History of Glasgow

style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Glas chu which translates literally as "green hollow"; over the centuries this has become romanticised to mean "dear green place" which is often cited as a nickname for the city.

By the 16th century, the city's trades and craftsmen had begun to wield significant influence and the city had become an important trading centre with the Clyde providing access to the city and the rest of Scotland for merchant shipping. The access to the Atlantic Ocean allowed the importation of American tobacco and cotton, and Caribbean sugar, which were then traded throughout the United Kingdom and Europe.

The de-silting of the Clyde in the 1770s allowed bigger ships to move further up the river, thus laying the foundations for industry and shipbuilding in Glasgow during the 19th century. The abundance of coal and iron in Lanarkshire led to Glasgow becoming an industrial city, and it eventually came to be known as "the Second City of the Empire". Cotton factories and textile mills became large employers in Glasgow and the local region. Trading allowed Glasgow to become one of the richest cities in the world, and the merchants constructed spectacular buildings and monuments and reinvested their money in industrial development, a municipal public transport system, parks, museums and libraries. As the city's wealth increased, its centre expanded westwards as the lush Victorian architecture of what is now known as the Merchant City area began to spring up. As this new development took place, the focus of Glasgow's central area moved away from its medieval origins at High Street, Trongate, Saltmarket and Rottenrow, and these areas fell into partial dereliction, something which is in places still evident to the present day.

However, the city's industrial dominance would eventually come to an end. Glasgow did not escape the effects of the Great Depression, and though the outbreak of the second world