Charles Cooley: Origin of the city from the point of view of transportation
The theories of origin of cities range from technological, social to its physical attributes such as location. Some of the theories of urbanization link it to warfare. The example that is given is Mesopotamia. This might not be true of cities in other regions, but the decline of cities has been related to warfare.
Charles Cooley argues how the theory of urban location is an extremely complicated matter, and not wholly a matter of transportation nor of economic relations. In early and war-like times military considerations were of great importance in the original placing of cities. It should be noted, that the first towns in militant communities were forts and they were a means of holding conquered territory. Defense was the most important characteristic of the planning of these fort towns. Sacred geography and religious significance are also causes of emergence of towns.
Cooley observed that in the western United States, in regions where there is almost no diversity of surface, a considerable town often grows up at the county seat simply because of the slight advantage due to the location there of the public buildings and offices. He also notes that the site of cities is sometimes fixed by no better reason than the chance and possibly unwise selection of the first colonists.
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