The Roots of Primacy in the Third World
Uploaded by Doraemon on Jan 03, 2005
Perpetual Cities: The Roots of Primacy in the Third World
Almost all of the world's largest cities are found in ex-colonial countries. However, the largest countries are not always home to the largest cities. In fact, the smaller the country, the more prone it is confronting primacy. Primacy - defined in this paper as the disproportionate sum of population and economic concentration as compared to the next largest city - is the result of an economic process that began during colonization and continues today. Although, primacy has historically been associated with urbanization, it is the geographical manifestation of economic decisions by governments, the business elite and migrants. Primate cities increased in population and relative wealth because of cumulative causation - the forces that set primacy in motion perpetuate the phenomenon.
Primacy's Roots - Colonization
Most of the world's largest cities are found in former European colonies. The colonial system changed the geographies of what is now the third world by creating new centers of power, altering the function of domestic markets and introducing new modes of transportation. While the emergence of primacy is easy to identify, it perpetuates because of the interaction of a number of market forces.
Colonial Government
Although urban centers existed in Africa, Asia and Latin America before colonialism, the arrival of the European colonists signaled the beginning of primacy. As colonists created a centralized political economy, certain economic centers and some of their inhabitants gained extraordinary wealth. Collusion between merchants and governments concentrated economic power both geographically and socially. Resulting imbalances of social and political power created a third world elite that would control domestic and international trade until well after independence.
Colonial Economies
Colonial cities reinvented the economic landscape of the third world. The political and economic relationship of colonies to their colonial powers produced a new export economy while simultaneously dismantling domestic trade. The existing domestic economies, such as textiles and metalworking industries, could not compete lower priced and higher quality imports from more technologically advanced European manufacturers (Becker et al., 77). By replacing pre-colonial economies with export-based economies controlled by a concentrated elite, the economic structure of primate cities was complete - the urban rich controlled the low-skilled and less-educated classes. Since the colonial period, income inequality has been an unwavering characteristic of urban primacy in Latin America.
Colonial Infrastructure
Transportation infrastructure helped reshape economic geographies of the third world to further concentrate wealth. For example, Zambia's agriculture and industry are concentrated...