CHAPTER INTRODUCTION
The process of urbanization intensified the concentration of humanity that had already begun with agriculture. Cities are a relatively recent development of human culture made possible by a stable food supply. The need for central authority, organization, and coordination of effort produced the foundations for city formation. Social stratification was followed by the emergence of government, law, and the refinement of culture. The next challenge facing humanity is the success of cities with the opportunities and problems they present as we enter the twenty-first century.
Virtually everywhere in the world, people are moving from the countryside to towns and cities. This migration is happening so fast that the various agencies that monitor such movements cannot agree on the pace. The problem of undependable census data and inconsistent definitions make agreement all but impossible. There is, however, agreement on one point: in the twenty-first century, the world will be predominantly urban.
Early Development
The first agricultural settlements were true villages and remained so 6r several thousand years. They were small and did not vary much in size and there was apparently no governmental authority beyond the village. There were no public buildings and no workshops. These egalitarian societies—a society that is unstratified socially and all members have equal status—persisted long after agriculture was introduced. Urbanization and the formation of states transformed egalitarian societies into stratified, functionally specialized ones. This process occurred independently in several regions, probably first in the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia (see text Figures 3-3 and 17-3).
The period between about 7000 B.C. and 5000 B.C. is called the formative era for both the development of states and urbanization. The two obviously went hand in hand—in Southwest Asia. The egalitarian society had become a stra4fied society. Now there were priests, merchants, administrators soldiers, farmers, and craftspeople The city had become the focus of civilization.
Diffusion in the Mediterranean Region
Urbanization spread from Mesopotamia in several directions. On the Mediterranean island of Crete, more than 3500 years ago, Knossos was the cornerstone of a system of towns of the Minoan civilization. Ideas about city life may have reached Greece from several directions but whatever the case, during the third millennium B.P., Greece became one of the most highly urbanized areas on Earth. The ancient Greeks thus assimilated concepts of urban life from Mesopotainia al well as Minoa, and the urbanization of ancient Greece ushered in a new stage in the evolution of cities. Some 2500 years ago they had produced the most highly urbanized society of their time with a network more than 500 cities and towns, not only on the mainland but also on the many Greek islands.
The Roman Urban System
The great majority of Greece’s cities and towns were located near the Mediterranean Sea, linking peninsulas and islands. When the Romans succeeded the Greeks as riders of the region, their empire incorporated not only the Mediterranean shores but also a large part of interior Europe and North Africa.
The ancient Romans combined local traditions with Greek customs in building an urban system that extended from Britain to Mesopotamia. The Roman urban system was the largest yet. The capital, Rome, was the apex of a hierarchy of settlements from small villages to large cities. A transportation network linked all of the urban centers of the Roman Empire together by a network of land and water routes. Efficiency was a Roman hallmark: urban places were positioned a modest distance from each other so that they could be reached in a reasonable amount of time. Some of their surface routes still serve European motorists today. The Roman road builders created a grid of communications to link the empire together.
Preindustrial Europe
Greek and Roman concepts of urbanization diffused into Western Europe, but Europe’s preindustrial cities were poorly organized, unsanitary, overcrowded, and uncomfortable places to live for the majority of their inhabitants. The adage of the good old days hardly applies. More efficient weapons and the invention of gunpowder forced cities to develop more extensive fortifications; fortifications that could not simply be moved outward. The greater numbers of people could only be housed by building upward, and four-and-five-storied tenements began to appear. For the ordinary people, the overcrowded cities were no place to be. When the chaise came, many decided to leave for America, Australia, and other parts of the world.
Urban Stages
Cities evolve in stages. The traders’ mercantile city gave way to the factory-dominated manufacturing center, and the automobile enabled the evolution of the suburbanized modern city. Today’s post-modern cities reflect the age of high technology.
CHAPTER QUIZ
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. As early towns in a region started to grow and become interdependent a new development took place. This was the rise of the first:
a. states
b. identifiable specialization
c. egalitarian societies
d. counties
2. Stratification of society brought into being an urban elite. From them came the concept of writing and record keeping because they:
a. were the smartest people in the cities
b. had free time while others had to work
c. could demand slaves write everything down
d. owned so much they needed a method of record keeping
3. The early cities were not large by today’s standards. The largest probably had populations of about:
a. 20,000 to 25,000
b. 30,000 to 35,000
c. 40,000 to 45,000
d. 10,000 to 15,000
4. By the middle of the third millennium B.P., Greece had the largest urban complex in the world. Its two largest cities were Athens and:
a. Troy
b. Sparta
c. Volos
d. Piraeus
5. The hallmark of the Roman culture was:
a. their architecture
b. their language
c. their efficiency
d. their clothing
6. The urban tradition on the Italian peninsula prior to the Romans came from the:
a. Etruscans
5. Trojans
c. Minoans
d. Carthaginians
7. In the early decades of the Industrial Revolution, which of the following countries had a region called the “black towns’ because of soot.
a. Holland
b. Germany
c. France
d. England
8. The modernization of the American manufacturing city occurred in the late:
a. seventeenth century
b. nineteenth century
c. eighteenth century
d. sixteenth century
9. In the late nineteenth century, the introduction of which of the following transformed the geographical pattern of American cities.
a. the electric trolley
b. the affordable automobile
c. coast-to-coast highways
d. the diesel locomotive
10. The northern boundary of the Roman Empire in Britain was marked by:
a. Caesar’s Wall
b. the Great Wall
c. Hadrian’s Wall
d. the Thames River
TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS
1. In the twenty-first century the world will still not be predominantly urban. (TF)
2. One of the world’s earliest states developed in Mesopotamia. (TF)
3. Urbanization diffused directly from Mesopotamia to Greece. (TF)
4. To link their empire together, the Romans built roads. (TF)
5. The Roman forum was used only by the elite. (TF)
6. The Chinese city of Xian was known as the Rome of East Asia. (TF)
7. Late preindustrial cities around the world looked much the same. (TF)
8. Primate cities were usually the largest city in a state or urbanized region. (TF)
9. Developed during colonial times, the mercantile city is given credit for starting a downtown area, which had not existed in towns or cities before. (TF)
10. The early manufacturing cities offered good living conditions for their citizens. (TF)
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Discuss how small early settlements went from egalitarian societies to being stratified cities. How did this transition lead to the development of the first states?
2. What role did function and location play in the development of the early cities? What basic factors were needed?
3. Why was the urbanization of ancient Greece different from past urbanizations? How were the cities laid out? Bow was the quality of live in these Greek cities? How did the Romans change the Greek city and its focus?
4. Discuss the development of cities in preindustrial Europe. How did they change with the development of new weapons? What was life like in these cities?
5. What are the characteristics of the primate city?
6. Describe the differences between mercantile cities, manufacturing cities, and the modem city.
