GEOG 340: DAY 3
Phases 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
350
Year
Number
350
Year
Number
350
Year
Number
350
350
1950
73,912
1920
138,824
1890
75,067
1860
1949
95,217
1919
107,698
1889
91,600
1859
6,276
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.