Today, Polonians in the United States exceeds 10 million. Polonians (Poles or Polish Americans) are inhabitants of Poland, living in the United States. The history of Poles in the United States dates to the American Colonial era in 1608 and had lived in present-day United States territories for over 400 years. Polish American immigration was divided into three "waves" by historians: 1. the largest from 1870 to 1914, after World War II, and 2. after Poland's independence in 1989 Immigrants in all three waves were attracted by the high wages and job opportunities for unskilled manual labor in the United States (American mining, meatpacking, construction, steelwork, and heavy industry