Date of Award

7-1-1992

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Geography & Geographic Information Science

Abstract

Europeans emigrated to the New World for a variety of reasons. The promise of free land and a better life especially lured many Europeans to North America. When going to a new unsettled area, emigrants have a tendency to go in small, isolated cluster groups which share a primary allegiance to a particular country or province. Such was the case with the Swiss who settled at the Red River Colony on land granted by the Hudson's Bay Company to Thomas Douglas, Fifth Earl of Selkirk, in 1811. The grant was given for the establishment of a farming community at present day Winnipeg, Manitoba.

This thesis provides an overview of the migration patterns using the Push Pull Model of Migration and settlement patterns of a group of people who had little or no background in agriculture and were unsuited to the climate and conditions they encountered, and who have left no significant impact on the cultural landscape of the Red River Valley of the North.

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