1. When and Why Did People Start Living in Cities?
City: A conglomeration of people and buildings clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture, and economics
Urban: The buildup of the city and surrounding environs connected to the city (central city and suburbs)
Urbanization: Movement of people from rural to urban areas—can happen very quickly in the modern world

2. Urban Population

3. Origins of Urbanization
Agricultural villages
Began about 10,000 years ago
Relatively small, egalitarian villages, where most of the population was involved in agriculture
The first urban revolution: Enabling components
An agricultural surplus
Social stratification (leadership class)

4. Hearths of Urbanization
Mesopotamia, 3500 BCE
Nile River Valley, 3200 BCE
Indus River Valley, 2200 BCE
Huang He and Wei River Valleys, 1500 BCE
Mesoamerica, 200 BCE

5. Indus River Valley Harappa and Mohenjo- Daro Intricately planned
Houses equal in size
No palaces
No monuments

6. Huang He and Wei River Valleys
Purposefully planned cities
Centered on a north-south axis
Inner wall built around center
Temples and palaces for the leadership class
Terracotta warriors guarding the tomb of
the Chinese Emperor Qin Xi Huang

7. Mesoamerica
Mayan and Aztec cities: Theocratic centers where rulers were deemed to have divine authority and were god-kings

8. Diffusion of Urbanization
Greek cities (by 500 BCE)
Greeks highly urbanized
Network of more than 500 cities and towns on the mainland and on islands
Acropolis (buildings on a height of land) and an agora (open public space) in each city
Roman cities
A system of cities and small towns, linked together by hundreds of miles of roads and sea routes
Sites of Roman cities typically for trade
Forum a combination of the acropolis and agora into one space
Extreme wealth and extreme poverty

9. Urban Growth after Greece and Rome
Europe
Middle Ages (500–1300)
Little urban growth, even decline
Asia
Centers along the Silk Road
Urban growth in Korea, Japan
West Africa
The Americas

10. Cities in the Age of Exploration
Early Eurasian centers
Crescent-shaped zone from England to Japan
Most cities sited in continental interiors
Maritime exploration
Change in situation to favor coastal locations
Continued importance under colonialism
Wealth for mercantile cities of Europe
European model for cities in colonies

11. The Second Urban Revolution
A large-scale movement of people to cities to work in manufacturing, made possible by
1. Second agricultural revolution that improved food production and created a larger surplus
2. Industrialization, which encouraged growth of cities near industrial resources
Favored places
Had undergone the second agricultural revolution
Possessed industrial resources
Possessed capital from mercantilism and colonialism