المستوطنات والتجارة والموارد
Geography · Key Stage 2 · The School
Why here
Settlements need a WATER SUPPLY, food, shelter, defence and a way to trade. Early towns chose river crossings, harbours, hilltops and good farmland. Modern growth follows different pulls — motorways, airports, universities — but the old reasons are still visible in the street plan of almost every British town.
How things reach you
Trace one thing: a banana grown in Central America, shipped across the Atlantic, trucked to a distribution centre, delivered to a shop, carried home. That chain crosses several countries and burns fuel at every step. Look at the labels on five items in a kitchen and map where they came from.
Fair and sustainable
Two different questions. FAIR TRADE asks whether the grower was paid properly. SUSTAINABILITY asks whether the way it was produced can continue without exhausting soil, water or forest. A product can be one and not the other, which is why a single label rarely answers both.
Look at any old market town on a map. Is it at a river crossing (a bridge or ford, often in the name)? On a hill (defence)? Where a valley narrows (a route everyone must pass)? At a spring line (water)? Beside a mineral deposit? Usually one of these, and the oldest street will still be near it. Then ask what has changed: the reason it began is rarely the reason it survives.