Narration

Industrialization is frequently considered as the replacement of farming and resource extraction by manufacturing and service activity. This transition takes different forms in different places at different times. Geographies of industrialization and economic development are important in understanding future growth patterns.

To read the narrative and see further sections under each listed heading, please see "More" below.

Historical Patterns of Urbanization
The first cities occurred when one member of an agricultural village focused totally on nonprimary production activity.

Cultural Context and Urban Form
One of the main types of cities is called the primate city. These tended to be preindustrial cities although they exist in the world today.

Urban Growth and Rural-Urban Migration
The rise of cities was dependent upon the movement of people from rural landscapes into cities. This movement was a function of both the pull of new jobs and opportunities (real and perceived) in the cities, as well as the push of economic hardship in the agricultural countryside.

Rise of Megacities
Geographers are beginning to use the term "world city" to describe those settlements, which at various times have dominated the world system.

Models of Urban Systems
There are two ways to think about models of urban systems -- those that develop in abstract form (primarily in Christoler's Central Place Theory) and those that developed using a combination of physical geography and technology, such as the series of epochs of urbanization in North America developed by John Borchert.

Comparative Models of Internal City Structure
Urban geography really consists of two branches. One focuses on the internal structure of cities, and the other focuses on where the cities are located.

Web Sites

To view the following Web sites, please go to "See also" below.

The Teachers' Corner contains links to suggested Web sites. The College Board neither endorses, controls the content of, nor reviews the external Web sites included here. Please note that following links to external Web sites will open a new browser window. If you discover a link that does not work, please let us know by sending an e-mail to apctechsupport@collegeboard.org.

About.com Geography Links Page
This is a great, all-around site, which is one of the "must start here" points for Geography. Lots of articles and links related to the science and profession of geography and many other geography topics. Well worth your trip here -- the topic you are looking for will most likely be covered in the frame at the left or by following links in the middle of the page.