First American Cities In The 20th Century

Chicago, Illinois was a popular city in the early United States. Chicago was a center for trade due to the water sources running through it. The two rivers located in Chicago, the Chicago River and the Des Plaines River, connected the city to the Mississippi river and Lake Michigan. Railroads through Chicago also helped it become a transportation center in the United States. Thousands of immigrants came to Chicago every year. Settlers and visitors arrived constantly by wagon, ship, or even train. There were around ten railroads that congregated in the city. Many people saw Chicago as a great opportunity. Merchants, tradesmen, and business from the East Coast scrambled to the new businesses opportunities in the city. In 1870, only one year before the Great Fire, around 300,000 people lived in Chicago.

An outburst in growth of America’s big city population, places of 100,000 people or more jumped from about 6 million to 14 million between 1880 and 1900, cities had become a world of newcomers (551). America evolved into a land of factories, corporate enterprise, and industrial worker and, the surge in immigration supplied their workers. In the latter half of the 19th century, continued industrialization and urbanization sparked an increasing demand for a larger and cheaper labor force. The country's transformation from a rural agricultural society into an urban industrial nation attracted immigrants worldwide. As free land and free labor disappeared and as capitalists dominated the economy, dramatic social, political, and economic

The gap between the rich and the poor was big and there were a lot of immigrants coming into cities.

1. The American city was changed drastically in the first half of the 20th century with the beginnings of the industrial revolution and the ongoing flow of foreigners into an already crowded United States.

Chicago was one of the largest cities in the country at the time, but it was established more than 200 years after New York City and Boston.

In the late 1800s , America became the land of new opportunities and new beginnings and New York City became the first landmark for immigrants. New York City was home to Ellis Island, the area in which migrants were to be handed for freedom to enter the nation. Living in New York City gave work and availability to ports. In time the city gave the chance to outsider's to construct groups with individuals from their nation , they were classified as new and old settlers. Old outsiders included Germans, Irish and, English. The new outsiders incorporated those from Italy, Russia, Poland and Austria-Hungary. In 1875, the New York City populace was a little 1 million individuals contrasted with the 3,5 million it held when the new century

The United States grew at a dramatic rate between the years 1880 and 1900, within the cities. U.S. cities grew by approximately 15 million people in the two decades before 1900. Many historians claim that most of the population growth was due to the expansion of industry. It is also believed that the majority of the population explosion was immigrants that were arriving from all over the world. A good amount of people from the rural areas of America also moved to the cities during this period in the search of work. Between 1880 and 1890, it is suggested that almost 40 percent of the townships in the United States lost population because of migration.

In American industrial cities, late 1800s, Poor neighborhood were not the best place to live. With poor living conditions, poor sanitation and crowded housing, many epidemics of infectious disease spread into the poor population and touched even the wealthy class. Cities such as New York were crowded and workers were living in tenements, which were often cramped, poorly lit and poorly aerated. Moreover, these tenements lacked of adequate plumbing, therefore waste was flooding in the public streets. Streets was crowded of waste and garbage. Population was poorly nourished and has a poor life hygiene like water pollution and poisoned food and milk. Accordingly, infectious disease was the common death reason. Big cities had known outbreaks of

With the growth of industry in the United States, the population of cities began to grow substantially (Tovanche Lecture). They started providing job opportunities in factories, offices, and other places as well. The cities became the main center of wealth and also poverty. A huge class of the impoverished lived in slums. Some even lived underground in the sewers, and a huge percentage of the poor came from newly arrived immigrants who were coming to America in large numbers from poor

During this time America saw some of its most rapid increase of immigration and population, not to mention westward expansion. Between 1880 and 1900 many cities grew in the hundreds of thousands, making work, shelter, and life a little more competitive. Much of this was

Today, New York City is the most populated city in the United States. New York City, NYC, is made up of five boroughs including Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island. Ellis Island, the first immigration station, and the statue of liberty are both located in New York. Immigrants went for more freedom in the 1800s and for economic and other opportunities back then and even now. Since NYC is such a large city, there are more job opportunities which draws people to the city. Also, there are an abundance of attractions and much more cultural diversity. All of these factors contribute to the reason the population is a whopping 8.538 million people!

The population was doubling every 20 years. The largest cities in the 1790 census (in order) were Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Charleston, and Baltimore.

Many aspects of the United States of America can be traced back to roman history. One of these aspects is the main city. Rome was the main city of the Roman Empire and the population back then was once 1.2 million and growing. Just like in the United States there is N.Y. where it is very populated. It also shares the aspect of crime because in both cities it is dangerous to walk around in the streets because of the muggings and robberies that took place all over the cities.

Concentration of immigrant populations was highest in four of America’s largest cities; New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. Five out of every six Irish and Russian immigrants lived in a city. Three out of four Italian and Hungarian immigrants came to America with very little money to buy farms or farming equipment. Others settled in cities because farming in America was very different from that of Europe. Some immigrants, such as the Slavs, simply came to America too late to acquire land. Jewish and Irish preferred the city because it provided a chance to worship with other Jewish or Irish without persecution.

British towns and cities were overcrowded. Population began increasing due to more people moving in. As businesses began to boom and the national markets grew, more people from the countryside flocked to the towns and the new factories because they wanted jobs. Small towns became large cities and the city of London grew from a population of 2 million in 1840 to 5 million forty years later. This resulted in more people in a country (Great Britain) living in cities than in rural areas like never before.