{"id":64,"date":"2014-06-13T19:40:08","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T19:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/geography\/?post_type=chapter&p=64"},"modified":"2014-08-27T16:18:23","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T23:18:23","slug":"2-3-urbanization-in-british-columbia","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/geography\/chapter\/2-3-urbanization-in-british-columbia\/","title":{"raw":"Urbanization in British Columbia","rendered":"Urbanization in British Columbia"},"content":{"raw":"The place we call\u00a0British Columbia was settled approximately 10,000 years ago by people migrating from Eastern Asia across the Bering Strait. Permanent settlements by First Nations in BC are commonly dated to around 5,000 years ago. These places served as anchors for agriculture and as trade routes along the coast and the rivers reaching further east. This process of\u00a0urbanization<\/strong>\u00a0contributed to the formation of complex societies that have existed\u00a0in BC ever since.\r\n\r\nIn the early 18th century,\u00a0First Nations societies living in BC made contact with Spanish and British explorers. It is unknown precisely how many\u00a0First Nations were living within the territory at the time of contact, but estimates range from 80,000 to 500,000, indicating large social groups living throughout the region.\r\n\r\nWith the coming of British settlers, so too came processes of\u00a0deterritorialization<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0displacement<\/strong>. <\/em>This happened most directly through the creation of the reserve system, the enactment of the British North American Act (1867) and the Indian Act (1876), processes of\u00a0reterritorialization<\/strong>\u00a0settlement, and British occupation\u00a0that signaled the beginning of colonial dominance in the region.\r\n

The Colonial City<\/h2>\r\nA colonial city<\/strong> is a settlement either mapped onto an existing settlement or created to establish economic and military dominance in a colony. The function of the colonial city was to\u00a0centralize and regulate\u00a0trade for export back to home countries in England and western Europe, and to\u00a0expand colonial power over the land.\r\n\r\nVictoria was established as a trading and military post on the southern tip of Vancouver Island in 1841. It became the first\u00a0colonial\u00a0city<\/strong> in British Columbia to secure British dominance over the Spanish and First Nations in the region.\u00a0It was established on land settled by the Songhees First Nation and grew to be a lively urban settlement and a strategic military site.\r\n\r\nOn the mainland, New Westminster\u00a0and Vancouver\u00a0were settled by the British\u00a0in order to establish both a capital of the colony of British Columbia (in the case of New Westminster, 1859) and a new economic centre along the Burrard Inlet (in the case of Vancouver, 1862). Forestry, trapping and fishing were the main economic drivers of these new colonial settlements; however, it was the discovery of gold in Haida Gwaii and the lower Fraser River that led to rapid urbanization in 1858.\r\n

Cultural Composition and Trade Activities<\/h2>\r\nColonial trade activities shaped the landscape of BC over the next 200 years. Throughout this time the cultural composition of Canadian cities\u00a0was changing through various waves of immigration. Chinese workers came to BC to build the Canadian Pacific Railway, and then\u00a0settled\u00a0throughout the province\u00a0in designated neighbourhoods. The establishment of Chinatowns in BC, as elsewhere in the world, reflected the view that as visible minorities, the Chinese were inferior and should therefore live apart. What is now the second-oldest Chinatown in North America was established in\u00a0Victoria. Other Chinatowns arose in\u00a0Vancouver, Richmond,\u00a0New Westminster, Nanaimo and Penticton. There was also\u00a0significant Chinese settlement in\u00a0Hazelton,\u00a0<\/span>Boston Bar,\u00a0<\/span>Lillooet,\u00a0<\/span>Rock Creek,\u00a0<\/span>Granite Creek\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Fisherville\u00a0(Wild Horse Creek)<\/span>. As you can see in Figure 1, BC has always been home to significant percentages of immigrants to Canada. Other immigrant groups\u00a0to British Columbia\u00a0throughout the past 200 years include Indian,\u00a0East Asian, Italian, Japanese, Scandanavian and\u00a0German peoples<\/span>. \u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"450\"]<\/a> Figure 1.3 Immigrants residing in Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area as a percentage of Canada's and British Columbia's immigrant population, by period of immigration, 2001[\/caption]\r\n

Railway and Urban Growth<\/h2>\r\nIn 1871, British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation over fears of US annexation, and with the promise that the railway would be extended west. With the construction of the railway came a second wave of immigration to the area. According to census data, the population of BC doubled between 1881, when the railway was finished, and 1891. Resource extraction activities, including mining, fishing and forestry, continued during this time, ensuring a steady economy for people moving to the province.\r\n\r\nAt the beginning of the 20th century, urbanization in BC was focused toward the east, with communities such as Revelstoke and Kamloops gaining population. The railway remained a key route for transporting people and goods across the province\u00a0during\u00a0the Great Depression of the 1930s, which saw outward migration from BC urban centres, throughout World War II and the rise in shipbuilding in the Burrard Inlet, and during the postwar economic boom of the 1950s and\u00a0up through the 1970s.\r\n\r\nRapid growth throughout the province was precipitated by large multinational firms interested in expanding the forestry industry, with\u00a0pulp and paper mills being built in places such as\u00a0Prince George, Kitimat, Gold River, Castlegar and Kamloops. During this time the provincial government was also involved in several infrastructure expansion projects. The establishment in 1960 of BC Ferries led to the rapid expansion of the water transport within the province. Airport expansion and road upgrades also transformed the connections between cities. The rapid advances\u00a0of global transportation technologies, combined with falling energy prices that led to globalization throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s led to the boom in oil\u00a0and natural gas industries, bolstering many northern BC towns. Simultaneously, the global transport of goods became cheaper, production and manufacturing was moved to countries outside of North America and commodity prices declined.\u00a0This shifting global production economy affected BC in the early 1980s. In 1982 the BC economy shrank by 2.9%. In response,\u00a0urban redevelopment efforts were spurred on, such as the development of False Creek in Vancouver in preparation for the World's Fair, Expo '86.\r\n

Contemporary Urbanization in BC<\/h2>\r\nContemporary urbanization in BC is characterized by significant population growth in southwestern BC cities, depopulation of northern BC urban centres and housing affordability and security throughout the province. Rapidly changing technologies and resource use, as well as the conflict over whether and how to extract resources in the province mean that the exact form of urbanization in BC cities is impossible to predict. In the following section we explore two case studies that look at more contemporary urban processes in Vancouver and Victoria respectively.\r\n

Attributions<\/h2>\r\n