The High-tech Transition Of Seattle Since World War Ⅱ

Seattle grew up rapidly with the lead firms of Boeing Company and Microsoft Company since the World War II. It experienced two transitions that from a small fish town to military-industry complex city and then to high-tech city. Now, Seattle is a world famous high-tech center. This thesis attempts to study the experience of the unique urban development model of Seattle, which chooses the pivotal period of postwar, and explores the reasons of the successful transitions of Seattle.The first part gives a brief review to the historiography of Seattle. The second part gives a brief introduction of the history of Seattle before the break out of World War II. So that it can form a bright comparison with the Seattle after World War II. The major parts of the thesis are the third part and the forth part. The third part reviews the two transitions of Seattle after World War II, which chooses the development of two characteristic firms of two periods in order to observe the change of the local economy. Concretely speaking, the Boeing Company played an important role in the transition of Seattle from a small fish town to military-industry complex city, and in the later transition, the Microsoft Company has a significant influence. The fourth part is the analysis of the successful high-tech development of Seattle which is the focal point of this part. Through combing internal and external factors of the development of Seattle, concludes that it is the result of the combination of era, environment and people. The part five is conclusion, which summarizes the full thesis and points out the typical meaning and value of high-tech development model of Seattle.