Geography 340: Urban
Systems
Day 2 – A Brief History of Cities
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Housekeeping Items
• The supplementary text, Urban Canada, by Hiller is
now on reserve in the library. I will start assigning
excepts from it next week. You can take it out for one
day at a time.
• Some exciting news! For this year’s 9th Annual Urban
Issues Film Festival, we have confirmed Matt Hern as
the keynote speaker. Some of you have read his
book, Common Ground in the Liquid City. The fest is
on November 7th, and I will strongly encourage
participants in this class to attend and, if you want to,
to volunteer.
• All the assignments, lecture notes from last class,
and course outline are now up on the web site.
• The 9th is the last day to add a course and the 15th is
the day is drop without paying tuition.
Following Up From Tuesday
• Before we start on the history of cities, I wanted
to follow up on some of the issues and places we
talked about on Tuesday. I was intrigued with all
the places people have lived or visited – e.g.
Richmond, VA, Johannesburg, Maputo, Kyoto,
Tokyo, cities in Switzerland and the Netherlands,
London (UK), Guatemala City, Niagara (ON),
Hamilton, Toronto (and environs), Winnipeg, Fort
Mac, Fort St. John, Anchorage, rural areas of the
prairies, and more.
• There are a number of themes and concepts that
we will discuss in this course, and I would like to
talk about how they link up with some places.
Here are some of them.
Following Up From Tuesday
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segregation – racial, class, gender, by ethnicity, etc.
poverty and homelessness
crime and insecurity
types of economic activity
varying levels of infrastructure
varying levels of density
levels of green space
affordability of housing
different ‘modal splits’
vibrant public realm (or not)
strong sense of heritage in built environment (or not)
high vs. low levels of citizen participation
How Do the Concepts/ Phenomena Hook
Up with the Places
Places
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Richmond, VA
Johannesburg
Maputo
Kyoto
Tokyo
cities in Switzerland and the
Netherlands
London (UK)
Guatemala City
Niagara (ON)
Hamilton
Toronto
Winnipeg
Fort Mac
Fort St. John
Anchorage
rural areas of the prairies, etc.
Phenomena
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segregation – racial, class,
gender, by ethnicity or religion
poverty and homelessness
crime and insecurity
types of economic activity
varying levels of infrastructure
varying levels of density
levels of green space
affordability of housing
different ‘modal splits’
vibrant public realm (or not)
strong sense of heritage in built
environment (or not)
high vs. low levels of citizen
participation
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• Cities have existed for at least 5500-9000 years.
• In addition to studying cities, geographers are
concerned with urban systems – the functional
territories with which cities are interrelated.
• How would you define a city; what distinguishes
urban from rural?
• As they note, there were 5 hearths for the emergence
of cities (I would say 6) – see p. 23 – and
Tenochtitlán in Mexico was, at the time of the
Spanish conquest, far more imposing and populous
than contemporary European cities (only Paris and
Constantinople were bigger).
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• After the collapse of the Roman Empire, cities largely
disappeared in Europe for a period of about 500
years, when they began to slowly re-establish
themselves especially under the impetus of growth of
trade.
• Under the feudal system and the growing centralized
monarchies, cities were able to carve out varying
degrees of autonomy, and there was an expression
that “city air makes one free.” Serfs who managed to
hide out in a city from their masters for more than a
year were declared freemen.
• Cities also created alliances for economic gain, such
as the Hanseatic League.
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• As the authors point out, cities presuppose agricultural
societies capable of generating a surplus. This required
favourable environmental conditions, which in turn were often
enhanced by irrigation and other technological breakthroughs.
• There are different theories as to why people turned to
agriculture. Some suggest that it was the result of
experiments in plant and animal domestication; others that
climate change drove hunters and gatherers to find alternative
ways of surviving. If population pressure helped drive the
creation of agriculture, it is also the case that a reliable source
of food greatly facilitated population growth.
• However it happened, the net result was that people became
sedentary and eventually started producing a surplus – a
precondition for cities and civilizations, which are closely
linked words (civitas is the Latin word for city).
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• Apart from Jericho, Mesopotamia is probably home to
the earliest cities (and civilizations) such Ur, Uruk,
Enkidu, Sumer, and Babylon.
Artist’s conception of Babylon:
Maurice Bardon
Ruins of City of Ur in Iraq: Wikipedia
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• A minority of authors believe that cities emerged from the
necessity of having nodes from which long-distance trading
could be conducted. Certainly, trade was facilitated.
• But whatever was the reason, cities (and civilizations) came
to be, they led to an increasingly sophisticated division of
labour, with mental workers (rulers, priests, accountants,
scribes, and proto-scientists), and menial workers
(peasants, construction workers, soldiers, craftsmen), with
soldiers and craftsmen probably occupying a status
somewhat above that of the peasants and builders.
• This hierarchical structure of civilization seems to be
universal – in the New World and in the Old – with the
possible exception of Çatalhöyük (for location, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87atalh%C3%B6y%C3%BCk).
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• Cities also served a defense
purpose, but they also often
became the launching point for
aggressive empires.
• Cities became sites for major
temples and religious festivals
and ceremonies, and this
contributed to their prestige
and that of their rulers.
Religion also helped reinforce
the status quo by suggesting
that it was divinely ordained
(rulers were often seen as
gods or close to the gods).
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• In addition to Mesopotamia, cities emerged in Egypt,
modern-day India/ Pakistan (Harappa/ Mohenjo-Daro),
in northern China, and later in Mexico, the Yucatan,
and Peru.
• At a later date, cities
developed in places
like Khmer (Cambodia),
and the Mediterranean
(Syria, Lebanon,
Greece, and Palestine).
• Some had an organic
layout, others a
gridiron. Some had
walls and some did not.
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• With the rise of empires (Persian, Assyrian, Greek, Roman,
and European), cities were established with varying models in
other parts of the world not originally touched by urbanization.
• Cities also emerged along
trade routes (the Silk Road).
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• Cities were to a large degree dependent on their resource
basis. If they overextended themselves, as the Mayan
cities were thought to have done, they collapsed.
• The alternative was to establish empires which, in
essence, forced other regions to pay tribute and provide
resources through a network of colonial cities and
territories.
• Greek cities, with the exception of Athens at its peak,
were quite small. Rome started out small but eventually
attained a million people, with the most sophisticated
infrastructure that had existed to that point.
• The Roman empire, in turn, founded many of what we
now know as modern European cities – London,
Brussels, Paris, Cologne, Vienna, Sofia, and Belgrade.
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• After the fall of the Roman empire, cities in Europe went
into decline, and torch of urbanity and civilization passed to
the Muslim world, which founded Teheran, Basra, Mosul,
Karbala, Cairo, and Tangiers, in addition to revitalizing
Mecca, Medina, Baghdad and Damascus. The Arabs also
founded cities in Saharan or sub-Saharan Africa, such as
Timbucto, Kano, and Mombasa.
• Muslim-influenced cities and architecture/ culture also
flourished in Spain. As the eastern capital of post-Roman
Christianity, Constantinople also survived and thrived for a
time.
• Such towns as remained in Europe tended to be
ecclesiastical, university-related, or for defense-purposes.
• Nonetheless, out of these unpromising beginnings, the
future of European global domination began.
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• Gradually, merchant capitalism began
to supplant feudalism, which had
been based on largely self-sufficient
manors. Economic activity quickened.
It began to be in the interest of
barons and kings to encourage
settlement in planned new towns
because of the revenues generated
through market tolls, rents, and court
fines.
• Most cities in Europe to this day
share certain common elements. The
cathedral and the town hall tend to be
at the centre, and this is where daily
or weekly markets were and are held.
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• At the end of 13th century, Europe had approximately 3000 cities, containing about 15-20% of the
total population, but most had less than 2000
people. Paris was the largest with about 275,000.
• Trade in and between Hanseatic League cities (see
page 38) greatly expanded the economy, the wealth
of the merchant class, and provided the impetus for
overseas exploration and conquest.
• With the rise of the absolute monarchies, centralized nation-states began to replace the loose
network of principalities in at least some European
countries, and gave capitals an added purpose of
serving an administrative function for kings.
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• During the Age of Exploration (“Conquest”), wealth
poured into Europe and European cities from the
slave trade, and staple production (sugar, cotton,
tea, and tobacco, timber, mining for precious
metals, and collection of spices).
• The next big game changer, funded by this wealth,
was the Industrial Revolution, with Manchester,
England, as the poster child for the new order.
Fossil fuels, steam engines, huge factories, and
subject workers became the order of the day.
William Blake referred to the new factories as “dark
satanic mills.” (See the image on p. 41.)
• Here’s Friederich Engels on a working-class district
in Manchester:
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• …the method of construction is as crowded and disorderly here
as in the lower part of Long Millgate. Right and left a multitude of
covered passages lead from the main street into numerous
courts, and he who turns in… gets into a filth and disgusting
grime, the equal of which is not to be found - especially in the
courts which lead down to the Irk, and which contain… the most
horrible dwellings which I have yet beheld. In one of these courts
there stands directly at the entrance… a privy without a door, so
dirty that the inhabitants can pass into and out of the court only
by passing through foul pools of stagnant urine and excrement.
This is the first court on the Irk above Ducie Bridge - in case any
one should care to look into it. Below it on the river there are
several tanneries which fill the whole neighbour-hood with the
stench of animal putrefaction. Below Ducie Bridge the only
entrance… is by means of narrow, dirty stairs and over heaps of
refuse and filth. The first court below Ducie Bridge… was in such
a state at the time of the cholera that the sanitary police ordered
it evacuated, swept, and disinfected with chloride of lime.
Chapter 2: The Origin and Growth of Cities
• Higher productivity, through the introduction of
machinery, and enclosure of lands in the rural areas,
released large numbers of former peasants to become
potential members of the working class, much as is
occurring today in many developing countries.
• The Industrial Revolution in the UK Midlands soon
spread to other parts of Europe. Poor wages and
inability to rent decent housing led to overcrowding and
terrible living conditions, including in North America, at a
great cost to health. Slum landlords simply packed
people in as tightly as they could.
• Soon, the urban population of Europe shifted from being
3-5% in 1800 to 16% in 1850, with 900 cities of more
than 100,000 people.