Urbanization Makeup for the Chapter 9 Test
Urbanization is described as “the movement of people to, and the clustering of people in, towns and cities. In the 1790’s many Americans tended to live in the countryside while only 5 percent lived in urban areas- in that time those areas would consist of more than 2,500 people. Urbanization has taken major leaps in different countries all over the world and a prime example of this would be Miami, Florida. Miami now has a population nearing 5,502,379 people.
History
When the Europeans reached the United States, they slowly began pushing the Indians into the Everglades since 1842. Unfortunately, the Northern part of Florida became prosperous while the Southern tip stayed underdeveloped and uninhabited. That was until Julia Sturdivant Tuttle bought land in the Miami area and Henry Flagler extended the Florida East Coast Railroad. Moreover, when the highway got lengthened, it allowed for the city to experience a building boom. Miami’s population increased drastically from 30,000 to 200,000 people in five years.
Although a hurricane greatly affected the population negatively, Fidel Castro’s reign of terror flocked over 150,000 Cubans into Miami. Ever since the 1960’s Miami has had a mix of different cultural influence because of it large variety of people taking residence in it. Little Havana was established with over 500,000 Cuban-Americans. Before then, African Americans and Caribbean person would make up ⅓ of the population.
Southern Florida Development
Commercial agriculture ( for example: cattle-raising) grew in importance during the 1970’s. Because Florida consisted mainly of immigrants, cigar manufacturing became of major importance in immigrant communities. The Florida citrus industry grew in the Southwest just like the extraction of resources from water and land.
In 1855 the Florida legislature passed the Internal Improvement Act. This act allowed for the growth of the state’s transportation industry. This act gave free public or cheap priced land to investors. The act greatly affected South FLorida between end of the Civil War and the beginning of the World War 1. In the time period between these two events, railroads were constructed throughout Florida with hotels next for travelers to stay in.
Many of these companies were owned by Henry B. Plant and Henry Flagler. The development projects gave way for manufacturing, agricultural, and extraction industries. An example of this would be the citrus industry since it was possible to pick oranges, and then send them to places like Baltimore within a week.
More focus was given to Florida in the 1890’s due to the Spanish American War due to the fact that Tampa was a port city in which Us troops heading to Cuba would head through. Florida’s per capita and population increased rapidly because of South Florida’s “gold” landscape.
With the introduction of automobiles, South Florida became a commonplace for
foreigners to come and enjoy the landscape and vacationing sites offered by cities like Miami.
Tourism
Because of Miami’s hot and sunny environment, it makes it the ideal place for many tourists to come and spend time here. Steamboat riding was seen as a major attraction for those who came from different locations in order to enjoy a leisurely time as of the 1870’s.
As of 2015, around 15.5 million tourists have come to Miami. This city has a 6.4 percent growth in tourism/visitorship as of 2014. Furthermore, approximately 5-10% of these visitors come back to Miami to become residents later on. The movement of other people into the Miami area play a great part when it comes to the city’s urbanizational growth over the years.
Based on the Miami Herald’s statistics: “15.5 million 2015 travelers spent $24.4 billion, up 2.3 percent from last year, according to the bureau’s latest statistics”. Following on this statement on Miami’s industrial effects due to the increasing urbanization would be the 136,100 employed people in leisure which constitutes greatly to the city’s lively environment.
Immigration
Cuban dictator Fidel Castro gained control of Cuba in 1959. Habitants from Cuban then began a massive migration into Southern Florida into cities like Miami. Over 50,000 Cubans came into Miami expecting their stay to be temporary until the communist dictator stepped down. Later on the United States planned a Cuban Invasion (“Bay of Pigs”) which was shut down by the Soviet Union with warfare between the two.
Furthermore, there was another immigration influx in the late 1970’s when approximately 100,000 Nicaraguans and Haitians fled from their lands because of their overthrown governments. Miami experience an even bigger addition of immigrants into its borders when 150,000 Cuban immigrants were brought over by the mariel boatlift.
Economics
With a parallel drawn between the city of Miami and global economies, Miami has become the house of many financial institutions and multi-national companies. Miami has the greatest concentration of international banks in the whole country. This highlights the importance that Miami play in the global scale. In addition, Miami is ranked as a highly wealth city even though it also has a large quantity of homeless and needy people.
Racial Disparity and Ethnic Variety
Miami has a large quantity of ethnicities and assimilation. Disparity means difference. Therefore, there is racial disparity in Miami due to the different cultures and races in the community all together. 61.3% of Hispanics reside in the Miami-Dade County while only 18.3% white non-hispanics live there. Because of this, Hispanics are seen as the predominant ethnic group in Miami. Death rates and birthrates also play a major role when it comes to the population of the city.
The death rate from major cardiovascular disease among Blacks is on average 31% higher than that of Whites, and 41% higher than that of Hispanics. In the Miami area, Blacks make over 65% of the population, while Hispanics make up the missing 88.7%.
Because of the majority of hispanics in the area, many stores that are open are owned by hispanics which allow them to connect to their Cuban roots. Such stores would include bakeries. The coexistence of different groups and internationalization in Miami has allowed for the city to to have an ethnically social polarization. Because of all that, Miami is characterized as a metropolis that is constantly growing mainly because of the 20th century Cuban influx.
Miami’s primary language started shifting from English to Spanish because of the Cuban’s try to reassert Spanish into the city. Because the non-latin people felt threatened they tried to make an anti-bilingualism moment in order to reinforce the English language in their community. However, Cubans believed that preserving their language was of major importance when it came to them preserving a fundamental foundation to their culture.
Urbanization has been a major groundbreaker when it comes to the increasing population in Miami, Florida. Because of owners and idealists such as Julia Sturdivant Tuttle and Henry Flagler, the Railroads were created and allowed for the extensive connections that South Florida has had with the rest of the world. This allowed for the transportation of goods and people to and fro Miami. Industrialization, migration, and politics have played a major role when it comes to the urbanization of Miami and led to its increasing productivity throughout the years.