City
From Encyclopædia
In general usage the term city is applied to any large and relatively dense concentration of population where the inhabitants are engaged primarily in nonagricultural occupations. Legal definitions are more specific. In the
United States a city is an incorporated municipality; the city's boundaries and powers of self-government are set forth in a
charter from the state in which it is located. In
Great Britain a city is usually a town or borough with a royal
charter and one that has been, or still is, the see of a
bishop.HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF CITIESIn the 20th century the
world has become more and more urbanized. Large
numbers of people have left the countryside; in the
United States and some countries of Western
Europe, more than 75 percent of the population live in urban areas. Throughout most of history, however, the
world was predominantly rural. People lived on the land and depended on what the land could provide for food and shelter.Ancient CitiesCities did not become possible until humans were able to produce more than they consumed and had found ways of storing the surplus. The earliest permanent settlements were in the alluvial plains of the Nile in
Egypt, the Tigris and Euphrates in
Mesopotamia, the
Indus in India, and the Yangtze and Hwang Ho in China. It was necessary to learn how to store and preserve food in order to provision large
numbers of people living close together and away from the fields. The ruins of ancient palaces in
Crete, one of the earliest
civilizations, have large storage rooms with vessels for keeping oil.Cities resulted from specialization. The earliest cities were inhabited by officials and
priests, who administered empires and invoked the gods. Around them in the city lived the lower classes of craftspersons, artisans, and laborers. The inhabitants of the city were supported by the labor of those outside it who worked on the land.Another reason for the development of the city was defense. In ancient Greece, the typical
city-state was built on an elevated place called an
Acropolis, surrounded by
fortifications. Since it depended on the hinterland for supplies, the city had to be strong enough to dominate and defend this area against enemies. From its walled safety the city sent out soldiers, who kept order in the hinterland and defended it from roving marauders and from incursions by other
city-states.Cities grew up at the intersections of trade routes, at harbors, and at the mouths of rivers with easy access to the sea. ATHENS, ROME, ALEXANDRIA, and CARTHAGE were near the sea. MECCA, DAMASCUS, and
Samarkand were inland cities located on caravan routes. The trading function has been important for cities throughout history. All the major cities of the
United States, including the cities of the Great Lakes and the Gulf of
Mexico, began as centers of trade. The same is true of LONDON, VIENNA, STOCKHOLM,
Istanbul, BOMBAY, HONG KONG, and
Singapore.Medieval CitiesIn the early
middle ages the European towns almost ceased to exist. The Muslim conquest of North
Africa and Spain deprived
Europe of most of the commerce that had gone through Mediterranean ports. When commerce began to revive after the 10th century, the towns grew into trading and manufacturing centers. The typical medieval town formed around a
castle or walled settlement. The newer inhabitants, mainly merchants and artisans, established their quarters outside the walls and eventually came to dominate the town. The townspeople then erected new walls and
fortifications, sometimes a succession of them as the town grew.
fortifications were needed when roving
bands pillaged the countryside; plunder was then the primary goal of war. The city gates were closed at night and guarded. Citizens who returned late did so at their peril, and no one who did not belong was allowed in. These
fortifications can still be seen in some European cities:
Carcassonne in France, for example, and the Italian cities of SIENA,
Lucca, and San Gimignano.The economic hub of the city was the marketplace, which often faced the cathedral or major church. Most medieval cities were dominated by the spires of a Gothic church, many of which remain today. The church, symbolizing the religious function of the city, also served as physical organizer of its form and as the center of the city's life. The later medieval city was also a cultural and educational center. BOLOGNA, PADUA, PARIS, and Vienna were noted for their universities.The medieval city was not large, by either ancient or modern standards. Rome at its height under the empire is estimated to have had perhaps 800,000 inhabitants, and Carthage not more than 300,000. Medieval cities rarely attained populations as large as 50,000. Among the exceptions were the larger Italian cities such as
Venice,
Florence, MILAN,
Naples, and GENOA. Paris may have had 200,000 inhabitants in the 14th century, but FRANKFURT AM MAIN and BASEL in 1450 had only about 8,000,
Nuremberg 20,000,
Louvain 25,000, and BRUSSELS 40,000. It was usually a half-hour walk from the center to the outskirts of a typical city. Because transportation was limited to horses or horse-drawn carts, cities had to be small and compact. To accommodate the growing populations, houses were built close together in rows, two or three stories high. The streets were rarely paved and therefore turned into muddy tracks in bad weather.The Industrial CityThe INDUSTRIAL
revolution transformed the city. With its concentration of workers and its access to trade, the city was the natural place to locate factories. Villages turned into towns, and towns multiplied in size. In Britain, where the Industrial Revolu?ion began in the latter part of the 18th century, the
number of towns of 5,000 inhabitants or more increased from 106 in 1801 to 265 in 1851, and to 622 by 1891. Nearly 20 million people lived in urban districts of 5,000 or more by 1891. People came in large
numbers from the countryside to work in the factories and to live in the cheap, jerry-built
housing that was constructed near the new industrial sites. The sanitary conditions and water supplies of these industrial towns were dismally inadequate, and epidemics of typhoid, cholera, and dysentery were frequent.
tuberculosis was a common cause of death.Industrialization spread to
Europe and
America during the 19th century. In the
United States, by 1890, one-third of the population lived in towns. In the decade from 1880 to 1890, the
number of U.S. cities of 45,000-75,000 increased from 23 to 39. CHICAGO doubled in size during that decade;
Detroit, MILWAUKEE, COLUMBUS, and CLEVELAND grew by 80 percent. Industrialization in the
United States coincided with heavy immigration from
Europe, and by 1890 one-fifth of the inhabitants of the cities were foreign-born. In the Northeast more than half the population lived in towns of more than 4,000 people. Although industrialization transformed the cities of
Europe, it furnished the very basis of urban development in
America.The expansion of the city in the industrial era was made possible by improvements in transportation. The building of canals, followed by the great
railroad boom in the latter part of the 19th century, enabled the industrial towns to draw their materials from great distances. In the early cities, workers had to live within walking distance of their place of employment, and the city itself was limited in size to the distance a person could cover on foot. In the 19th century, public transportation enabled a somewhat greater dispersion of the population away from the center, although in most industrial towns workers still lived close to the factories. Trolley lines had been established in 300 U.S. cities by 1886. Cities began to spread in
star-shaped patterns along streetcar lines and suburban
railroads. The major effect of industrialization on the city in the 19th century, however, was to destroy the physical form inherited from the past. In place of the old, narrow, winding streets, the industrial city was characterized by more or less uniform rectangular blocks that could be laid out wherever there was an open space. The factory and the slum became the most conspicuous features.By the end of the 19th century many U.S. cities had paved the
Main Streets. Since most of these cities were located on rivers or harbors, it was necessary to build
bridges as the cities grew. The BROOKLYN
bridge, completed in 1883, was an engineering achievement that ushered in a period of municipal
bridge building. But traffic congestion continued to be a major problem.
elevated railroads were built in NEW YORK, Chicago,
Kansas CITY,
Boston, and other cities and were later followed by
subways.By 1880, 138 telephone exchanges were operating in U.S. cities. Electric lighting began to replace kerosene and gas. The development of plumbing and municipal sewage systems made the cities more habitable, although the congestion, pollution, and noise continued to increase.THE CONTEMPORARY CITYThe contemporary U.S. city differs greatly from both the old industrial city and the traditional city of
Europe.
growth of the SuburbsIn the
United States the widespread use of the automobile has acted as a centrifugal force, dispersing population from the
Central city outward into the
suburbs and even beyond. Another form of transportation, the elevator, has had the opposite effect of concentrating workers into
skyscraper office buildings in the heart of the city. Consequently there is a great tidal surge of humanity into the city in the morning and out again at night. At noon the business area hums with activity, but at night and on weekends it takes on the appearance of a ghost town.
