Located on the U.S.-Canada border, Detroit was once the capital of Michigan (now Lansing), the headquarters of the three major U.S. automakers (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler), and is known as the "City of Automobiles." Around 1920, under the influence of the booming automobile industry, Detroit was the fourth largest city in the United States after New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
▲ Detroit skyline
However, Detroit, which once created prosperity, continued to decline in the second half of the 20th century, with a declining population, a loss of tax base, and backward infrastructure. The value of real estate in its inner city is declining, a large number of idle houses are vacant, and the abandonment rate of many plots is as high as more than half. By the 21st century, Detroit had become the largest bankruptcy city in American history. How did it come to this?
Detroit is full of vacant houses
First, from the fur trading center to the urbanization
In 1701, a French officer named Cadillac discovered that the land on the Banks of the Detroit River was not only extremely suitable for settlement, but also provided protection for French ships traveling to and from the Great Lakes Basin, while also assimilating the local indigenous people.
Location of the Detroit River
Therefore, he easily established a settlement in the local area, under the jurisdiction of the French "New France" colony, which was also the beginning of the founding of Detroit.
▲ On both sides of the Detroit River
However, the French did not develop Detroit on a large scale, and lost the throat of the waterway. In the middle of the 18th century, Britain, Prussia and other countries fought with France, Austria and other countries for colonies and European hegemony, and the "Seven Years' War" broke out in Europe. After the war, France's vast "New France" colony was replaced by Britain.
▲ North America in the 18th century
After the United States won the War of Independence, it continued to expand westward. The area around the Great Lakes has become the object of the United States' attention due to its abundant water and grass and fertile land. In 1794, Britain, which was once again at war with France, signed the Treaty of Jay with the United States in order to ease relations with the United States. Among them, Detroit and its surroundings were transferred to American control by the British.
Detroit, which gets its name from the river that connects Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie, the "Detroit River". The low coast, fertile soils and easy shipping conditions made it an important fur trading center among the Indian tribes long before Europeans established settlements.
Early Detroit was deep inland and sparsely populated, so development was slow, at best, a larger village, and was not upgraded to a "town" until 1802. However, with the completion of the Erie Canal project connecting Lake Erie and the Hudson River in 1825, detroit's development rate immediately took a qualitative leap.
▲ Erie Canal
This allowed important commodities such as iron ore, coal mines, timber, furs and other important commodities mined around the Great Lakes Basin to be transported through Detroit. As a result, Detroit has become an important port and transportation hub in the five major river basins. At the same time, in 1827, Ohio also repaired the first post road across the swamp to Detroit. With the further improvement of transportation conditions, the development rate of Detroit has obviously increased significantly.
▲ The great lakes basin is rich in mineral resources, and the main industrial areas in the United States and Canada are located in this area. The industrial area around the Great Lakes in the United States is commonly known as the "Rust Belt"
Before and after the Civil War, Detroit gradually ushered in the era of industrialization. Due to the rich mineral resources around the Great Lakes and the convenient transportation conditions, Detroit was able to build various factories during this period with excellent location advantages.
At that time, Detroit's manufacturing industry was mainly concentrated along the Detroit River, which made it easier to transport raw materials and processed goods by water. In the 1880s, Detroit had more than 900 enterprises with an output value of 33 million US dollars.
Second, the world's motor city: Foyer? Woe to you?
In 1896, a mechanical engineer, Henry Ford, managed to build a car in a small workshop in Detroit and seven years later founded the famous Ford Company. With the establishment of Ford, Detroit's automobile manufacturing industry continued to grow by leaps and bounds, eventually completely changing the fate of Detroit.
▲Ford Company headquarters
After the Ford Company adopted the assembly line operation method to assemble the car in 1913, it not only made mass production of the car possible, but also saved the time and cost of producing the car.
At that time, the base price of for the Model T produced by Ford fell from $950 to $250, and the minimum wage for workers was increased to $5 a day (almost twice that of competitors) and the minimum working hours were reduced to 8 hours.
▲ Workers working on assembly lines
Due to the innovation of automobile manufacturing technology, Detroit's automobile manufacturing industry has also become larger and larger, and it has begun to move towards monopoly. As a result, there has been an industrial cluster effect in the local area, which has led to the relocation of similar competitors or related supporting manufacturers. By around 1925, the three major U.S. auto giants had relocated their headquarters to detroit or its suburbs, making Detroit the "world's auto capital."
▲Ford Red River Plant. At its peak, as many as 90,000 workers were working simultaneously in more than 2 square miles of factory buildings
The development of automobile manufacturing has also changed the urban development of Detroit. By 1930, Detroit had a population of 1.569 million, 5.5 times as many as in 1900. The built-up area of the city also expanded from 28 square miles in 1890 to 139 square miles in 1925.
The dailyization of the automobile has facilitated ordinary people living in the suburbs, thus accelerating the expansion of the city to the suburbs. Los Angeles, for example, was a small town of more than 10,000 people in 1890, and by the eve of the Great Depression, the population had exceeded 1.2 million.
▲ Detroit's population over the years
After the outbreak of the great economic crisis in the capitalist world in 1929, the development of Detroit also entered a period of depression. However, due to the development of Detroit's automobile manufacturing industry, it quickly converted its civilian automobile production line into military production during World War II.
According to relevant information, Detroit produced 92% of the military cars, 50% of the engines, and 56% of the tanks of the United States during the war, and was known as the "arsenal of democracy." However, behind the prosperity, Detroit also has very serious economic problems.
Detroit in 1942
After the 1950s, due to the increasing level of economic development in Detroit, strong trade union organizations, expensive labor costs, and high tax rates have also become important factors affecting the profits of enterprises in the city.
At that time, in order to seek their own development, the surrounding areas of Detroit also used preferential policies to attract investment. Soon, more and more businesses began to move out of Detroit.
▲Changes in the industrial distribution area of the United States
At the same time, the automobile manufacturing industry in Detroit is the only one, which also restricts the development of Detroit. However, several major automakers in Detroit still limit their focus to civilian car manufacturing. As a result, Detroit's economic structure is single, and it is difficult to achieve industrial transformation.
Since the 1960s, German and Japanese cars have emerged in the global automotive market. Especially in the oil crisis that broke out in the 1970s, Japanese cars quickly occupied the market for American cars with the characteristics of low energy consumption. Ford, for example, saw its annual car sales fall by 42 percent between 1978 and 1982. Detroit's single auto manufacturing industry has been affected by this, directly leading to rising unemployment and population loss.
▲The rise of Japanese German cars. The brand share of the U.S. auto market changed from 1961 to 2016, with GM and Ford accounting for 46% and 29% respectively, but only 17% and 15% remained in 2016.
Third, the sunset over Detroit in the West Mountains
In addition to the serious problems in detroit's economic structure, its social problems are also very serious. Eventually, these problems erupted, creating a serious confrontation between the black and white communities in Detroit, and Detroit degenerated into a "sin city."
Detroit Manufacturing Decline (1947-1977)
After the war, as Detroit's urbanization process entered the suburbanization stage, more and more middle-class whites began to move to the suburbs along with businesses. In addition, at that time, the Northern Region was in an era of rapid capitalist development, and all kinds of industrial construction urgently needed cheap labor, so a large number of free blacks poured into the North from the racist South to earn a living.
Detroit's population composition over the years, white people fell from 90% to 10%
For a city like Detroit, where auto manufacturing is the mainstay, cheap labor is even more important. By 1960, Detroit's black population had risen from less than 10 percent before the war to 28.6 percent.
From 1950 to 2016, Detroit lost millions of people
However, in the face of the growing number of blacks, detroit's whites were also very dissatisfied, seeing it as a threat, not only refusing to sell their homes to blacks, but also discriminating and obstructing employment, which led to antagonism between the two groups. The Detroit city government not only did not take measures to prevent it, but tacitly acquiesced to the reasonable existence of "housing isolation".
The Detroit Racial Distribution Map (2010) represents 25 people per point: white (red), black (blue), Asian (green), Latino (orange), and others (yellow). Blacks are predominantly located in downtown Detroit
As blacks squeezed out white living space in the inner city, capable whites moved to the suburbs, causing the Detroit city government to invest more in suburban schools, while the schools for black children in the inner city were struggling with reduced investment in education. The backwardness of blacks in their educational attainment made them incompetent for some technical jobs.
The deterioration of the black living environment eventually led to the famous "Detroit Race Riots of 1967." The violent riots, sparked by detroit police raids on bars, lasted seven days and killed 43 people, thousands of casualties, and countless property losses. The escape of whites in Detroit's inner city was accelerated afterwards, leading to a further decline in Detroit's tax base.
▲ Detroit racial riots at the end of 1967
The single automobile manufacturing industry, as a major flaw in the structure of Detroit's economy, has led to a large loss of enterprises. The influx of blacks hastened the flight of whites and caused Detroit's tax base to be reduced. Blacks who occupy inner cities are unable to pay more taxes to Detroit because of low employment. As a result, Detroit was unable to afford more infrastructure, making the living environment in the inner city worse and worse, and the company and white people also accelerated the speed of moving out, eventually forming a vicious circle.
Detroit income distribution map, inner city people earn less, suburban people earn more
In order to change the status quo in Detroit, the Detroit city government also carried out a major demolition and construction in the 1970s and 1990s. To guide the transition to a consumer-oriented city, Detroit also built a financial district and a number of high-end residential areas, as well as a rapid transit system at great expense. In addition, the construction of various gymnasiums and casinos is also the focus of the government.
However, the efforts of the Detroit city government, in addition to being effective in casino operations, have not fundamentally reversed the decline of Detroit. Detroit's population is still declining, with 1.2 million in 1980 and less than 700,000 by 2015.
After entering the 21st century, Detroit's unemployment rate, poverty rate, and crime rate are among the highest in major cities in the United States. The fiscal deficit is also getting worse, and by 2013, Detroit had borrowed $18.5 billion and was unable to repay it. In July 2013, Detroit filed for bankruptcy, becoming the largest bankruptcy city in U.S. history.
▲ Now Detroit along the river scenery
Compared with Detroit, which was limited to the automobile manufacturing industry after the war, other cities in the United States after the war have already begun to vigorously develop high-tech industries and rapidly realized urban transformation. Houston, which was originally an oil industry city, vigorously developed the aerospace industry, and San Francisco relied on Silicon Valley to vigorously develop the electronic technology industry. Both cities managed to avoid becoming the second Detroit.
▲ Visual map of the economic aggregates of American cities, Detroit has become an inconspicuous city
Detroit's boom is largely due to the boom in the auto manufacturing industry, but the reason for its decline is also closely related to the auto manufacturing industry. The decline of Detroit's automobile manufacturing industry has triggered a series of problems such as losing jobs, population loss, reducing the tax base, imbalances in fiscal revenue and expenditure, and weakening infrastructure, and eventually forming a vicious circle. The story of Detroit's decline has also become a textbook case, and today's governments still take it as a warning.
Longtime author | Texas Red Wolves
Literary and historical writer | the research direction of modern world politics and history
Responsible editor| Thomas
Graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science| Editor-in-Chief of the Global Intelligence Officer
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