Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Finally, in their victory over the seceded South in 1865, the Northeast imposed its
final shape on the nation.
This region forms a major interface between North America and the North
Atlantic. As the gateway to Europe, it welcomed the large flow of people and goods
that gave the country an irresistible momentum in the late 19th century.
New York became its heart and symbol. New York is a “world-city” in
Braudel's
1
sense called New York a “world-city”, with its global financial markets
dominating the world economy, with it being the headquarters of the United Nations
since 1945, and with it having been the symbolic target of America's fierce enemies
in 2001. The Megalopolis is the most densely populated and urbanized region in the
country, and it is also the prototype for a new type of polycentric urban zone in
which metropolitan areas come together in one coherent line of development.
The 15 North Central states form the Heartland of the US, based on Mackinder's
[MKI 04] definition. It is both the breadbasket and the forge of America. The city of
Chicago symbolizes the region. As opposed to the other three mainland regions, the
Heartland shares no border with the ocean, but the Great Lakes and the St Lawrence
Seaway, which opened in 1950, in the Northeast, along with other river channels
coming from the South, the Mississippi and its tributary the Ohio River, provide
navigable waterways towards ocean waters. This explains why this region does not
suffer from the isolation characteristic of most other continental heartlands, but has
benefited from excellent connections to the global economy from the very
beginnings of its settlement. This region is today no longer in tune with the three
ocean-bordering regions, however, and its growth has tended to lag behind ever
since production ceased to dominate the US economy, which is now dominated by
the service industry.
Hawaii and Alaska make up the fifth region of peripheral states. Their relative
weight in relation to the total population of the United States (less than 0.7% with
2 million inhabitants) explains why comparative tables do not dedicate a specific
column to them. Settlement in the other four main regions has very distinct features
(see Table 5.1).
1
. Fernand Braudel (1902-1985), French historian, one of the leading figures of the French
Annales
history school. He is considered as one of the precursors of the World Systems
Theory. His concept of “world-cities” was clearly exposed in lectures he made in 1976 at
John Hopkins University, and that were later published [BRA 85].
