When the exclusive requirements for citizenship (citizens originally being landowning men with no history of servitude) were relaxed and as new commercial wealth surpassed that of the older landed citizenry, social strife at home and rivalry abroad gradually weakened the common life of the city-republics. The creativity and variety of the polis gave way before the unifying forces of king worship and empire epitomized by Alexander the Great and his successors. To be sure, many new cities—often named Alexandria because Alexander had founded them—were planted between the Nile and the Indus, facilitating contacts between the major civilizations of Europe and Asia and giving rise to cultural exchanges and commercial trade that left a lasting impact on both East and West.
Municipal services
- These are provided more or less routinely, in a more or less equal fashion.139140 Responsibility for administration usually falls on the city government, but some services may be operated by a higher level of government,141 while others may be privately run.142 Armies may assume responsibility for policing cities in states of domestic turmoil such as America’s King assassination riots of 1968.
- Because of these major influences on global issues, the international community has prioritized investment in sustainable cities through Sustainable Development Goal 11.
- Municipal functions atrophied, and the city survived into the Byzantine era principally as a mechanism of fiscal administration, although it often remained a locus of educational development and religious and cultural expression.
- The enjoyment of the imperial Roman peace entailed the acceptance of the status of municipium—a respectable but subordinate rank within the Roman state.
- However, in a world of intensifying globalization, all cities are to varying degrees also connected globally beyond these regions.
Because of these major influences on global issues, the international community has prioritized investment in sustainable cities through Sustainable Development Goal 11. In the Andes, the first urban centers developed in the Norte Chico civilization, Chavin and Moche cultures, followed by major cities in the Huari, Chimu, and Inca cultures. The Norte Chico civilization included as many as 30 major population centers in what is now the Norte Chico region of north-central coastal Peru. It is the oldest known civilization in the Americas, flourishing between the 30th and 18th centuries BC.77 Mesoamerica saw the rise of early urbanism in several cultural regions, beginning with the Olmec and spreading to the Preclassic Maya, the Zapotec of Oaxaca, and Teotihuacan in central Mexico. Later cultures such as the Aztec, Andean civilizations, Mayan, Mississippians, and Pueblo peoples drew on these earlier urban traditions. The urban cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt were distinguished by literacy, technological progress (notably in metals), and increasingly sophisticated forms of social and political organization.
- The urban cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt were distinguished by literacy, technological progress (notably in metals), and increasingly sophisticated forms of social and political organization.
- The concentration of industries and businesses in urban areas creates a dynamic environment that attracts ambitious individuals seeking advancement.
- In the West, nation-states became the dominant unit of political organization following the Peace of Westphalia in the seventeenth century.99100 Western Europe’s larger capitals (London and Paris) benefited from the growth of commerce following the emergence of an Atlantic trade.
- City life was not insular, however, as many cities lent some coherence and direction to life and society in their hinterlands.
- Cities serve as centers for trade, manufacturing, and innovation, offering a wide array of jobs and career paths.
Urban settlements
While remaining culturally vibrant, the city itself ceased to be an autonomous body politic and became a dependent member of a larger political-ideological whole. The growth of the modern industry from the late 18th century onward led to massive urbanization and the rise of new great cities, first in Europe and then in other regions, as new opportunities brought huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban areas. England led the way as London became the capital of a world empire and cities across the country grew in locations strategic for manufacturing.101 In the United States from 1860 to 1910, the introduction of railroads reduced transportation costs, and large manufacturing centers began to emerge, fueling migration from rural to city areas. The Romans, who fell heir to the Hellenistic world, transplanted the city into the areas beyond the Alps inhabited by pastoral-agricultural Celtic and Germanic peoples and made the city a means to empire (a center for military pacification and bureaucratic control) rather than an end in itself. The enjoyment of the imperial Roman peace entailed the acceptance of the status of municipium—a respectable but subordinate rank within the Roman state.
At a time when local specialization and interregional exchange required more-liberal trade policies, craft protectionism and corporate particularism in the cities tended to hobble the course of economic growth. The artisan and laboring classes, moreover, grew strong enough to challenge the oligarchical rule of the wealthy burghers and gentry through disruptions such as the Revolt of the Ciompi (1378), while social warfare peaked in peasant uprisings typified by the Jacquerie (1358), but these tended to be short-lived revolts that failed to bring enduring social change. The era of decline was relieved, some argue, by the slow process of individual emancipation and the cultural efflorescence of the Renaissance, which effectively grew out of the unique urban environment of Italy and was strengthened by a high regard for the Classical heritage. These values laid the intellectual basis for the great age of geographic and scientific discovery exemplified in the new technologies of gunpowder, mining, printing, and navigation. Not before the triumph of princely government, in fact, did political allegiance, economic interests, and spiritual authority again become centered in a viable unit of organization, the absolutist nation-state.
Early medieval society was a creation of camp and countryside that fulfilled the local imperatives of sustenance and defense. With Germanic variations on late Roman forms, communities were restructured into functional estates, each of which owned formal obligations, immunities, and jurisdictions. What remained of the city was comprehended in this manorial order, and the distinction between town and country was largely obscured when secular and ecclesiastical lords ruled over the surrounding counties—often as the vassals of Germanic kings (see manorialism). Social ethos and organization enforced submission to the common good of earthly survival and heavenly reward. The attenuation of city life in most of northern and western Europe was accompanied by provincial separatism, economic isolation, and religious otherworldliness. Not before the cessation of attacks by Magyars, Vikings, and Saracens did urban communities again experience sustained growth.
Their economic base in agriculture (supplemented by trade) and their political-religious institutions gave cities an unprecedented degree of occupational specialization and social stratification. City life was not insular, however, as many cities lent some coherence and direction to life and society in their hinterlands. In the 14th century the growth of urban centers subsided as Europe suffered a series of shocks that included famine from 1315 to 1317, the emergence of the Black Death, which spread across Europe starting in 1347, and a period of political anarchy and economic decline that continued through the 15th century. Europe turned inward upon itself, and, except for a few large centers, activity in the marketplace was depressed.
The history of cities
Homeownership represents status and a modicum of economic security, compared to renting which may consume much of the income of low-wage urban workers. Homelessness, or lack of housing, is a challenge currently faced by millions of people in countries rich and poor.242 Because cities generally have higher population densities than rural areas, city dwellers are more likely to reside in apartments and less likely to live in a single-family home. People choose to live in cities for various reasons, including economic opportunities, cultural attractions, and access to services. Cities serve as centers for trade, manufacturing, and innovation, offering a wide array of jobs and career paths. The concentration of industries and businesses in urban areas creates a dynamic environment that attracts ambitious individuals seeking advancement.
National wealth also city index review benefited from the new mercantilist policies, but all too often the wealth generated by cities was captured by the state in taxes and then dissipated—either in war or by supporting the splendor of court life and the Baroque glory of palaces and churches. Only in colonial areas, notably the Americas, did the age of expansion see the development of many new cities, and it is significant that the capitals and ports of the colonizing nations experienced their most rapid growth during these years. Under absolutist regimes, however, a few large political and commercial centers grew at the expense of smaller outlying communities and the rural hinterlands. However, in a world of intensifying globalization, all cities are to varying degrees also connected globally beyond these regions. This increased influence means that cities also have significant influences on global issues, such as sustainable development, climate change, and global health.
Ancient times
The virtue of absolutism in the early modern period lay in its ability to utilize the new technologies on a large scale. Through the centralization of power, economy, and belief, it brought order and progress to Europe and provided a framework in which individual energies could once more be channeled to a common end. While the nation stripped the cities of their remaining pretensions to political and economic independence (heretofore symbolized in their walls and tariff barriers), it created larger systems of interdependence in which territorial division of labor could operate.
Word History
In almost all the “new” medieval towns, the role of the merchant was central in catalyzing the long-distance trade of commodities and staple goods. As a type of community, the city may be regarded as a relatively permanent concentration of population, together with its diverse habitations, social arrangements, and supporting activities, occupying a more or less discrete site and having a cultural importance that differentiates it from other types of human settlement and association. In its elementary functions and rudimentary characteristics, however, a city is not clearly distinguishable from a town or even a large village. Mere size of population, surface area, or density of settlement are not in themselves sufficient criteria of distinction, while many of their social correlates (division of labor, nonagricultural activity, central-place functions, and creativity) characterize in varying degree all urban communities from the small country town to the giant metropolis.
Social structure
No more than 45 cities had populations over 100,000, and fewer than half of these were situated in Europe. Asia had almost two-thirds of the world’s large-city population, and cities such as Beijing (Peking), Guangzhou (Canton), and Tokyo (Edo) were larger than ancient Rome or medieval Constantinople at their peaks. Cities can project their power into the surrounding countryside, establishing rule over villages and becoming centers of early empires. Modern cities, while no longer sovereign, are vital centers of human activity, facing challenges in governance, technology, culture, and economics.
Cities, as relatively permanent and highly organized centers of population, share several common features. A city is a relatively permanent and highly organized center of population, larger than a town or village although the distinction between a city and a town or village is not always clear. This form could evolve from successive growth over a long time, with concentric traces of town walls and citadels marking older city boundaries.
The municipia were supported fiscally by taxes on trade, contributions from members of the community, and income from lands owned by each municipium. Over time, however, the idea of public duty gave way to private ambition, especially as Roman citizenship became more universal (see civitas). Municipal functions atrophied, and the city survived into the Byzantine era principally as a mechanism of fiscal administration, although it often remained a locus of educational development and religious and cultural expression. By the 18th century the mercantile classes had grown increasingly disenchanted with monarchical rule.
The cities of these areas first developed in the Nile valley (in Egypt) and on the Sumerian coast in modern Iraq. Cities appeared in the Indus valley at sites such as Mohenjo-daro and Harappa during the 3rd millennium bce; by 2000 bce cities had also appeared in the Wei River valley in China. The overland trade routes brought about the proliferation of cities from Turkistan to the Caspian Sea and then to the Persian Gulf and eastern Mediterranean.
