• Greek Cities – Originally from Aegean Sea to the
North
• Borrowed ideas from the “Fertile Crescent”
• By 800 BC, Athens, Sparta, and Corinth emerge
• Religion, Commerce, Administration, Defense –
All were important to each Greek City State

• “Acropolis” – Center, place of temples, gov. offices, and storehouses
“High-City”
• “Sub-urbs” – Included
“Agora” for the market, political gatherings, military quarters, and residential neighborhoods
• All city features were surrounds by a large wall

• Most located along coastlines
– sea trade and marine dependency
• Population growth and limited cultivable land drove overseas colonization
• Managed by democratic and participatory models-based on citizens electing city leadership
• Civil Laws and policies, no longer seen as unchallengeable divine commands

• Expanding Roman Empire displaced Greek civilization between the second and first century BC
• Romans established towns across southern and portions of western
Europe-laying the foundation for the Western European Urban
System

• Based on the Grid System Central
“Forum” for markets and political gathering, and encircled by a defensive wall
• Newly established Roman cities were based on inland locations, used as command and control centers for rest of territory. Also part of an extensive system of long distance trade. (e.g. London, Brussels, Paris,
Cologne, Vienna, Sofia, and
Belgrade were all Roman Cities).
Large Roman towns were about
15,000-30,000 people/Small towns
2,000-5,000 people

•Romans were great engineers. Designed excellent road systems throughout the
Empire for military control and communication. Romans usually established extensive sewer systems in their cities. These systems even set the standard for cities of today.

Systems of Control within the Roman City
• Unlike Greek City-States,
• Tribal Centers were redeveloped as Roman towns
Roman cities were not with varying levels of independent – Part of a well importance organized empire centered on
Rome
• Governed by former soldiers and settlers from Rome
• Newly established Roman cities were designed along the rigid
Roman class System
• Used these new cities to impose their legal system and authority throughout their empire.
• Convinced native tribes that
“Romanization equal
Urbanization”
– Coloniae – Settlement with full
Roman benefits
– Municipia – Formal charter status, only partial Roman citizenship for its inhabitants
– Civitates – Market and administrative centers for tribal districts, that were retained in a
Romanized form.

Roman Empire ~100 CE

THE FALL OF ROME ~475 c.e.

The Fall of Rome and Mass Exodus of Its
People

• Some Urban Centers survived
•
Ecclesiastical or university towns (e.g. St. Andrews,
Scotland Oxford and
• Cambridge, Liege, Belgium)
•
Defensive Strongholds -
Castles/hilltop towns (e.g.
Eastern Europe and Northern
Italy)
•
Administrative Hubs -
Administrative Centers for upper hubs of the feudal society (e.g.
Cologne, Winchester, and
Toulouse

San Gimignano, Northern Italy

• Highly structured and self contained
• Rigid rural forms of economic and social organization based on communal chiefdoms of
Germanic Tribes

• By 11 th Century, feudalism begins to fray
• Steady population growth, limited amount of cultivable land
• Nobility places higher taxes on serfs and tenants
• As a result, more products were being sold for cash
• Establishment of trade in basic ag. Products and crafts

• Towns of Roman
Origin
• Towns of Village
Settlements
• Bastides – Planned towns in France,
England and Wales
• Planted Towns –
Emerged along roadsides or riverside location for commercial purposes
Berne, Switzerland

• Due to City Walls, socioeconomic groups were now stratified vertically
• Key: Rise of a new phase of urbanism called Merchant
Capitalism

The Allegory of Good and Bad Government by Lorenzetti, 1330s
• Self Governance driven by Capital rather than
Land

• By 12 th century, merchants of Venice,
Pisa, Genoa, and
Florence had established commercial networks with the Hanseatic
League (Federation of
City-States within the
North Sea and the Baltic
Coast)
• End of the 13 th century,
Europe had an extensive network of urban centers poised to take advantage of trade routes (both sea and land).

• By the early
1400s, Europe now had about
3,000 cities containing a total of 4.2 million people
• This regional urban system stood poised to extend its grasp to a global scale.

The Hanseatic League, 1100-1600s c.e.
• Original trade agreement between Lubeck (fish) and Hamburg
(salt) – Set standard for merchants in other German cities
• Became the first cooperative agreement that united cities across Europe into an Economic Trade association

• Based on membership privileges, protection against pirates and robber barons.
• Own financial and legal systems, and strong tradition of civic and individual rights.
• Engaged in negotiations, bribes, embargos and even war with other “hostile” port cities
• Over 200 participating cities
Amsterdam to Reval in Estonia

•
Rivalry and internal struggles
•
New Global
Trade opportunities with the
Americans and
Asia
•
Declining Baltic
Fish Stocks
•
Reformation and
Thirty Years War
•
Ottoman Empire

Compare and Contrast five of the urban/settlement structures that we covered in class (Greek City-State system; Roman Empire and its cities; Dark ages urban settlements; Medieval towns; Hanseatic
League cities; early urban industrial settlements) based on the following attributes:
Governance
Size of population
Religion (faith)
Wealth Sources
Food Sources
City Form, Boundaries and examples (e.g. London, Siena, etc.)
Class stratification (lineage, professions, and so on)
Common Cultural Features (features that all urban dwellers identify with)
Lasting Legacies

• Rise of the Renaissance and the Baroque Periods (14 th –18 th century) in Europe
• Scale and Sophistication of Merchant Capital coupled with advanced scientific technologies allowed European powers to shape the world’s economies and societies
• Rise of Colonial Cities - Administrative and military center
(Oaxaca; Mexico City; Quito in Ecuador; Guadalajara; Lima,
Peru) Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were more commercial in nature
• Gave rise to Gateway Cities – Acted as links between one country and its region and another; served as colonial trading posts (e.g. Rio and gold mining; San Paulo and coffee; Buenos
Aires and mutton/wool/cereal; Accra (Ghana) cocoa; Calcutta and jute, cotton, and textiles.)
• By 1700s, exploitation of New World gave a distinct advantage to European Port Cities along the North Sea and the Atlantic
Coast. ( London, Lisbon, and Amsterdam)

• Along with expanding global imperialism and trade, the Industrial
Revolution propelled much of the urban growth in European cities beginning in the mid 1700s
• Industrialization required that all stages of production be perform in close proximity with the help of machinery-required rural workers to move to the “sites” of production – formed the beginnings of
Industrial Towns and Cities
• The Industrial Revolution needed cities that could supply factories, warehouses, stores, offices, transportation networks, labour pools, and consumer markets.
• Led to the development of Central Business Districts (office buildings, corporate headquarters, and large tracts of worker housing.)

• Grew from a town of 15,000 in 1750 to a metropolis of
500,000 in 1861 to a world city of 2.3 million in 1911
• Shock City – Embodiment of surprising and disturbing changes in economic, social, and cultural life.
• Archetypal form of a new Industrial City – sole purpose was to assemble raw materials and to fabricate, assemble, and distribute manufactured goods.
• Also a World City – at the top of a global urban system.
Takes and conducts a disproportionate share of the world’s most important activities- economic, political and cultural-within its space.
• Began to see a rise of Core Economies in NW Europe –
Growth was dependent on continued exploitation of the
New World