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Port Development and the Demographic Dynamics of European Urbanization

Robert Lee and Richard Lawton

in Population and Society in Western European Port-Cities, c. 1650–1939

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is about the demographic characteristics of port cities in Western Europe and their role in urbanisation during the period from 1650 ... More

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is about the demographic characteristics of port cities in Western Europe and their role in urbanisation during the period from 1650 to 1939. The book describes the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of port-cities, and considers the hypothesis that the demographic profile of a city is a reflection of its function which suggests that different city types can be associated historically with the role of different components in urban population growth. It also discusses the urban social problems in port-cities, particularly in the port transport industry and related secondary-sector activities.Less

What We Talk about When We Talk about Manufacturing: The Foreign-Trade Zone

Dara Orenstein

in Out of Stock: The Warehouse in the History of Capitalism

This chapter takes a close look at the spatial form of the foreign-trade zone (FTZ) as it was initially imagineered in a handful of port cities. In the months after President Franklin D. Roosevelt ... More

This chapter takes a close look at the spatial form of the foreign-trade zone (FTZ) as it was initially imagineered in a handful of port cities. In the months after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the FTZ legislation, bureaucrats in the small office of the FTZ Board drew up regulations, and port authorities in New York City, New Orleans, San Francisco, and elsewhere crunched the numbers to figure out if an FTZ was fiscally feasible to support—the federal government was responsible for overseeing the FTZ system, but not for funding it. As journalists watched on, bewildered by this legal fiction that one dubbed “an Ellis Island for merchandise,” Zone 1 debuted in Staten Island, NY, in 1937. And it proved a disappointment, along with the other five FTZs that opened in the late 1940s. What stymied FTZ operators was a prohibition in the regulations: no “manufacturing” in an FTZ. Deciphering that rule turned out to be their crucial task. They were forced to figure out how to sell FTZ services that counted instead as “manipulating,” marking an early chapter in the legal history of warehouse-based “border-line manufacturing.”Less

Smugglers

David Gutman

in The Politics of Armenian Migration to North America, 1885-1915: Sojourners, Smugglers and Dubious Citizens

This Chapter explores the emergence of dense networks of migrant smuggling in response to the efforts of the Ottoman state to enforce the ban on Armenian migration to North America. It shows how ... More

This Chapter explores the emergence of dense networks of migrant smuggling in response to the efforts of the Ottoman state to enforce the ban on Armenian migration to North America. It shows how these networks formed very shortly after the imposition of the ban, and until the lifting of the ban in 1908, assisting the travel of thousands of Armenian migrants from their home communities in the Anatolian interior to various port cities on the Black and Mediterranean Sea coasts and on to steamships bound for European transit ports. It also provides insight into the diverse set of actors that comprised these networks and coordinated them across vast stretches of time and space. The Chapter also draws parallels between the dynamics that drove clandestine migration in the late Ottoman period with those that drive the same phenomenon in the present.Less

Pueblo to Metropolis

in Los Angeles in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City of Angels

The history of the Los Angeles area abounds with the gargantuan, the fantastic. Settled more than sixteen miles inland from a shallow, unprotected bay, it has made itself into one of the great port ... More

The history of the Los Angeles area abounds with the gargantuan, the fantastic. Settled more than sixteen miles inland from a shallow, unprotected bay, it has made itself into one of the great port cities of the world; lying far off the normal axes of transportation and isolated by high mountains, it has become one of the great railroad centers of the country; lacking a water supply adequate for a large city, it has brought in a supply from rivers and mountain streams hundreds of miles away. This chapter describes the arrival of adventurers from Spain and Portugal, the founding of Los Angeles, Mexican rule, the emergence of Los Angeles as a modern American metropolis, the quest for water, the city's participation in war, and the impact of the Depression after the 1929 stock crash.Less

From Port Cities to Cities with Ports: Toward a Multiscalar History of Persian Gulf Urbanism in the Twentieth Century

Arang Keshavarzian

in Gateways to the World: Port Cities in the Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf has always been transnational or “glocal”, but the processes and mechanisms of transnationalization have changed in a way that has resulted in a morphological separation of ports ... More

The Persian Gulf has always been transnational or “glocal”, but the processes and mechanisms of transnationalization have changed in a way that has resulted in a morphological separation of ports from cities; a less integrated regional network of ports; and cities where homogeneity and unity, in terms of identity, class, and citizenship-status, are privileged and differences are rendered as threats that must be neutralized and controlled. This chapter offers a broad comparative perspective on the nature of urban forms and relationships at the beginning and end of the twentieth century in the Persian Gulf. It focuses on urban centers as “port cities” by considering how this form of urbanism has been revoked by and for new technologies, modes of accumulation, and forms of political control. The port cities of Basra, Bushehr, and Bandar Abbas are used as examples to illustrate how these different cities have experienced similar, yet dramatic changes in their political economies.Less

Contemporary Port Cities in the Persian Gulf: Local Gateways and Global Networks

Mehran Kamrava

in Gateways to the World: Port Cities in the Persian Gulf

Certain Arab cities of the Persian Gulf have emerged as models to which the other cities of Middle East are aspiring. This chapter identifies three ideal types of port cities across the Persian Gulf, ... More

Certain Arab cities of the Persian Gulf have emerged as models to which the other cities of Middle East are aspiring. This chapter identifies three ideal types of port cities across the Persian Gulf, namely company towns, secondary cities, and aspiring global cities. It is argued that the aspiring global cities predominate the life of the entire country and overshadow all other urban formations by being the main recipients of public and private attention and resources. As a consequence, the potential significance of secondary cities and company towns both at home and abroad is impeded due to policy neglect and inadequate resources. In the course of the discussion, this chapter also illustrates that active engagement with and participation in globalization may have propelled these cities into a higher plain of infrastructural development and modern urbanism; but it has also brought massive migration of laborers in search of employment and unsettling levels of demographic imbalance.Less

Workers: Collective bargaining

Tirthankar Roy

in Company of Kinsmen: Enterprise and Community in South Asian History 1700-1940

This chapter examines the link between new work opportunities, managerial paradigms, collective bargaining, and organized labour supply in India. Between 1800 and 1920, millions of people deserted ... More

This chapter examines the link between new work opportunities, managerial paradigms, collective bargaining, and organized labour supply in India. Between 1800 and 1920, millions of people deserted their homes and jobs to find employment opportunities in new enterprises inside India and overseas. The employment of wage workers increased dramatically in scale and diversity during the colonial period. In the nineteenth century, migrant labourers formed nothing like a traditional social unit and were predominantly males who had left their families and villages behind. Migrant labourers formed teams in the plantations and textile factories around headmen, and this team concept was used by the employers to introduce supervision and training. This transformation is analysed by focusing on four case studies — eighteenth-century port cities, indentured workers to Mauritius in the early nineteenth century, Assam tea workers in the late nineteenth century, and cotton mill labourers in Bombay in the interwar period.Less

Introduction

Mehran Kamrava

in Gateways to the World: Port Cities in the Persian Gulf

This chapter provides an overview of the content of the book as well as an analysis of the role and significance of port cities in the Persian Gulf. Ports and port cities have evolved at the ... More

This chapter provides an overview of the content of the book as well as an analysis of the role and significance of port cities in the Persian Gulf. Ports and port cities have evolved at the intersection of local and global forces with port cities having historically played a crucial role as relay stations in globalization by constituting important hubs of trade and traffic. This chapter highlights that the increasing levels of state intervention in urban planning during the recent decades, and the resulting discontinuities and disjunctures in urban form, constitute some of the important and relatively universal hallmarks of the Persian Gulf’s port cities. It illustrates that the focus of the book is to explore the internal and external dynamics that have shaped the contemporary port cities of the Persian Gulf, and to examine how these dynamics came about, the ways in which they manifest themselves, and their consequences.Less

Tunis: Axis of the Middle Sea

Allen James Fromherz

in The Near West: Medieval North Africa, Latin Europe and the Mediterranean in the Second Axial Age

This chapter explores the history and culture of Tunis, which prospered in the ninth century from trade, slavery, naval-merchant exchange, and raiding. Located on the western coast of Italy, the ... More

This chapter explores the history and culture of Tunis, which prospered in the ninth century from trade, slavery, naval-merchant exchange, and raiding. Located on the western coast of Italy, the opportunity of the sea made a protected and strategic port city such as Tunis capable of thriving. Although it never became a city at the level of Rome or Cairo, Tunis was often close to this status. It had been on the verge of empire at its height, a stopover point for ideas and movements far more extensive than its immediate surroundings. Tunis at one point would be recognized in Mecca and Madina as the capital of the Caliph — leader of the Islamic world. It eventually became a significant center of learning, trade, and commerce that not only raided but also rivaled European cities well into the medieval period.Less

Introduction When the Levees Rose

Cécile Vidal

in Caribbean New Orleans: Empire, Race, and the Making of a Slave Society

The introduction presents the book’s argument according to which it is more accurate to view eighteenth-century New Orleans as a Caribbean port city than as a North American one, as its late ... More

The introduction presents the book’s argument according to which it is more accurate to view eighteenth-century New Orleans as a Caribbean port city than as a North American one, as its late foundation, its position within the French Empire, and its connections with Saint-Domingue explain why the interplay of slavery and race profoundly shaped its society from the outset. It situates the book vis-à-vis Louisiana and Atlantic historiographies on urban slavery, slave societies, and racial formation, arguing that historians need to move away from a comparative history of racial slavery in the Western Hemisphere that contrasts the Caribbean and North America as two distinctive models. Finally, the introduction discusses how the book draws on two methodological approaches in order to analyze how racial formation unfolded under the influence of global, regional, and local circumstances: it practices a situated Atlantic history and develops a microhistory of race within the urban center.Less

The Historiography of Maritime China since c. 1975

Chi-Kong Lai

in Maritime History at the Crossroads: A Critical Review of Recent Historiography

This essay addresses Chinese maritime history and investigates a range of topics, including the international nature of research in Chinese maritime history; new archives and recent research in ... More

This essay addresses Chinese maritime history and investigates a range of topics, including the international nature of research in Chinese maritime history; new archives and recent research in shipping and shipbuilding; maritime trade; ports and port cities; and maritime communities. It also focuses on Mitsubishi-Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) and China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, two major Chinese and Japanese merchant shipping companies and provides suggestions on future directions of maritime history in East Asia.Less

One The Nazione Ebrea and the Tuscan State A Fruitful Symbiosis

Francesca Bregoli

in Mediterranean Enlightenment: Livornese Jews, Tuscan Culture, and Eighteenth-Century Reform

This chapter offers an introduction to Jewish life in Livorno while investigating the close bonds connecting Livornese Jews with the Tuscan state and culture. It first discusses the Livornina charter ... More

This chapter offers an introduction to Jewish life in Livorno while investigating the close bonds connecting Livornese Jews with the Tuscan state and culture. It first discusses the Livornina charter (1593), which lay the ground for Jewish life in the Tuscan port, and the exceptional status of Livorno. It then moves to analyzing the interconnection between the governance structures of the nazione ebrea and the Tuscan administration, an arrangement that distinguishes Livorno from other contemporary Sephardi centers. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of the Tuscan Enlightenment in the study of Livornese Jewish history. Under the rule of Francis Stephen of Lorraine and Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine Tuscan culture and policies were defined by attention to economic, social, and cultural reform. This reforming vocation provides a vantage point to study the Livornese Jewish encounter with outside culture as well as the ways in which Livornese Jews engaged with Enlightenment policies.Less

Beirut, City of the Levant

Toufoul Abou-Hodeib

in A Taste for Home: The Modern Middle Class in Ottoman Beirut

This chapter introduces the concept of domesticity and sets the general historical background for the rest of the book. Looking at how new ideas on Ottoman urban management in Istanbul and foreign ... More

This chapter introduces the concept of domesticity and sets the general historical background for the rest of the book. Looking at how new ideas on Ottoman urban management in Istanbul and foreign investments in infrastructure helped transform Beirut from a sleepy harbor town to major entrepôt, the chapter also foregrounds how the emergence of a middle class shaped life in the city. It explores the various characteristics of the middle class and places it in the context of the nahda, the late-nineteenth, early-twentieth century vibrant intellectual and cultural production in Arabic. It also investigates how the middle class spread across the city's new neighborhoods. Finally, the chapter closes with an overview of the archival sources used in the book.Less

A ‘second Singapore’? The connected histories of Darwin and Singapore, 1860s–1930s

Claire Lowrie

in Masters and servants: Cultures of empire in the tropics

This chapter explores the connected histories of Singapore and Darwin from the 1860s and the 1930s. The chapter begins by acknowledging the marked differences between Darwin and Singapore. Singapore ... More

This chapter explores the connected histories of Singapore and Darwin from the 1860s and the 1930s. The chapter begins by acknowledging the marked differences between Darwin and Singapore. Singapore was a key trading port in Southeast Asia and an exploitation colony while Darwin was a colonial backwater and a member of a settler colony. While acknowledging the differences between the sites, shipping records, newspaper articles, trade figures, migration statistics and colonial memoirs are used to show how these neighbouring colonies were connected by an exchange of trade, travellers and migrants. In addition to exploring this forgotten history of connection, Chapter 1 outlines the similarities between Singapore and Darwin. They were both tropical colonial ports and were characterised by having multiethnic populations that included a white minority and large numbers of Chinese migrants. The two colonies also shared a similar tropical colonial culture. In both sites, arguments about the degenerating impacts of the climate and the need to demonstrate colonial prestige as well as a ready availability of affordable ‘coloured’ domestic labour ensured that white colonists and non-white interracial elites, employed a multiethnic entourage of servants in their homes. The favoured servants were Chinese ‘houseboys’.Less

Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Urban South

Jeff Strickland

in Unequal Freedoms: Ethnicity, Race, and White Supremacy in Civil War-Era Charleston

Charleston was a coastal port city on the Atlantic Ocean, and, along with its physical geography, that led to heightened social interaction between slaves, free blacks, and European immigrants. ... More

Charleston was a coastal port city on the Atlantic Ocean, and, along with its physical geography, that led to heightened social interaction between slaves, free blacks, and European immigrants. Charleston’s slave population increased between 1820 and 1861, reaching more than seventeen thousand. Slaves lived in residences throughout the city and often in separate living quarters. The free black population also experienced significant population increases during the first half of the nineteenth century. German and Irish immigration also had implications for the social relations of Charleston during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. German and Irish immigrants arrived in large numbers during the 1850s, and they encountered a thriving free black population in Charleston, slightly larger than their own, and thousands of slaves. Moreover, some Germans and Irish who had arrived in the 1830 and early 1840s had socialized to certain white southern norms, including slaveholding. Many immigrants experienced death by migration, because their immune systems did not protect them as well from specific diseases. Health conditions in Charleston endangered immigrants who lived in low-lying, unsanitary places throughout the city. Yellow fever proved particularly deadly to German and Irish immigrants, and more than one thousand died during epidemics between 1849 and 1858.Less

Sites of Enslavement, Spaces of Freedom: Slavery and Abolition in the Atlantic Cities of Havana and Rio de Janeiro

Camillia Cowling

in Conceiving Freedom: Women of Color, Gender, and the Abolition of Slavery in Havana and Rio de Janeiro

This chapter shows that neither Josepha Goncalves de Moraes, in Rio de Janeiro, nor Ramona Oliva, in Havana, had been born in the city where her claim was filed. Yet for each woman, these “Atlantic ... More

This chapter shows that neither Josepha Goncalves de Moraes, in Rio de Janeiro, nor Ramona Oliva, in Havana, had been born in the city where her claim was filed. Yet for each woman, these “Atlantic port cities” were not merely the backdrop to her actions, but a significant part of her story, shaping her relationship to law and labor, slavery and freedom. In turn, such women would also influence the cities in which they arrived. They joined the vast ebb and flow of humanity that made Havana and Rio de Janeiro fast-growing, cosmopolitan places, crowded with newcomers from far-flung provinces and from across the seas. Women of color were part of each city's visual landscape, vividly depicted by foreign visitors as they walked the streets selling foodstuffs or gathered at water fountains to wash clothes and chat in many tongues.Less

Diasporic Formations in the Inter-war Years

Rajesh Rai

in Indians in Singapore, 1819-1945: Diaspora in the Colonial Port-city

This chapter features how the Indian social and political environment in Singapore transformed in the inter-war years. It is guided by questions fundamental to the issue of identity in the diaspora: ... More

This chapter features how the Indian social and political environment in Singapore transformed in the inter-war years. It is guided by questions fundamental to the issue of identity in the diaspora: What were the forces that influenced Indian cooperative activities and how did this effect the trajectory of socio-cultural production during the inter-war years?; What common features were most important for a sense of community identification?; Along which lines was fractiousness most evident, and what were the factors that informed these tensions?; What effect did transnational socio-political currents have on Indians living in the port city, and how was this manifest on the ground in the lead up to World War II?Less

Neither Here nor There: Trade, Piracy, and the “Space Between” in Early Modern East Asia

Michael Laver

in Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai: Maritime East Asia in Global History, 1550-1700

This chapter examines trade and piracy in what is known as the “space between” in early modern East Asia. It describes the cosmopolitan nature of early modern life in port cities that constituted a ... More

This chapter examines trade and piracy in what is known as the “space between” in early modern East Asia. It describes the cosmopolitan nature of early modern life in port cities that constituted a fluid space in early modern Asia. Such ports featured people of different ethnicities, from merchants and pirates to patriots and smugglers,who engaged in commercial activity of varying legality. The chapter first looks at Europeans and Chinese who plied their trade in the port cities of Hirado and Nagasaki in western Japan before discussing the system of international trade and diplomacy that was centered in the space between.Less