can be stated that Greeks were among the last European immigrants groups to have arrived in US. The first half of 19 century saw some arrivals although not nearly as much as during the second half of the 19 century.



The largest number of Greek arrivals occurred around the time of First World War. Government sources state that half a million Greeks arrived into US prior to second world war while some sources believe that the figure is too conservative and put the numbers at as much as one million Greeks arriving into US. Some more came after Second World War but the peak Greek immigration years to U.S. was a period between 1905 and 1914.



The Greeks that arrived in US had different reasons for doing so and they could be ranging from education purposes (western missionaries during the course of Greek independence war encouraged gifted Greek youth to further their education in America), being representatives in America for Greek commercial firms.



Vast majority of Greek immigrants arrived in search of better economic opportunities. They arrived from a Balkan country that was impoverished as well as culturally and economically stagnated and backward. The reason for such conditions was the Ottoman rule which has set back all of Balkan countries considerable to such extent that all one needs to mention is that Byzantine Balkans prior to coming of Turks and especially Constantinople was the financial and cultural center for western world and not to mention the richest part of the western world. Greeks wanted also to escape political and religious discrimination suffered from the hands of Turks.



Most of the early Greeks that arrived came from Peloponnisos, from Sparta. Spartans began arriving during the 1870's and reach the peak numbers between 1890 and 1910 and as the time passed Greeks from Arcadia outnumbered those from Sparta. These early arrivals were not as numerous as the ones that will follow them at the turn of century when Greek immigration will drastically increase.



These arrivals came mainly from rural regions and the conditions back home made is in many aspects practically impossible to soil the land and as a result were forced to arrive in US. Many of the early arrivals were young males and even many teenagers without parents who were providing for their families back home.



These early Greek immigrants settled many parts of United States but after some period of time a pattern started to emerge as far as what were the areas they preferred and those would have been cities in New England and other parts of northeastern United States as well as Chicago and other locations. One of the areas early Greek immigrants naturally avoided would have been the South, which were the most racist and nationalist parts of United States where immigrants were not liked.



When arriving in United States a Greek immigrant would be helped and guided by another one that is already established here. Many of the arrivals preferred cities even though they were mainly from the rural regions themselves. The reason they preferred cities are various but the biggest ones are that cities offered more job opportunities as well as a chance to keep in close contact with other fellow Greeks.



One of the reasons why many early Greeks were confined to menial jobs associated with streets (such as street peddling, selling flowers/cigars/sweets, shining shows among many street oriented jobs) or mining was that they didn’t master speaking English language, a language that is so drastically different from Greek one while the fact that many were illiterate and from rural communities didn’t help either.



Many of these early Greeks, after much hard work and planning and saving money, were able to upgrade their position by moving from street trade to owning stores or even small hotels.



The early Greeks meet much hate (attacks, slurs, etc.) and prejudice from the “native” Americans or from the children from earlier arrivals whose ancestors trace origins from countries such as Ireland, England, Germany or Holland but who now are assimilated into a new American culture and Nativism (anti-immigrant movement) was rather strong at this period of time. The fact that early Greeks didn’t understand English or the ways of America only made matters worse and their distinct culture, religion, and appearance made natives hateful or at least weary towards them.




Early Greek arrivals carried with them in United States all the ideals and political and national sentiments from the old country, just like any other group of immigrants. Early Greeks who arrived in America were only detached from their Greek homeland physically and not in any other way so it is only natural that many went back to Greece during the course of First World War to defend their homeland but also, once the United States entered the war many early Greeks went to fight on the American side, an event that will help these early Greeks in gaining more respect among ‘natives’.



Many early Greeks that went to fight for motherland Greece came back to United States only this time they brought wives with them in order to proper start the family.



It is estimated that close to 50,000 Greeks came from America to fight for Greece. Early Greeks helped United States war effort by purchasing government bonds. World War I Greeks (in both Greece and America) were divided in two political groups, one that favored neutral position for Greece (headed by King of Greece, who was of German origin) and one group that favored Greece to openly join the ranks of allies (headed by Eleutherios Venizelos) although American Greeks remained fully loyal to United States. As far as the number of Greeks that fought for US armed forces in world war I goes the estimates range from 60,000 to 70,000 thousand (and all this from total of 400,000 of those early Greeks in the United states who were mainly males of military age). (Data here is taken from the books "The Greeks in America", written by T. Saloutos and from "The Greeks in America", written by J.C. Jones).



Thus we can see that the total number of Greeks that joined the war effort, whether in Greek army or in American army (both of which were on the same side), numbered well over 100,000 which is one quarter of the total American Greek population of the time.



As far as community life of the American Greeks goes they preferred living in sections of cities that had a higher concentration of Greek immigrants and in those sections they built churches, social clubs, schools, and generally speaking continued the cultural traditions from the old country in many ways one of them being sponsoring social events and community programs. Of course the most popular of all Greek male institutions is unavoidable – coffee houses where people can gather daily and interact.



One of the most important ways to keep in touch with the old country and news connected to Greece and Greeks was newspapers and among the better known ones were Atlantis and National Herald both of which were published in New York City which was the American Greek capital sort of speak. These two papers were initially written in Greek and they still exist (English versions exist as well).



Atlantis had a reputation of openly having pro-king Konstantine stands while National Herald served to mainly support the views of Eleutherios Venizelos among other things such as militant liberalism, which was their ideological trademark. National Herald came into existence in 1915.



Both papers had a very big influence on Greek Americans, in fact a bigger influence that even their own numbers suggested. Smaller newspapers existed (such as Greek Start, Prometheus,etc) but neither could rival Atlantis and National Herald.



One of the faults of American Greek press is that it effectively divided American Greek body into two factions which in effect was only a mirror image to the state of events in the motherland – Greece.



In conclusion Greeks in America (prior to world war I) went through many similar experience as many other newly arrived immigrants from other countries and were able to gradually improve (with a lot of hard work and planning) their economical status in a newly arrived land but not only that but also increase the respect of other ‘native’ Americans towards them which was mainly as a result of showing such affection for the newly adapted homeland that many went to even risk their very lives under its flag.






______________

Bibliography: The books used in writing this Essay;
-"Greek Americans", written by D.P.Maynikon
-"The Greeks in America", w. by T. Saloutos
-"The Greeks in America", w. by J.C. Jones
-"The Greek Americans Immigrant Experience", w. by D. Monos
-"Greek Americans: Struggle and Success", w. by C. Moskos
-"Greek Americans", w. by A. Scourby.
-"The Greeks in America", w. by J.P.Xenides.

Class: History of Minorities
Professor: Michael Spear
Student: Vlado Vukovic

Task: Research Project
Title: Greeks in America (prior to World War I)




The topic of my project is the experiences of Greeks in America and their journey that started very early on thus with sailors that accompanied Colombo in his voyages, in which he discovered the new continent for Europeans, all the way until more modern times that end with world war I.


Greek immigration started in greater numbers towards the end of 19 century and it continued in the 20-century and first generation of arrivals and the ones that followed it (around the years of second world war) have differences in a sense that first arrivals were from rural areas while later arrivals were more urban and with that also less traditional but here I will only touch the situation prior to world war I.



First contacts of Greeks with America can occurred during the discovery and colonial period when few were brave enough to dare to explore the newly discovered world while some of theories go as far as to connect Columbus's lineage to the Greek island of Chios and this variant makes the first European man to have discovered the continents of western hemisphere a Greek.



With the exception of the few traces found in places such as New Smyrna and New Augustine, Florida, not much has been recorded about these earliest Greek arrivals in the new world (data here is taken from the book "Greek Americans", written by D.P.Maynikon).



Apart of these initial contacts it can be stated that Greeks were among the last European immigrants groups to have arrived in US. The first half of 19 century saw some arrivals although not nearly as much as during the second half of the 19 century.



The largest number of Greek arrivals occurred around the time of First World War. Government sources state that half a million Greeks arrived into US prior to second world war while some sources believe that the figure is too conservative and put the numbers at as much as one million Greeks arriving into US. Some more came after Second World War but the peak Greek immigration years to U.S. was a period between 1905 and 1914.



The Greeks that arrived in US had different reasons for doing so and they could be ranging from education purposes (western missionaries during the course of Greek independence war encouraged gifted Greek youth to further their education in America), being representatives in America for Greek commercial firms.



Vast majority of Greek immigrants arrived in search of better economic opportunities. They arrived from a Balkan country that was impoverished as well as culturally and economically stagnated and backward. The reason for such conditions was the Ottoman rule which has set back all of Balkan countries considerable to such extent that all one needs to mention is that Byzantine Balkans prior to coming of Turks and especially Constantinople was the financial and cultural center for western world and not to mention the richest part of the western world. Greeks wanted also to escape political and religious discrimination suffered from the hands of Turks.



Most of the early Greeks that arrived came from Peloponnisos, from Sparta. Spartans began arriving during the 1870's and reach the peak numbers between 1890 and 1910 and as the time passed Greeks from Arcadia outnumbered those from Sparta. These early arrivals were not as numerous as the ones that will follow them at the turn of century when Greek immigration will drastically increase.



These arrivals came mainly from rural regions and the conditions back home made is in many aspects practically impossible to soil the land and as a result were forced to arrive in US. Many of the early arrivals were young males and even many teenagers without parents who were providing for their families back home.



These early Greek immigrants settled many parts of United States but after some period of time a pattern started to emerge as far as what were the areas they preferred and those would have been cities in New England and other parts of northeastern United States as well as Chicago and other locations. One of the areas early Greek immigrants naturally avoided would have been the South, which were the most racist and nationalist parts of United States where immigrants were not liked.



When arriving in United States a Greek immigrant would be helped and guided by another one that is already established here. Many of the arrivals preferred cities even though they were mainly from the rural regions themselves. The reason they preferred cities are various but the biggest ones are that cities offered more job opportunities as well as a chance to keep in close contact with other fellow Greeks.



One of the reasons why many early Greeks were confined to menial jobs associated with streets (such as street peddling, selling flowers/cigars/sweets, shining shows among many street oriented jobs) or mining was that they didn’t master speaking English language, a language that is so drastically different from Greek one while the fact that many were illiterate and from rural communities didn’t help either.



Many of these early Greeks, after much hard work and planning and saving money, were able to upgrade their position by moving from street trade to owning stores or even small hotels.



The early Greeks meet much hate (attacks, slurs, etc.) and prejudice from the “native” Americans or from the children from earlier arrivals whose ancestors trace origins from countries such as Ireland, England, Germany or Holland but who now are assimilated into a new American culture and Nativism (anti-immigrant movement) was rather strong at this period of time. The fact that early Greeks didn’t understand English or the ways of America only made matters worse and their distinct culture, religion, and appearance made natives hateful or at least weary towards them.




Early Greek arrivals carried with them in United States all the ideals and political and national sentiments from the old country, just like any other group of immigrants. Early Greeks who arrived in America were only detached from their Greek homeland physically and not in any other way so it is only natural that many went back to Greece during the course of First World War to defend their homeland but also, once the United States entered the war many early Greeks went to fight on the American side, an event that will help these early Greeks in gaining more respect among ‘natives’.



Many early Greeks that went to fight for motherland Greece came back to United States only this time they brought wives with them in order to proper start the family.



It is estimated that close to 50,000 Greeks came from America to fight for Greece. Early Greeks helped United States war effort by purchasing government bonds. World War I Greeks (in both Greece and America) were divided in two political groups, one that favored neutral position for Greece (headed by King of Greece, who was of German origin) and one group that favored Greece to openly join the ranks of allies (headed by Eleutherios Venizelos) although American Greeks remained fully loyal to United States. As far as the number of Greeks that fought for US armed forces in world war I goes the estimates range from 60,000 to 70,000 thousand (and all this from total of 400,000 of those early Greeks in the United states who were mainly males of military age). (Data here is taken from the books "The Greeks in America", written by T. Saloutos and from "The Greeks in America", written by J.C. Jones).



Thus we can see that the total number of Greeks that joined the war effort, whether in Greek army or in American army (both of which were on the same side), numbered well over 100,000 which is one quarter of the total American Greek population of the time.



As far as community life of the American Greeks goes they preferred living in sections of cities that had a higher concentration of Greek immigrants and in those sections they built churches, social clubs, schools, and generally speaking continued the cultural traditions from the old country in many ways one of them being sponsoring social events and community programs. Of course the most popular of all Greek male institutions is unavoidable – coffee houses where people can gather daily and interact.



One of the most important ways to keep in touch with the old country and news connected to Greece and Greeks was newspapers and among the better known ones were Atlantis and National Herald both of which were published in New York City which was the American Greek capital sort of speak. These two papers were initially written in Greek and they still exist (English versions exist as well).



Atlantis had a reputation of openly having pro-king Konstantine stands while National Herald served to mainly support the views of Eleutherios Venizelos among other things such as militant liberalism, which was their ideological trademark. National Herald came into existence in 1915.



Both papers had a very big influence on Greek Americans, in fact a bigger influence that even their own numbers suggested. Smaller newspapers existed (such as Greek Start, Prometheus,etc) but neither could rival Atlantis and National Herald.



One of the faults of American Greek press is that it effectively divided American Greek body into two factions which in effect was only a mirror image to the state of events in the motherland – Greece.



In conclusion Greeks in America (prior to world war I) went through many similar experience as many other newly arrived immigrants from other countries and were able to gradually improve (with a lot of hard work and planning) their economical status in a newly arrived land but not only that but also increase the respect of other ‘native’ Americans towards them which was mainly as a result of showing such affection for the newly adapted homeland that many went to even risk their very lives under its flag.

























Bibliography:




The books used in writing this Essay;


-"Greek Americans", written by D.P.Maynikon

-"The Greeks in America", w. by T. Saloutos

-"The Greeks in America", w. by J.C. Jones

-"The Greek Americans Immigrant Experience", w. by D.
Monos

-"Greek Americans: Struggle and Success", w. by C. Moskos

-"Greek Americans", w. by A. Scourby.

-"The Greeks in America", w. by J.P.Xenides.





The Internet Sites used in writing this Essay;


-The Social Psychology of Immigration: The Greek American Experiance

http://webs.csu.edu/~big0ama/articles/GreekAmerican.html


-Greek Orthodox Church in America

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06772a.htm

Class: Urban Study: Intercultural Communication
Professor: Tom Regan
Student: Vlado Vukovic


Task: Final Research Project
Title: Experiences of Greeks in America (prior to World War I)




The topic of my project is the experiences of Greeks in America and their journey that

started very early on thus with sailors that accompanied Colombo in his voyages, in

which he discovered the new continent for Europeans, all the way until more modern

times that end with world war I.



Greek immigration started in greater numbers towards the end of 19 century and it

continued in the 20-century and first generation of arrivals and the ones that followed it

(around the years of second world war) have differences in a sense that first arrivals were

from rural areas while later arrivals were more urban and with that also less traditional

but here I will only touch the situation prior to world war I.



First contacts of Greeks with America can occurred during the discovery and colonial

period when few were brave enough to dare to explore the newly discovered world while

some of theories go as far as to connect Columbus's lineage to the Greek island of Chios

and this variant makes the first European man to have discovered the continents of

western hemisphere a Greek.





With the exception of the few traces found in places such as New Smyrna and New

Augustine, Florida, not much has been recorded about these earliest Greek arrivals in the

new world (data here is taken from the book "Greek Americans", written by

D.P.Maynikon).



Apart of these initial contacts it can be stated that Greeks were among the last European

immigrants groups to have arrived in US. The first half of 19 century saw some arrivals

although not nearly as much as during the second half of the 19 century.



The largest number of Greek arrivals occurred around the time of First World War.

Government sources state that half a million Greeks arrived into US prior to second

world war while some sources believe that the figure is too conservative and put the

numbers at as much as one million Greeks arriving into US. Some more came after

Second World War but the peak Greek immigration years to U.S. was a period between

1905 and 1914.



The Greeks that arrived in US had different reasons for doing so and they could be

ranging from education purposes (western missionaries during the course of Greek

independence war encouraged gifted Greek youth to further their education in America),

being representatives in America for Greek commercial firms.






Vast majority of Greek immigrants arrived in search of better economic opportunities.

They arrived from a Balkan country that was impoverished as well as culturally and

economically stagnated and backward. The reason for such conditions was the Ottoman

rule which has set back all of Balkan countries considerable to such extent that all one

needs to mention is that Byzantine Balkans prior to coming of Turks and especially

Constantinople was the financial and cultural center for western world and not to mention

the richest part of the western world. Greeks wanted also to escape political and religious

discrimination suffered from the hands of Turks.



Most of the early Greeks that arrived came from Peloponnisos, from Sparta. Spartans

began arriving during the 1870's and reach the peak numbers between 1890 and 1910 and

as the time passed Greeks from Arcadia outnumbered those from Sparta. These early

arrivals were not as numerous as the ones that will follow them at the turn of century

when Greek immigration will drastically increase.



These arrivals came mainly from rural regions and the conditions back home made is in

many aspects practically impossible to soil the land and as a result were forced to arrive

in US. Many of the early arrivals were young males and even many teenagers without

parents who were providing for their families back home.



These early Greek immigrants settled many parts of United States but after some period

of time a pattern started to emerge as far as what were the areas they preferred and those

would have been cities in New England and other parts of northeastern United States as

well as Chicago and other locations. One of the areas early Greek immigrants naturally

avoided would have been the South, which were the most racist and nationalist parts of

United States where immigrants were not liked.



When arriving in United States a Greek immigrant would be helped and guided by

another one that is already established here. Many of the arrivals preferred cities even

though they were mainly from the rural regions themselves. The reason they preferred

cities are various but the biggest ones are that cities offered more job opportunities as

well as a chance to keep in close contact with other fellow Greeks.



One of the reasons why many early Greeks were confined to menial jobs associated with

streets (such as street peddling, selling flowers/cigars/sweets, shining shows among many

street oriented jobs) or mining was that they didn’t master speaking English language, a

language that is so drastically different from Greek one while the fact that many were

illiterate and from rural communities didn’t help either.



Many of these early Greeks, after much hard work and planning and saving money, were

able to upgrade their position by moving from street trade to owning stores or even small

hotels.



The early Greeks meet much hate (attacks, slurs, etc.) and prejudice from the “native”

Americans or from the children from earlier arrivals whose ancestors trace origins from

countries such as Ireland, England, Germany or Holland but who now are assimilated

into a new American culture and Nativism (anti-immigrant movement) was rather strong

at this period of time. The fact that early Greeks didn’t understand English or the ways of

America only made matters worse and their distinct culture, religion, and appearance

made natives hateful or at least weary towards them.



Early Greek arrivals carried with them in United States all the ideals and political and

national sentiments from the old country, just like any other group of immigrants. Early

Greeks who arrived in America were only detached from their Greek homeland

physically and not in any other way so it is only natural that many went back to Greece

during the course of First World War to defend their homeland but also, once the United

States entered the war many early Greeks went to fight on the American side, an event

that will help these early Greeks in gaining more respect among ‘natives’.



Many early Greeks that went to fight for motherland Greece came back to United States

only this time they brought wives with them in order to proper start the family.



It is estimated that close to 50,000 Greeks came from America to fight for Greece. Early

Greeks helped United States war effort by purchasing government bonds. World War I

Greeks (in both Greece and America) were divided in two political groups, one that

favored neutral position for Greece (headed by King of Greece, who was of German

origin) and one group that favored Greece to openly join the ranks of allies (headed by

Eleutherios Venizelos) although American Greeks remained fully loyal to United States.

As far as the number of Greeks that fought for US armed forces in world war I goes the

estimates range from 60,000 to 70,000 thousand (and all this from total of 400,000 of

those early Greeks in the United states who were mainly males of military age). (Data

here is taken from the books "The Greeks in America", written by T. Saloutos and from

"The Greeks in America", written by J.C. Jones).



Thus we can see that the total number of Greeks that joined the war effort, whether in

Greek army or in American army (both of which were on the same side), numbered well

over 100,000 which is one quarter of the total American Greek population of the time.



As far as community life of the American Greeks goes they preferred living in sections of

cities that had a higher concentration of Greek immigrants and in those sections they built

churches, social clubs, schools, and generally speaking continued the cultural traditions
from the old country in many ways one of them being sponsoring social events and

community programs. Of course the most popular of all Greek male institutions is

unavoidable – coffee houses where people can gather daily and interact.



One of the most important ways to keep in touch with the old country and news

connected to Greece and Greeks was newspapers and among the better known ones were

Atlantis and National Herald both of which were published in New York City which was

the American Greek capital sort of speak. These two papers were initially written in

Greek and they still exist (English versions exist as well).






Atlantis had a reputation of openly having pro-king Konstantine stands while National

Herald served to mainly support the views of Eleutherios Venizelos among other things

such as militant liberalism, which was their ideological trademark. National Herald came

into existence in 1915.



Both papers had a very big influence on Greek Americans, in fact a bigger influence that

even their own numbers suggested. Smaller newspapers existed (such as Greek Start,

Prometheus,etc) but neither could rival Atlantis and National Herald.



One of the faults of American Greek press is that it effectively divided American Greek

body into two factions which in effect was only a mirror image to the state of events in

the motherland – Greece.



In conclusion Greeks in America (prior to world war I) went through many similar

experience as many other newly arrived immigrants from other countries and were able

to gradually improve (with a lot of hard work and planning) their economical status in a

newly arrived land but not only that but also increase the respect of other ‘native’

Americans towards them which was mainly as a result of showing such affection for the

newly adapted homeland that many went to even risk their very lives under its flag.









Bibliography:


The books used in writing this Essay;


-"Greek Americans", written by D.P.Maynikon

-"The Greeks in America", w. by T. Saloutos

-"The Greeks in America", w. by J.C. Jones

-"The Greek Americans Immigrant Experience", w. by D.
Monos

-"Greek Americans: Struggle and Success", w. by C. Moskos

-"Greek Americans", w. by A. Scourby.

-"The Greeks in America", w. by J.P.Xenides.





The Internet Sites used in writing this Essay;


-The Social Psychology of Immigration: The Greek American Experiance

http://webs.csu.edu/~big0ama/articles/GreekAmerican.html


-Greek Orthodox Church in America

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06772a.htm