The location was chosen, or if not precisely chosen then at least sustained over centuries, because it offered specific advantages that made urban development possible in ways that other locations in the region did not.

The American Bottom is one of the most fertile agricultural landscapes in North America.

The bottomland soils, renewed periodically by the flooding that deposited new sediment from the upstream river systems, are extraordinarily productive.

The same flooding that periodically threatened the city’s lower zones also replenished the agricultural land that fed it.

The combination of rich soil, reliable water, and the moderate climate of the upper Mississippi Valley created conditions for corn agriculture that few other locations in the region could match.

The location was also, from the perspective of long-distance trade and communication, one of the most advantageous in the continent.