11.2: Birth of Cities

Cities began to form many thousands of years ago, but there is little agreement among geographers (historians, anthropologists, etc.) about why cities form. Chances are that many different factors are responsible for the rise of cities. Some cities surely owe their existence to multiple factors while others grew largely because of a single factor.

Figure 11-3: Prague, Czech Republic. Massive walls form part of an impressive defensive perimeter around Vyšehrad Castle, likely the location from which Prague grew. The other side of the grounds is a steep cliff down to the Vlata River.

Geographers like to place the causal forces that contribute to the rise of cities into two categories. Site location factors are those elements that favor the growth of a city that can be found at that location. Site factors include things like the availability of water, food, good soils, a quality harbor, and/or characteristics that make a location easy to defend from attack. Situation factors are external elements that favor the growth of a city, such as distance to other cities, or a central location. For example, Singapore has a wonderful advantage over other cities in the region because it is centrally located between important trading ports in East Asian and those in South Asia. Most large cities have good site and situation factors.

Defensible Sites

In Europe, many major cities first grew because they offered residents a measure of protection against violence from outside groups during the Medieval Period. For centuries, rural peasants living in isolated areas were vulnerable to attack. The safest locations were those with quality defensible site characteristics. The European feudal system was, in fact, was built upon an arrangement whereby the local lord/duke/king supplied protection to local rural peasants in exchange for food and taxes. Places that afforded high levels of protection grew and prospered. Where agricultural supplies could not be protected were sure to be ransacked and destroyed. Natural fortifications come in multiple forms. For example, Paris France and Montreal Canada were founded on defensible island sites. Athens Greece was built upon a defensible hillside, called an acropolis. So famous is the Athenian acropolis that it is called simply The Acropolis. On the other hand, Moscow, Russia takes advantage of its remote situation. Both Napoleon and Hitler found out the hard way the challenges associated with attacking Moscow. London, England is not very defensible, so if you visit the Tower of London, the huge castle first built in 1078, you’ll see it has a big (dry now) moat as its main protection.

Figure 11-4: Salorno, Italy. This commanding view of the Adige Valley from the ruins of Haderburg Castle indicates the importance of a defensible location. This site is below the Reschen Pass, a historic pathway for armies across the Alps since at least Roman times.

Figure 11-5: Paris, France. Notre Dame Cathedral built upon the Île de la Cité, a defensible island during the medieval era in the Seine River is the heart of French nationhood. The importance of religion and defense are evident in these images.

In the United States, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans have largely functioned as America’s defensive barriers, therefore few cities in the US are defensible. In fact, Washington, D.C. has no natural defenses. On the only occasion the US was invaded, the city was overrun by the British in the War of 1812. As a result, both the White House and the Capitol were burned to the ground. The poor defensibility of the American capital led to numerous calls for its relocation to a more defensible site during the 1800s. Because many states tried to entice the Federal government to move west, many capitol buildings in the Midwest resemble the US capitol building in Washington D.C.

San Francisco is the best example of a large American city established with defensibility in mind. Located on a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and a large bay, San Francisco’s site location offered a number of military advantages to the Spanish who built the fort, El Presidio Real de San Francisco, there in 1776. The US Army took control of the fort in 1846, and it remained a military base until 1994. Colonial San Francisco featured two kinds of defensible site advantages. It is both a peninsula site and a sheltered harbor site. Cannons positioned on either side of the Golden Gate could fire upon any enemy ships trying to pass into the San Francisco Bay. Armies marching northward up the peninsula would be forced into a handful of narrow passes where an army could focus defensive efforts.

Religious Sites

Even people can become a site factor if a specific person, or group of people, have a valued skill that attracts migrants or helps the city population grow. Consider for example the role religious figures have on cities. Priests and shamans are capable of gathering people of faith near to them, so that, like the armies of the lordly class, they could offer protection and guidance in return for food, shelter, and compensation (like tithes). The priestly class has also often functioned as the primary vessels of knowledge and skills, like writing and science (astronomy, planting calendars, medicine, e.g.). Often a cadre of assistants trained in those endeavors was necessary. Mecca is probably the best example of a religious city, but others dot the landscape of the world. Rome existed before the Catholic faith, but it assuredly grew and prospered as a result of becoming the headquarters of Christianity for hundreds of years.

DID BEER GIVE RISE T O CIVILIZATION?

A related theory posits that beer might have been a motivation in the establishment of cities during the Stone Age. According to some researchers, brewing beer may have stimulated the domestication of grain, and in turn, the abandonment of nomadism. It is also reasonable that storing both grain and liquid alcohol would require the construction warehouses and the employment of armies to protect both. Alcohol may have played a role in developing political alliances, and/or religious activities as well. The health benefits of beer may have also contributed to population growth among those who had regular access because it provides a healthy alternative to unsanitary water, which remains a leading cause of death and malnutrition worldwide.

Figure 11-7: Early Sumerian writing tablet recording information about beer. Source: Wikimedia

Industry and Trade Situations

The production of goods (like beer) and the provision of services is surely another reason why cities have appeared in specific locations over the centuries. Many cities evolved from small trading posts or market towns where agricultural and craft goods were exchanged by local farmers and/or wandering nomads. The surplus wealth generated through trade required protection and fortifications, so cities with walls may have been built to protect marketplaces and vendors from roaming bandits or invading armies.

Some trace the birth of London England to an ancient trading spot called Kingston upon Thames, a market town founded by the Saxons southwest of London’s present core. The place-names of many exceptionally old towns in England reveal their genesis as centers of trade - Market Drayton, Market Harborough, Market Deeping, Market Weighton, Chipping Norton, Chipping Ongar, and Chipping Sodbury. (Chipping is a derivation of a Saxon expression for “to buy”).

Cities, big and small, have always served market functions for those who live in adjacent hinterlands. Some market cities grow much larger than others because they have more advantageous situation factors. In other words, more centrally located trading towns tend to grow more than peripheral ones. Central location relative to other competing marketplaces is another example of an advantageous situation factor. Every major US city, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Houston has some situation factor that improved its competitive advantage in commerce and industry.

Trade Site Locations

Some cities grow large because of specific site location advantages that favor trade or industry. All cities compete against one another to attract industry, but those with quality site factors, like good port facilities and/or varied transportation options, grow larger. All large cities in the US are located where two or more modes of transportation intersect, forming what geographers call a break of bulk point. Breaking bulk occurs when cargo is unloaded from a ship, truck, barge or train. Until the 1970s, unloading (and reloading) freight required a vast number of laborers, and therefore any city that had a busy dock, port, or train station attracted workers. Generally, numerous warehouses and warehouse jobs quickly emerge at break of bulk points. Manufacturing also tends to be attracted to these locations. New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, and Houston all grew very large because each was well served by multiple transportation modes.

River Barriers

Rivers are important for the growth of cities. Obviously, rivers provide fresh water for drinking (and irrigation), but the effect navigable rivers have had on urban growth is hard to overstate. Before the age of trains and highways, rivers were by far the most efficient way to transport heavy cargo, especially over long distances. The mouths of navigable rivers are break of bulk points, so cities often form where rivers meet the sea. Also, where river navigation is interrupted or ceases to be possible also creates break-of-bulk opportunities attracting workers and urban growth.

Waterfalls were for many years a complete nuisance to river traffic, but they also are responsible for numerous cities. For generations, waterfalls provided a key source of power for industry (see fall line cities below), but they also create a special kind of break of bulk point called a head of navigation. Waterfalls force people to stop, get out of their boats and carry the boat, or just the cargo they carry. Louisville, Kentucky is an excellent example of a head of navigation site because it arose next to The Falls of the Ohio, a place where the Ohio River tumbled over a waterfall forcing all boats to stop and break bulk, again providing jobs at the boat dock, in warehouses and encouraging manufacturing.

Figure 11-8: Louisville, KY. The McAlpine Locks and Dam represent a massive government investment to bypass the Falls of the Ohio (top center of photo). All river traffic once stopped at this location. Photo: Wikimedia.

Another kind of break-of-bulk point is created where two bodies of water come near each other but do not connect. This situation once forced people to carry boats and/or cargo between two bodies of water in a process called portage. Towns evolve at many portage sites. Indiana, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Maine all have towns named “Portage”

Chicago

The most important portage site in the United States was once near Chicago. Just southwest of what is now downtown Chicago, near Midway Airport, was a portage where the Chicago River, which flows north into the Lake Michigan nearly intersected the Des Plaines River, which flows south into the Mississippi River system. In 1848, the people of Chicago built a canal connecting America’s two greatest navigable water systems, and by doing so gave Chicago an enormous transportation advantage over all other locations in the Midwest. The Illinois-Michigan Canal made Chicago an especially attractive terminus for multiple railroad companies that sprang up in the 1850s, creating even more break-of-bulk opportunities. It took Chicago just over 30 years to grow from the 100^th most populous American city to the number two spot. Today, interstate highways and airline routes continue to converge on Chicago.

Figure 11-9: Flag of Chicago. The two blue stripes symbolize the two waterways that created America's most strategic portage site. Source: Wikimedia

Rivers also create chokepoints for the movement of goods and people traveling by land. Rivers are often difficult to cross in many locations because the water either the water is too deep or the river too wide. In such places, before bridges were common, those trying to cross a river would seek out a ford, which is a shallow place to cross the river without a boat. City names like Stratford, Oxford, and Frankfurt all contain clues that they were once good places to cross a river. These fording sites often were simultaneously ideal locations for bridge construction because engineering a bridge across a shallow part of a wide river is often easier at a ford. Bridges funnel overland traffic to specific points, and provide another break-of-bulk opportunity, especially if the river is navigable.

Pittsburgh

Sometimes two rivers merge into a single, larger river at a confluence site, creating yet another unique opportunity to gain an advantage over competitors. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania lies at America’s best-known confluence site. The steel industry thrived in Pittsburgh for over 100 years thanks in large part to the industrial advantages created by its location. The production of steel requires iron and coal, both of which are very heavy to transport and were once mined near the rivers (Ohio, Monongahela, and Allegheny) that converge in Pittsburgh. The three rivers do come at a cost. There are nearly 450 bridges in greater Pittsburgh.

Figure 11-10: Pittsburgh, PA - Pittsburg is a classic example of a confluence site where river-born commerce flowing from three directions intersects, creating break-of-bulk opportunities and inviting industry. What industry was synonymous with Pittsburgh for years? Source: Wikimedia

New York City

New York City is the largest city in the United States. It wasn’t always that way. It outgrew competitors on the East Coast because it built for itself advantages in transportation. Early on, Boston and Philadelphia were larger, but New York City developed several break of bulk advantages that helped it grow immensely. Key among the factors that helped New York outcompete rivals were its additional transportation options. Like its competitors, it had a port on the Atlantic Ocean. It also had a navigable river, the Hudson, which served many cities upstream, like Albany and Poughkeepsie. Then, in 1825, the Erie Canal opened, effectively connecting Lake Erie to the Hudson River and the Atlantic Oceans. New York City was the one East Coast city where trade to the entire Upper Great Lakes region could flow. The canal created a massive advantage for New York. With the opening of the canal, agricultural products produced in the Midwest could be transported across the Great Lakes through the Erie Canal to New York City, where it was off-loaded from riverboats to ocean-going ships headed for Europe. Simultaneously, goods coming from Europe and destined for any location in the Midwest would be unloaded first at the port in New York City. The additional jobs created at the docks and warehouses attracted other industries and a snowball effect was created so that by the mid-1850s New York City became, for a time, the largest city in the world.

Figure 11-11: New York City - The massive George Washington Bridge reminds those coming into New York City of the navigabilty of the Hudson River and the importance of the river to New York.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles (L.A.) is the great metropolis on the west coast of the United States. The Spanish chose a location near what is now downtown L.A. for a pueblo (town) because they found fertile soil and a consistent source of water there alongside a large population of Indians that they hoped would form the core of a vibrant Spanish colony. As the years went by, Los Angeles’ only significant advantage over potential competitors in Southern California was its river. Spanish water law declared all the water in the L.A. River belonged to the people of Los Angeles. This law prevented other towns from forming either upstream or downstream from the original pueblo. People living along the L.A. River and hoping to use its precious waters were forced by Los Angelenos to become part of L.A.

Figure 11-12: Los Angeles, CA. 1904. Among the many site location factors accelerating the growth of Los Angeles was the discovery of huge oil deposits in the region, a fact lost on most locals today. Photo: Wikimedia

Los Angeles remained a small town until the Santa Fe/Southern Pacific railroad opened a second transcontinental railroad terminus in L.A. in 1881. This gave Los Angeles a break-of-bulk advantage over other cities in Southern California. Not long afterward, the local port facilities at San Pedro were upgraded and L.A. began competing with San Francisco for business. The invention of the refrigerated boxcar around 1900 vastly expanded the citrus industry in the region. The discovery of oil in the L.A. basin around the same time also invited a population explosion. Good weather helped encourage migrants to journey westward to take jobs in the petroleum and citrus industries. The same great weather later was critical in attracting both the movie and aeronautical industries in the decades to follow. Water resources though remained a problem. The Los Angeles River was never sufficient to serve the needs of a large city, so a series of canals and pipelines have been constructed over the years to bring fresh water from vast distances into the Los Angeles region. The city’s water projects were controversial from the start and managing water resources for a metropolitan region of nearly 20 million is a critical challenge going forward, especially as climate change threatens the Sierra Nevada’s snowpack – California’s largest reservoir of fresh water.

Figure 11-13: Los Angeles, CA. The "cascades" is the last segment in a nearly 400-mile aqueduct bringing water from the Owens Valley to the very dry San Fernando Valley portion of Los Angeles. Photo: Stefanie Joseph

Central Place Theory

In regions where no single location has special site location advantages situation advantages become very important. This happened on the vast plains of the United States during the 1800s, in places like Kansas where there are few navigable rivers, waterfalls, or ports. In instances like this, situation advantages become supremely important and generally a predictable, geometric pattern of cities and towns and villages tends to emerge. This process was more pronounced when transportation was primitive and the friction of distance was great, making the outcome of this process visible on the map of many flatland regions of the earth. Geographer Walter Christaller noticed the pattern and developed Central Place Theory to explain the processes that produce this pattern of cities, towns, and villages.

Figure 11-14: Central Place Theory. This diagram represents an idealized urban hierarchy in which people travel to the closest local market for lower order goods, but must go to a larger town or city for higher orders goods.

According to Christaller, if a group of people diffuses evenly across a plain (as homesteaders did when Kansas opened for settlement), a predictable hierarchy of villages, towns, and cities will emerge. The driving force behind this pattern is the basic need everyone has for goods and services. Naturally, people prefer to travel less to acquire what they need. The maximum distance people will travel for a specific good or service is called the range of that good or service. A product, like a hammer, has a limited range because people will not travel very far to buy hammers. A tractor, because it is an expensive item, has a much greater range. The cost of getting to a tractor dealership is small compared to the cost of the tractor itself, so farmers will travel long distances to buy the one they want. Hospital services have even greater ranges. People might travel to the moon if a cure for a deadly disease was available there.

Merchants and service providers also require a minimum number of customers living within a range to stay in business. Christaller called this number the threshold population. A major league baseball team has a threshold population of around two million people living within the range for a major league baseball franchise (the Milwaukee Brewers have the smallest local market at around 2 million people).A Wal-Mart store, on the other hand, has a minimum threshold of about 20,000 people, so they are far more numerous. Starbuck’s Coffee shops have a threshold of about 5,000 people, and a range of a few miles, therefore they are numerous.

As customers and merchants living and working interact over many years in a flat region like Kansas, businesses in more centrally located villages will attract more customers because of the convenience of their location. This allows those businesses to grow and thrive. Additional businesses, and customers, are therefore attracted to those villages and over many years, those villages grow into towns or even cities. Less conveniently located villages will not attract customers, nor retain merchants, and they will not grow. Competition between towns prevents neighboring locations to grow large. As a result, centrally located villages tend to grow into larger cities at the expense of their neighbors. A network of centrally located towns tends to emerge in a geometric pattern, and among those growing towns, a few will grow into large cities.

The largest cities will have businesses and functions that require large thresholds (like major league sports teams or highly specialized boutiques). Merchants in villages and small towns offer only the most basic goods and services (e.g., gas stations or convenience stores) forcing villagers to travel to larger cities to buy higher-order goods and services. Some goods and services will be available in medium-sized cities, often called regional service centers. Some goods and services are only available at the top of the urban hierarchy; the mega-cities of the world. In the United States, a handful of cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas) may offer exceptionally high order goods, unavailable in other large cities like Cleveland, Seattle or Atlanta.

Figure 11-15: Map of Lamborghini Automobile Dealerships in the United States. Expensive automobiles have limited thresholds and extensive ranges, therefore only very hig order places host such businesses. Source: Lamborghini

Central Place Theory is one of the more compelling and widely applied theories in geography. It’s not perfect because it is a model, and many criticisms have been leveled at it, but it can be successfully used to explain a great number of locational tendencies evident on the landscape.