The Challenges of Urbanization
What are many people from around the world doing during the late 1800’s? Moving to the US What areas of the US are they moving to? Cities What is called? Urbanization the movement of people to cities, or growth of cities What are the problems that are caused by urbanization (* possible final exam essay question)
What caused urbanization? 1. Immigrants moving to the US from many European nations 2. Failures and hardships faced by frontier farmers of the late 1800’s causes many of them to relocate to cities
Urbanization caused many problems in cities 1. Housing What problems exist with housing? - Conditions are poor What types of houses do people live in within cities? - Tenement Houses – multi family urban houses which had unsanitary conditions -usually built right along side one another What problems did people encounter living in tenements? - Garbage - Pests - Lack of light and air
What solution was created to fix the problems in tenements? - The Dumbbell Tenement Did this fix the problems? - No, it only led to more problems with garbage and pests
Another issue people faced due to urbanization 2. Transportation – How would cities get large numbers of people from place to place? What solutions were created to fix this problem during the late 1800’s? A. The elevated railroad – New York City (1867) What problems did this cause? - It cut off light, soot and ash falling on streets
B. The electric street car – Richmond, VA (1888) These would be used for less than 50 years C. The Subway – Boston 1897
3. Water and sanitation Prior to indoor plumbing, how did people in cities get water? - A water cart or a local water source (lake, river) By 1900 most cities have built water mains Problems with sanitation? - People would throw waste into streets or sewage would wind up in local water - Animal waste or dead animals
In 1880 New York City removed nearly 15,000 dead horses from it’s streets
Another issue? 4 – Fire Why would fire be such a problem in cities during the late 1800’s? - Buildings were made from wood - Houses were very close together - Most houses had lanterns and coal stoves for heat and light
What is the most famous example of a fire from the 1800’s? The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 - lasted nearly 3 days 300 people dead 100,000 people homeless 200 million dollars in property destroyed
5. Segregation What is segregation? The separation of people due to some aspect of their life Why did most people separate in the US? Jim Crow Laws – Laws in many southern states which made separated African Americans from white Americans. Is this the only type of segregation? 2 Types De Jure – By Law (Jim Crow Laws) De Facto – By custom or by choice -people will choose to live in an area where they are surrounded by their culture (Little Italy, Chinatown)