From The Regional Central Cities To The International Metropolis

The thesis mainly studies the Houston's urbanization in the 20th century. Houston is the biggest city in American South today. The author point out that Houston changed twice during the 20th century. For the first time, it changed from a regional commercial center to a regional industry center before the end of WWII. And for the second time, it changed form a regional central city to an international metropolitan after 1945. The three climaxes of industrialization depending on the rich oil source was the key element contributing to the first change. The investment from other regions, the local elites, and the federal assistance integrated to bring about the three climaxes. The strong connects with the other regional markets was another important component to push Houston's fast development. Since 1945, Houston's oil-based economy has been deeply involved into the global economy, industrial structure has diversified and more emphasizes the high-tech sectors upgrade, tertiary industry has become an important part of its economy. Those coincide with the regional economic structural adjustment in America after WWII. Under the advantageous conditions, Houston developed more quickly than the other cities in the region, and became an international metropolitan in the late 1970s and early 1980s.The thesis focuses on Houston metropolitan area's space structure change after WWII as well. In the author's opinion, the central city still keeps its dominant position in the total metropolitan area and Houston City's central business district is still very important in spite of the decentralization and multi-centralization of Houston metropolitan area. The fast metropolitanization also brings some urban problems at the same time.