It Came from Mesopotamia!

Urban History

Part Two

European Urbanization

• Though there is much more to say about urban developments after antiquity but before 1850 in the Americas, South Asia, Middle East/North Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, it is Europe towards the end of our period which redefines the world urban system in a radical way

• Focuses the successive emergence in Europe of merchant capitalism, colonialism and industrialization

– This brings us to the cusp of a truly global urban system

Greeks

• Original Greeks came from the north, borrowed ideas about city building from other Mediterranean cultures

– Most Greek cities had an Acropolis which was the defensive stronghold of last resort, which also had temples and some government offices

– Below was the main walled city, with the agora for markets and gathering, as well as more administrative, business and residential structures.

• Early Greek cities were organic, later one’s used a grid

– Most Greek cities were coastal, as sea trade was very important to them

– Greece was always a group of competing city states which would establish their own colonies throughout the Mediterranean and Black Seas

• The Macedonians did the most unification, but most cities were in the 10-15000 person range

– Some of the city states were the first place to develop formal democracy, where men assembled to elect their own leaders (meaning leaders were not infallible gods on Earth)

Romans

• Got supremacy in Mediterranean after beating Phoenicians (Tunisia) in the Punic Wars

– Built colonies (cities) with features similar to Greek Cities (grid system, forum/market, defensive wall, baths), most remained small

• Romans were great builders of public works like roads (good for military and communication), aqueducts, sewers, public latrines, bathes (which increased the health of the population greatly)

• However, unlike Greece cities, control was always centralized in Rome; hierarchies more present in the built environment and cities tended to be more inland to control the local populations and get agricultural tribute

– London, Brussels, Paris, Vienna all started by Romans (in fact, they laid the foundations for the European Urban System of today)

Romans (cont.)

• To control populations, Romans got them to buy in to becoming Roman through urbanization, and its nice things like secure markets and baths.

– Three types of roman imperial towns:

» Colonaie – newly founded settlements or native towns with all Roman priveledges

» Municipia – important tribal centers taken over and given some citizenship priveledges

» Civitates – old tribal market centers retained and slightly romanized (though with few priveldeges)

• By second century AD, population declined, causing labor shortage and abondened frontier towns, leading to barabrian invasions.

Dark Ages

• 400 – 1000, only dark in Europe (everyone else flourished)

– Most especially Islamic cites (old ones like Mecca, Medina, Baghdad, Damascus; new ones like Cairo, Tehran, Tangiers; plus further afield Islamic cities like Timbuktu (Mali), Kano (Nigeria), Mombasa (Kenya), Cordoba (Spain)

• When the German tribes sacked Rome, the road/communication/trade network fell into ruin, causing the depopulation of many cities

– What was left:

• Ecclesiastical and University Centers: Survived because they either were the seat of Bishop or had what became a university

– Canterbury, Chartres, Liege, Bremen, Trondheim, Lund

• Defensive strongholds: Spurred castle construction especially in Eastern Europe and Italy outside of Rome

• Administrative Hubs: Where the feudal hierarchy was administered

– Cologne, Winchester, Toulouse

• But feudalism dominated Europe, whose basic building block was the country manor, which provided a enough food and raw materials for a rough sort of sustainability

– So no need for complex cities in such an order

Late Medieval

• As the Middle Ages marches on, population grows, but few agricultural improvements and continued intra-feudal warfare.

– The nobility begin to raise taxes to fund armies/themselves

– Thus more money needed by peasants, thus more good sold in cash economy, thus long distance trade resumes again.

• This meant towns and their markets would grow

– In the towns, the merchants (those who supplied the capital to facilitate trade) and the guilds (early proto-unions of craftsmen) became the power in town

• To attract workers, serfs (who were descendents of slaves), were offered freedom if they lived there one year

• The common features of these towns were walls for defense and large market squares

– Almost all growth occurred within walls, so lots of density

• Lots of vertical building, with shops on ground floor and owners on 2^nd floor, up to servants in the attic

• Growth often constrained until new bigger wall built

• The big networks of merchant capitalism involve the Italian Towns (Venice, Pisa, Genoa, Florence) and the Baltic Sea’s Hanseatic League

Late Medieval Types

During this era, Paris was the largest city, followed by Milan, Genoa, Venice, Florence and Bruges (all others less than 50000)

• Towns of Roman Origin – Like London, some of these survived the dark ages

• Burgs – Former military bases converted to towns as commerce grew (Oxford)

• Enlarged Villages – Villages that because of location, grew organically as trade increased (Wycombe)

• Bastides – Planned new towns in 12^th and 13^th centuries built with both strategic garrison and market functions, where settlers often got a house and land for moving there, while the owner got turnpike fees, taxes and court fees. (Ludlow)

• Planted – Planned, new towns, mostly sited for road or river location to take advantage of trade (Berne, CH)

Renaissance and Baroque

• This includes the early phase of merchant colonialism (where colonialism sought luxury goods)

– By 1580, Spain and Portugal had set up an urban system in the Americas that was linked to Europe

• Portuguese cities were markets (Sao Paolo for coffee) and ports (Rio); Spanish cities were chosen where existing population clusters could best be controlled (Mexico DF, Lima, Quito)

• As colonialism grew, more and more gateway cities emerged in the colonized periphery where goods from the hinterland (usually one or two commodities only) were collected and exported, and where finished European goods entered

– Some were much enlarged old settlements, others brand new (Buenos Aires, Accra, Kolkata, Cape Town, etc)

Renaissance and Baroque (cont.)

– By the end of the period, most European growth in port cities with access to North Sea or Atlantic (Lisbon, London, the various Dutch cities) or new capitals of the emerging nations (Madrid, Paris, Vienna)

• Out of this colonialism (originally built on slavery), financial capital also begins to emerge in terms of loans, insurance, auctioning, etc.

• With a mix of rediscovered and new forms of art and architecture, once cathedral-dominated European cities began to see sculpture, plazas, fountains and more adorned non-church buildings (thus the baroque phase)

– Also the nobility built new lavish palaces, ever more elaborate defense works

Hanseatic League

• Notable as being one of first cooperative trade associations in history (a proto-EU of sorts)

– Not between countries, but between cities states

– First was just a trade agreement, but grew to include citizenship rights, collective defense, embargo power, financial system, legal system, and a proto-stock exchange

– Started because Lubeck had herring but needed salt to preserve and ship it; Hamburg had salt and needed a market for it

• Controlled market in fish, salt, grain, timber, amber, fur, flax and honey from Russia and British/Flemish cloth exports at its height

– Eventually dissolved due to intra-League fighting, growing influence of English and Dutch (then a collection of wealthy city states), and depleted herring stock.

Industrial Revolution

• Starts in British Midlands around 1750

– First it was water powered, so needed falling water

• This explains why previously small settlements like Manchester (where the River Irwell becomes navigable) grew so rapidly

– Manchester came to be known as Cottonopolis; home to world’s first industrial estate “Trafford”

• It was the coal power steam engine which eventually allowed factories everywhere

– Brought previously dispersed activities (like spinning yarn and weaving), under the same roof

– Original owners built row housing nearby factories to attract workers

Industrial Revolution (cont.)

• Growing industrialization led to growing cities

– Cities started to feel very different with smoke-stacks, loud factories, huge warehouses, train tracks, and more variety of commodities for sale than ever before

• Also, the rich begin fleeing as speculators divide up their old homes and gardens into extremely cramped tenement one or two room housing (1000 people per acre in some cases)

– Life expectancy for a worker in England in mid-1800s was 26; aristocrat 38

– A lot of the machines produced and technologies (fertilizer) invented helped agriculture grow more & preserve more

• This led to more food (thus more people who could live in cities) and mechanized agriculture (fewer farmers needed, with big farms becoming advantageous)

Industrial Revolution (cont.)

• This all coincided with the beginnings of demographic transition (due to more food and rudimentary medicine), where the death rate suddenly dropped

– This meant more people in crowded cities, and eventually more people looking for work they could not find

– This also kept wages down and resulted in poor working conditions

• Also, mechanization outpaced demand, and by mid 19^th century, there was a crisis of overproduction

– Thus, in 1848, much of the continent was in a series of revolutions which aligned working/middle classes (but which did not suceed)

• Startling fact: in 1800, world was 5% urban; by 1850, it was 16% urban!

– By 1850, 900 cities of 100,000 or more, with Europe leading the way

It Came from Mesopotamia!

Urban History

European Urbanization

• Though there is much more to say about urban developments after antiquity but before 1850 in the Americas, South Asia, Middle East/North Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, it is Europe towards the end of our period which redefines the world urban system in a radical way

• Focuses the successive emergence in Europe of merchant capitalism, colonialism and industrialization

– This brings us to the cusp of a truly global urban system

Greeks

• Original Greeks came from the north, borrowed ideas about city building from other Mediterranean cultures

– Most Greek cities had an Acropolis which was the defensive stronghold of last resort, which also had temples and some government offices

– Below was the main walled city, with the agora for markets and gathering, as well as more administrative, business and residential structures.

• Early Greek cities were organic, later one’s used a grid

– Most Greek cities were coastal, as sea trade was very important to them

– Greece was always a group of competing city states which would establish their own colonies throughout the Mediterranean and Black Seas

• The Macedonians did the most unification, but most cities were in the 10-15000 person range

– Some of the city states were the first place to develop formal democracy, where men assembled to elect their own leaders (meaning leaders were not infallible gods on Earth)

Romans

• Got supremacy in Mediterranean after beating Phoenicians (Tunisia) in the Punic Wars

– Built colonies (cities) with features similar to Greek Cities (grid system, forum/market, defensive wall, baths), most remained small

• Romans were great builders of public works like roads (good for military and communication), aqueducts, sewers, public latrines, bathes (which increased the health of the population greatly)

• However, unlike Greece cities, control was always centralized in Rome; hierarchies more present in the built environment and cities tended to be more inland to control the local populations and get agricultural tribute

– London, Brussels, Paris, Vienna all started by Romans (in fact, they laid the foundations for the European Urban System of today)

Romans (cont.)

• To control populations, Romans got them to buy in to becoming Roman through urbanization, and its nice things like secure markets and baths.

– Three types of roman imperial towns:

» Colonaie – newly founded settlements or native towns with all Roman priveledges

» Municipia – important tribal centers taken over and given some citizenship priveledges

» Civitates – old tribal market centers retained and slightly romanized (though with few priveldeges)

• By second century AD, population declined, causing labor shortage and abondened frontier towns, leading to barabrian invasions.

Dark Ages

• 400 – 1000, only dark in Europe (everyone else flourished)

– Most especially Islamic cites (old ones like Mecca, Medina, Baghdad, Damascus; new ones like Cairo, Tehran, Tangiers; plus further afield Islamic cities like Timbuktu (Mali), Kano (Nigeria), Mombasa (Kenya), Cordoba (Spain)

• When the German tribes sacked Rome, the road/communication/trade network fell into ruin, causing the depopulation of many cities

– What was left:

• Ecclesiastical and University Centers: Survived because they either were the seat of Bishop or had what became a university

– Canterbury, Chartres, Liege, Bremen, Trondheim, Lund

• Defensive strongholds: Spurred castle construction especially in Eastern Europe and Italy outside of Rome

• Administrative Hubs: Where the feudal hierarchy was administered

– Cologne, Winchester, Toulouse

• But feudalism dominated Europe, whose basic building block was the country manor, which provided a enough food and raw materials for a rough sort of sustainability

– So no need for complex cities in such an order

Late Medieval

• As the Middle Ages marches on, population grows, but few agricultural improvements and continued intra-feudal warfare.

– The nobility begin to raise taxes to fund armies/themselves

– Thus more money needed by peasants, thus more good sold in cash economy, thus long distance trade resumes again.

• This meant towns and their markets would grow

– In the towns, the merchants (those who supplied the capital to facilitate trade) and the guilds (early proto-unions of craftsmen) became the power in town

• To attract workers, serfs (who were descendents of slaves), were offered freedom if they lived there one year

• The common features of these towns were walls for defense and large market squares

– Almost all growth occurred within walls, so lots of density

• Lots of vertical building, with shops on ground floor and owners on 2nd floor, up to servants in the attic

• Growth often constrained until new bigger wall built

• The big networks of merchant capitalism involve the Italian Towns (Venice, Pisa, Genoa, Florence) and the Baltic Sea’s Hanseatic League

Late Medieval Types

During this era, Paris was the largest city, followed by Milan, Genoa, Venice, Florence and Bruges (all others less than 50000)

• Towns of Roman Origin – Like London, some of these survived the dark ages

• Burgs – Former military bases converted to towns as commerce grew (Oxford)

• Enlarged Villages – Villages that because of location, grew organically as trade increased (Wycombe)

• Bastides – Planned new towns in 12th and 13th centuries built with both strategic garrison and market functions, where settlers often got a house and land for moving there, while the owner got turnpike fees, taxes and court fees. (Ludlow)

• Planted – Planned, new towns, mostly sited for road or river location to take advantage of trade (Berne, CH)

Renaissance and Baroque

• This includes the early phase of merchant colonialism (where colonialism sought luxury goods)

– By 1580, Spain and Portugal had set up an urban system in the Americas that was linked to Europe

• Portuguese cities were markets (Sao Paolo for coffee) and ports (Rio); Spanish cities were chosen where existing population clusters could best be controlled (Mexico DF, Lima, Quito)

• As colonialism grew, more and more gateway cities emerged in the colonized periphery where goods from the hinterland (usually one or two commodities only) were collected and exported, and where finished European goods entered

– Some were much enlarged old settlements, others brand new (Buenos Aires, Accra, Kolkata, Cape Town, etc)

Renaissance and Baroque (cont.)

– By the end of the period, most European growth in port cities with access to North Sea or Atlantic (Lisbon, London, the various Dutch cities) or new capitals of the emerging nations (Madrid, Paris, Vienna)

• Out of this colonialism (originally built on slavery), financial capital also begins to emerge in terms of loans, insurance, auctioning, etc.

• With a mix of rediscovered and new forms of art and architecture, once cathedral-dominated European cities began to see sculpture, plazas, fountains and more adorned non-church buildings (thus the baroque phase)

– Also the nobility built new lavish palaces, ever more elaborate defense works

Hanseatic League

• Notable as being one of first cooperative trade associations in history (a proto-EU of sorts)

– Not between countries, but between cities states

– First was just a trade agreement, but grew to include citizenship rights, collective defense, embargo power, financial system, legal system, and a proto-stock exchange

– Started because Lubeck had herring but needed salt to preserve and ship it; Hamburg had salt and needed a market for it

• Controlled market in fish, salt, grain, timber, amber, fur, flax and honey from Russia and British/Flemish cloth exports at its height

– Eventually dissolved due to intra-League fighting, growing influence of English and Dutch (then a collection of wealthy city states), and depleted herring stock.

Industrial Revolution

• Starts in British Midlands around 1750

– First it was water powered, so needed falling water

• Lots of vertical building, with shops on ground floor and owners on 2^nd floor, up to servants in the attic

• Bastides – Planned new towns in 12^th and 13^th centuries built with both strategic garrison and market functions, where settlers often got a house and land for moving there, while the owner got turnpike fees, taxes and court fees. (Ludlow)

• Also, mechanization outpaced demand, and by mid 19^th century, there was a crisis of overproduction