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Being a Geography major and a History minor, this weeks reading was much easier and enjoyable to read than my last post on Historiography. Von Thunen’s model is one of the subjects that I have studied in my geography classes so it was interesting to see that come up in a History reading.
The part of this article that I found most interesting was on page 62 when Cronon writes, that the “natural avenues of transportation might play important roles in shaping a city’s future, but the preexisting structures of the human economy-second nature, not first nature-determined which routes and which cities developed most quickly”. I found this particularly interesting becausse yes, Chicago was in a great geographical position to become a big and important city (first nature). However, the second nature set the stage for the first nature of the area to really let the city flourish. Had people not stepped in and dredged the harbor to make it more inviting for larger ships, as well as raise the city to help deal with the poor drainage, it would not have been able to take full advantage of the benefits of its geographical location (Cronan, pg. 58).
This dedication to making Chicago, did not stop here, it continued with the development of the railroad. Being able to anticipate the benefits of the railroad, many Chicago businessmen were fully supportive of the railroad and pushed hard for the railroad to come through Chicago. Led by William B. Ogden, these men were able to make Chicago the center of railroad transportation in this area (Cronon pg 65-66).
The relationship between the geographical advantages of the Chicago area, and the push to take advantage of them by humans is a very interesting one. By observing and studying this relationship we can gain a very good understanding of the city itself.