If you look at the Nobel Prizes, which represent the highest academic level in the world, you will find that Americans seem to occupy half of them, with a full 376 people. Presumably before this, no one expected that this country, established just over 300 years ago, would not only become the only superpower in the world today, but also a gathering place for top science and technology and academics. Are Americans inherently better than others? The answer is obviously not. When we look back at those talents who have made outstanding contributions to the United States, we will find that they are not native Americans at all (they settled in North America before the founding of the country). The vast majority are high-end talents who immigrated to the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as the well-known Einstein, Nikola Tesla, "Steel King Andrew" Drew Carnegie, and "Google Founder" "People" Sergey Brin, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and the nine Americans who won the Nobel Prize in 2016 are actually immigrants. So what is the reason why these top talents are flocking to the United States? Is it the changes in the world situation, or is it the charm of the United States itself? When we analyze these factors, we may be able to get some "powerful" experience from them. First of all, it cannot be denied that the entire world situation at that time was indeed tilted towards the United States, which is what we call external factors. For example, the greatest physicist in modern history, Albert Einstein, was originally of German Jewish descent, but was convicted of "treason" by Germany for signing the anti-fascist manifesto drafted by Babisse in 1927. This behavior of the German authorities not only caused Einstein to resolutely become an American citizen in 1940, but he even never set foot on his homeland again for the rest of his life. This was in the mid-20th century, during the European anti-Semitic movement during World War II. In fact, as early as the 1880s, in order to escape the anti-Semitic persecution that broke out in Russia and neighboring countries, European (especially Eastern European) Jews set off a wave of immigration to the United States, with a total of more than 2 million people. According to records, the New York City Jewish Community Registry at that time required more than 1,500 pages of paper just to compile a directory of Jewish associations and institutions in the city. In other words, the war in Europe is the most objective factor that prompted a large number of people to immigrate to the United States in search of safety. In addition, non-Jewish Europeans also immigrated to the United States through various channels starting in the 1920s and 1930s, totaling three times. The first time was from 1820 to 1860, with 5 million people; the second time was from 1860 to 1890, with a maximum of 10 million people; and the third time was from 1890 to 1930, with a peak of 22 million people. Just like the Jewish people who had to leave their homeland because of the anti-Semitic movement, these European immigrants also had objective conditions that forced them to leave their homeland and cross the ocean. Firstly, although Europe regained peace after the Napoleonic War, the demobilization of a large number of armies aggravated the unemployment phenomenon. Coupled with the rapid development of the Industrial Revolution, the entire Europe experienced overcapacity. The large number of unemployed people also caused extreme social instability. For this reason Engels said: The industrial revolution completely turned workers into simple extremes and deprived them of their last remaining freedom of independent activity. However, he used this to force them to think and force them to fight for their due status. In other words, although the rise of the Industrial Revolution caused the national power of European countries to greatly expand, at the same time social conflicts also began to intensify, and workers' resistance became serious. For example, in the early and mid-19th century, the "Luddite Movement" and the *** movement broke out in Britain with the aim of destroying machines; the German Revolution in Germany; the February Revolution in France; everyone thought that machines had taken away their jobs. , and force them to become puppets of repetitive labor. However, these labor movements ended in failure one by one under the violent suppression of the capitalists, eventually forcing the working class to immigrate to the United States in droves. To sum up, under objective conditions, the reasons for immigrating to the United States are simply to avoid war and to find a new starting point in life. Of course, in addition to this, there is another unavoidable condition, which is poverty. The most striking example is the wave of Chinese immigrants to the United States in the late Qing Dynasty. After the Opium War in 1840, the power of the Qing Dynasty gradually weakened, especially when China and the United States signed the Burlingame Treaty in 1868, which stated: The Qing Dynasty and the United States earnestly hope that the people of the Qing Dynasty may go to other countries or wish to stay permanently or travel to each other at any time, and they will listen to their own interests. It's convenient, and it can't be blocked. Coupled with the discovery of gold mines in California at that time, a large number of Chinese came to mine gold, especially Cantonese. According to statistics from the "Oriental Magazine" in 1907, the number of Chinese workers in the United States had exceeded 200,000 at this time, and they were mainly concentrated in mining and railway construction. But as mentioned at the beginning, ordinary people immigrating to the United States can certainly build the United States, but it seems unrealistic to require them to contribute to America's top science and technology. Among the outstanding immigrant talents in modern American history, they are not the descendants of ordinary people who immigrated to the United States, but intellectuals who have already achieved considerable achievements in their home countries. For example, when Nikola Tesla became an American citizen in 1891, he admitted that he cherished his American citizenship more than all his inventions. You must know that Tesla had already become famous at this time, and he definitely did not come to the United States because of poverty or asylum.

So what are the subjective conditions that promote the migration of these top intellectuals? As early as 1783, when Britain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris and Washington became the first president of the United States, the United States became the first country in the world to advocate democracy, freedom, and equality based on the separation of powers. At that time, the United States was actually formed based on the political system constructed by European Enlightenment ideas. Everything they did was to prevent the emergence of autocracy, to limit centralization and to check and balance power. You must know that Washington announced the disbandment of the military when he took office, in order to prevent soldiers from taking power and centralizing power. It is conceivable that the entire American people hated autocratic centralization at that time. Various measures like these have made the United States a beacon for educating intellectuals through Enlightenment thought in Europe. Although it is somewhat derogatory when we talk about American democracy now, you have to think about the entire world environment at that time. At this time, China was at a turning point in the Qianlong era, France was on the eve of the Great Revolution, and the entire Europe was on the eve of the bourgeoisie's opposition to the feudal social system. At this time, the United States suddenly emerged, which naturally had great appeal to people with democratic ideals. In addition, the United States is vast and sparsely populated, and has the same roots as Europe. With the vigorous development of the western region, countless civilians, working class people with dreams, and even frustrated aristocrats and intellectuals in Europe have regarded the United States as a new starting point. At the same time, what we cannot ignore is that because the United States is a country of immigrants, there is no regional discrimination for white Europeans (whites only). Any talent can get the support of large sums of money here. For example, Tesla met the funding of capitalist and entrepreneur George Westinghouse, which gave him enough capital to defeat Edison and win the biggest prize in the history of science. The famous "Battle of Electricity". From here we can see that although objective factors are indispensable for the development of the United States, the subjective factors existing in the United States itself are the biggest reason why a large number of intellectuals and capitalists were willing to stay away from their homeland and settle in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries. reason. And this situation will create a crowd effect, causing more and more top talents to flow into a certain country, thus pushing up its strength in all aspects. Naturalization is never a bad thing.