WEEK 1: How cities were formed

During week one in the class, we discussed how and why cities were formed in terms of the rise of civilizations. The subject that caught my eye in class was the diagrams of the different types of primitive cities that were formed based on the natural geography of the land.

The website I found is about the Jamestown settlement of 1607 in Virginia. The website discusses why the explorers picked the location of Jamestown island instead of other areas in the Hampton Roads area like, what is today Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Hampton, and Newport News. (Seeing as how I am from Hampton Roads, it was interesting to learn that during colonial eras, Roads were waterways that ships travelled, so it is according that the area is called "Hampton Roads" due to the high amounts of waterways.) But, the website basically explains that the colonists settled farther up the James River because the Jamestown island could be easily defended and sheltered from many elements including Spanish/Dutch/French attack, Native American attack, and from natural elements when docking supply ships.


http://www.virginiaplaces.org/vacities/7jamestown.html