Urbanisation 1880-1917 Flashcards
What was the US transformed by?
The pace of urbanisation between 1870 and WW1; though it must be remembered that, until 1920, more Americans still lived and worked on the land than in urban areas.
What did the construction boom throw up?
Imposing new commercial and civic buildings, vast quantities of housing, tramways, and elevated railways.
What did Urbanisation accelerate?
The spread of advertising and of modern mass entertainment - theatres and music halls catered for the masses as well as for the elite and the film industry started to emerge from small beginnings into small cinemas known as ‘nickelodeons’
Why was industrialisation, urbanisation and immigration not evenly spread across the country?
It was in the North and East that the most dynamic growth was concentrated.
What else did Urbanisation transform?
As well as the great industrial cities, it also transformed small-town America, bringing street lighting, trams, civic buildings, and public utilities to towns of 5000-30,000 populations, such as Belleville in southern Illinois.
How else did Urbanisation affect the larger cities?
Many districts were like separate small towns in themselves, like the German-American community of Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati.
In terms of population in general, what was another factor for the increase in urban population?
The population was increasing anyway: by 1900 it had grown to 76 million, and by 1920 it would be 100 million. The death rate, at 16.5 per thousand, was the lowest in the world.
Describe the internal migration.
There was internal migration from the countryside to the cities. From around 1910 African-Americans began moving out of the South to Northern cities like Chicago. Northward migration increased during WW1.
What did the most to feed the growth of the cities?
The influx of immigrants from across the Atlantic, swelling the urban population and meeting the insatiable demand for workers - for construction, for service industries, and for the sweatshops of the garment industry.
