In the 1870s, a citizen of Belin, Germany, boasted of his city’s rapid growth. “We have already 800,000 inhabitants, next year we shall have 900,000, and the year after that a million” (249). He predicted that Berlin’s population would soon rival those of Paris and even London. The increase in population was getting greater and greater. “The population explosion that had begun during the 1700s continued through the 1800s” (249). Cities grew as rural people streamed into urban areas. By the end of the century, European and American cities had begun to take on many of the features of cities today. “Instead, population soared because the death rate fell” (249). Between 1800 and 1900, the population of Europe more than doubled. This rapid growth
