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Colonialism and the city
What is meant by De-urbanization?
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Deurbanization is the physical decline of an urban population resulting from economic or social change. Deurbanization is commonly defined differently from sub-urbanization.
Deurbanisation is opposite of urbanisation .An increase in a population in cities and towns versus rural areas is known as Urbanization.It began during the industrial revolution, when workers moved towards manufacturing hubs in cities to obtain job in factories as agricultural jobs became less common.
For the sake of convenience of trade the British developed new centers of trade like Calcutta, Madras and Bombay on eastern and Western coastal areas respectively. In late 18th century these places became as Presidency cities under the British rule.
These cities which were very important right from the ancient as well as during the Mughal period gradually lost their importance. Simultaneously many towns manufacturing specialized goods declined due to a drop in the demand for what they produced.
Old trading centers and ports could not survive when the flow of trade moved to the new centers. Trades and exports via earlier important ports like Surat, Masulipatnam etc failed dramatically.
At the same time, the earlier centers of regional power collapsed when local rulers were defeated by the British and new centers of administration emerged.
As a result of all these happenings more and more people began to shift from these places which used to be important cities in the past. This process is often described as de-urbanization.
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