Gwenaelle GOULOBA

Gouloba 1

Mrs. Heringer
ESL 33A
20 November 2014

THE URBANIZATION OF UNITED STATES

This paper is about the urban development of United Stated all over the year. The urban
development is describes as the process of changing of a rural locaton in a urban location.
This process involves the emergence of infrastructures as transportations, builings or even
water and electricity. For our part, well especially look at infrastures and buildings side.
While researching texts about my topics, I found different description of this processus. My
goal in this paper is to show how United States are became as powerfull as nowadays. To do
so, we going to establish a chronological and relevant summary of the urban development by
connecting two main sources of informations : The chapter 9, The Great expectation :
Creating the Infrastructure of a Mega-State, from the book California : The History by Kevin
Starr.
To archieve this goal, we going to divide the paper in two part. In the first part we going
to talk about the development during the 19th century. Then in the second part, we going to
study this process all over the 20th century. Finally, we going to end the paper by including a
third part focused on the case of California. At the end of the paper, you could find the Works
Cited page containing all the references using in this study.

FIRST, LET US RESTORE THE CONTEXT. The 19th century represents the century of
the reconstruction after The Civil War (1861-1865). Indeed, after this war, the country need to
be reconstructed, therefore it was the perfect opportunity to reflect on a new architecture.
Thats why this century marks the great beginning of the economic and geographic
development. From the Industrial Revolution grown some materials of construction as steel,
concrete []
The economic growth, the demographic growth and the expansion of capitalism give rise to
upheaval in the american architecture. Thus, it at this time that architects get official
recognition and start working for both, governement and private customers.

FROM THE RURAL WORLD TO THE URBAN WORLD. The first Industral
reveolution came in United Stated early in the 19th century : It causes the concentration of
activities into cities and popular areas. Factories and big stores (malls), settled quickly. Thus,
transportations means become a determinant factor of the the urban growth. Therefore, it is
essential to develop public transport as train, bus and other railway lines. At this time, lot of
municipalities go into debt to accomodate train and develop their own areas.

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The second factor of the urban extension is the immigration. Cities of the East Coast become
the entrance of the New World. Immigrants from Europe pile up in unhealthy neighborhood
where living conditons and hygiene are horrible. Similary, former slaves from the south settle
in North East ctiies and gather in ghettos. The housing shortage begin and first needs to create
housing that can accommodate more people begin to be felt.
Because of the big amount of work, the governement needs to organize the development,
thats why the urbanization is associated with the movement of creation of municipaties, also
called, incorporation. This allows the construction of infrastures to be manage more
efficiently.
Lately in the 19th century appears the first skyscrappers in downtowns. Those have been
constructed to meet the challenges caused by the lack of space but also to reflect the power of
the compagnies they represented but also the American power. The first one to born was the
Home Insurance Building (42metters) in Chicago in 1884. Their constructions was made
possible especially thanks to the technical progress. Those architectures tranforms
downtowns. Those tranformations are expanding with the creation pf parks as Golden Gate in
San Francisco, Centrak Park in New York, Lincoln park in Chicago []. Furthermore,
districts tend to specialize in Central business district, often surrounding by ghettos where the
poor are concentrated. This ghetto are themselves surrounding by the subburbs where we can
find the wealthier population. The bourgeoise, enriched by industry and banking activities,
contributes to the development of cultural and intellectual institutions as universities,
museums, libraries []
In 1900, the American urban populations represented 39,6% of the total population. However,
this means that 60% of this population still live in rural places.

THE SECOND STEPS OF THE AMERICAN URBANIZATION. In 1920, the urban

population exceeds the rural one. One of the main factor who marks a new step in the
urbanization process of United States is the invention and the development of automobile.
Move is now easier, therefore it is essential to develop space outside the downtown in order to
connecting them to the downtown but also to be able to house people. From the 50s, suburbs
continues to enlarge, this phenomenon is caled the urban sprawl .
One of the other most important reason for the development of the suburbs is related to the
economic deveopment. Indeed, in the 30s, the emergence of the service sector, the expansion
of shopping centers and technology parks contribute to emphasize the urbanization. It was at
this time that are born beautifull uptown district. Henceforth, rich people are concentrated in
the suburbs where are built beautifull houses and villas whereas poor people and immigrants
gather close to downtows. People no loner see downtowns in the same way, their image is
deteriorate.

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During the 20th century, the governement launches a renewal policy in order to save the
downtows. For example, in Boston, the old warehouse are transformed in huge
commercialand divertissements spots (mall). In most cities, centers are completely
reorganizes and remodeled : In the 70s, people started to talk about the Metropolis.

WHATS ABOUT CALIFORNIA. The development of California reached its peek after the
Civil War. The arrival of a large number of immigrants, especially the chinese one whose
called coolies , represent an important source of labor work, especially in the area of
railroads construction. Before the appearance of the railroads, California was isolated from
other States. In 1869, the first railroads contribute to the States development. Indeed, it
allows the expansion of all industries (trade, tourism). The number of lines enlarges inside
the State in order to connect the big cities and suburbs : the Pacific Electric Railway linking
Los Angeles and its periphery , and the San Diego Electric Railway in San Diego are good
example of these development. Nevertheless, the rise of public transport would be later
slowed, probably for geographic reasons. Beside this, we can also note the development of
the Californias architecture. San Francisco and San Diego gives birth to wonderfull
achitectural, especially the Victoria one, that going to inspire the rest of the cities of
California.
However, the development of California also contribute to accentuate the ethnic concentration
phenomenon. While white people are found in the uptown, immigrants are mostly located in
the South of California. African American for example, are gather in Watts subdivision, i
South Central Los Angeles. This districts are much less developed and the living conditions
are much less good.

CONCLUSION
Despite the fact that United States was discovered later than other, the establishment of a
government and the formation of states were greatly quick. Nowadays, United States is
considered as the First World Power. The diversity of its landscape still make it one of the
most beautifull place in the world. United Stated find out one of its biggest capacity in having
managed to be the just middle between the rural world and the urban world : Otherwise said, a
place for everyone. California represents all the geographic diversity of the United States
inside one State. Indeed, urbanize by the development of the Sun Belt, California still
conserve natural landscape.
No other place can so convincingly claim to be the capital of the capitalism, the capital of
the 20th century ad the capital of the world . ( Jackson 256 ). United States shows evryone
that nothing is impossible, and nowadays its an example for most of the countries, especially
for the developing countries as China or India, that try to expand their economies and to meet
their Industrial Revolution.

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WORKS CITED
Starr, Kevin. California : A History.
New York : Media Culture, 2005.

Jackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass Frontier : The Suburbanization of the United

States.
New York : Oxford Univerisity, 1985.