1. How did towns and cities grow?

Once upon a time…

At first, our ancestors were hunter gatherers, the
hunted wild animals and picked wild berries, thus
there were no permanent settlements as they had to
follow the seasons for food. They all so immigrated all
around the world. Then they discovered how to farm
food. They discovered how they didn’t have to eat
everything the got, and they could store them, like
seeds to plant later. They also started domestication
animals. The first animals reared were sheep. Farming
meant that people could settle down and didn’t need
to move around so often any more. This was the start
of settlements, otherwise known as dwellings or
clusters of settlements. As farming progressed, people
produced more than enough food for themselves, so
they started to sell them at markets, and people
started to settle around them, so towns and cities
grew. Different towns/cities had different things, some
towns had more advantages and services available, so
those grew into towns and cities. However, at this
time, most people still lives by farming and in rural
areas. Then in the 18th century, the industrial
revolution came along. Factories and mills sprang up
around resources, and cities grew around them. This
was supported by the agricultural revolution and since
most people didn’t have jobs anymore, people poured
in from all around Britain and some parts of Europe to
work in the mills and factories, resulting in the cities
exploding in size. Soon, industry spread to other parts
of Europe and Britain was soon no longer the llegad in
industry. Today, towns and cities are growing the
fastest in Africa and Asia, which are the poorer parts
of the world. Many people go there in the hope of
getting a better job and education for themselves or
their children the same way as it once had in the UK,
but a whole lot faster.
It’s urbanisation!
All around the world, each week about 3 million
people are moving into urban, built up, areas. A lot of
babies are being born in urban areas as well, thus the
population of people living in urban areas is
increasing, and so is the percentage of people living
there. The percentage increase of people living in
urban areas or the process of more people living in
urban areas is known as urbanisation.
So urban areas are spreading…
As urban ares spread, they sometimes join up with
other urban areas and eat up rural areas. In this way
they grow and they will sooner or later become a
megacity. A city with over 10 million people is called a
megacity. In 2019 there were 33 megacities and Tokyo
was one of them with over 37 million people, o there
examples of merge cities are Mexico City, Beijing,
Shanghai, Delhi, Sao Paolo and Dhaka.
Key vocabulary:
Megacity: A city with over 10 million people
Urbanisation: The percentage increase of people
living in urban areas increasing
Settlements: A place where was primarily inhabited,
but where people establish a community
Farming: The process of planting food and rearing
animals for food.
Urban area: A built up area where most of the
Earth’s population live
Industry: The process of converting raw material
into economical goods in factories.

2. Manchester’s story 1:
Manchester: The growth of a British city:
Many small British towns grew into larger cities due
to the industrial revolution. Usually there are 5 typical
steps and here are the examples on Manchester:
A settlement begins, and if it’s in a good positions, it
grows
Industrialisation arrives
The population explodes
Industry declines
Regeneration
A settlement begins, and if it’s in a good location, it
grows: In 79 CE, the Romans built a fort near the river
Medlock, they left some time later, but a settlement
had grown around the fort, and it served as a market
town for rural areas around it. Then, Industrialisation
arrived. Before in 1760, the population of Manchester
was only 17000, during industrialisation, this number
exploded, mills and factories sprung up everywhere,
new machinery was invented, Manchester mainly
focused on making cotton cloth. This mean that new
looms and mills and factories sprung up everywhere,
there were also mines. Cotton was imported to
Liverpool mainly from India, then it could be brought
to Manchester in boat. So, cotton mills sprang up
everywhere, along with this factories for drying and
printing the clothe were also built and so were ware
houses for storing it. Soon, Manchester became the
center for cotton trading. Some reasons why
Manchester was good for cotton were: There were also
other industries:
Access to the coast, meant easy trading
A long tradition of home weaving, people already
knew how the job was done
River water and access to coal, fuel to fuel the loom
engines and run the factories
Soft water, washing and dyeing the cotton cloth
There were also other industries other than cotton,
these included chemical industries for making dyes
and engineering industries for making looms to weave
cotton. Both of these contributed to the cotton
industry in Manchester.
The populations soon exploded, many people
poured in from rural areas to work in the mills and
factories. People came from all over Europe, but
mostly from Britain. People also came from Ireland
fleeing the great famine (1845-1849). In 1853, with
over 300000 people, Manchester was named a city.
However, industry soon declined in the 20th century,
mostly due to the fact that other countries started
making things cheaper and soon it’s mills and
factories closed down. This process of closing down is
called de industrialisation, during this process,
Manchester’s population fell, many left to work
somewhere else and others moved to live outside of
the city limits. Manchester’s population fell. And them
comes regeneration, toady, people say that
Manchester is a great place to live, this is because it
has been regenerated. Lots of new services and jobs
were added, ad it’s population has been rising since
2001.
Manchester’s slums
All cities have slums, and so did Manchester, life
was very though for the workers in the factories
speculator made cheap houses to rent to the workers.
These slums had 2 two floors and no running water,
outdoor privies were shared. These houses where
cramped onto narrow streets and over time, these
areas became slums. Rubbish was piled up
everywhere, soot filled the air and disease was rife.
over half the children born there die before the age of
five.
Manchester spreads outwards
As Manchester grew, a process called
suburbanisation took place. Since the conditions in the
middle of the city where very bad and filled with soot
and grime, the better off people moved to the edge of
the city, where the air was clearer and they simply too
buses or trams to work. This process helped the city
to spread, and it ate over rural areas, this unplanned
process of forming a larger urban area is called an
urban sprawl, this area were the suburbs. Today, with
Manchester City at its hear, this newly formed area is
called Greater Manchester.
Glossary
Declined: Decreases, went down
De-industrialisation: When factories close down and
people leave them, no jobs
Regeneration: When new jobs are added to a place,
opportunities, better place to live
Speculator: People who bought things for a lower
price and sold it for profit, in this case slums
Privets: Outdoor public toilets
Slums: Areas of poor housing usually crammed
houses, dirty, unhygienic, few services
Suburbanisation: When the better of people move to
the outer places of a city know as suburbs to live
Suburbs: Areas formed outside of a city where
better off people move to/live
Urban sprawl: The unplanned process of a city
spreading due to increasing population and such
Greater Manchester: The area formed by the urban
sprawl during the industrial revolution

3. Manchester’s story 2:
The Manchester miracle:
 In 1980 Manchester was a depressed and emo city,
mills and factories took empty all around, and even
though the slums were gone, the city was still run
down and people were leaving. However, nowadays
Manchester is a vibrant city, with lots of jobs and fun
things to do. It got regenerated, and ever since it’s
regeneration in 2001, it’s population had been rising.
How does regeneration work:
Regeneration is the process of making a place a
better place to live in and adding jobs to it as well.
The two aims are to bring jobs to the place and make
it a better place to live. To make the city a better
place to live, activities and culture could be added,
such as sports, music, cinema, theatre and such.
There should also be places for people to eat, parks
and other green spaces. Shopping and a wide choice
of housing should also be available. To bring jobs back
to the place factories hold be set up. Factors that
affect and add to both aims are education and
transport. Of course, there should be other services
such as medical care and research centres.
The regeneration of Manchester
Jobs: There are lots of new jobs in Manchester, most
of which are linked to creativity, like creative and
digital media. An example of this in Media City UK in
Salford, which is only five kilometres away from
Manchester City centre. These are mainly things to do
with Tv stuff Radio and such. Manchester also aims to
become a world research center for 2D materials, in
the year 2004, a material call grapheme was first
isolated in Manchester University. This material is one
atom thick, but 200 times stronger than steel.
Transport links: People want to get around easily,
and they also need to for education and jobs. Thus
there is a complicated system of bus links and trams
so that people can get around easily. The bus services
around Manchester is free and it also has a tram that
covers 100km with 93 stops. There is also a link to
places other than Manchester, it is linked to Greater
Manchester and other parts of the UK by road and rail.
It is also connected to the rest of the world via
Manchester Airport.
Housing: Everyone wants good housing, since the
population is now rising again in Manchester, it needs
to build more houses. Manchester wants to protect its
green spaces however, so it’s new houses are mainly
constructed on brownfield sites, or are renovated
warehouses. Sometimes, an old building is even
knocked down to make space for the new one.
Entertainment (activities, culture and shopping):
Sport stadiums have also been set up for games,
Manchester even has it’s own football tea, Manchester
United. There are also national parks and many events
are held there, like a music festival held at park
life.Museums are also added for culture, and example
is the Lowry museum, there are great places to shop.
Glossary
Regeneration: The process of making a place better
to live in and adding jobs to a place
Brownfield sites: Sites that have already been used
for something else
 Conurbation: The extended part of an urban area

4. Urbanisation around the world:

Most cities: Under 500 000 people:
Most of the world’s cities actually have only 500 000
people living there. For example in the UK, only
London and Birmingham have over one million people.
In fact, more than half the world’s population live in
Urban areas, the people who live in urban areas are
also known as urban dwellers.
Why is this happening?
This is happening because of several reasons: A
settlement is a place that spreads because of things
being, built there. it’s population increases because of
migration and natural increase. People may want to
migrate to a certain settlement because there are
suitable businesses set up in a place, buildings are
built like schools, hospitals, homes offices and shops,
successful businesses often attract more workers and
other businesses. People may move from rural areas
to find jobs or get a better education but they may
also have other reasons.
Is it linked to wealth?
A city’s urbanisation level is mainly due to wealth,
as most businesses grow in cities/urban areas, the city
gets wealthier which would attract more people to Coe
work in that city which would soo help improve it’s
economy, as this happens, urbanisation also
increases.
 Glossary
GNI per person: A country’s total income after an
year divided up into it’s total population