Lecture 9 Flashcards
What % of Middle America is urbanized?
73%
- These tend to have lower national poverty rates. Despite cities in this region there are high rates of inequalities
Are poverty rates proportional to urbanization rates?
• National poverty rates are inversely proportional to urbanization rates
When did the growth of the middle class stopped in middle America?
• Growht of middle class stopped in the 80s
What is the one world city in middle America?
Mexico City
What are characteristics of cities in middle America?
- Highly urbanized region (83%)
- 4 megacities, 8 world cities
- Extreme disparities in wealth
- Large environmental problems (amazon)
- Sustainability measures
- Osuthern cone, chili argentina and uraguay have urbanization rate of 90+%
What is the historical view of middle America?
Mezoamerican growth of cities, independent from the other cities of the world all started by the mayan people
What are the historical periods of middle America?
- Ancient or medieval precolonial period (pre-1500)
- Period of formal colonial rule (1500-independence)
- Postcolonial period (~1811+)
What is the mesoamerican urbanization?
- Started by mayans and started to flurish in 750BC-1200CE
- They lived in Yucatan peneinsula
- -powerful city-state (60,000-70,000 inhabitants)
- -large city with thousands of structures including 6 large pyramids (one over 230 ft high)
- -sophisticated and highly productive agriculture
- Tikal most famous city (600BC-900CE) in the region
- Old structures hidden under jungle of the mayans, around 10 million people may have lived within the mayan lowlands
What did aztec urbanization take over?
• They took over after mayan until 1591 when the spaniards came and destroyed it
What is tenoctitlan?
- Center of aztec empire
- Watch video
- Almost quarter of million people
- Europeans also destroyed this too
When did the Inca urbanization start?
• Grew at the same time as aztec emprie was in its hay day in Chili
When did European colonization start?
• 1492 Columbus finds Hispaniola
• F. Pizzaro takes Inca empire with 500 soldiers (1533)
○ Of Cuzco: “This city is the greatest and the finest ever seen in this country or anywhere in the Indies… We can assure your Majesty that it is so beautiful and has such fine buildings that it would be remarkable even in Spain”.
• Most dramatic landscape modification because of the europeans
• Cities were filled with gold and people and all furnishings of a city (markets, admin, royalty, religious buildings)
What is the European conquest and what did it focus on?
Unleashed tragic chapter of intercontinental slavery and annihilation of millions of Native Americans
Focus on • mining • agriculture (plantation system) • converting locals to Christianity § Slaves all worked here
Did indigenous cities survive the europeans?
- Spanish conquistadores built Mediterranean-style structures atop Inca stone walls in pre-Columbian cities such as Cuzco in present-day Peru.
- Walls with huge stones were so symmetrical
- All euro cities built on top of the indigenous, destroyed old to make way for new
What were the lay of the Indies?
Plans were set forth in detail on every facet of creating a community, including city planning.
Regulations for all aspects of urban living (econ, structure, political, social). Every facet of urban design was laid out in strict way. City was organized around the central plaza which ahd cathedral, palace and markets, and housing of well to do