Regional Interaction in Savannah
Savannah has a strong dominance as a city in the South-Eastern frontier of the United States. Being one of the major cities of its age and having a strong colonial influence, Savannah has an interesting history of regional interaction that has been, to some extent, intentionally implied at the time of its inception. Savannah was founded to be a British Colonial outpost and to serve as a hub of cotton production and a sea port. In its early days Savannah was laid out in a fashion that would serve this purpose. The main city as can be seen today is situated by the banks of River Savannah. It has its port area at the East that connects the region to the other ports along the nation’s Eastern coast line and to countries Far East. The agricultural lands for the purpose of cotton farming was laid out towards the west side of the city where sufficient amount of land is available. These two things act as the key factors that establishes the strong role of the city in the region in terms of Economy and Transportation. The city’s relation with the region in terms of retail and trade is based on the cotton economy of early days and the existence of the port. The main settlement is created in a compact area near the port, which acts as the focus of the physical development of Savannah. Radiating transportation networks running out of the city center acts as the communicating exchange tool that ensures the spatial interaction of the city with the neighboring region. Learning from the renowned theories in regional interaction, Savannah’s regional interaction can be explained with Pred’s Model of circular and cumulative causation and Borchet’s Transport Epochs. The first one explains Savannah’s dominance as an economic hub for cotton industry that grew during the early phase of its development. Borchet’s Transport Epochs can be used to describe the city’s growth as a regional city with its changing reliance on various transportation system.
Analysis 1: Pred’s Model of circular and cumulative causation: Savannah’s Cotton Industry:
Savannah was founded to be an agricultural experiment by its English founders and General Oglethorpe in Colonial Era. However, it gained its dominance in cotton industry after the Revolutionary War in 1778 when residents discovered the richness of land in Savannah for cotton production. This growing new industry in cotton legalized slavery in Georgia for the benefit of the regional economy and the trans-Atlantic slave trade brought African Americans broadening up the city’s dominance over Georgia and South Carolina. The industry started trading to the states of Georgia and South Carolina, being the two neighboring British colonies of the region. Being a monopoly industry in the southeastern region, the cotton industry eventually expanded its region and grew in scale. Post-Civil war the industry received a boom of workers around the region, who migrated and established their living concentrating the cotton industry. In accordance with the Pred’s Model of circular and cumulative causation, as more and more people started to depend on the industry and established in Savannah, it created a Multiplier Effect that increased demand for the industry and helped it grow as a regional industry. A good example of this multiplier effect could be found in the establishment of Savannah Cotton Exchange in 1876, which became the export hub for the industry. It became the market and congregation place for the cotton industry exporting goods as far as to New York and London. Clearly, with the help of the model we can describe the substantial amount of growth observed in Savannah during 19th Century.
The model also emphasizes on the possibilities of innovation and invention in industrial sectors that also foster the growth of industry overtime. This can be computed to the fact in the cotton industry of Savannah where we observe a tremendous hike in the growth pattern of the industry after the invention of Cotton Gin in 18th Century. As the cotton industry eventually established its dominance over the regional economy, the city grew in size and population. This proliferated the possibilities in innovation and invention that would reduce production effort and would increase productivity. The Cotton Gin invention acted as the booster that helped the city grew in regional interaction. With the benefit of the port and the rail routes going to and from Savannah, the city grew faster than its smaller counterparts and established its initial advantage in the regional industry. This cleared the path for possible growth in innovativeness and established the regional dominance of the city in 19th Century.
The model also emphasizes on the possibilities of innovation and invention in industrial sectors that also foster the growth of industry overtime. This can be computed to the fact in the cotton industry of Savannah where we observe a tremendous hike in the growth pattern of the industry after the invention of Cotton Gin in 18th Century. As the cotton industry eventually established its dominance over the regional economy, the city grew in size and population. This proliferated the possibilities in innovation and invention that would reduce production effort and would increase productivity. The Cotton Gin invention acted as the booster that helped the city grew in regional interaction. With the benefit of the port and the rail routes going to and from Savannah, the city grew faster than its smaller counterparts and established its initial advantage in the regional industry. This cleared the path for possible growth in innovativeness and established the regional dominance of the city in 19th Century.
Analysis 2: Borchet’s Transport Epochs: Savannah Port and Regional Rail System:
Savannah’s growth and development as regional center can also be discussed with the help of Borchet’s Transport Epochs. From the time of its inception Savannah has been a port city. It played an important role in terms of export and import of goods through the port connecting the hinterland with the nation and the globe. As Borchet describes the epochs, the first epoch of Horse and Wagons can be seen in Savannah during the period 1790 to 1830. With the benefit of the Atlantic Coast and navigable Savannah River, the city grew as the transportation hub of the region. The port served geographically challenged hinterlands with goods and services from the rapidly growing east coast line of the nation and from the Western parts of Europe. The city became the service provider for the far mid-western cities and increased its interaction with the region. In 1831 a 16.5 mile long Savannah-Ogeechee Canal was created connecting the Savannah River with the Ogeechee River. This canal connected the newly developed riverfront of Savannah’s coast line with the South- Central region of Georgia. This opened up the availability of resources along which Savannah grew as region and was able to connect to almost entire region. The second epoch that explains this connection further is the development of Regional Rail network Epoch between years 1830 to 1870. By 1870 three principle railroads were established that helped Savannah ship goods from the port to the interior. The Central of Georgia, the Savannah and Charleston and the Savannah and Gulf connected the markets and industries in the city to the coastal regions and to the interior hinterland. This influence increased with the development of national rail system that connected the city further to the West between 1870 and 1920. The next major epoch in its growth in terms of transportation can be observed with the rise of automobile and air traffic. Savannah benefits with two major highways running though and from Savannah. The first one is the US Highway 17 which was established in 1926. This route running in parallel to the East coast line of the United States, connected Savannah to the booming North-Eastern Coastal cities like New York and Boston. This acted as one of the greatest influence fostering Savannah’s regional interaction during twentieth century. Along with the rail line, US Route 17 became the next major communication tool that connected and increased Savannah’s industrial economy during the automobile era. The second major influence had been the construction of Interstate 16, constructed in 1972, that connected Savannah with the west part of the State Georgia. The next big epoch that has been Savannah’s latest growth factor is the establishment of Savannah/ Hilton Head International Airport in 1929. It started as a public and military airport and slowly grew as a commercial airport later. The airport now is one of the biggest amplifiers that today establishes the economic and regional status of the city. It overtook the reliance on the railroad and port and has now become the center of regional multinational industries and companies surrounding the benefit of the airport.