George Rogers Taylor Urban Growth Summary

Abdullahi Mohamed Assignment 1

Geo 366

The objective of the George Rogers Taylor’s premise in his journal article titled Urban Growth Preceding the Railway age is to examine and prove that urban growth was at its highest level in U.S cities in the era preceding to what is known as the “railroad age” pre 1861, based on statistical evidence from the 5 preceding decades he highlights in his journal article: 1790-1800, 1810-1820, 1820-1830 and 1830-1840. In order to examine the decades of rapid urban growth in the United States. U.S cities were organized together in 4 different groups. Based on the cities geographical location and also its relative size at the time. The groups included; the four great eastern seaports, the small eastern

For example, Charleston, South Carolina had a higher population than Baltimore, Maryland in 1790, but soon afterwards Baltimore experienced a rapid urban growth rate rivaling other major port cities in the United States, while Charleston decreased in its importance. In addition, George Rogers Taylor attributes the Napoleonic Wars as a factor leading to growth of U.S cities. The wars in Europe allowed for American farms and forests to take center stage in trade as American ships have become a hot commodity during that time. Being in such position allowed the Four Great Eastern Seaports (New York, Baltimore, Boston and Philadelphia) to flourish, additionally these 4 cities at the time were about one half of the entire urban population of the United States. Although cities were growing in a steady rate there was a period of decline in decades of 1810 to 1820. There was a small urban population reduction of 7.26% to 7.19% although miniscule it is a decline nonetheless. This decline can be attributed too

These shifts can be associated with factors such as war, economic growth and decline, and new modes of transportation such as canals all contributed to the growth or decline of the decades previously mentioned. From this article I learned that certain factors have a bigger impact on urban growth in the United States than others. War has a huge impact on urbanization in the United States, simply because in both decades in which the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 took place resulted in a decline in urban growth during that decade. I have also learned that the economy also plays a big role in urban growth. The more economic activity a city has the more potential it has to grow as it provides more jobs and opportunities, the decades preceding the railroad era the biggest cities in the United States were all costal cities on the east coast because most trade, and transportation of goods were reliant on ships thus the importance of living in these areas became