Detroit - the Industrial City

Course: SOSC 1733                                                                                             Date: Dec. 2, 2016
Student Name: Aliza Zia
Student Number: 201075534    
Tutorial Number: 06
TA Name: Hassan

 Detroit: The Industrial City

The industrial city can be defined as a city that gathers raw material and fabricates, assembles and distributes manufactured goods (Clossick, 2014). One example of this would be the city of Detroit, Michigan in the United States of America. By being one of the earliest industrial cities, Detroit has seen may changes up until present time. These changes can be categorized into three parts: pre-industrial to industrialization, deindustrialization of Detroit, and Detroit today.

Pre-industrial to Industrialization

Detroit was a lot different before industrialization. It used to be an old North American settlement, that was created by the French who traveled to the “New world” in search of fur and pelt which was in high demand. It was Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a Frenchman, who arrived at the location in 1701 with men and supplies to build a fort and settlement for the French King, and called it the French word for ‘strait’ – “Détroit” (Encyclopedia of Detroit, 2011). Since it is in fact a strait, this made the Detroit a hotspot for fur trade in Michigan, and a community slowly grew at the Detroit River, with their families who joined them. But the French rule did eventually come to an end. As the British also looked west for land, they got into arguments with the French and a war broke out in 1756 that lasted 4 years. After the war, the British then “controlled Detroit from 1760 until 1796, over 12 years after Detroit and Michigan became part of the United States during the American Revolutionary War” (Encyclopedia of Detroit, 2011). With Detroit now under American control, a new community of farmers, traders and families grew at the edge of the river. Life in Detroit depended mainly on labour work for agriculture, and was still low. As of 1810, the population was only 770 and it wasn’t until the 1830’s that Detroit started to capitalize on its site and early establishment and became Michigan’s largest city (Zunz, 1982). With massive improvements being made, Detroit was well in its way to industrialization.

Things started to pick up the pace, and the city of Detroit started to grow. Because of its location, Detroit has access to raw materials and two Great Lakes – Lake Erie and Lake Huron – and this increased transportation productivity levels of the city. For example, “the opening of the Erie Canal” and “improvements in the navigation of the Great Lakes” were made (Zunz, 1982). This made Detroit an international trading spot, and made it easy for transporting goods which boosted the growth of the city. Another major factor that aided in Detroit’s growth is the production of the stem boat. Launched on May 20, 1819, named Walk-in-the-Water, she was the first steamboat to navigate the Great Lakes (Roberts, 1855) and caused considerable enthusiasm in the West. She successfully made biweekly trips from Detroit to Buffalo, increasing the number of tourists, population and income of Detroit, setting the path for future steamboats. Furthermore, the governor, Lewis Cass helped the growth of Detroit too. He negotiated with the Indians who originally lived on the land now Detroit, and they gave up most of the land (which is now Michigan) to the federal government (Woodford, 2001). This helped because the land could pw be sold to the settlers as public land. By now, Detroit is well on its way to industrialization.

What started off as the city being the centre of commerce and trade, is now starting to take shape as Detroit touches the beginning of industrialization. Now, brand new technology and other mechanized productions flooded the markets of Detroit. These inventions were the culmination of the “agricultural revolution,” which increases the productivity of the land and reduces the number of people required for farming (Clossick, 2014). This means that there are several people who were ready to work. In the 20th century, the assembly line system was made, increasing productivity. Detroit gained its reputation as the dynamic auto centre of the world, with its symbol of success being Henry Ford (Widick, 1972). This method was far more productive and efficient, to both the economy and the industry. As new institutions and job opportunities opened up, a massive population growth by migration occurred. The city’s recent development and jobs drew in the Irish, Poles, Italians, Finns, Hungarians and blacks (Darden, 1987). This made Detroit grow successfully as an industrial city. With all the changes it went through, Detroit became an amazing industrial city – one of the top ones in America at one point – but as the saying goes, ‘all good things come to an end’.

Deindustrialization of Detroit

Although Detroit was doing great after its industrialization, it did not last. Certain issues started to arise after time. One issue in many industrial cities is overpopulation. Shortly after World War I, Detroit experienced “serious inflation” of population and with it, the high cost of living (Woodford, 2001).  Inflation, speculation of stock market, and spending money continued in a cycle and Detroit head towards the stock market crash of 1929. Furthermore, racial segregation was another issue that arose. People from the south, who were black, were the last to arrive into Detroit, and they were highly unwelcomed and faced with racism. While the unified structure of Detroit was dominated by native white Americans, Blacks were increasingly segregated from whites on the bases of race and irrespective of their social status (Zunz, 1982). Ethnic groups live among their own, especially native white Americans, which later lead to segregation and major racism throughout the city. It also led to the formation of the ghetto. Another issue is that many of foreign white families started to leave the central city because of the increase of black people migrating in from the south. As the population of Blacks from the south increased, the population of foreign whites decreased. Decentralization accelerated as more and more manufacturing firms, commercial establishments and middle-class residents (especially white families of Northern Europe ancestry) moved to suburbs (Darden, 1987). This means that the population was slowly shifting to the suburbs and leaving houses empty which the city than had to demolish, causing both the population and the economy to fall in the central city. Because of overpopulation and racial segregation, Detroit started down the path of deindustrialization.