History of Cities

1. History of Cities

2. The first cities • In agricultural villages, all inhabitants were involved in some way in getting food • Cities were more removed from everyday agricultural activities • Food was supplied to the city • Not all city dwellers were involved in actual farming • Another class of city dwellers supplied services — such as technical skills, and religious interpretation

3. The first cities • Two elements were crucial to this social change • Generation of agricultural surplus was necessary for supporting nonfarmers • Social system where people had different jobs • Existence of distinct elite and lower classes • Facilitates the collection, storage, and distribution of resources • Well-defined channels of authority that exercise control over goods and people • These two set the stage for urbanization

4. Models for the rise of cities • Technical • The hydraulic civilization model, developed by Karl Wittfogel • Large-scale irrigation systems were the main reason urbanization happened • Higher crop yields resulted • Food surplus supported development of a large nonfarming population • Strong, centralized government, backed by an urban-based military • Farmers who resisted new authority were denied water

5. Models for the rise of cities • Technical • The hydraulic model cannot be applied to all urban hearths • Urban civilization blossomed without irrigation in parts of Mesoamerica • The question of how or why a culture might first develop irrigation

6. Models for the rise of cities • Religious • Paul Wheatley suggests religion was the motivating factor behind urbanization • Knowledge of meteorological and climatic conditions was considered to be within the domain of religion • Religious leaders decided when and how to plant crops • Successful harvests led to more support for this priestly class • Priestly class exercised political and social control that held the city together • In this scenario, cities are religious spaces functioning as ceremonial centers • First urban clusters and fortification seen as defenses against spiritual demons or souls of the dead

7. Urban hearth areas • Where the first cities appeared, for example: • Mesopotamia • The Nile Valley • Pakistan’s Indus River Valley • The Yellow River valley (or Huang Ho) in China • Mesoamerica • Next slide gives general dates of urban life emergence for each region

9. Urban hearth areas • Generally agreed first cities arose in Mesopotamia • River valley of the Tigris and Euphrates in what is now Iraq • Cities, small by current standards, covered one-half to two square miles • Populations rarely exceeded 30,000 • Densities could reach 10,000 per square mile —comparable to today’s cities

10. Urban hearth areas • Early cities, also called cosmomagicalcities, exhibited three spatial characteristics • Great importance accorded the symbolic center of the city, which was thought to be the center of the known world • Often marked by a vertical structure of monumental scale representing the point on Earth closest to the heavens • This symbolic center took different forms • The ziggurat in Mesopotamia • The palace or temple in China • The pyramid in Egypt and Mesoamerica • The Stupa in the Indus Valley

12. Cosmomagical City: Beijing, China

13. Urban hearth areas • Early cities, also called cosmomagicalcities, exhibited three spatial characteristics. 2nd characteristic: • In Mesopotamia, this area was known as the citadel and housed the elite who lived in relative luxury • Streets were paved, drains and running water were provided • Private sleeping quarters, bathtubs, and water closets were provided • Privileges did not extend to the city as a whole

14. Urban hearth areas • Early cities, also called cosmomagicalcities, exhibited three spatial characteristics • The city was oriented toward the four cardinal directions • Geometric form of city would reflect the order of the universe • Walls around the city delimited the known and ordered world from the outside chaos • Attempt to shape the form of the city according to the form of the universe • Thought essential to maintain harmony between human and spiritual worlds

15. The diffusion of the city from hearth areas • Diffusionists believe ideas and techniques from Mesopotamia were shared with people in the Nile and the Indus River valley • An alternate view is that trading took place only after these cities were well established

16. The diffusion of the city from hearth areas • Little doubt diffusion is responsible for the dispersal of the city in historical times • City used as vehicle for imperial expansion • Initially, military controls newly won lands and sets up collection points for local resources • As collection points lose some military atmosphere they begin to show the social diversity of a city • Native people are slowly assimilated into the settlement as workers and may eventually control the city • The process repeats itself as the empire pushes outward

18. Introduction • Patterns seen in the city today are a composite of past and present cultures • Two concepts underlie our examination of urban landscapes • Urban morphology— physical form of the city, which consists of street patterns, building sizes and shapes, architecture, and density • Functional zonation— refers to the pattern of land uses within a city, or existence of areas with differing functions

19. The Greek city • Cities had two distinctive functional zones —the acropolis and the agora • The acropolis was similar in many ways to the citadel of Mesopotamian cities • Had the temples of worship, storehouse of valuables, and seat of power • Served as a place of retreat in time of siege

20. The Greek city • The agora was the province of the citizens • A place for public meetings, education, social interaction, and judicial matters • Later, after the classical period, it became the city’s major marketplace without losing its atmosphere of a social club

21. Roman cities • As the empire expanded, city life diffused into areas that had not previously experienced urbanization • Most cities were established as military (castra) and trading outposts • Focal points for collection of local agricultural products • Supply centers for the military • Service centers for long-distance trading network

23. Medieval Town: Hirschhorn am Neckar, Germany • This town reveals three important features of urban morphology: castle, wall, and cathedral. Hirschhorn castle caps the summit of a fortified spur in the bend of the Neckar River, affording a clear view of the river and forested valley.

24. The Renaissance and Baroque periods • Form and function of the city changed significantly during the Renaissance (1500 — 1600) and baroque (1600-1800) periods • Absolute monarchs arose to preside over a unified nation-state • Rising middle class slowly gave up their freedoms to join with the king in pursuit of economic gain • City size grew rapidly because bureaucracies of regional power structures came to dominate them • Trade patterns expanded with the beginning of European imperial conquest • City planning and military technology acted to remold and constrain the physical form of the city

25. The Renaissance and Baroque periods • A national capital city rose to prominence in most countries • Provincial cities were subjected to its tastes • Power was centralized in its precincts • First office buildings were built to house a growing bureaucracy • Most important, it was restructured to reflect the power of the central government and insure control over urban masses