America’s story is a story of migration. People have long been coming to this land—mostly in waves. On the world map below, we’ve divided these migratory waves into six periods, from the first groups that crossed the Bering Land Bridge during the Ice Age to the tens of millions who have arrived since the colonial period and continue to come today.
The colored arrows show roughly where people came from and when. First, the earliest peoples traveled from Siberia into what is now Alaska, then spread across the continent. The next wave, during the 17th to 19th centuries, brought colonists from Europe and enslaved Africans forced out of their homelands. The 19th and early 20th centuries saw millions of immigrants arriving from Europe, Asia, and other regions. The most recent wave, still ongoing, comprises migrants from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and elsewhere, including highly skilled immigrants and refugees from various conflicts.
Study the map and the timeline below—doing further research on key events—and answer the questions.