GGRA03H3 Lecture Notes - Surplus Product, Some Cities, Urban Geography
Document Summary
Cities provide a detailed record of urban values, ideas and choices. Contemporary urban systems, structures, and infrastructures, are built incrementally on prior systems. Cities provide evidence of past decisions, in great detail. Which of the competing theories of urban origins is most convincing: hydraulic theory, economic theory, military theory, religious theories. Irrigation systems require a governance system that can mobilize large investments. Early cities were almost always established at key locations on rivers. Rural patterns of land use, irrigation systems, canals, etc. then have long-term impacts on urban pattern. Suggest that economic factors are the most important urban development ports, raw materials, rich hinterland, energy sources, transport: e. g. Rapid growth of chicago in the 19th century as a process of economic development of a rich hinterland. Settlements established at military-strategic locations form the core of long-term settlements. Military pattern remains influential long after strategic value of settlement is gone.
