|
A city is defined as "an urban area of high population density with some degree of self-government", differentiated from towns, villages, and hamlets by size, importance or legal status. The word urban originally described the view of life from Rome - smooth, literate and non-barbaric. The opposite of the Latin Urbanus is Rusticus, or rural. The early US had a primarily rural population of nearly 90%, in the first decade of the third millenium the urban population of the US is 80% of the total.
The first permanent European settlements in the "New World" now governed by the United States are San Juan, PR (1512), St. Augustine, FL (1565), Santa Fe, NM (1607), and Jamestown, VA (1607). All except Santa Fe, which was established after the Roman custom of building the capital in the center of the territory you intended to govern, were founded where there was safe anchorage for ships from Europe.
Other early American cities: Boston (1630), New Amsterdam (1653) which became New York in 1665, Charleston, SC (1670-80), Philadelphia (1682), Detroit (1701), New Orleans (1718), and Los Angeles (1777), mostly followed the formula of having water access for transportation.
Gradually these settlements changed from being the storehouses and distribution points of imported goods for colonists and the marketplace where produce from the surrounding areas were brought for export, to manufacturing centers that produced and redistributed durable goods. New cities of importance after the Revolutionary War grew with the development of canals, improved roads, and then railroads include Pittsburg, PA (Allegheny, Ohio and Monongahela rivers), Cincinnati, OH (Ohio River), Buffalo, NY (Erie Canal) and St. Louis, MO (Mississippi River).
Successful cities depended not only on good connections to distant places but also a concentration of talented people with initiative and enough capital to generate commerce which draws more talent, more initiative and more money.
US Geological Survey - Urban Growth in American Cities
|
