ABSTRACT
Cities exist for a variety of reasons, but the existence and development of Chicago are attributable almost entirely to economic factors. Two major forces were at work in the nineteenth century, the development of the region known as the Old Northwest, and changes in transportation technologies and costs. Veterans of the Revolutionary War were granted plots of land in the Ohio country, and development of the Old Northwest began in earnest. Cincinnati emerged as the first real city in the region. The story of Chicago in the nineteenth century has been told many times by a sizable group that includes Alfred Andreas, Milo Quaife, Homer Hoyt, Bessie Louise Pierce, and more recently William Cronon and Donald Miller. This chapter adds to these admirable studies by placing Chicago squarely in the context of the development of its region, by drawing on some additional scholarship, and by explicitly using several aspects of location theory.
