54 votes

Has there ever been a major migration from the New World to the Old World? If not, why?

As DevSolar mentioned in his comment, this really depends on how you define 'major', but here are several case of migrants moving from the New to the Old World. From the Caribbean to Europe ...
Lars Bosteen's user avatar
49 votes

Has there ever been a major migration from the New World to the Old World? If not, why?

Yes, there has been. As this infographic shows, there has been a back-migration of the DNA haplogroups C1a and A2a from North America (well, Beringia...) back into Asia. The infographic is sourced ...
DevSolar's user avatar
  • 13.4k
48 votes
Accepted

Why did Native Americans originally migrate to the Americas?

However, considering there was little to no knowledge of the new world I wonder why would the tribes risk to travel to far . . . it seems unreasonable [humans would] risk it to migrate towards the ...
Semaphore's user avatar
  • 97.4k
24 votes

Has there ever been a major migration from the New World to the Old World? If not, why?

In addition to Lars Bosteen's answer about modern migration, several hundred thousand South American people have migrated to Spain in the last decades, and Brazilians have became the largest group of ...
Pere's user avatar
  • 3,629
19 votes
Accepted

Why was New Guinea not colonized by Austronesians the way Indonesia was?

I think the vital piece of information you were missing that made this appear to be a mystery was that, unlike a lot of the rest of Indonesia, the native inhabitants of New Guinea that the ...
T.E.D.'s user avatar
  • 118k
15 votes
Accepted

Why have population maps indicated a stark divide in population density of the United States on either side ot the 100th Meridian?

The answer is related to the map you posted about rainfall. The population of the eastern third of the continental US is denser because of settlement patterns that reflect the local availability of ...
Aaron Brick's user avatar
  • 27.6k
9 votes

Has there ever been a major migration from the New World to the Old World? If not, why?

Horses evolved on the North American landmass, emigrated across the Bering land bridge, then went extinct in the Americas.
rhw3h's user avatar
  • 107
9 votes
Accepted

When did migration and international travel become legally limited?

It very much depended on the country. You are right that in Western Europe passports and visas were not required until the end of 19s century. But in the Russian empire, and its predecessor the Great ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 38.5k
8 votes
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What country has the shortest history of human habitation?

Wikipedia has an article called List of countries and islands by first human settlement. The latest by continuous habitation is Crozet Islands, which was discovered in 1772 but was only intermittently ...
congusbongus's user avatar
  • 14.5k
7 votes

As many Germans fled Nazism, did some spies mix in?

There were many people fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s, a lot of them Jewish. Mostly these people were welcomed by Britain. However what greatly complicated their assimilation into British society was ...
WS2's user avatar
  • 2,222
7 votes
Accepted

What is the relationship between the Kurds and the Balochi?

As you mentioned, their linguistic relation to Kurdish does imply a shared history at some time in the past. As near as I can piece together from various sources online, the split may have happened as ...
T.E.D.'s user avatar
  • 118k
7 votes

Why was Madagascar settled by far-flung Austronesian seafarers?

Polynesian navigators made good use of ocean winds and currents. When following the Indian Ocean Gyre, the most logical way to arrive to Madagascar is from the East: If you look up the South Pacific ...
Denis de Bernardy's user avatar
6 votes

When the outbreak of World War II was foreseeable, were any European commoners able to pre-emptively emigrate?

Yes, plenty of people tried to emigrate. However, it was very hard because: Leaving Germany meant Fire Sale - leaving all property behind. It also required a getting a permission from the German ...
sds's user avatar
  • 26.9k
6 votes
Accepted

What were the rules of the migration to the Louisiana Territory in USA?

The question seems to assume the existence of immigration controls, which are a fairly modern invention. The first US law restricting (voluntary) immigration in any significant way wasn't passed until ...
T.E.D.'s user avatar
  • 118k
5 votes

When did migration and international travel become legally limited?

When did government authorities start to enforce generic limitations on who could settle in the area under their control? The Romans attempted to do this when they settled foederati, for example the ...
Doug B's user avatar
  • 2,372
5 votes

As many Germans fled Nazism, did some spies mix in?

I think you are right that a closer look at the makeup of the 33-member Duquesne Nazi Spy Ring might be instructive here. While every member of the ring had pre-existing ties to foreign countries*, ...
T.E.D.'s user avatar
  • 118k
5 votes
Accepted

Is there evidence of people moving east to Europe?

No, they didn't. There is no evidence of human occupation in Iceland before Irish monks and later the Vikings settled there. Eskimo technology wasn't bad at all, kayaks are pretty nifty boats. But not ...
Jos's user avatar
  • 20.9k
5 votes

Were Serbs and Croats one people / tribe in the past? If not, why do they speak the same language?

According to the entry concerning the Southern Slavs it is quite probable that the common language source would be due to common ancestry: The Byzantines broadly grouped the numerous Slav tribes ...
justCal's user avatar
  • 38.6k
4 votes

In epic migrations, why keep going?

The answer lies in the 1000s of years of "keeping going" and the distance every generation of males moves. If you suppose a "generation" takes about 20 years, each son moves 20 ...
ChiTownBob1's user avatar
4 votes

What were levels of insular migration like in pre-Industrial Britain (1650-1780)?

I've also been researching my family history, and my family seems to be another one with "itchy feet". I've traced a few lines back to the civil war, and - although the distances involved seem to be ...
sempaiscuba's user avatar
  • 77.3k
4 votes
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Have any nations returned to their ancient homelands?

The state of Israel was founded in the late 1940s. There were already many Jews living in in Palestine where their ancestors had lived for centuries. But most of the population emigrated there from ...
MAGolding's user avatar
  • 19.1k
3 votes

Is there evidence of people moving east to Europe?

Well, they did, but not before they were discovered by europeans. Some inuits have moved to Denmark since Denmark had Greenland under their jurisdiction.
Ulf Tennfors's user avatar
3 votes

Did the proto-Indo-Europeans displace or overlay the pre-existing European tribes?

Update - February 21, 2017: A new study ... Genetic data suggest that modern European ancestry represents a mosaic of ancestral contributions from multiple waves of prehistoric migration events. ...
J Asia's user avatar
  • 6,313
3 votes

What led Brahmins to migrate to Kerala?

When the earlier Brahmins (Namboodris) migrated to Kerala late in the first millenium, CE, they "acted as priests, counsellors, and advisers to local kings." In other words, they got to perform their "...
Tom Au's user avatar
  • 104k
3 votes

How were the Morisco refugees from Europe received in North Africa, given that they were foreigners and Christian?

In 1492, the Ottoman Empire's Bayezid II sneered at Spain's Ferdinand of Aragon: "you call him a wise ruler, he who has impoverished his own country and enriched mine," with the expulsion of Jews and ...
Tom Au's user avatar
  • 104k
3 votes

Comparing Percentage Of Spanish Nobility Migrating To Latin America To Percentage Of Pan-European Nobility Migrating To USA And Canada

Your question is an interesting one, but difficult to ascertain. It is estimated that around 8% of the Spanish population are descended from nobility, but this does not mean that they all held titles ...
user19665's user avatar
3 votes

When did migration and international travel become legally limited?

Since some of my ancestors emigrated from the Holy Roman Empire to the British colonies in America in the 18th Century, I know there were some bureaucratic procedures. Records in the European ...
MAGolding's user avatar
  • 2,172
3 votes

In epic migrations, why keep going?

You might want to look into the migration of (Germanic-speaking) Vandals and Suebi and (Iranic-speaking) Alans from Central Europe to Spain and then on to Carthago. Or the migrations of the Kalmyks to ...
Jan's user avatar
  • 8,383
3 votes

Is there a connection between kushits and kushans?

No, there isn't. What you have here is a coincidence. There are only so many sounds that the human voice finds easy to use in language, so similar names come up in different language groups. ...
John Dallman's user avatar
  • 31.4k
3 votes

What is the methodogy used to determine the exact genetic flow from one area to another and the times in which it flowed?

Having just read A Short History of Humanity by Krause and Trappe, the argument seems to be as follows: You calculate a "distance" (i.e. probably some useful metric) between the genomes e.g. ...
Jan's user avatar
  • 8,383

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