Between 1880 to 1920, millions came to U.S. from southern and Eastern Europe and the era would come to be called The Great Wave by historians. Never before had there been such a huge global exodus, with millions immigrating not just to America, but also to Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, anywhere that showed promise. Italians were the largest group of U.S. immigrants, with about 4 million. The Poles were another large number of immigrants with 1 million arriving between the years of 1899 and 1909. Greece was no different. In fact, by 1925, one out of every four Greek men between the ages of 15 and 45 had gone to the U.S. The first generation of Greek immigrants sought escape from poverty and political oppression imposed by the Ottomans