What pushed and pulled millions of people to migrate across the industrial-age world?
Topic 6.6 Causes of Migration in an Interconnected World: the push and pull factors, both coerced and voluntary, that drove the great migrations of the industrial age, including industrial demand, transport, and labor systems.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 6.6, explaining the causes of industrial-age migration: push factors like famine and poverty, pull factors like jobs and land, the role of steamships and railways, and the labor systems behind voluntary, indentured, and coerced migration.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 6.6 covers the causes of migration in the industrial age. It asks you to explain the push and pull factors that drove the great migrations of 1750 to 1900, the difference between voluntary, indentured, and coerced migration, and the role of new transport technology and the global demand for labor in moving tens of millions of people across the world.
What drives migration: push and pull
Push factors
People left for many reasons.
- Famine and poverty. Crop failures and hunger, such as the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s, drove millions to emigrate.
- Overpopulation and loss of land. Rural populations grew while land grew scarce, and enclosure and commercialization pushed peasants off the land.
- Persecution. Religious and ethnic persecution, such as pogroms against Jews in Eastern Europe, forced people to flee.
Pull factors and labor demand
Destinations offered opportunity.
Technology makes mass migration possible
The scale was new because the means were new.
The defining enabler was transport technology. Steamships made ocean crossings faster, cheaper, and far safer than sailing ships, while railways carried migrants overland to ports and onward to inland destinations. Travel that had once been slow, dangerous, and expensive became accessible to ordinary people. As a result, tens of millions migrated - Europeans to the Americas, Indians and Chinese across the Indian and Pacific Ocean worlds - in the largest movement of people the world had yet seen.
Try this
Q1. Name the 1840s famine that drove mass emigration from Ireland. [Recall]
- Cue. The Irish Potato Famine.
Q2. Explain one way technology enabled the mass migrations of this period. [Short explanation]
- Cue. Steamships made ocean crossings faster, cheaper, and safer, and railways carried migrants to ports and inland destinations, so far more ordinary people could undertake long-distance migration than ever before.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2020 (style)3 marksBriefly identify ONE push factor for migration in this period. Briefly identify ONE pull factor. Briefly explain ONE way technology enabled mass migration.Show worked answer →
A Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per bullet.
A. Push factor: famine, poverty, or persecution drove people to leave home, such as the Irish fleeing the Potato Famine.
B. Pull factor: the promise of jobs, higher wages, or available land in places like the Americas and Australia attracted migrants.
C. Technology: steamships and railways made long-distance travel faster, cheaper, and safer, so far more people could migrate than ever before.
Each bullet must be concrete.
AP 2022 (style)6 marksEvaluate the most significant cause of the mass migrations of the period c. 1750 to c. 1900.Show worked answer →
A Long Essay Question (LEQ), scored on the 6-point causation rubric.
Thesis (1): "The most significant cause of mass migration was the new global demand for labor created by industrialization and export economies, which drew both free and indentured migrants, though push factors like famine and the new transport that made travel cheap were also essential."
Contextualization (1): situate migration in the integrated industrial-age world economy.
Evidence (2): industrial and plantation labor demand; indentured labor from India and China; famine and poverty as push factors; steamships and railways.
Analysis (2): explain HOW labor demand pulled migrants across the world, then add complexity by weighing it against push factors and the technology that made mass movement possible.
Related dot points
- Topic 6.7 Effects of Migration: the demographic, cultural, social, and political effects of industrial-age migration, including diasporas, ethnic enclaves, changing gender roles, and nativist backlash.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 6.7, explaining the effects of industrial-age migration: new diasporas and ethnic enclaves, changing gender roles in home and host societies, cultural exchange and new identities, and the nativist backlash including anti-immigration laws.
- Topic 6.4 Global Economic Development from 1750 to 1900: the new global economy of industrialization, including the rise of export economies, the demand for raw materials, and a new international division of labor.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 6.4, explaining the new global economy of the industrial age: rising demand for raw materials like cotton, rubber, and palm oil, the rise of export economies, the international division of labor, and the shift from coerced to wage and indentured labor.
- Topic 5.5 Technology of the Industrial Age: the new technologies and energy sources of the first and second industrial revolutions and how they changed production, transport, and communication.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 5.5, explaining the technologies of the first and second industrial revolutions: the steam engine and coal, then steel, electricity, the internal combustion engine, and chemicals, and how they transformed production, transport, and communication.
- Topic 4.7 Changing Social Hierarchies from 1450 to 1750: how the new economic and political developments of this period changed social hierarchies, including the rise of new elites and the creation of new racial and social categories.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 4.7, explaining how the new transoceanic economy reshaped social hierarchies between 1450 and 1750, including the rise of merchant and gentry elites, the creation of racial categories such as the casta system in the Americas, and continuities in existing hierarchies.
- Topic 4.2 Causes of Exploration from 1450 to 1750: the political, economic, and religious causes of the maritime voyages of this period, and the major state-sponsored expeditions they produced.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 4.2, explaining the political, economic, and religious causes of European maritime exploration between 1450 and 1750, including the search for wealth and spices, state competition, and the role of figures such as Columbus, da Gama, and Magellan.
Sources & how we know this
- AP World History: Modern Course and Exam Description — College Board (2020)