Evolution of cities

8/7/2019 Evolution of cities

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The Origin and Evolution of Cities

Urbanism is the process through which cities grow. Thereare a variety of definitions of cities. For instance,according to the U.S. Census Bureau, an urbanized area(UA's) comprises one or more places ("central place") andthe adjacent densely settled surrounding territory ("urbanfringe") that together have a minimum of 50,000 persons.However, this definition only pertains to the U.S.; othercountries have different standards. Confusion over thedefinition of "city" is a problem.

Historically, it was relatively easy to define the differencesbetween urban and rural settlements because cities weresurrounded by walls. The removal of the walls and therapid territorial expansion of cities during the modernperiod, as well as the changing nature of agriculture (e.g.,agribusiness) have blurred the distinction of the physicaldifferences between cities and urban areas. Today, urbansettlements are defined by legal boundaries, a

continuously built-up area, or as functional area (e.g., acore and its hinterland). The legal definition of city variesaround the world but is significant because legally definedcities have certain sorts of political power such as theability to raise taxes, provide services, and have their ownelected officials. Sometimes, in the U.S., a city surroundedby suburbs (which are also cities) is defined as a centralcity. But when and where did these cities first develop?

Historical Patterns of Urbanization

After the invention of agriculture around 12,000 years ago,populations grew and people migrated outward from theearly agricultural hearths, carrying their knowledge offarming with them. Settlements became more sedentary;languages diffused and diversified. Apparently, nogovernmental authority existed beyond the village. Theseegalitarian societies persisted long after agriculture wasintroduced.

The first cities occurred when one member of anagricultural village focused totally on non-primaryproduction activity. The definition, of course, would notfit contemporary cities at all, but in the analysis of theevolution of cities, we must understand that cities arefunctional places not necessarily defined by size like the

Census Bureau's definition. Cities in ancient times weremostly associated with the formation of the state. By someaccounts, the existence of an early state can be deducedfrom the presence of a centralized political hierarchy withat least three levels of administration. For example, adominant urban center could develop, where the powerwas likely concentrated, and two levels of settlementbelow it. The period between 7,000 B.C. and 5,000 B.C. iscalled the formative era for both the development of statesand urbanization in Southwest Asia. Toward the end ofthat period there was a large state along the Tigris andEuphrates Rivers (Mesopotamia), with a number of cities

including Ur. The egalitarian society had become astratified society. Now there were priests, merchantsadministration, soldiers, farmers, artisans and slavesOther areas where urbanization occurred very early werethe Indus Valley, the Nile Valley, and the great valleys ofChina. Urbanization also developed in Central Americathe Maya Aztec area, and the Andean area of SouthAmerica. These early cities were theocratic, where therulers had divine authority and were in essence, "god-

kings."

An artists rendition of the city of Ur

The ancient city was the organizational focus of the stateUrban growth required an urban elite, a group of decisionmakers and organizers who controlled the resources, andsometimes the lives of others. They would create a

political system or structure that would govern thepopulation. From the collection of taxes, to the building ofortified walls for protection, to the codification of lawsthe urban elite brought order and control to these societiesThey were most likely the ones to invent writing andrecordkeeping (e.g., accountants). Writing also enabledthem to preserve their traditions and history.


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Priests and officials often resided in substantial buildings,but the ordinary citizens lived in mud-walled housestightly packed together and separated by narrow lanes.

They had no waste-disposal or sewage facilities andpeople threw their garbage into the streets. This, in turn,led to disease and kept their populations relatively small.The cities of Mesopotamia and the Nile valley may havehad between 10,000 and 15,000 inhabitants after nearly2,000 years of growth and development.

The ancient city expanded from southwest Asia throughGreece to Europe. Greece had a network of more than 500cities and towns, not only on the mainland but also on themany Greek Islands. Every city had an acropolis (acro =high point; polis = city), on which the most impressivestructures usually religious buildings were built. The

Greeks had public spaces agoras (meaning market) inwhich they debated, lectured, judged each other, plannedmilitary campaigns, and socialized.

The Roman Empire developed massive urban systemsbased on a transport network that would move goods

from Hadrian's Wall separating Britain from Scotland, tothe upper middle Nile, to the Red Sea coast and theCaspian Sea and Persian Gulf. Greek imprints wereseemingly everywhere, for example, the cities werearranged in a rectangular grid pattern. The notion of anopen market found expression in the Roman citys Forumthe focus of public life. The Romans expanded on Greektheater to build the worlds first great stadium, theColiseum in Rome. The collapse of the Roman Empirewas accompanied by the disintegration of its transporsystem and the decay of many of its cities. The weaknessof the now-fragmented empire was evident in the invasionof the Iberian Peninsula (Spain & Portugal) by the armies

of the Moorish Empire ofNorth Africa. The Musliminvasion helped galvanizeEuropeans into action; theinvaders were halted as theywere about to enter southernItaly, and the Christiancounterthrust began. Soonthe Crusades beginning in the11th century carried the battleto the heartland of Muslimpower (Middle East), and old

trade routes were reopened.

Environmental determinismcan be partially attributed toWestern Europes resurgenceThe so-called MedievaOptimum brought warmertimes, expanded farmlandsand pastures, openednorthern water for fishingand allowed several citiessuch as Paris, Amsterdam


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Lisbon, and Venice to revive. With more efficientweapons and the invention of gunpowder (by way of theChinese), cities faced threats they had not confrontedbefore. Since walls and moats could no longer protectthem, extensive fortifications were constructed. Oncebuilt, they could not be easily moved, so they builtupward.

Medieval City Walls and Guard Towers, Canterbury, UK

But the great days of Europes medieval cities werenumbered. During the Little Ice Age, much of Europe (andmany other places around the world) turned colder, gotdrier, and made life very difficult for the peasants as wellas the city-dwellers. Farmlands dwindled, pasturesshrank, crops failed, and desperate peasants fled thebarren countryside for the cities. Cities became moreslum-ridden, unsanitary, and depressing. Epidemics,

fires, crime, and social dislocation prevailed. Four-storymerchants homes still remained in the cities, but mostresidents were only able to live in cramped apartments.

Classifications of Cities

Among the most widely discussed models was that ofGideon Sjoberg in 1960, who argued that cities should beviewed as products of their societies, and could be dividedinto four categories: (1) folk-preliterate; (2) feudal; (3)preindustrial; (4) urban-industrial. This view places citieson a continuum reflecting societal development. Duringfeudal times, a European city was little more than a town,its houses modest, and its streets unpaved. The medievalrevival brought with it the rise of the preindustrial citythrough the consolidation of political power and theexpansion of states were reflected in the growth of thecities. The dominant aspect of the preindustrial city wasthe imposing complex of religious (e.g., cathedrals) andgovernmental structures at its heart. When Europeentered its urban-industrial age, the high-rise buildings offinancial and commercial organization (e.g., skyscrapers)took over the dominant position in the urban cores.

Focusing on preindustrial cities, Sjoberg stated that theywere similar in form, function, and atmosphere. But

clearly, not all of these types of cities were the same. InMuslim cities, with their impressive central mosques, thesurrounding housing was less variable than in Europeand commerce and crafts were concentrated within abazaar, much greater than anything in Europe. In Africano religious or governmental structures dominated thetownscape the way they did in preindustrial European orMuslim cities. Also, preindustrial cities did, in factposses industries they just werent the mass-producing

(Fordist), urban-industrial cities.

Contemporary Cityscape of Medina, Saudi Arabia

Eventually, one of the cities within a state would becomepreeminent. Another geographer, Mark Jefferson, calledthem primate cities, and defined them as, a countrysleading city, always disproportionately large andexceptionally expressive of national capacity and feeling.There are many examples of primate cities today: ParisMexico City, London. However, Jeffersons notion israther imprecise in that cities like Athens, Lisbon, Pragueand Amsterdam may no longer be disproportionatelylarge, but they remain self-consciously expressive of thecultures they represent.

The Global Spread of Urbanization

While European cities were growing and changing, urbanplaces were arising and developing elsewhere in EurasiaA giant urban banana, a crescent-shaped zone of earlyurbanization extending across Eurasia from England in theWest to Japan in the east including cities like LondonParis, Venice, Constantinople (Isatnbul), Kabul (inAfghanistan), Jaunpur (in India), Xian (in China), andKyoto (in Japan). Note that many of the cites were locatedalong the interior along the silk and spice trade routes

All that was to change, however, when European maritimeexploration and overseas colonization ushered in an era ofoceanic trade. The era of the great seaports had arrived not only in Europe, but also in the rest of the world. InAsia, places like Bombay (now Mumbai), Madras (inIndia), Singapore, and Tokyo gained prestige. Key cities ininternational trade like Cape Town in South Africa, andNew York City emerged.

The trade networks commanded by the European powers(including the slave trade) brought unprecedented wealthto Europes burgeoning medieval cities; places like


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Amsterdam, London, Liverpool, Lisbon, and Seville.Successful merchants built ornate mansions andpatronized (supported) the arts. The mercantile city tookon similar properties such as a central square, whichbecame their focus; fronted by royal, religious, public, andprivate buildings displaying wealth and grandeur. Streetsleading to these central squares formed connections ofcommerce and the beginnings of what we calldowntown today. During the 16th and 17th centuries,

these mercantile cities became the nodes of a wideningnetwork of national, regional, and global commerce;establishing much of what we see today in terms of stateborders and routes of trade.

When the Industrial Revolution emerged by the end of the18th century, a new global distribution of cities was alreadyin place. In Europe especially, the 18th century broughtbitter cold during the worst years of the Little Ice Age,and the now-mercantile cities were engulfed by desperateimmigrants (many who were peasants from thecountryside). Cities had to adapt to the mushroomingpopulations and factories, the expansion of transportation

systems, and the construction of tenements (cheap,cramped apartments) for the growing labor force. Themanufacturing city now emerged, first in the BritishMidlands, where a combination of labor, coal, iron, andsea ports made it a perfect site for industrialization. Asmanufacturing diffused westward, some cities, such asParis and Amsterdam, retained their historic centers.However, most cities became unregulated jumbles ofactivity.

Private homes were engulfed by factories, and open spaces

became refuse dumps. Water supplies were inadequateand often polluted. Living and health conditions wereusually worse than they had been in medieval times! Thesoot-covered cities of the British Midlands wereappropriately called black towns. In time, however,conditions improved as a result of governmentintervention, new laws, and the introduction of cityplanning and zoning (e.g., land reserved for residential,commercial, or industrial use only). As opposed to the ageof the mercantile cities, the concentration of Europeanpopulation and urbanization extended inward once again,only this time it closely followed the coal deposits. In fact,

Europes main population concentration still displaysthese ribbon-like extensions eastward; a lingeringreminder of a past era.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Americanmanufacturing city grew rapidly, often with poor planningand excessive immigration leading to the rise of slums andghettoes. During the latter half of the 20th centuryhowever, the manufacturing cities around the world

stopped growing. As the nature of manufacturingchanged (e.g., deindustrialization, the new internationaldivision of labor, etc.), many factories were repositionedmaking rustbelts out of once-thriving industriadistricts.

While cities in the developing world have been growing atunprecedented rates, the now demographically-stagnantcities of the industrialized world are changing in differentways. Modern means of transportation and elaborate roadconstruction has permitted the dispersal of urbanpopulation in a process that made suburbanization thehallmark of the modern city in America (European cites

experience far less suburbanization). Even the moderncity has not stabilized, as some see what is often referredto as postmodernism in the cities of technologicallyadvanced societies. This term is used because parts osuch cities are increasingly separated from their ownhistorical and industrial roots that long shaped theirdevelopment. Instead, the architecture and design isdeveloped for entertainment and consumption, asopposed to facilitating production as it had been in thepast.

Piazza dItalia in New Orleans - postmodern architecturedoesnt hold itself to one specific design or purpose

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Evolution of cities