Development of Cities - AP Human Geography

The urban geographer John R. Borchert’s model focuses on the development of cities in relation to the development of transportation and communication. According to Borchert’s model a city’s urban layout owes a great deal to what forms of transportation and communication were available when the city was settled.

Borchert’s model of the development of cities tracks the growth of American cities with relation to the prevailing transportation and communication technology of different eras. The history of American cities is divided into five epochs, the five answer choices listed above. Chicago and St. Louis are two American cities that emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railroad hubs. Both these cities developed around the railroad and are classic examples of cities that evolved during the “steel-rail epoch.”

The sail-wagon epoch is the earliest epoch in Borchert’s model of the development of cities. Seeing as Borchert’s model focuses on the growth of American cities, the sail-wagon epoch begins in 1790 and ends in the early 1830s. It is followed by the iron-horse epoch which lasts until the late 1860s. The iron-horse epoch is followed by the steel rail epoch, which is in turn followed by the auto-air epoch, and finally by the satellite-jet epoch.

There are five epochs in Borchert’s model of the development of cities. The earliest is the sail-wagon epoch and the latest is the satellite-and-jet propulsion epoch. The second is the Iron Horse Epoch, and the third and fourth respectively are the Steel-Rail and the Auto-Air Amenity Epochs.

New York City and Boston are two of the earliest American cities. They are both organized around pedestrian traffic, with narrow streets and tall-looming skyscrapers. These are features of cities that emerged during the sail-wagon epoch and the iron-horse epoch.

Borchert’s model of the development of cities tracks the growth of American cities with regard to the prevailing transportation and communication technology of the time period. The auto-air epoch runs from the early twentieth century until the 1970s, it is preceded by the steel rail epoch, which lasted from the 1860s until the early 1900s.

The Auto-Air-Amenity epoch runs roughly from 1920-1970. Within this epoch, the internal combustion engine transformed transportation.

Cereal grains are typically more shelf-stable than dairy and garden vegetables, and livestock can be transported closer to urban markets for slaughter. Dairy, fruits and vegetables have the potential to spoil rapidly without refrigeration, so traditionally these farmlands are just outside the urban markets.

The development of food surpluses, or more food than farmers need, allows a population of nonfarmers to exist. Those nonfarmers can specialize in the fields and conduct the services needed for the development of cities, which are fed by the farmers. After the development of agricultural surpluses, people can perform nonfarming jobs, including those related to politics, and formal political organizations can subsequently develop. Privitization of land ownership occurred before urbanization and does not influence its trajectory. And currency has been primarily an outgrowth of the social stratification that occurs as trade grows between farmers and nonfarmers.

Housing in urban centers was actually more expensive than housing in rural areas, due to the high value of land. Since cities are much more densely populated than rural areas, the competition for land is greater, driving up the cost of housing.

In 2015, Tokyo is the world's largest metropolitan area, with a population of about 38 million people. None of the other options have more than 30 million people.

A "megacity" is an urban or metropolitan area which has a population over 10 million people.

Here are the populations of the cities from this question:

Tokyo: 37,900,000

Seoul: 26,100,000

Shanghai: 25,400,000

Jerusalem: 809,112

London: 8,540,000

Tokyo is currently the most populated city today. Jerusalem does not even reach 1 million so it can not be classified as a megacity.

A century ago the world’s biggest cities were New York City, London, and Paris. They were the centers of the global population, however as the population of the developing world has skyrocketed in the last century so has the population of megacities in the developing world. In 2015 most of the world’s biggest cities can be found in India, China, and the African continent.

If the current trend continues most of the world’s most populous cities will be found in Asia, specifically South and East Asia, in the year 2025. Cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Dhaka, and Guangzhou are growing at dramatic rates when compared to much of the rest of the world and will soon eclipse their western counterparts.

The European colonial era begins with the voyage of Columbus in 1492. At this time the capital city of the Aztec Empire, called Tenochtitlan, was by most estimates the most populous city in the world. Loose estimates, which are all that are possible, place the population of Tenochtitlan at around 200,000 people.

A “megacity” is a city that has a very large, and growing, population. Megacities are typically found in the developing world. They are characterized by high natural population growth, as well as high rates of immigration. They generally suffer from extreme pollution and poverty and will usually feature widespread slum settlements to house the working masses.

The term “megacity” is used to describe a city that has an extremely large, and growing, population. In the previous half-century megacities have been emerging all over the developing world as the population of urban environments like Mumbai, Shanghai, Lagos, and Dhaka explodes.

Istanbul, the capital city of Turkey, lies on the Bosphorus Strait, at the border between Europe and Asia. Due to its strategic location Istanbul has been of great significance for several centuries and has often been fought over between regional powers.

According to most estimates Tokyo is not just the most populous city in Asia, it is the most populous city in the world. Almost thirty million people live in Tokyo.