The first to respond on any large scale were the Czechs. They began to come in thousands, also tending toward the Middle West and settling on the new frontiers which had been pushed westward by the coming of the Germans. They soon began to form extensive colonies in the still sparsely settled areas of Nebraska, Iowa, and other states until the coming of the American Civil War, which briefly checked the movement. In their new homes, and in small communities, they formed a large segment of the population. They endeavored to transplant their old traditions and mode of life to America and to establish their own institutions, making changes only as American law and environment dictated.[14] The Poles were the next Slavic people to follow. The earliest immigrants were, as we might expect, from Austrian Poland but after the failure of the uprising of 1863, refugees from Russian Poland and the area under German control began to flow in. The earliest immigrants, like the first Czechs, moved west but after the Civil War the great American industrial expansion began and the majority of later immigrants were attracted by the possibilities for work in the mines and factories which were being built, especially in Pennsylvania. The movement for immigration was sponsored not only by the employers, who desired a constant supply of unskilled and cheap labor, but also by the steamship companies which sent their agents through the European villages and painted in glowing terms the possibilities of advancement and of wealth in the United States. Their blandishments did not fall upon empty ears in the more backward and underprivileged areas. In a steadily increasing stream, there began to come to the United States, Slovaks, Ukrainians from Galicia and the Carpathian area, Croats, and, to a lesser degree, Serbs. There was even a small settlement of Lusatian Serbs in Texas. This process continued until the beginning of World War I. The immigrant ranks included a certain number of educated people but these were to a large degree interested in some form of art, attracted by the opportunities for practicing their talents in the United States. The political immigrants were relatively few for since they had hopes of affecting conditions in their homelands they preferred to find temporary refuge in some European country.