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37-527: In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , it was originally called "the land of Munchkins", but is referred to as "Munchkin Country" in all subsequent Oz books. Munchkin Country is linked to Oz's imperial capital the Emerald City by means of the yellow brick road . The native inhabitants of this quadrant are called Munchkins. In the story, the novel's protagonist Dorothy Gale , attends a celebration upon her arrival to Oz at

74-453: A vendor who sells green lemonade that children buy with green pennies. This contrasts with the later description of Oz, in which money does not feature. Interpreters have argued that the Wizard may have introduced money into the city, but this is not in the text itself. In this book, the Wizard also describes the city as having been built for the Wizard within a few years after he arrived. It

111-537: A strong dollar reduced exports and created serious problems even for the best farm managers. In 1956, former Vice President Henry A. Wallace , a pioneer of hybrid seed, declared that the Corn Belt had developed the "most productive agricultural civilization the world has ever seen". Most corn grown today is fed to livestock, especially hogs and poultry. In recent decades, soybeans have grown in importance. By 1950, 99% of corn has been grown from hybrids. In 1997,

148-512: A way to stop them from seeing what is going on around them. The video game Emerald City Confidential (2009) portrays the Emerald City as a film noir place with private detectives, widespread corruption, mob bosses, smugglers, and crooked lawyers. Set 40 years after the events of The Wizard of Oz , its described as "Oz, seen through the eyes of Raymond Chandler ". The Green Zone in Baghdad

185-480: A year, may have contributed to the quick construction of the Emerald City in the first book. Others believe Baum may have based his description of the city on the Hotel del Coronado , where he supposedly did much of his writing. Scholars who interpret The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a political allegory see the Emerald City as a metaphor for Washington, D.C. , and unsecured " greenback " paper money. In this reading of

222-722: Is eliminated when the house lands on top of her, causing much celebration among the Munchkins. Princess Ozma 's party visited the King of the Munchkins on their return from the Dominions of the Nome King , and found Jinjur working in his employ. This king also appears briefly in The Road to Oz . Ruth Plumly Thompson 's books identify the king of the Munchkin Country as Cheeriobed . He rules from

259-462: Is made of the brilliance, but the city is still described as green. This is continued throughout the series. Although at one point the character Tip describes the city as being built by the Wizard, the Scarecrow later explains that the Wizard had usurped the crown of Pastoria , the former king of the city, and from the Wizard the crown had passed to him. The book quickly concerns itself with finding

296-587: Is sometimes ironically and cynically referred to as the Emerald City . Corn belt The Corn Belt is a region of the Midwestern United States and part of the Southern United States that, since the 1850s, has dominated corn production in the United States . In North America , corn is the common word for maize . More generally, the concept of the Corn Belt connotes the area of

333-678: The 75th anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge . Subsequently, "Emerald City" has occasionally been used as an unofficial nickname for the City of Sydney. The head office of the Sydney-based merchant banking and private equity firm Emerald Partners is located on top of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia building on the Sydney Harbour foreshore, at Circular Quay . The firm

370-670: The City of Emeralds ) is the capital city of the fictional Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum 's Oz books , first described in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). Located in the center of the Land of Oz, the Emerald City is the end of the famous yellow brick road , which begins in Munchkin Country . In the center of the Emerald City is the Royal Palace of Oz. The Oz books generally describe

407-655: The Oz sequels appeared in The Road to Oz (1909), where the Little Guardian of the Gates wears green spectacles—though he is the only character to do so. The Emerald City of Oz (1910), the sixth book in the Oz series , describes the city as having exactly 9,654 buildings and 57,318 citizens. Baum may have been partly inspired in his creation of the Emerald City by the World Columbian Exposition of 1893, nicknamed

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444-777: The Sapphire City in the Ozure Isles , with his wife, Queen Orin , and son, Prince Philador . He is introduced by name in The Giant Horse of Oz and makes a subsequent appearance in The Wishing Horse of Oz . In some of Thompson's Oz books, the geography is inverted, with the Munchkin Country in the Western part of Oz and the Winkie Country in the East. John R. Neill 's Oz books name

481-584: The Scarecrow as king of the Munchkins, although this contradicts the previous books. He is never shown in this capacity; he is simply stated to be so. In The Patchwork Girl of Oz , it is revealed that parts of the Yellow Brick Road have Man-Eating Plants near them. In Gregory Maguire 's novels, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and Son of a Witch (which use "Munchkinland"),

518-509: The "Corn Basket" and small towns and villages scattered all around, the famous Yellow Brick Road runs all over the region from the town of Center Munch to the southern gate of the Emerald City, known as Munchkin Mousehole, just outside a forested area known as the Pine Barrens; there are also some lakes, such as Mossmere, Illswater and Restwater, the biggest lake of the nation and the birthplace of

555-526: The "White City," which he visited frequently, having moved to Chicago in anticipation of the event. W. W. Denslow , who illustrated the original Oz book, also incorporated elements that may have been inspired by the White City. Denslow was familiar with the exposition as he had been hired to sketch and document it for the Chicago Times . Likewise, the quick building of the real-life White City, in less than

592-527: The Corn Belt down even further and refer to it as the Eastern Corn Belt and the Western Corn Belt. The region is characterized by level land, deep fertile soils, and a high organic soil concentration. As of 2008, the top four corn-producing states were Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, and Minnesota, accounting for more than half of the corn growth in the U.S. More recently, the Corn Belt was mapped at

629-519: The Emerald City is made to wear green-tinted spectacles . This is explained as an effort to protect their eyes from the "brightness and glory" of the city, but in effect makes everything appear green when it is, in fact, "no more green than any other city". This is yet another " humbug " created by the Wizard . One scene of the Emerald City is of particular note in the development of Oz: Dorothy sees rows of shops that sell green articles of every variety and

666-628: The Midwest dominated by farming and agriculture, though it stretches down into the South as well reaching into Kentucky . There is lack of consensus regarding the constituents of the Corn Belt, although it often includes Iowa , Illinois , Indiana , southern Michigan , western Ohio , eastern Nebraska , eastern Kansas , southern Minnesota , and parts of Missouri . It also sometimes includes South Dakota , North Dakota , all of Ohio, Wisconsin , all of Michigan, and Kentucky. Some people and industries break

703-659: The Munchkin River that runs along the road and between the corn fields, the Madeleines at the west make the natural border with Gillikin and the mountainous hills within the Quadling Kells are the borders of the southern Quadling Country, The mines of The Glikkus are located directly north. Munchkinland is also shown to be the native home of Elphaba , or the Wicked Witch of the West , and her younger sister Nessarose (although in

740-527: The West that has long struggled in its prairies. This interpretation focused on the affirmative descriptions of the city, which reveal the benefits and rewards of the new culture, particularly urban abundance and the economy of consumption . More recently it has been speculated that the name “Emerald City” may be referring to the city of Seattle , Washington . This is incorrect as the American city gained its “Emerald City” nickname in 1982, over 80 years after

777-542: The Western part of the province (i.e., the region bordered by a large forest and the area surrounding the Emerald City) is wild, rough and dangerous. Certain areas of this land are densely forested, and inhabited by ferocious beasts. Munchkin Country is the site where Dorothy Gale 's house lands after being carried to Oz by a cyclone . Munchkin Country's ruler was the Wicked Witch of the East but upon Dorothy's arrival in Oz, she

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814-448: The Wicked Witch of the West (1995) and Son of a Witch (2005), the Emerald City is a much darker place than in Baum's novels. It does have splendid palaces and gardens, but sections are also beset by crime and poverty . Son of a Witch introduces Southstairs, an extensive political prison located in the caves below the Emerald City. The green glasses worn by the citizens are often used as

851-479: The book, the city's illusory splendor and value are compared with the value of fiat money , which also has value only because of a shared illusion or convention . Here, Dorothy gains entry to the Emerald City (Washington, D.C.) wearing the witch's silver slippers (the silver standard ) and taking the Yellow Brick Road (the gold standard ). There, she met the Wizard ( President William McKinley ), whose power

888-437: The characters are not all Munchkins, and so they are actually called Munchkinlanders. In these books (unlike the more famous movie), Munchkins are generally shorter than average height, though the more powerful families, as Frexspar said, "married into some height along the way." Maguire portrays Munchkinland as the corn belt of Oz, geographically, Munchkinland is a vast province in eastern Oz, filled with huge farmlands, known as

925-439: The city as being built of green glass, emeralds , and other jewels. In the earlier books, it was described as completely green . However, in later works, green was merely the predominant color while buildings were also decorated with gold, and people added other colors to their costumes. In the first book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), the walls are green, but the city itself is not. However, when they enter, everyone in

962-455: The county level using the Land use and Agricultural Management Practices web-Service (LAMPS), along with animated maps of changes in time (2010–2016). On account of new agricultural technology developments between 1860 and 1970, the Corn Belt went from producing mixed crops and livestock into becoming an area focused strictly on wheat-cash planting. After 1970, increased crop and meat production required an export outlet, but global recession and

999-548: The directions of east and west. The revised version of the map published by the International Wizard of Oz Club corrects the directions and reverses the map. Munchkin Country is distinguished by the color blue , which is worn by most of the Munchkins, as well as the color of their surroundings. While the Eastern part of the Munchkin Country is described as rich, beautiful, fertile and pleasant, and inhabited by friendly people,

1036-479: The mansion of Boq , who is the friendliest and wealthiest Munchkin man. "Munchkin" does not necessarily mean someone of short stature. Many Munchkins portrayed in the books are of normal height, most notably Nick Chopper (also known as the Tin Woodman ). Michael Patrick Hearn suggests the name Munchkin may have been inspired by the fabulous Baron Munchausen . He also points out that the 1961 Russian edition derives

1073-420: The musical film Oz (1976)—wrote the play Emerald City in which the character Elaine Ross describes Sydney metaphorically as "the Emerald City of Oz." Sydney is where people go expecting their dreams to be fulfilled only to end up with superficial substitutes and broken dreams. In 2006, the annual Sydney New Year's Eve was entitled "A Diamond Night in Emerald City", where the "Diamond Night" alluded to

1110-470: The name from the verb "to munch." Evan Schwartz suggests a reference to the Münchner Kindl . The publishing company Reilly & Britton (later Reilly & Lee) published, in the form of end-papers to the first edition of Tik-Tok of Oz (1914), one of the Oz books , the only authenticated map (reproduced here) that shows the Land of Oz in its entirety. For currently unknown reasons, this map switches

1147-666: The novel, they grew up in Quadling Country ). In the Broadway musical Wicked , based on the novel, their father is the governor of Munchkinland. In both adaptations, Nessarose eventually comes to power but her corrupt rule earns her loathing by the Munchkinlanders and the name, "Wicked Witch of the East". Like all the countries of Oz, the Munchkin Country contains various unusual sights, creatures, and places. Among them are: Emerald City The Emerald City (sometimes called

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1184-468: The publication of Baum's first book. The City of Seattle has used "The Emerald City" as its official nickname since 1982. There is also a drink known as "Emerald City" that is associated with the city of Seattle. Eugene, Oregon is also referred to as the Emerald City, and the region has been known as the "Emerald Empire" as early as 1928. Greenville, North Carolina is called the Emerald City by locals and tourists alike. The city has an art loop in

1221-471: The rightful heir to the crown of the city. Princess Ozma remained the king's heir, though both she and the original king were transformed to the ruler of all Oz. The story reverted to the Wizard's having built the city in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908), with the four witches having usurped the king's power before the Wizard's arrival. The only allusions to the original conception of Emerald City among

1258-527: The uptown district that is called the emerald loop, and on New Years Eve, the city drops an Emerald in the Town Common Park. Peter Kaplan , a media icon and the former editor of the New York Observer , a newspaper that chronicled the city's political, financial and cultural elites, frequently referred to New York as the "Emerald City." In 1987, David Williamson —whose brother-in-law scripted

1295-504: Was eventually revealed to be an illusion. There are also scholars who interpret the Emerald City as a benevolent vision of America with its new priorities and values that emerged with the onset of the industrial order . Some claim, for instance, that it is 1890s Chicago , which rose on a plain, subsuming unto itself much of the Midwestern creative aspiration so that it becomes the Garden of

1332-440: Was he who decreed that everyone in the Emerald City must wear green eyeglasses, since the first thing he noticed about Oz after he landed in his hot air balloon was how green and pleasant the land was. In The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), the characters are required to wear the glasses at first, but, contrast to the preceding Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), halfway through the book, no more eyeglasses appear and no more mention

1369-678: Was named after Baum's book and the David Williamson play. Fittingly, the word "Oz" can refer to "Australia" in colloquial Australian speech. A long-running gossip column in the Sydney Morning Herald , the city's flagship newspaper, is named "Emerald City." Muntinlupa is nicknamed as the "Emerald City of the Philippines " by the Department of Tourism . In Gregory Maguire 's revisionist Oz novels, Wicked: The Life and Times of

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