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Biggest Cities of the Americas in 1850 with a Map

With the help of a map, can you name the most populous cities in North and South America with an estimated population of over 20,000 in 1850?
Click on the map to zoom in.
Population figures are based off 4000 Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census by Tertius Chandler and the 1850 United States census.
Several of these cities no longer exist and have been absorbed into larger settlements.
Quiz by Dekkie
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Last updated: March 24, 2023
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First submittedMarch 24, 2023
Times taken931
Average score56.3%
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Population
Cities
515k
New York City
170k
Mexico City
169k
Baltimore
166k
Rio de Janeiro
136k
Boston
131k
Havana
121k
Philadelphia
116k
New Orleans
115k
Cincinnati
106k
Recife
100k
Salvador
96k
Brooklyn
84k
Santiago de Chile
77k
St. Louis
74k
Buenos Aires
70k
Lima
70k
Puebla
63k
Guadalajara
58k
Spring Garden
57k
Montreal
53k
Santa Fe de Bogotá
50k
Albany
47k
Northern Liberties
46k
Kensington
46k
Pittsburgh
45k
Valparaíso
44k
Asuncion
44k
La Paz
43k
Caracas
43k
Louisville
42k
Buffalo
42k
Charleston
41k
Cuzco
41k
Providence
40k
Guatemala City
40k
Quebec City
40k
Washington D.C.
39k
Halifax
38k
Newark
38k
Southwark
36k
Quito
36k
Rochester
33k
Guanajuato
33k
Kingston
Population
Cities
33k
Lowell
33k
Montevideo
32k
Belém
32k
León
32k
São Luís
31k
Aguascalientes
31k
Saint John
30k
León de Los Alcama
30k
San Luis Potosí
30k
Toronto
30k
Williamsburgh
29k
Chicago
29k
Querétaro
29k
Zacatecas
28k
Troy
27k
Richmond
26k
Moyamensing
25k
Georgetown
25k
Guayaquil
25k
Mérida
25k
Morelia
25k
Oaxaca
25k
San Francisco
24k
Córdoba
24k
Santiago de Cuba
23k
Potosí
22k
Colima
22k
Durango
22k
Matanzas
22k
Syracuse
21k
Allegheny
21k
Arequipa
21k
Detroit
21k
Port-au-Prince
20k
Milwaukee
20k
Mobile
20k
New Haven
20k
Portland
20k
Saint-Pierre
20k
Salem
20k
St. John's
20k
Sucre
20k
Valencia
+1
Level 55
Mar 24, 2023
A few other things to note:

- Borders are heavily simplified due to their complicated nature in the 19th century. Most of the countries in South America had one or more border disputes / unclear borders with each other that wouldn't be solved or even properly drawn until way later (e.g. the modern Peru-Brazil border wasn't officially set in stone until 1909).

- Nations bordered in blue indicate the Argentine Confederation, which was heavily decentralised due to the collapse of central authority several years prior.

- This is a map of AFTER the Mexican Cession.

+4
Level 70
Mar 25, 2023
The then prosperous city of Saint-Pierre, then also capital of Martinique, was completely destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1902. There were 2 survivors.
+2
Level 55
Mar 25, 2023
Now little over 4,000 people live there today. Always pretty sad when cities can't recover their former prosperity.
+1
Level 73
Mar 30, 2023
I learned that from the interesting facts.
+3
Level 63
Aug 13, 2023
Good quiz, only suggestion is personal preference, which is that I think it'd be slightly better if Philadelphia and the nearby cities were on the zoomed out map as well as the zoomed in portion.