Urbanization

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Urbanization

• Lecture 6 part III
• Geog 313

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Urbanization
How did Latin America to become so urbanized?
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Urbanization

• Urbanization an increase in the percentage and
  number of people living in urban settlements
• The New towns were founded with three major
  objectives
• To expand the empire (Santo Domingo)
• To exploit the mineral and agricultural wealth of
  the newly-acquired lands (Encomiendas, Buenos
  Aires)
• To bring Roman Catholicism to the Indians
  (Missions)

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Urbanization-1500s (Establishment)

• What was the outcome of these towns?
• Some of the towns evolved as ports, or points of
  attachment that bounded new lands to Spain and
  Portugal.
• Others became new mining towns (particularly for
  gold and silver)
• Agricultural towns that supplied food to the
  growing ports, trading centers, and mining towns.
• Few cities became centers of colonial government,
  notably Mexico City, Lima, and Salvador (Bahia).
• What is important is that the towns and cities
  established between 1510 and 1600 constitute the
  urban framework of mainland Latin America today.

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Urbanization-1600s (Expansion)

• What were the characteristics of the urban
  development between 1600-1700?
• Slow growth of existing cities.
• Urban in-fill as some new towns were created in
  existing urban zones.
• Movement into frontier areas.

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Urbanization-1700s (Reshaping)

• What were the characteristics of urban
  development in the1700s?
• Spain made significant changes in the
  administration of the New World.
• New regional governments were established.
• Decline of Lima due to new organizations and an
  earthquake in 1746 that killed 16,000 people and
  destroyed the port at Callao.
• Bogotá and Caracas gained political and economic
  influences.
• Buenos Aires became a regional government
  (viceroyalty) center in 1776.
• Montevideo became an official port on the Cape
  Horn route.

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Urbanization-1800s (Independence)

• What were the characteristics of urban
  development in the 1800s?
• Transformation be by new technologies.
• New perceptions of how a city should look and
  feel.
• Mimicking European and North American cities such
  as adopting
• Electric lights,
• Elevators,
• Boulevards,
• Large parks,
• Improved water and sewer services.
• Expand of infrastructure and transportation.
• Horse-draw trams of rails (1870)
• Electric trolley expand Rio de Janeiro and
  Buenos Aires (1890)

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Urbanization-1900s (Chaotic)

• Latin American cities are decentralized and
  polycentric.
• What are the three major elements of modern Latin
  American metropolis (p. 189-190)?
• The center City (Plaza)
• Mature Inner City (Transportation Hub)
• The City edge (Shantytowns)

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Trends in Urbanization, by Region
Urban Population Percent
Source United Nations, World Urbanization
Prospects The 2001 Revision (medium scenario),
2002.
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• World's Largest Cities 1975(Source United
  Nations)        
• 1. Tokyo 19.8 million2. New York 15.9
  million3. Shanghai 11.4 million4. México 11.2
  million5. São Paulo 9.9 million6. Osaka 9.8
  million7. Buenos Aires 9.1 million8. Los
  Angeles 8.9 million9. Paris 8.9 million10.
  Beijing 8.5 million

• World's Largest Cities 2015
• (Source United Nations)
•   1. Tokyo 28.7 million2. Bombay 27.4
  million3. Lagos 24.4 million4. Shanghai 23.4
  million5. Jakarta 21.2 million6. São Paulo
  20.8 million7. Karachi 20.6 million8. Beijing
  19.4 million9. Dhaka 19.0 million10. México
  18.8 million

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An Increase of Urbanization in the Developing
World resulted in

• Excessive metropolitan areas
• Creation of slums and squatter settlements
• Overcrowding in slums and squatter settlements
• Unemployment and underemployment
• Poverty
• Inadequate transportation system
• Inadequate infrastructure - physical and social
• Environmental Degradation
• Migration
• Westernization vs. Local Culture.
• Lost of agricultural lands- San Jose, Costa Rica

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Characteristics of the third world cities

• Young population 37 of the inhabitants of
  cities in the developing world are under the age
  of 15. (22 in the developed world)
• Lack of economic growth
• High unemployment can hardly keep pace with
  population growth
• Lack of education Schooling is difficult to keep
  up
• Less resources in the developing cities
• Low taxation base lower base must be stretched
  to cover double the portion of young dependents

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Mexico City

• How has Mexico City become the largest city in
  the world?
• The population began increasing in the 1930s when
  the mortality began declining and the fertility
  rate was constantly increasing.
• Mexico city has grown as a result of being the
  center of the countrys road and rail network.
• In the 1960s, it manufactured over 40 percent of
  Mexicos services.
• The countrys media (television and radio) are
  concentrated in Mexico city influencing
  perception about city life with soap operas and
  t.v. shows.
• Source (Blouet and Blouet, 2005, p. 260)
  pg. 248-249

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Mexico City

• How has Mexico City become the largest city in
  the world?
• In the 1940s, instead of supporting subsistence
  agriculture, the government promoted commercial
  agriculture.
• Ex. Instead of growing maize and beans, they
  devoted their lands for strawberries and
  tomatoes.
• This created unemployment at high rates both in
  the agriculture and mining. Ex. Zacatecas,
  Mexico
• Since WWII, there has been a massive migration
  from the rural areas to the Mexico City, border
  towns, industrial towns (Monterrey), and United
  States.
• Government policies were implemented such as
  industrial investment, control of food prices for
  the urban poor, and concentration of such
  services as education and electricity in the
  cities.
• In addition, the government also promoted the
  concentration of economic services in the city.

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Mexico City

• How has Mexico City become the largest city in
  the world?
• In 1977, the city was booming from the oil
  profits. Migrants were coming at a rate of a
  thousand persons a day.
• The Mexican government compounded the problem by
  abandoning any serious attempts to regulate
  migration and environmental policies.
• Resulted in Mexico City becoming the most
  polluted city in the world. For example in 1992
  the air quality was so bad that officials were
  forced to close factories and eliminate cars.
• The boom of the 1970s came to an end in the
  global recession of the 1980s, leaving Mexico
  with one of the highest foreign debts in the
  world.
• No financial resources to maintain its urban
  infrastructures or extend social services to new
  arrivals.
• Contributed to the rise of urban crime.

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Mexico City

• What is the current state of Mexico City?
• 30 million inhabitants and contains 1/5 of the
  countrys population.
• Population density is higher than Tokyo, and four
  times those of London.
• Is considered the largest city in the world.

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Border Towns

• Why is the most rapid urban growth in Latin
  America taking place along the US-Mexico border?
• The border towns of Tijuana, Mexicali, Nogales,
  Ciudad Juarez, Nueva Laredo, and Matamarros had a
  population of 30,000 in 1990 and 3 million by
  2000.
• Why are the border towns so interlinked with the
  U.S.?
• - Dependence on U.S. markets
• - Tourism
• - Employment- Bracero program in 1942-1964
• - Culturally
• - Physically

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Border Towns

• What were the origins of the border towns? (pg.
  195, 228)
• Ciudad Juarez as a mission.
• Matamarros a mission that became a refugee for
  blacks escaping slavery.
• Nueva Laredo founded by Mexican Nationals that
  moved south after the 1848 treaty.
• Nogales evolved as a railroad and market town.
• Mexicali founded by the U.S. interest as a
  consequence of an irrigation system.
• Tijuana as a ranch settlement.

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Border Towns

• What are the maquiladoras?
• In 1965, duty free maquiladora zones were
  established to attract foreign industries to
  Mexico after the Bracero program ended.
• Maquilas were only allowed to be established 20
  km from the border.
• But by 1972, they could be located anywhere in
  Mexico except in Mexico City.
• Most maquilas are electronic firms, clothing
  manufacturers, and furniture making industries.

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Border Towns

• What are the problems facing border towns?
• - Environmental degradation
• - inadequate infrastructure
• - housing crisis
• - over population
• - illegal migration to the U.S.
• - Crime
• - Drug activity
• - low paying jobs
• - taking advantage of women workers.

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Growing Population

• What are the ramifications of a growing
  population?
• Difficulty in maintaining its agricultural
  self-sufficiency.
• Exports would have to be curtailed.
• Imports of consumer products will increase at the
  expense of capital goods.
• Less foreign investment.
• Less per capital income.
• Higher dependency ratio (population between 0-14)
• Lack of Housing.
• Any other????????

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What are the problems of Latin American Cities?

• Unemployment.
• Growing informal sector that does not pay taxes.
• Crime.
• Housing crisis.
• Inadequate infrastructure.
• Environmental degradation.
• Fragile economies.
• Corrupt and incompetent federal, state, and local
  governments.
• Growing gap between rich and poor.
• Eroding middle class.
• Growing consumption of natural resources (oil,
  gasoline, firewood)
• Growing shantytowns around the periphery of the
  city.

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Has the gap between rich and poor increased?

• 80 of the of the worlds population lives in 20
  of the worlds income.
• What does this mean?
• It is estimated that it would take approximately
  100 years of constant growth at rates higher than
  those now experienced by industrialized states
  just to reach current American income levels.

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World Population Living on 2 or less Day
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What Are The Causes of Inequality?

• Colonization and its legacy
• The structure of the World economy (import and
  export)
• Increasing of globalization of the economy
• Overpopulation in the developing country
• Ineffective and detrimental government policies
  or decisions.
• Political and economic instability.
• Natural disasters.

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How Do We Narrow the Gap?

• Education and Family Planning.
• Change of Governements that are more
  representative and just.
• Sharing technology-crops, medicine, food, etc.
• Formation of a trading block of developing
  countries
• Debt reduction
• Social and economic reforms by developing country
  governments
• Reward system of aid.

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Squatter Settlements

• Squatter housing accounts for 1/3 of total urban
  population in developing countries.
• Mexico city squatters exceed 4 million people.
• 15 growth a year (doubling in size every 6
  years).
• Lack of government support in housing,
  infrastructure, and public services.
• Removing squatters result in higher unemployment
  rates of this population because of the increase
  in transportation costs. This problem is
  particularly faced by women.
• In summary, poverty is excessive.

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Forecasts for squatters

• The total number of squatter-dwellers in the
  world increased by about 36 during the 1990s.
• In the next 30 years, the global number of
  squatter-dwellers will increase to about two
  billion if no action to address the challenge of
  slums is taken.

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Urban Poverty

• Some 43 of the urban population of all
  developing regions combined live in substandard
  housing
• Some 78.2 of the urban population in the
  developing countries live in substandard housing
  
• Some 6 of the urban population in developed
  regions live in slum-like conditions.

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In numbers

• Asia has about 550 million people living in
  slums/squatters, followed by Africa with 187
  million, and Latin America and the Caribbean with
  128 million.
• While slums have largely disappeared in developed
  countries, the report still found that there were
  approximately 54 million urban dwellers in
  high-income countries living in slum-like
  conditions.

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According to an unpublished UNICEF report

• It is estimated that by the year 2000
• 90 of the poor in Latin America will live in
  urban areas, with 40 in Africa, and 45 in Asia.
  
• 74.3 million households will live in poverty as
  compared to 33.5 million households in 1975 - a
  220 increase.
• In 1960 the ratio of the richest 20 to the
  poorest was 30 1 today it is 601 with 25 of
  the world's population controlling an excess of
  85 of the world's industries and consuming 80
  of its energy supplies.

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Urban poverty by region

• Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of
  slum-dwellers with 72 per cent of the urban
  population living in slums,
• South Central Asia with 59,
• East Asia with 36,
• Western Asia with 33, and
• Latin America and the Caribbean with 32
• Asia accounts for some 60 of the worlds urban
  slum residents.

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Discussion

• Pick a Latin American city
• When was the city established?
• What was its function?
• How it evolved?
• What was the population change?
• Look at pages 170, 176, 178, 188