Urbanization Dbq Essay

861 Words4 Pages

Urbanization, or the growth of cities, erupted during the Industrial Revolution. Cities were a place of work, innovation, and technology. Over the course of fifty years (1850-1900) more and more people moved to the cities, which caused more and more problems in them. With these problems came solutions, and those solutions led to change. These changes could be good like movements to get cleaner water or having plumbing. Others were bad such as not being able to see the streets due to pollution. Urbanization led to cleaner cities, improved technology, new politics, and increased population in urban places. When cities started to grow, one of the biggest needs was to clean it. Due to lack of waste elimination methods people dumped waste, even feces, out onto the roads. When horses ejected waste, they would stay and rot in the middle of the …show more content…

We were a new nation and still trying to figure out how to govern our country and states. When urbanization happened, city politics became new and improved. According to document 4, “ Many city problems were handled by local political bosses who traded in patronage favors and graft.” This shows that city politics were very involved during urbanization. Because these politics were very involved in a changing time, they had to change in order to keep everything relevant. During urbanization lots of people immigrated to America. Document four talks about how the politicians helped these new citizens adjust to their new life. Along with helping new citizens, these new forms of politics helped native born americans. Document 4 states, “ Big city political machines were not altogether sinister [threatening] in their effects; they provided food and money for the poor, fixed problems at city hall…” ? This shows that the new forms of politics changed urban life. Poor people were able to get help with money, city hall was more orderly, they really changed the entire urban