CASE STUDY - Far Place (Detroit)

Question 1

What was the character of Detroit like in the early 1900’s

Answer 1

• primary industry was mining

Question 2

What was the character of Detroit like from the 1910-1920’s?

Answer 2

• Henry Ford began automobile factories
• increase in assembly production
• Ford, General motors and Chrysler expand and thrive

Question 3

Why was there high immigration in Detroit in the 1930’s?

Answer 3

• workers moved to the area to benefit from the higher wages working in the factories
• imagery of the ‘American dream’

Question 4

What began to go wrong with the economic situation of Detroit?

Answer 4

• globalisation and competition from Japanese/German car manufacturers led to a decline in demand for cars from the Detroit companies

Question 5

What was Detroit’s population like in the 1950’s?

Answer 5

Highest population - 1.8 million people

Question 6

What happened during the inner city decay between the 1960’s and 1970’s?

Answer 6

Deindustrialisation
- increase in oil prices made using US cars more expensive
- increase in demand for foreign cars
- factories in the inner city closed down and factories began to outsource

Desegregation
- neighbourhoods with people of colour were neglected and racial tensions rose
- black families began to move into predominantly white areas as an attempt to integrate
- led to the white flight
- people leaving the inner city meant that it was deprived of essential services

Question 7

What did the population of Detroit end up decreasing to in the 2000’s?

Answer 7

700,000