Dec 6, 2022·edited Dec 6, 2022Liked by Tomas Pueyo
Some observations. New York has so much traffic it needs three major airports plus three smaller. Washington area has three.
Heads of water can move due to technology and politics.
Québec City was a major port in the XIXth century but it was a french speaking city. The canadian government dredged the St-Lawrence river to Montréal. Still too french. So the St-Lawrence Seaway was built to bypass Montréal. But Malcolm McLean invented the container ship, removing the size constraint from cargo ships. Good luck blasting hundreds of kms of granite to let the new humongous ships pass, so Montréal instead of being replaced by Toronto, became the container port for the Great Lakes area.
But the Cdn government succeeded in demoting YUL in favor of YYZ as Canada's primary airport.
When it comes to seaside ports, you mention vulnerability to attacks from maritime raiders, but I wonder, too, how much nature plays a role, specifically with storms. Take the example of Houston. Founded in 1836, it was very much a backwater, 50 miles inland (30 miles up Galveston Bay, to the San Jacinto estuary, then another 12 or so miles up Buffalo Bayou) from the coastal city of Galveston (on a barrier island) which was the most important city and port in Texas. By the late 1800s efforts had been made to build a port in Houston and to dredge a more navigable pathway, but it wasn't until the massive 1900 hurricane nearly destroyed Galveston that people began to consider that a port in Houston would be a safer investment. The Houston Ship Channel was dredged, completed in 1914 just in time to connect the growing Houston-area petrochemical industry with a world at war hungry for petroleum products to serve their logistics needs.
Very interesting as always. A couple of thoughts based on the sea travel.
A strong, reliable sea breeze enables easy travel up a river. In many cases towns seem to be within the range of the seabreeze. They can be used to sail up the river during the afternoon, and back out to sea in the early morning.
Strong tides also give similar options to get back upstream. Cities often seem to form at the upper reach of the tide flow. With smaller fishing villages at the mouth. Now we see port cities forming at the river mouths due to the costs of getting big ships up small rivers. Eg Europort.
Seasonal winds also help. If the prevailing wind cycle enables ships to get easily sail up or down the river by waiting a few days for the winds to change.
It seems to me flooding potential and tropical revolving storm frequency would also play a big factor.
Big History (look up on line) at Renaissance Society, learning in retirement at CSU, Sacramento.
FYI, some of your articles would be just great in Big History and for Kurgesagt videos. I love your stuff & will include a link in the presentation when finished. Thanks so much!
Dec 18, 2022·edited Dec 18, 2022Liked by Tomas Pueyo
Great article! Very educative! Thanks! That's what explains the importance of Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia. It is the biggest city in the region and as it happened, this region is stretching as far as the borders of the country. Ljubljana is located on a plain close to the river. Surprisingly or not, in the very heart of the city, one can even find a little hill with a castle positioned on the top. However, due to its closeness with Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, it has not a potential to become the administrative centre of Northern Balkans (Zagreb also has bigger and more important airport with worldwide connections).
P.S. This perfectly explains the rise and fall of Yugoslavia as well as its consequences.
Oh, this post reminded me so much of Parag Khanna's Connectography (fun book) about the resilience of cities and also the connectivity and infrastructure plays a key role in its development and survivability. Fun read :)
The Growth is also linked to the supply and demand side. e.g Greece and Rome were citadels of trade that has many references in South asian literature. But once their supply side went down due territorial expansionist adventures, the demand side fell and they lost their importance.
While the navigation did play a major part, I think it is the ability to transform or sustain its position what makes cities ticking long. eg Kolkatta in India, an oce major port and centre, lost its vibrancy post shifting of the capital to Delhi. But the decay was accelerated by the Industrial revolution, which the city never catered to.
Thirdly, in the present context, the cosmopolitanism and acceptance of multi-cultural ethnicity plays a significant role and this is where NYC or Mumbai or London or Dubai scores and to a lesser extent singapore too. Paris is the opposite and so it is likely one see its diminishing staus if one removes the tourism part.
Seems like it might be true in the small as well as the large, i.e. there must also be some very old spots that never grew to mega-cities, but nevertheless stayed around and were more or less stable. I would guess that a lot of these were somehow dependent on the major cities - centers of religion like Chartres in France, Hamar in Norway, Machu Picchu in Peru - but maybe not always?
Also would be interesting to focus on why some of the big cities fell into decline - because that has certainly happened as well - Palmyra in Mesopotamia, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa in India, etcetera. I'm sure that's been written about extensively too, but it is the other side of the coin to the seemingly everlasting nature of many of the places you write of.
As another commenter pointed out, climate change has the scope to dramatically alter the situation.
You have not mentioned the Gorilla in the room of climate change
The drying of lakes and rivers with loss of transport abilities agriculture productivity The rise of Sea level on costal areas with intrusion of salt into fresh ground water
Heat related effects on workers and maintenance personnel as well as warriors
A great article Tomas Pueyo, without a doubt it is a pleasure to read your writings, you see them from a more analytical perspective and fully broken down what it does for me, have a clearer understanding and easier to understand. A big hug from Argentina.
Some observations. New York has so much traffic it needs three major airports plus three smaller. Washington area has three.
Heads of water can move due to technology and politics.
Québec City was a major port in the XIXth century but it was a french speaking city. The canadian government dredged the St-Lawrence river to Montréal. Still too french. So the St-Lawrence Seaway was built to bypass Montréal. But Malcolm McLean invented the container ship, removing the size constraint from cargo ships. Good luck blasting hundreds of kms of granite to let the new humongous ships pass, so Montréal instead of being replaced by Toronto, became the container port for the Great Lakes area.
But the Cdn government succeeded in demoting YUL in favor of YYZ as Canada's primary airport.
This is an outstanding article on one of my favorite topics: Why cities grew in a specific location?
Reverse engineering the present helps you understand the past.
When it comes to seaside ports, you mention vulnerability to attacks from maritime raiders, but I wonder, too, how much nature plays a role, specifically with storms. Take the example of Houston. Founded in 1836, it was very much a backwater, 50 miles inland (30 miles up Galveston Bay, to the San Jacinto estuary, then another 12 or so miles up Buffalo Bayou) from the coastal city of Galveston (on a barrier island) which was the most important city and port in Texas. By the late 1800s efforts had been made to build a port in Houston and to dredge a more navigable pathway, but it wasn't until the massive 1900 hurricane nearly destroyed Galveston that people began to consider that a port in Houston would be a safer investment. The Houston Ship Channel was dredged, completed in 1914 just in time to connect the growing Houston-area petrochemical industry with a world at war hungry for petroleum products to serve their logistics needs.
Very interesting as always. A couple of thoughts based on the sea travel.
A strong, reliable sea breeze enables easy travel up a river. In many cases towns seem to be within the range of the seabreeze. They can be used to sail up the river during the afternoon, and back out to sea in the early morning.
Strong tides also give similar options to get back upstream. Cities often seem to form at the upper reach of the tide flow. With smaller fishing villages at the mouth. Now we see port cities forming at the river mouths due to the costs of getting big ships up small rivers. Eg Europort.
Seasonal winds also help. If the prevailing wind cycle enables ships to get easily sail up or down the river by waiting a few days for the winds to change.
It seems to me flooding potential and tropical revolving storm frequency would also play a big factor.
Big History (look up on line) at Renaissance Society, learning in retirement at CSU, Sacramento.
FYI, some of your articles would be just great in Big History and for Kurgesagt videos. I love your stuff & will include a link in the presentation when finished. Thanks so much!
Great article! Very educative! Thanks! That's what explains the importance of Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia. It is the biggest city in the region and as it happened, this region is stretching as far as the borders of the country. Ljubljana is located on a plain close to the river. Surprisingly or not, in the very heart of the city, one can even find a little hill with a castle positioned on the top. However, due to its closeness with Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, it has not a potential to become the administrative centre of Northern Balkans (Zagreb also has bigger and more important airport with worldwide connections).
P.S. This perfectly explains the rise and fall of Yugoslavia as well as its consequences.
Absolutely fantastic article - thank you
Oh, this post reminded me so much of Parag Khanna's Connectography (fun book) about the resilience of cities and also the connectivity and infrastructure plays a key role in its development and survivability. Fun read :)
A great post. I have few observations.
The Growth is also linked to the supply and demand side. e.g Greece and Rome were citadels of trade that has many references in South asian literature. But once their supply side went down due territorial expansionist adventures, the demand side fell and they lost their importance.
While the navigation did play a major part, I think it is the ability to transform or sustain its position what makes cities ticking long. eg Kolkatta in India, an oce major port and centre, lost its vibrancy post shifting of the capital to Delhi. But the decay was accelerated by the Industrial revolution, which the city never catered to.
Thirdly, in the present context, the cosmopolitanism and acceptance of multi-cultural ethnicity plays a significant role and this is where NYC or Mumbai or London or Dubai scores and to a lesser extent singapore too. Paris is the opposite and so it is likely one see its diminishing staus if one removes the tourism part.
Enjoyed reading it. keep us engaged more. thanks
Interesting & insightful.
Seems like it might be true in the small as well as the large, i.e. there must also be some very old spots that never grew to mega-cities, but nevertheless stayed around and were more or less stable. I would guess that a lot of these were somehow dependent on the major cities - centers of religion like Chartres in France, Hamar in Norway, Machu Picchu in Peru - but maybe not always?
Also would be interesting to focus on why some of the big cities fell into decline - because that has certainly happened as well - Palmyra in Mesopotamia, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa in India, etcetera. I'm sure that's been written about extensively too, but it is the other side of the coin to the seemingly everlasting nature of many of the places you write of.
As another commenter pointed out, climate change has the scope to dramatically alter the situation.
You have not mentioned the Gorilla in the room of climate change
The drying of lakes and rivers with loss of transport abilities agriculture productivity The rise of Sea level on costal areas with intrusion of salt into fresh ground water
Heat related effects on workers and maintenance personnel as well as warriors
You began with after the ice age …
Like to hear your thoughts
A great article Tomas Pueyo, without a doubt it is a pleasure to read your writings, you see them from a more analytical perspective and fully broken down what it does for me, have a clearer understanding and easier to understand. A big hug from Argentina.
What mapping software do you use to get those cool topographic maps?