Random Biggest Mass Deportations and What the Consequences Were (13 items)

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  (#1) The Partition Of India And Pakistan - Around 15 Million

  As a final, brutal middle finger to the Indian subcontinent, the British government partitioned the region into two separate nations when colonial rule ended in 1947: India and Pakistan. Hindus and Muslims were instantly pitted against each other; the latter formed the majority in Pakistan, the former did so in India. 

  The division led to one of the greatest human migrations in history. Around 15 million people fled their homes as widespread violence between the two religious groups claimed the lives of around one million people.

  While the mass movement of people across the borders of India and Pakistan is typically desribed as a migration, it occurred as a result parties beyond local control creating an environment of hostility and violence that essentially forced large portions of the population to leave ancestral homelands to remote parts of the subcontinent to avoid persecution, harassment, beatings, and death. The British government inadvertantly presented tens of millions of people with an ultimatum - leave, or suffer and maybe die. 
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  (#13) King Edward I Expelled 2,000 Jews From England

  In 1290, King Edward I of England passed a decree banishing Jews from England for more than 350 years. The Edict of Expulsion resulted in the deportation of around 2,000 Jews. This measure was met with little resistance by the public, as it was partly the result of rising anti-Semitism across England. It was also due to King Edward’s critical financial situation. He got himself into major debt and imposed a hefty tax on the people of England. He figured more people would be accepting of the tax if he promised to expel the Jews.
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  (#12) Expulsion of the Acadians - About 11,500

  During the French and Indian War, the British deported some 11,500 Acadians from modern day Canada’s maritime provinces: Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. The Acadians were the descendants of French Colonists who settled in those parts of Canada. Even when their land was taken by the British after 1713, the Acadians were granted relative autonomy. But Britain grew suspicious of rebellion after the Acadians refused to sign an oath of allegiance to the crown.

  In what became known as the Great Upheaval or Great Expulsion, under orders from governor Charles Lawrence, British soldiers pillaged Arcadian land, burning farms and crops. Thousands were shipped off to various English colonies throughout modern-day America, while others landed in France and the Caribbean. Thousands died on the voyage, in overcrowded, disease-ridden ships.

  Acadians were not sent to Louisiana, though many were attracted to the place because of their familiarity with the language. Those who ended up there helped develop Cajun culture. They were allowed to return to Acadia in 1764.
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  (#7) Spanish Expulsion Of The Jews - About 200,000

  The year 1492 was infamously portentous for the indigenous people of the western hemisphere, though also a very bad one for Jewish residents of Spain. As Christoper Columbus wrote in his diary:

  “In the same month in which their Majesties [Ferdinand and Isabella] issued the edict that all Jews should be driven out of the kingdom and its territories, in the same month they gave me the order to undertake with sufficient men my expedition of discovery to the Indies.”

  Spanish Jews either had to convert to Catholicism or leave the country under Isabella’s Alhambra Decree. Some 200,000 Jews are thought to have been forced out of Spain, many of whom ended up in North Africa, Turkey, Italy and the Netherlands.

  As of 2014, Spain offers reparations to the descendants of Jews expelled from country: anyone who can trace ancestry to Sephardic Jews is granted Spanish citizenship. 
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  (#5) Operation Wetback - 1.1 Million

  In 1954, barely 20 years after the Mexican Repatriation, President Eisenhower oversaw the deportation of an estimated 1.1 million undocumented Mexican immigrants. Trump referred to Eisenhower’s “Operation Wetback” as a success during his campaign.

  "The Eisenhower mass deportation policy was tragic," said Alfonso Aguilar, of the American Principles Project’s Latino Partnership.

  "Human rights were violated. People were removed to distant locations without food and water. There were many deaths, unnecessary deaths. Sometimes even US citizens of Hispanic origin, of Mexican origin were removed. It was a travesty. It was terrible. Immigrants were humiliated. So, to say it's a success story is ridiculous. It shows that Mr. Trump doesn't know what he's talking about."
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  (#8) British Deportation Of Criminals And Dissenters To Australia - Approximately 162,000

  In 18th century England, overpopulation and job scarcity drove the crime rate through the roof. Prisons were overrun and convicts were dying at alarming rates. Until 1782, England sent excess prisoners to colonies in the Americas. When the American Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the newly independent nation no longer accepted prisoners from its former oppressor.

  So, the British began sending convicts to penal colonies in Australia. In 1788, the first convicts were deported from England to Botany Bay. The last shipment occurred in 1868; in total, approximately 162,000 men prisoners were deported to Australia.  

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