Immigration to the United States steadily rose from 1800 to the start of the Civil War. The overwhelming number of immigrants who arrived before the Civil War were from Northern Europe (England, Germany and Ireland. Following the hiatus of the Civil War, immigration rose to its zenith in the period between 1880 and 1910, withimmigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe (Italy, Greece, Poland, Russia comprising the majority of new arrivals. The period between WWI and WWII saw an almost complete halt of immigrants to the United States. Immigration since the 1950s has markedly changed, with the majority of new arrivals coming from Latin America, Asia and Africa.