Urbanization

1. What is Urbanization?

Urbanization is the rapid growth of cities.

2. For what reasons did a number of Americans move from the country to the cities?

Rapid improvements in farming technology meant that less farmers were needed in rural areas, so some moved to the city to find whatever jobs they could. A lot of them were African Americans and they had to move to the city because they could not afford the technology equipment that made farming more efficient and there was no longer a use for farmers that worked by hand.

3. What were the housing problems that many poor city dwellers faced?

Poor city dwellers were faced with housing problems by being cramped into small apartments called tenements. Often two to three families were packed into a one family tenement making it unsafe, uncomfortable, and unsanitary. As cities grew, row houses were made, single family dwellings that shared side walls with other similar houses, they packed many families onto one block.