Migration A World History Sparknotes

Migration: A World History by Michael H. Fisher describes the evolution of human migration. The history of human migration begins with the first evidence of migration and follows five main themes until present day: survival, trading, religion, forced migration and displacement, and politics. To outline the most important concepts of Fisher’s book, the chapters will be summarized in sequential order. The first piece of evidence of human migration was a preserved body with plants and clothing form other lands named Ötzi (Fisher 2). It is assumed that he, like most other Homo sapiens, migrated “to unknown areas in search of new opportunities” (Fisher 4). During Ötzi’s time it was common that these new opportunities were based on survival and the necessity to follow desirable weather for the protection of crops, livestock, or self.

Though some people were encouraged to migrate—either into city centers or out of empire boarders—many more were forced to migrate often because of religious or cultural differences. For instance, the Safavid and Ottoman Empires enslaved people and brought them to their empires and forced people out of their empire if they did not fit the empire’s cultural or religious standards. This exclusive mindset can be seen in the Roman Catholic Church’s Inquisition in which, “many other European nations also sought to expel people they considered foreigners” . A harsh form of forced migration was developed when rulers enslaved foreign people in large numbers (often from Africa) and sent them to new lands to work as slaves. The discovery of the Americas lead to enormous amounts of immigration from Europe and “millions of Africans were enslaved and exported over the Atlantic Ocean”. While some, like the Japanese Shogun, wanted to isolate itself from the outside world, the rest of the world saw this new wave of global migration as an opportunity for