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In Cronon’s book, Nature’s Metropolis, he spends the introduction and the first chapter talking about what made Chicago the great city it was and posed the question; why do cities form where they do?  Cronon presents the idea that there are two factors that lead to great cities geographical factors and economic factors, but Cronon believes that in the modern era economical factors become more important the geographical ones. I agree with this belief and you can see real life examples in it when you look at a city like Constantinople. Constantinople was the biggest and richest city in the western world in the early medieval era,  built in a very geographically strategic position between Europe and the middle East . The superior geographical position of the city forced them to be an economical hub of trade, it was the stop between two major markets for both sea and land routes.  The same could be said for any preindustrial city, all successful cities were either on the coast, along a major river, or a geographical stop between two major economical markets.  However once the industrial revolution happened and the way humans became to grow and consume agriculture grew and people began to move into the cities and away from rural areas as Jessica Abode said on her blog post.  As things changed people began to shape the landscape to fit the economical needs of an area, as Cronon said. Chicago isn’t a coastal city, doesn’t have a wide and flowing river, and is built on a swamp, but it made sense for there to be a big city in that commanding of a economical position in the middle of the US. Chicago wouldn’t have been able to be exist a couple hundred years ago but with the new technology and advancements it allowed the city to flourish