Poverty, Disease, and Disaster
Between 1861 and 1885 an estimated 26 million Italians, one quarter of the country, left for the United States and other countries. The majority of immigration from Italy to the United States took place between 1880 and 1920. An estimated 4 million, mostly southern, Italians arrived on U.S. shores during those years. The Italians primarily were seeking economic opportunities they could not find at home.

Southern Italy at that time suffered from a combination of unemployment, overpopulation, and natural disaster. Their poverty meant that they had high mortality rates, lack of medical care, lack of schooling, and poor housing conditions. Not only that, they were also in a state of semi-starvation and subject to exploitation as a result of their poverty. So they saw the United States as an escape from these conditions.

In addition to high taxes and low wages for farm workers, southern Italy was regularly stricken by drought during this time. In many townships, water became a luxury. A mysterious parasite also began destroying grapevines. In the late 1800s, the majority of the grapevines in southern Italy were destroyed causing many farms to fail and further raising unemployment. As unemployment rose among farmers and farm laborers, there was decreased demand throughout the economy and many skilled workers were thrown out of work.

To add to the troubles of southern Italy, epidemics of cholera and malaria swept through the area causing waves of death. Starting in the early 20th Century, a wave of natural disasters also struck the region. Volcanoes at Mount Etna and Mount Vesuvius erupted. A town near Naples was buried. In 1908, an earthquake and tidal wave swept through the Strait of Messina which lies between Sicily and the Italian mainland. In the city of Messina alone, more than 100,000 people died.

Volcano

Most Italians came seeking work with the intention of returning home. An estimated 40 percent of the Italians who arrived in the U.S. between 1880 and 1920 did not stay. Among those who did stay, communities began to develop, many of which still bear the title 'Little Italy' in cities in North America. Once communities were established, other Italians came to join family and seek economic opportunity.

Italian immigrant family on ferry docking at Ellis Island

Post War Conditions
After 1871, following the Franco-Prussian war, conditions in southern Italy started to deteriorate. The Italian government hiked taxes, but the south did not benefit. As industrialization began to take place most of the factories and wealth remained in the north with the south remaining largely agricultural. Although the farms were in the south, most of them were owned by wealthy Italians in the north who offered the peasants terms similar to those given sharecroppers in the U.S. south following the civil war. The government did not provide for the land to be irrigated and trees to be planted on southern lands. This divide between northern Italy and southern Italy spurred a number of southerners to seek greener pastures.