Swiss American

Switzerland Americans (Swiss American) are Americans of Swiss origin, including those whose ancestors Swiss German, Swiss French, Swiss Italian and Romansh languages ​​.

History

The first Swiss -known in the field, what we know today as the United States was Theobald ( Diebold ) von Erlach ( 1541-1565 ). The history of the Church of the Amish began with a split between Anabaptists from Switzerland and the Alsace region, led by Jakob Ammann of Erlenbach im Simmental.

In the late 18th and early 19th century, many farmers migrated from Switzerland to Russia or the USA.

Before 1820, lived an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 Swiss in British North America. Many of them settled in present-day Pennsylvania and North and South Carolina. By 1860, emigrated again many a Swiss; as they left mainly settled in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. 50,000 more were 1860-1880 to around 82,000 1881-1890 and again estimated 90,000 during the next three decades.

Swiss settlements such as Highland ( Illinois), New Glarus ( Wisconsin), Gruetli (Tennessee ) grew rapidly, as many Swiss rural settlements prefer in the Midwest and along the Pacific coast, where in particular people of Italian Switzerland established vineyards in California, or settled in (industrial) cities such as New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis or San Francisco. Because different way of life and political institutions in Switzerland and the USA only slightly, it was not a problem for most Swiss to take in their new homeland.

The Swiss immigration after 1930 took off because of the Great Depression and the Second World War. Until 1960 reached 23,700 Swiss the United States, 1961-1990 once again 29,100.

Population

Switzerland - Americans by population

• Ethnic group of the United States