GEOG 340: DAY 3Phases of North American Urban Development

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS The Geography Department is having a

welcome back social in the map library/ lounge (next door) at 10:30. Please come out and meet faculty and your fellow students. Normally, we have pizza, but it’s little early to source it at that time of day.

For those of you familiar with West Linley Valley, it is facing its ‘last stand’ and concerned citizens are holding a public meeting on Wednesday, September 18th at 7 p.m. in the Kin Hut in Departure Bay (Kinsmen Park).

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS

We need to start signing people up for specific discussion topics and dates.

I will hand out the instructions for the major assignment today and put it up on the web site. I will also walk you through it.

Any other questions or concerns?

PHASES OF NORTH AMERICAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Each “set of urban settlements is both the product of, and a continuing framework for, processes of economic, technological, demographic, political, and social change” (p. 47). What does this mean?

Five distinct phases:• Frontier era (pre-independence)• Mercantile era – further development of

central places (1790 to 1840)• Expansion and realignment in response to

early industrialization (1840-1875)

PHASES OF NORTH AMERICAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

• Full-blown industrial era (1875 -1920)• Fordist mass production (1920-1945)

We will deal with more recent developments later.• Frontier establishments were created by the

colonizing powers (Spain, France, Great Britain, and Holland) were a variety of purposes: trade, commerce and administration, conversion of the indigenous populations, and maintaining a military presence.

PHASES OF NORTH AMERICAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

• Spain: Sante Fe, St. Augustine, San Antonio, Santa Barbara, , Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. All of these, except St. Augustine became part of Mexico until they were wrested away by the United States in the 1840s.

• Holland: New York (later taken over by Britain).• France: Quebec, Montréal, Detroit, St. Louis,

and New Orleans.• Britain: Jamestown, Williamsburg, Boston,

Newport, Charleston, Philadelphia, and numerous settlements in Canada.

PHASES OF NORTH AMERICAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

• With the founding of Jamestown in 1607, tobacco was first grown for export back to Britain, and in 1619 Africans were kidnapped from their homes to work the tobacco fields in Virginia.

• Britain banned the slave trade in 1807, but it was maintained in the U.S. until 1865, and lingered afterwards in disguised forms.

• Some settlements in the U.S. had an explicitly religious or spiritual purpose (Provincetown, Boston, and Philadelphia).

PHASES OF NORTH AMERICAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

• These new towns became “gateway cities” – assembling staples for export, distributing imported goods, and providing an administrative function. Later on the settlements began to link in a hierarchy rather than remaining separate.

• Some towns, in particular, served an entrêpot function – centralizing the import and export role of the other towns, especially in relation to an increasingly large hinterland.

PHASES OF NORTH AMERICAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

• In the mercantile era, the links between communities grew, in the U.S. investment was increasingly staying “onshore” (not so in Canada), the U.S.’s independence required more administration, and westward expansion required more frontier towns for service and administration (e.g. Santa Fe). [For an overview of the James Vance’s mercantile model, see pp. 51-52.]

• Growth also occurred along river ports – St. Louis and New Orleans. To compete the Atlantic seaboard merchants created inland canals, such as the Erie (1825).

PHASES OF NORTH AMERICAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

• Cities began to develop a specialized function based on comparative advantage.

• Eastern ports began to export early manufactures from New England.

• Growing immigration (mainly from Europe) provided a source of labour, as did rural-to-urban migration fuelled by advances in agricultural productivity, especially later.

• Cities and towns were organized on the basis of walking and horse carts or horses, and they were loosely segregated on the basis of class and caste (see p. 53).

PHASES OF NORTH AMERICAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

• Immigration was also extensive in Canada (see next page). The development of an increasingly extensive railway network allowed for a massive expansion of trade and settlement. In the U.S., its development was like a spider web; in Canada it was much more linear as settlement tended to hug the U.S. border. The creation of a coast-to-coast railway was the basis/ condition for Confederation in 1867.

Series A350.

Immigrant arrivals in Canada, 1852 to 1977

Year Number Year Number Year Number Year Number Year Number

350 350 350 350 350

1950 73,912 1920 138,824 1890 75,067 1860 6,276

1949 95,217 1919 107,698 1889 91,600 1859 6,300

1948 125,414 1918 41,845 1888 88,766 1858 12,339

1977 114,914 1947 64,127 1917 72,910 1887 84,526 1857 33,854

1976 149,429 1946 71,719 1916 55,914 1886 69,152 1856 22,544

1975 187,881 1945 22,722 1915 36,665 1885 79,169 1855 25,296

1974 218,465 1944 12,801 1914 150,484 1884 103,824 1854 37,263

1973 184,200 1943 8,504 1913 400,870 1883 133,624 1853 29,464

1972 122,006 1942 7,576 1912 375,756 1882 112,458 1852 29,307

1971 121,900 1941 9,329 1911 331,288 1881 47,991

1970 147,713 1940 11,324 1910 286,839 1880 38,505

1969 161,531 1939 16,994 1909 173,694 1879 40,492

1968 183,974 1938 17,244 1908 143,326 1878 29,807

1967 222,876 1937 15,101 1907 272,409 1877 27,082

1966 194,743 1936 11,643 1906 211,653 1876 25,633

1965 146,758 1935 11,277 1905 141,465 1875 27,382

1964 112,606 1934 12,476 1904 131,252 1874 39,373

1963 93,151 1933 14,382 1903 138,660 1873 50,050

1962 74,586 1932 20,591 1902 89,102 1872 36,578

1961 71,689 1931 27,530 1901 55,747 1871 27,773

1960 104,111 1930 104,806 1900 41,681 1870 24,706

1959 106,928 1929 164,993 1899 44,543 1869 18,630

1958 124,851 1928 166,783 1898 31,900 1868 12,765

1957 282,164 1927 158,886 1897 21,716 1867 10,666

1956 164,857 1926 135,982 1896 16,835 1866 11,427

1955 109,946 1925 84,907 1895 18,790 1865 18,958

1954 154,227 1924 124,164 1894 20,829 1864 24,779

1953 168,868 1923 133,729 1893 29,633 1863 21,000

1952 164,498 1922 64,224 1892 30,996 1862 18,294

1951 194,391 1921 91,728 1891 82,165 1861 13,589

INDUSTRIALIZATION Railroads helped create national markets and

economies of scale. New towns grew up or were strengthened with

specialization functions – power sites where industries were able to take advantage of ready sources of power, mining towns, transportation hubs, and heavy manufacturing towns. Can you think of examples of each?

Industrialization tended to occur where craft industries pre-existed , with their available capital, wholesaling, and transportation networks; where there traditions and skills of entrepreneurship; where there were the largest pools of labour, and the largest and most affluent markets.

PRINCIPLES OF URBAN GROWTH

Rank-size rule (Pi = P1 ÷ Ri). Pi is population of the city, Ri is the rank of city by population size, and P1 is the population of the largest city in a country. In theory, if the largest city has a population of 1 million, the fifth largest should have a population of 200,000.

However, some countries have so-called primate cities, which outsize their nearest rivals. For instance, London is seven times as large as the next biggest city in Britain, Birmingham.

• Calculate the ratios for these cities: 1. Toronto (5,741,400)

2. Montreal (3,859,300) 3. Vancouver (2,391,300)

4. Calgary (1,242,600) 5. Ottawa (1,239,100)

PRINCIPLES OF URBAN GROWTH Central Place Theory- developed by Walter Christaller, a

German geographer, this rather abstract theory that, all things being equal, a spatial patterning of cities, towns, villages, and hamlets will evolve in a sort of patchwork quilt across the landscape, as determined by people’s willingness to travel for various goods and services.

As we noted last week, cities offer a broader range of amenities (referred to by geographers as “higher-order goods and services”), smaller settlements fewer.

What would be some examples ? Shortcomings of the model –

can you think of some?

INDUSTRIAL CITIES Immigrants and industrial workers found themselves

crowded into ramshackle slum dwellings, sometimes more than one family to a flat, and with minimal light and fresh air.

They worked long hours and, in some cases, were locked into their factories to keep out union organizers.