L2: What is a Modern City?

Question 1

Population of largest cities in 430 BC

Answer 1

200 000 people

Question 2

Population of 25th largest city in 430 BC

Answer 2

45 000 people

Question 3

Location of Largest Cities - 430 BC

Answer 3

1) Eastern Mediterranean (Greece, Western middle east)
2) Mesopotamia (present day Iraq)
3) North eastern India
4) Eastern China

Fall in narrow 20* to 40*N latitude band

Question 4

Technology of Early Cities (430 BC)

Answer 4

Mostly in Iron Age (China and India are at the end of the iron age)

Buildings made of wood

Transport = by foot or horse (limited 5 km/h or 15 km/h travel time) on limited roads

Water transport = limited ship technology (rowing, or wind powered sails)

Question 5

Economic Activity of Early Cities (430 BC)

Answer 5

Purely agricultural, significant hunting and gathering cultures (except for some cities had small scale iron and bronze craft production)

Limited trade

Mostly in subsistence agriculture, w/ exception to urban centers

Cities = primarily religious, admin, trade centers

Question 6

Geographic Distribution of Modern Cities (Today)

Answer 6

Farther North and South, greater geographic distribution across continents

Question 7

Modern Technology

Answer 7

Tech = based on electronics, steel construction, energy sources = fossil fuel + nuclear

Timber production is industrializes

Agriculture is industrialized and energy-intensive

Very few areas rely on subsistence agriculture (or hunting/gathering)

Transport = railroads, planes, trucks, mostly rely on petroleum

Extensive rail/road networks, esp in highly urbn

Relatively few people involved in agriculture

Question 8

Modern Economy

Answer 8

Highly integrated global economy (globalization)

Globalization of industry and services

Service economy&raquo_space; than manufacturing

Movement of capital is of interest (Finance is now a dominant economic sector)

Question 9

Urban Center of Gravity

Answer 9

The average location of the largest cities weighted by population

Question 10

Urban Center of Gravity (430 BC - 1500 AD)

Answer 10

Some wester shift (reflects rise of Roman Empire in southern mediterranean)
Back where is stated in 1500 AD

Question 11

Urban Center of Gravity Trends (1500-1800 AD)

Answer 11

Big northwest jump

Reflects rise of European cities based on mercantile and colonial economies

Period of early European colonization

Seems minor compared to subsequent movement

Question 12

Urban Center of Gravity (1800 -2000)

Answer 12

More changes than in the previous thousand years

Westward shift 1800-1900 (largest shift)

1900 - 1950: slight shift south

1950 - 2010: Center reverses course and moves south and easternward (accelerated pace)

Question 13

First and Second Industrial Revolution

Answer 13

1800s

Fundamentally changed cities and global economy

Agriculture + trade –> Industrial Manufacturing

Question 14

Modern City

Answer 14

“Pure Modern Cities” are arguably “Pure industrial cities”

Question 15

Location of 25 Largest Cities in 1900

Answer 15

Mostly clustered in Europe

Smaller cluster in Eastern NA (Boston, NY, Philly)

Some modern cities elsewhere

Question 16

Global Changes over 20th Century

Answer 16

(1) Industrial Manufacturing shifting east after 20th century
(2) Areas underwent industrialization NA and EU already did
(3) Different socio-political dynamics
(4) Global south would not just replicate NA patterns

Question 17

Mumbai as a Modern City

Answer 17

Originally composed of seven separate islands

Modernization of Mumbai is because of urban development in Europe

Imperialism and British control

Question 18

Economic Centre of Gravity

Answer 18

Similar to Cities pop trends until 1900

Less southward shift after 1900

Suggests that post-industrialization urbanization is less economically significant

Arguable decoupling of industrialization as an economic activity and urbanization as a settlement power

Question 19

Economic Centre of Gravity 1 AD

Answer 19

China and India were the world’s largest economies (Post -Iron Age economies)

Question 20

Economic Centre of Gravity (1 AD - 1950)

Answer 20

European industrialization and America’s rise drew the economic centre of gravity into the Atlantic

Question 21

Economic centre of Gravity (1950 - 2000)

Answer 21

Japan’s economic boom made it the second-largest economy in the world, pulling the centre north

Question 22

Economic Centre of Gravity (2000-2025)

Answer 22

As China has regained economic leadership, the centre is now retracing its footsteps towards the East

Decoupling of industrialization as an economic activity and urbanization as a settlement power (why the economic centre is still northern, despite industrialization of the global south)

Question 23

“New” Cities

Answer 23

New, modern cities are cities shaped by new global economy

Mostly in southern hemisphere (Asia)

Greenfield development (where there is no previous city existing)

Built in response to economic activities

Used in an attempt to spark economic innovations or for geopolitical purposes

Question 24

Forest City, Malaysia

Answer 24

Takes new city logic to the extreme

Built on land built by dredging the sea bed (creates new dry land where there used to be water

Funded by the Chinese gov as part of geopolitical strategy to expand China’s influence globally and regionally (was for citizens to invest in cities outside the county)

Very similar imagery to Metropolis’ Babylon tower

Question 25

Georg Simmel

Answer 25

Author of "The Metropolis and Mental Life" (1903) What makes living in a city different than living elsewhere? 1) Large and mobile urban populations 2) World of strangers: Far to many people to know personally, but encounter daily

Question 26

Paul Bairoch

Answer 26

Author of "Urbanism in Developed Countries (1700 -1800)

Question 27

Summary of Urbanism in Developed Countries 1700-1800

Answer 27

Industrial Revolution --> economic explosion --> radical change in cities Population shift from rural to urban

Question 28

Fraction of Modern Population that lives in Cities

Answer 28

More than 2/3 of pop lives in cities

Question 29

Fraction of City-Dwellers that live in large urban agglomerations (today)

Answer 29

Over 1/2 of city-dwellers live in large urban agglomerations (pop + 500 000)

Question 30

2 Consequences of Industrial Revolution

Answer 30

1) Population Explosion | 2) Advancements in industrial/agricultural production

Question 31

Global Population at the Beginning of Christian Era

Answer 31

200 -350 million people

Question 32

Global Population in 1340 AD

Answer 32

400-500 million people

Question 33

Global Population 1700 AD

Answer 33

700 million people

Question 34

Global Population 1985

Answer 34

4.8 billion people

Question 35

Iron Production Changes (1000 - 1700 AD)

Answer 35

Iron Capita may have double (probably overestimation)

Question 36

Iron Production Changes (1700 - 1980)

Answer 36

Iron per capita increased by over 180 times

Question 37

Changes in Agriculture Production (1700 - 1980)

Answer 37

Today 1/14 people work in agriculture (in developed wester nations) compared to 11/14 people two centuries ago Despite smaller % of workforce in agriculture, greater quantity and diversity of outputs

Question 38

Life Expectancy (Roman Empire to 1700)

Answer 38

28-35 years old

Question 39

Life Expectancy (1980s)

Answer 39

75 in developed western world | 45-50 yrs old in 3rd World

Question 40

Contrasts in regional development in 18th century Europe

Answer 40

England: 750 000-850 000 pp in cities (1700) --> 2100 000 1800 Continent: period of stagnation and decline in urbanization Decline in level of urbanization often "suggests that the region had reached a threshold difficult, if not impossible, to surpass w/in the framework of traditional economies" (215) Russia: Incomplete data, no significant trends

Question 41

Urbanization % of 19th Century

Answer 41

England: - 40% --> 68% (1880) Europe: - 1800 --> 12% - 1880 --> 19% - WW1 --> 42%

Question 42

Number of People in cities (1300 AD)

Answer 42

8 million pp

Question 43

Number of people in cities (1700)

Answer 43

13 million pp

Question 44

Number of people in cities (1800)

Answer 44

19 million

Question 45

Number of people in cities (1910)

Answer 45

127 million pp

Question 46

Bernand Lepetit

Answer 46

Study "The Evolution of the Notion of Cities in the Geographical Descriptions of France (1650-1850)" - ( Paper noting the size of urban agglomerations and consequences touching the very nature of urbanization and thus the criteria used to define it as well

Question 47

20th Century Cyclical Patterns in Urbanization

Answer 47

WW2 and Great depression 1930s - slowed urbanization Recession in 1974-75, energy crisis - slowed urbanization Weaker correlation b/w levels of developped (per capita gross national product) and the level of urbanization by the end of the 20th centruy

Question 48

Why did urbanization slow down in the seventies?

Answer 48

"The impact of changes in the attitudes and behavior of urban populations themselves" Growth of interest in ecology and concomitantly in rural way of life "Hyper urbanized societies very likely contain within their own growth the seed of this sort of reaction against the conditions of urban existence" (220)

Question 49

Absolute limit of Urban Growth

Answer 49

Harmonization of levels of urbanization "The closer urbanization comes to its absolute limit, the greater the role played in any country by national factors peculiar to it" (220) ``` Geographic characteristics of countries Political cast (size of country, form of gov, economic policies) ```