ABSTRACT
Latin America contains a number of mega cities with populations of well over 8 million: Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Bogota, Mexico City, and Lima are among the largest cities in the Americas, but their initial growth began in the late nineteenth century. The growth of cities in Latin America corresponded to fundamental trends of modernization, immigration from abroad, and liberal elite preference for cities over the rural sector. Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil when the republic was born in 1889, grew exponentially as of November 1807 when “the entire court and more than ten thousand courtiers and hangers-on set sail” for Rio, fleeing Napoleon’s invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. Lima, the capital of Peru and a city with about 10 million residents, grew dramatically during the early part of the twentieth century. Mexico City, the largest city in the Americas and perhaps the second largest in the world, holds a population of about 25.5 million.
