Lithuanian+Immigration+and+General+History

Lithuanian Immigration During the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries and a General History
Lithuania is a small country in Northern Europe on the southeastern shore of the Baltic sea. This country shares it borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast and Poland to the southwest. It is about 25,173 square miles(65,200 square kilometers) with 99km of coastline, 38 km of which is on the Baltic. Lithuania has a population of around 3.4 million in 2007, most of which is centered around their capital, Vilnius. Their infant mortality rate is 5.9 out of 1000 with a life expectancy for women to be 79 years old. The male life expectancy is 69. Lithuania Leads Europe in suicide rate, 42.1 every 100,000 people as of 2007. They speak Lithuanian and use the Lita (Lt) currency. Lithuania is a generally wealthy and educated country with less than 2% of their population under the poverty line and the adult literacy rate at 99.6%.

Lithuania had a very rough history. They changed government and control so many times throughout their past; they were not even independent until February 16, 1918. It all started with King Mindaugas, who created the Kingdom of Lithuania, which included parts of present day Belarus, Ukraine, Poland and Russia. By the 14th century it was one of the biggest countries in Europe and the last pagan statehood. In 1401, Poland and Lithuania fought together to come out with a victory in the large Battle of Grunewald. This lead to their unification in 1569 to create the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They were technically one country, but stayed separate by having their own army, currency and statuary law. In 1795, Lithuania dissolved into the Partition of Commonwealth, by being forced to give up lands to Russia, Prussia and Austria. After a long time of being controlled by others, there was a war between Lithuania and the newly established Poland. The war lasted a year, and by the end, Lithuania established their independence on February 16, 1918. In doing this, they changed their capital, Kaunas, which was previously inside Polish borders, to Vilnius.But by the beginning of World War II, Lithuania was under German controlled. The Holocaust spread through this country, wiping out 780,000 people. Lithuania is primarily Roman Catholic, 79%. It is 9% Lutheranism, 4.9% Eastern Orthodox and 1.9% Protestant. 1.6% are Jewish, Islamic or practice Karaism while 9.5% of the population lacks a religion.

Now in America, there are about 659,992 people with full or partial Lithuanian descent. During the late 19th century and early 20th century, an estimated 300,000 immigrants arrived from Lithuania. 48% of them were illiterate. Now in 2008, there is an estimated 165,000 so far. Many were driven to America because of a year-long famine during 1867 and more recently WWI and WWII.Their constant loss of independence was also a great push factor. The pull of America's economic opportunities, along with the "Displaced Persons Act" and the decline of the dollar, caused many Lithuanians to immigrated. But most did not plan on staying. Their goal was to wait for the hard times back in Lithuania to be over and to make some money to have a good life when they returned. 55% actually returned home. Many more Lithuanian immigrants went to Ireland and the UK during hard times since it was closer and possibly safer. The remaining were mostly Jews escaping the Holocaust or others coming primarily for economic opportunities. The Jewish people were mainly artisans, merchants and moneylenders. Others were manual laborers working in coalmines, slaughterhouses, steel mills(primarily the early stages of steel production). This caused many immigrants to settle in the Northeast and Midwest. The settled in Pennsylvania, upstate New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut in the Northeast and Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, California, and Pittsburgh. Today the three top Lithuanian states are Illinois with 87,294 registered Lithuanians, Pennsylvania with 78,330 registered Lithuanian immigrants and California with 51,406 registered immigrants. There are alos 51,054 legal Lithuanian immigrants in Massachusetts and 49,083 in New York. Today, Lithuanians make up about .2% or our whole population.