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The first known French American immigrants migrated to the states to the English Colonies in Amerca during a religious movement known as the reformation. Around this period, many citizens of France and other surrounding European countries protested against some of the doctrines and corrupt practices in the Roman Catholic church.

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The Louisiana Purchase was agreed and 828,000 sq. miles of land was sold by France to the US for 15 million dollars.

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Famine and the Potato Blight led to a massive increase in French Immigration to America from 1846 - 1848.

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Étienne Cabet led his partisans to make a series of unsuccessful attempts to set up something known as Icarian colonies on the Red River Texas, at Nauvoo in Illinois, at Corning in Iowa, and finlly St. Louis, where he eventually died in 1856.

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Another man by the name of Victor Considerant, who at the time was under the influence of Charles Fourier's ideas. In turn, he created and formed the ephermal community, called La Réunion, in Dallas County, Texa.

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When the Civil War had broken out, due to the struggles between two politcal parties. The French Americans living in America had participated in the war, both sides divided supporting the north and the south, as seen with the Lafayette Guards of New York fought under the orders of Régis de Trobriand in the north, while in the southern states, Édouard Lacouture managed to convince Napoleon III to support the South. This further progressed their Americanization.

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The Ellis Island immigration center was opened (1892 - 1954) where immigrants from Europe were required to undertake to medical and legal inspections. Less than 2% of immigrants from France were turned away.

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The Panic of 1893 led to a 4 year economic depression, high unemployment levels reaching 20% and a rise in prejudice and discrimination against immigrants.

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From 1820 to 1900 over 353,000 people from France emigrated to America. The Census of 1930 revealled that there were 135,592 people living in the United States who were born in France.

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After the civil war there was a large increase in the number of French-Canadians arriving in the United States. By 1900 there were over 134,000 French-Canadians in Massachusetts (16 per cent of the state's foreign population).

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An investigation carried out in 1978 revealled that since 1820 over 751,000 people emigrated to the United States from France. This amounted to 1.5 per cent of the total foreign immigration during this period.