Editing City (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of the city}}
{{Further|Urban history|Historical urban community sizes|List of largest cities throughout history}}
[[File:Oldest arch 4.JPG|thumb|An [[arch]] from the ancient [[Sumer]]ian city [[Ur]], which flourished in the [[third millennium BC]], can be seen at present-day Tell el-Mukayyar in [[Iraq]].]]
[[File:Mohenjo-daro.jpg|thumb|[[Mohenjo-daro]], a city of the [[Indus Valley Civilization]] in Pakistan, which was rebuilt six or more times, using bricks of standard size, and adhering to the same grid layout—also in the third millennium BC]]
[[File:Teotihuacán 2012-09-28 00-07-11.jpg|thumb|Aerial view of what was once downtown [[Teotihuacan]] showing the [[Pyramid of the Sun]], [[Pyramid of the Moon]], and the processional avenue serving as the spine of the city's street system]]
The emergence of cities from [[proto-city|proto-urban settlements]], such as [[Çatalhöyük]], is a non-linear development that demonstrates the varied experiences of early [[urbanization]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Mazzucato |first=Camilla |date=2019-05-09 |title=Socio-Material Archaeological Networks at Çatalhöyük a Community Detection Approach |journal=Frontiers in Digital Humanities |volume=6 |pages=8 |doi=10.3389/fdigh.2019.00008 |issn=2297-2668|doi-access=free }}</ref>

The cities of [[Jericho]], [[Aleppo]], [[Byblos]], [[Faiyum]], [[Yerevan]], [[Athens]], [[Matera]], [[Damascus]], and [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]] are among those laying claim to [[List of oldest continuously inhabited cities|the longest continual inhabitation]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-02-22 |title=10 oldest cities in the world |url=https://www.educationworld.in/10-oldest-cities-in-the-world/ |access-date=2023-10-26 |website=EducationWorld}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=UNESCO World Heritage Centre – World Heritage List |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/ |access-date=2023-10-26 |website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre}}</ref>

Cities, characterized by [[population density]], [[symbol]]ic function, and [[urban planning]], have existed for thousands of years.<ref>Nick Compton, "What is the oldest city in the world?", ''The Guardian'', 16 February 2015.</ref> In the conventional view, civilization and the city were both followed by the [[Neolithic Revolution|development of agriculture]], which enabled the production of surplus food and thus a social [[division of labour|division of labor]] (with concomitant [[social stratification]]) and [[trade]].<ref>{{Harv |Bairoch|1988| pp=3–4}}</ref><ref>{{Harv |Pacione|2001| p=16}}</ref> Early cities often featured [[granary|granaries]], sometimes within a temple.<ref>Kaplan et al. (2004), p. 26. "Early cities also reflected these preconditions in that they served as places where agricultural surpluses were stored and distributed. Cities functioned economically as centers of extraction and redistribution from countryside to granaries to the urban population. One of the main functions of this central authority was to extract, store, and redistribute the grain. It is no accident that granaries—storage areas for grain—were often found within the temples of early cities."</ref> A minority viewpoint considers that cities may have arisen without agriculture, due to alternative means of subsistence (fishing),<ref>{{cite book |first=Jennifer R. |last=Pournelle |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257139948 |chapter=KLM to Corona: A Bird's Eye View of Cultural Ecology and Early Mesopotamian Urbanization |title=Settlement and Society: Essays Dedicated to Robert McCormick Adams |editor=Elizabeth C. Stone |publisher=Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, and Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago| date=2007-12-31 | isbn=978-1-938770-97-5 | doi=10.2307/j.ctvdjrqjp.8 | pages=29–62}}</ref> to use as communal seasonal shelters,<ref name="Perlman16">[[Fredy Perlman]], ''[[Against His-Story, Against Leviathan]]'', Detroit: Black & Red, 1983; p. 16.</ref> to their value as bases for defensive and offensive military organization,<ref name="Mumfurd1961war" /><ref name="Ashworth1991p12">Ashworth (1991), pp. 12–13.</ref> or to their inherent economic function.<ref name="Jacobs 1969 23">{{Harv |Jacobs|1969| p=23}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Taylor | first=Peter J. |authorlink=Peter J. Taylor | title=Extraordinary Cities: Early 'City-ness' and the Origins of Agriculture and States | journal=International Journal of Urban and Regional Research | volume=36 | issue=3 | date=2012 | issn=0309-1317 | doi=10.1111/j.1468-2427.2011.01101.x | pages=415–447| hdl=10.1111/j.1468-2427.2011.01101.x | hdl-access=free }}; see also GaWC Research Bulletins [http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/rb/rb359.html 359] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171111172356/http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/rb/rb359.html |date=11 November 2017 }} and [http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/rb/rb360.html 360] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171113190604/http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/rb/rb360.html |date=13 November 2017 }}.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Michael E. |last2=Ur |first2=Jason |last3=Feinman |first3=Gary M. |year=2014 |title=Jane Jacobs' 'Cities First' Model and Archaeological Reality |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-2427.12138 |url-status=live |journal=International Journal of Urban and Regional Research|volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=1525–1535 |doi=10.1111/1468-2427.12138 |s2cid=143207540 |issn=0309-1317 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003174652/https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/13364827/Smith%20etal%202014%20IJURR.pdf?sequence=1 |archive-date=2017-10-03|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Cities played a crucial role in the establishment of political power over an area, and ancient leaders such as [[Alexander the Great]] founded and created them with zeal.<ref>McQuillan (1937/1987), §1.03. "The ancients fostered the spread of urban culture; their efforts were constant to bring their people within the complete influence of municipal life. The desire to create cities was the most striking characteristic of the people of antiquity, and ancient rulers and statesmen vied with one another in satisfying that desire."</ref>

=== Ancient times ===
{{Further|Cities of the Ancient Near East|Polis|City-state|Late Antiquity#Cities}}
{{redirect|Ancient city}}
[[File:Artgate Fondazione Cariplo - Betti Oreste - Veduta della Roma imperiale.jpg|thumb|A modern depiction of [[Ancient Rome]], the first city in the world to reach one million inhabitants]]
[[Tell es-Sultan|Jericho]] and [[Çatalhöyük]], dated to the [[eighth millennium BC]], are among the earliest [[proto-cities]] known to archaeologists.<ref name="Perlman16" /><ref>Southall (1998), p. 23.</ref> However, the [[Mesopotamia]]n city of [[Uruk]] from the mid-fourth millennium BC (ancient Iraq) is considered by most archaeologists to be the first true city, innovating many characteristics for cities to follow, with its name attributed to the [[Uruk period]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art |date=Oct 2003 |title=Uruk: The First City |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/uruk/hd_uruk.htm |access-date=5 March 2022 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |archive-date=1 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200401115230/https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/uruk/hd_uruk.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Uruk (article) |url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-project/agriculture-civilization/first-cities-states/a/uruk |access-date=5 March 2022 |website=Khan Academy|archive-date=5 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305140202/https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-project/agriculture-civilization/first-cities-states/a/uruk |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=What Science Has Learned about the Rise of Urban Mesopotamia |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/uruk-period-mesopotamia-rise-of-sumer-171676 |access-date=5 March 2022 |website=ThoughtCo| archive-date=5 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305135740/https://www.thoughtco.com/uruk-period-mesopotamia-rise-of-sumer-171676 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the [[fourth millennium BC|fourth]] and [[third millennium BC]], complex civilizations flourished in the river valleys of [[Mesopotamia]], [[India]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ring |first1=Trudy |title=Middle East and Africa: International Dictionary of Historic Places |date=2014 |isbn=9781134259861 |page=204|publisher=Routledge }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Jhimli Mukherjee |last=Pandeyl |title=Varanasi is as old as Indus valley civilization, finds IIT-KGP study |work=[[The Times of India]] |date=25 February 2016}}</ref> [[China]],<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Where was the first city in the world? |url=https://www.newscientist.com/question/first-cities-built/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |magazine=[[New Scientist]]}}</ref> and [[Egypt]]. Excavations in these areas have found the [[ruins]] of cities geared variously towards trade, politics, or religion. Some had large, [[Urban density|dense populations]], but others carried out urban activities in the realms of politics or religion without having large associated populations.

Among the early Old World cities, [[Mohenjo-daro]] of the Indus Valley civilization in present-day [[Pakistan]], existing from about 2600 BC, was one of the largest, with a population of 50,000 or more and a [[Sanitation of the Indus Valley Civilisation|sophisticated sanitation system]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kenoyer |first=Jonathan Mark |title=Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-577940-0 |edition=2nd |location=Karachi and New York|editor-last2=}}</ref> [[Ancient Chinese urban planning|China's planned cities]] were constructed according to sacred principles to act as celestial [[Macrocosm and microcosm|microcosms]].<ref>Southall (1998), pp. 38–43.</ref>

The [[List of ancient Egyptian towns and cities|Ancient Egyptian cities]] known physically by archaeologists are not extensive.<ref name="Smith2002" /> They include (known by their Arab names) [[El Lahun]], a workers' town associated with the pyramid of [[Senusret II]], and the religious city [[Amarna]] built by [[Akhenaten]] and abandoned. These sites appear planned in a highly regimented and [[social stratification|stratified]] fashion, with a minimalistic grid of rooms for the workers and increasingly more elaborate housing available for higher classes.<ref>Moholy-Nagy (1968), pp. 158–161.</ref>

In Mesopotamia, the civilization of [[Sumer]], followed by [[Assyria]] and [[Babylon]], gave rise to numerous cities, governed by kings and fostered multiple languages written in [[cuneiform]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adams |first=Robert McCormick |url=https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/heartland_of_cities.pdf |title=Heartland of cities: surveys of ancient settlement and land use on the central floodplain of the Euphrates |date=1981 |publisher=University of Chicago press |isbn=978-0-226-00544-7 |location=Chicago and London |pages=2 |quote=Southern Mesopotamia was a land of cities. It became one precociously, before the end of the fourth millennium B.C. Urban traditions remained strong and virtually continuous through the vicissitudes of conquest, internal upheaval accompanied by widespread economic breakdown, and massive linguistic and population replacement. The symbolic and material content of civilization obviously changed, but its cultural ambience remained tied to cities. |author-link=Robert McCormick Adams Jr. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181113035705/https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/heartland_of_cities.pdf |archive-date=2018-11-13 |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Phoenicia]]n trading empire, flourishing around the turn of the [[first millennium BC]], encompassed [[List of Phoenician cities|numerous cities]] extending from [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]], [[Cydon]], and [[Byblos]] to [[Carthage]] and [[Cádiz]].

In the following centuries, independent [[city-state]]s of [[Ancient Greece|Greece]], especially [[Classical Athens|Athens]], developed the ''[[polis]]'', an association of male landowning [[citizenship|citizens]] who collectively constituted the city.<ref name="tws2Y21">{{Cite book | last = Pocock | first = J.G.A. | title = The Citizenship Debates | publisher = The University of Minnesota | series = Chapter 2 – The Ideal of Citizenship since Classical Times (originally published in ''Queen's Quarterly'' 99, no. 1) | year = 1998 | location = Minneapolis, MN | page = 31 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=i6U7CTuCJLYC&pg=PA31 | isbn = 978-0-8166-2880-3 | access-date = 11 November 2015 | archive-date = 9 June 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160609220358/https://books.google.com/books?id=i6U7CTuCJLYC&pg=PA31 | url-status = live }}</ref> The [[agora]], meaning "gathering place" or "assembly", was the center of the athletic, artistic, spiritual, and political life of the polis.<ref name="InternationalDictionary">{{cite book |title = International Dictionary of Historic Places: Southern Europe | last1=Ring |last2=Salkin |last3=Boda | first1=Trudy |first2=Robert |first3=Sharon | publisher = Routledge|date = 1996 | page = 66 | isbn=978-1-884964-02-2}}</ref> [[Rome]] was the first city that surpassed one million inhabitants. Under the authority of [[Roman Empire|its empire]], Rome transformed and [[List of cities founded by the Romans|founded]] many cities ({{lang|la|[[Colonia (Roman)|Colonia]]}}), and with them brought its principles of urban architecture, design, and society.<ref>Kaplan et al. (2004), pp. 41–42. "Rome created an elaborate urban system. Roman colonies were organized as a means of securing Roman territory. The first thing that Romans did when they conquered new territories was to establish cities."</ref>

In the ancient [[Americas]], early urban traditions developed in the [[Andes]] and [[Mesoamerica]]. In the Andes, the first urban centers developed in the [[Norte Chico civilization]], [[Chavín culture|Chavin]] and [[Moche (culture)|Moche]] cultures, followed by major cities in the [[Huari culture|Huari]], [[Chimu]], and [[Inca]] cultures. The Norte Chico civilization included as many as 30 major population centers in what is now the [[Norte Chico (Peruvian region)|Norte Chico region]] of north-central coastal [[Peru]]. It is the oldest known civilization in the Americas, flourishing between the 30th and 18th centuries BC.<ref name="Shady1997">{{cite book |last=Shady Solís |first=Ruth Martha |author-link=Ruth Shady |title=La ciudad sagrada de Caral-Supe en los albores de la civilización en el Perú |url=http://sisbib.unmsm.edu.pe/Bibvirtual/Libros/Arqueologia/ciudad_sagrada/caratula.htm |access-date=3 March 2007 |year=1997 |publisher=UNMSM, Fondo Editorial |location=Lima |language=es |archive-date=7 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207051615/http://sisbib.unmsm.edu.pe/Bibvirtual/libros/Arqueologia/ciudad_sagrada/caratula.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Mesoamerica saw the rise of early urbanism in several cultural regions, beginning with the [[Olmec]] and spreading to the [[Maya city|Preclassic Maya]], the [[Zapotec civilization|Zapotec]] of Oaxaca, and [[Teotihuacan]] in central Mexico. Later cultures such as the [[Aztec]], [[Andean civilization]]s, [[Maya peoples|Mayan]], [[Mississippian culture|Mississippians]], and [[Pueblo]] peoples drew on these earlier urban traditions. Many of their ancient cities continue to be inhabited, including major metropolitan cities such as [[Mexico City]], in the same location as [[Tenochtitlan]]; while ancient continuously inhabited Pueblos are near modern urban areas in [[New Mexico]], such as [[Acoma Pueblo]] near the [[Albuquerque metropolitan area]] and [[Taos Pueblo]] near [[Taos, New Mexico|Taos]]; while others like [[Lima]] are located nearby ancient [[Peru]]vian sites such as [[Pachacamac]].

From 1600 BC, [[Dhar Tichitt]], in the south of present-day [[Mauritania]], presented characteristics suggestive of an incipient form of urbanism.<ref name="Monroe, J. Cameron 2017">{{cite journal|author=Monroe, J. Cameron|title="Elephants for Want of Towns": Archaeological Perspectives on West African Cities and Their Hinterlands |journal=Journal of Archaeological Research|date=2018 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=387–446|doi=10.1007/s10814-017-9114-2}}</ref><ref name="MacDonald, Kevin 2015">{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge World History.|last=MacDonald|first=Kevin|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2015|editor-last1=Barker|editor-first1=Graeme|editor-last2=Barker|editor-first2=Candice|location=Cambridge, United Kingdom|pages=409–513|chapter=The Tichitt tradition in the West African Sahel}}</ref> The second place to show urban characteristics in [[West Africa]] was [[Dia, Mali|Dia]], in present-day [[Mali]], from 800 BC.<ref name="Monroe, J. Cameron 2017" /><ref name="MacDonald, Kevin 2015" /> Both Dhar Tichitt and Dia were founded by the same people: the [[Soninke people|Soninke]], who would later also found the [[Ghana Empire]].<ref name="MacDonald, Kevin 2015" />

Another ancient site, [[Jenné-Jeno]], in what is today [[Mali]], has been dated to the third century BCE. According to Roderick and Susan McIntosh, Jenné-Jeno did not fit into traditional Western conceptions of urbanity as it lacked monumental architecture and a distinctive elite social class, but it should indeed be considered a city based on a functional redefinition of urban development. In particular, Jenné-Jeno featured settlement mounds arranged according to a horizontal, rather than vertical, power hierarchy, and served as a center of specialized production and exhibited functional interdependence with the surrounding hinterland.<ref>McIntosh, Roderic J., McIntosh, Susan Keech. "Early Urban Configurations on the Middle Niger: Clustered Cities and Landscapes of Power," Chapter 5.</ref>

More recently, scholars have concluded that the [[civilization]] of Djenne-Djenno was likely established by the [[Mandé peoples|Mande]] progenitors of the [[Bozo people]]. Their habitation of the site spanned the period from 3rd century BCE to 13th century CE.<ref name="Vydrin">{{cite web |last1=Vydrin |first1=Valentin |title=Mande Languages |url=https://oxfordre.com/linguistics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-9780199384655-e-397 |website=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics |year=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.397 |isbn=978-0-19-938465-5 }}</ref> Archaeological evidence from Jenné-Jeno, specifically the presence of non-West African glass beads dated from the third century BCE to the fourth century CE, indicates that pre-Arabic trade contacts probably existed between Jenné-Jeno and North Africa.<ref name=Magnavita>{{cite journal|last=Magnavita|first=Sonja|title=Initial Encounters: Seeking traces of ancient trade connections between West Africa and the wider world|url=http://afriques.revues.org/1145?lang=en|journal=Afriques|year=2013|volume=04 |issue=4|doi=10.4000/afriques.1145|access-date=December 13, 2013|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Additionally, other early urban centers in West Africa, dated to around 500 CE, include [[Aoudaghost|Awdaghust]], [[Koumbi Saleh|Kumbi Saleh]], the ancient capital of Ghana, and [[:de:Marandet|Maranda]], a center located on a trade route between Egypt and Gao.<ref>''[http://markuswiener.com/book_reviews.html?products_id=93&products_name=History%20of%20African%20Cities%20South%20of%20the%20Sahara History of African Cities South of the Sahara] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080124191535/http://markuswiener.com/book_reviews.html?products_id=93&products_name=History%20of%20African%20Cities%20South%20of%20the%20Sahara |date=2008-01-24 }}'' By Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch. 2005. {{ISBN|1-55876-303-1}}</ref>

===Middle Ages===
[[File:Vyborg SevernyVal3-5 006 8242.jpg|thumb|[[Vyborg]] in Leningrad Oblast has existed since the 13th century.]]
[[File:Monumentale torens in de binnenstad.jpg|thumb|Old city of [[Utrecht]], Netherlands]]
[[File:Holy Roman Empire 1648 Imperial cities.png|thumb|The [[Free imperial city|Free imperial cities]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] in 1648]]
[[File:Haarlem-City-Map-1550.jpg|thumb|A map of [[Haarlem]] in the Netherlands, created around 1550, shows the city completely surrounded by a [[defensive wall|city wall]] and [[moat|defensive canal]], with its square shape inspired by the shape of [[Jerusalem]].]]
The [[Fall of the Western Roman Empire|dissolution of the Roman Empire]] in the West was connected with profound changes in urban fabric of western Europe.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wickham |first=Chris |title=Framing the early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400-800 |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-921296-5 |edition=First published in paperback |location=Oxford New York, NY |pages=591–692}}</ref> In places where Roman administration quickly weakened urbanism went through a profound crisis, even if it continued to remain an important symbolic factor.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fafinski |first=Mateusz |title=Roman infrastructure in early medieval Britain: the adaptations of the past in text and stone |date=2021 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-5197-2 |series=Early medieval North Atlantic |location=Amsterdam |pages=83–142}}</ref> In regions like Italy or Spain cities diminished in size but nevertheless continued to play a key role in both the economy and government.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Osland |first=Daniel |date=2023-09-02 |title=The Role of Cities in the Early Medieval Economy |journal=Al-Masāq |language=en |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=343–363 |doi=10.1080/09503110.2023.2211882 |issn=0950-3110|doi-access=free }}</ref> [[Late antiquity#Cities|Late antique cities]] in the East were also undergoing intense transformations, with increased political participation of the crowds and demographic fluctuations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=de Oliveira |first=Julio Cesar Magalhães |date=2020-11-01 |title=Late Antiquity: The Age of Crowds?* |url=https://academic.oup.com/past/article/249/1/3/5819584 |journal=Past & Present |language=en |issue=249 |pages=3–52 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gtz063 |issn=0031-2746|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Christian communities and their doctrinal differences increasingly shaped the urban fabric.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fafinski |first=Mateusz |date=2024-04-04 |title=A Restless City: Edessa and Urban Actors in the Syriac Acts of the Second Council of Ephesus |journal=Al-Masāq |language=en |pages=1–25 |doi=10.1080/09503110.2024.2331915 |issn=0950-3110|doi-access=free }}</ref> The locus of power shifted to [[Constantinople]] and to the [[Early Muslim conquests|ascendant Islamic civilization]] with its major cities [[Baghdad]], [[Cairo]], and [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]].<ref>Kaplan et al. (2004), p. 43. "Capitals like Córdoba and Cairo had populations of about 500,000; Baghdad probably had a population of more than 1 million. This urban heritage would continue despite the conquests of the Seljuk Turks and the later Crusades. China, the longest standing civilization, was in the midst of a golden age as the Tang dynasty gave way—after a short period of fragmentation—to the Song dynasty. This dynasty ruled two of the most impressive cities on the planet, Xian and Hangzhou. / In contrast, poor Western Europe had not recovered from the sacking of Rome and the collapse of the western half of the Roman Empire. For more than five centuries a steady process of deurbanization—whereby the population living in cities and the number of cities declined precipitously—had converted a prosperous landscape into a scary wilderness, overrun with bandits, warlords, and rude settlements."</ref> From the 9th through the end of the 12th century, [[Constantinople]], the capital of the [[Eastern Roman Empire]], was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, with a population approaching 1 million.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cameron|first=Averil|title=The Byzantines|page=47|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=59c6PSa5JCAC|publisher=John Wiley and Sons|year=2009|isbn=978-1-4051-9833-2|access-date=24 January 2015|archive-date=23 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523031336/https://books.google.com/books?id=59c6PSa5JCAC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Laiou |first=Angeliki E. |author-link=Angeliki Laiou |title=The Economic History of Byzantium (Volume 1) |pages=130–131 |year=2002 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Dumbarton Oaks |editor=Angeliki E. Laiou |chapter=Writing the Economic History of Byzantium |chapter-url=http://www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/EHB.html |access-date=6 June 2012 |archive-date=18 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218231151/http://www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/EHB.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The [[Ottoman Empire]] gradually gained [[List of cities conquered by the Ottoman Empire|control over many cities]] in the Mediterranean area, including [[Fall of Constantinople|Constantinople in 1453]].

In the [[Holy Roman Empire]], beginning in the 12th century, [[free imperial city|free imperial cities]] such as [[Nuremberg]], [[Strasbourg]], [[Frankfurt]], [[Basel]], [[Zürich]], and [[Nijmegen]] became a privileged elite among towns having won self-governance from their local lord or having been granted self-governance by the emperor and being placed under his immediate protection. By 1480, these cities, as far as still part of the empire, became part of the [[Imperial Estates]] governing the empire with the emperor through the [[Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)|Imperial Diet]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/free-and-imperial-cities|title=Free and Imperial Cities – Dictionary definition of Free and Imperial Cities|website=encyclopedia.com|access-date=29 May 2018|archive-date=29 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529203824/https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/free-and-imperial-cities|url-status=live}}</ref>

By the 13th and 14th centuries, some cities had become powerful states, taking surrounding areas under their control or establishing extensive maritime empires. In Italy, [[medieval commune]]s developed into [[Italian city-states|city-states]] including the [[Republic of Venice]] and the [[Republic of Genoa]]. In Northern Europe, cities including [[Lübeck]] and [[Bruges]] formed the [[Hanseatic League]] for collective defense and commerce. Their power was later [[Dutch–Hanseatic War|challenged]] and eclipsed by the [[Burgundian Netherlands|Dutch]] commercial [[History of urban centers in the Low Countries|cities]] of [[Ghent]], [[Ypres]], and [[Amsterdam]].<ref>Kaplan et al. (2004), pp. 47–50.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Parker |first1=Geoffrey |title=Sovereign City: The City-state Through History |date=2004 |publisher=Reaktion Books |location=London |isbn=9781861892195}}</ref> Similar phenomena existed elsewhere, as in the case of [[Sakai, Osaka|Sakai]], which enjoyed considerable autonomy in late medieval Japan.

In the first millennium AD, the [[Khmer Empire|Khmer]] capital of [[Angkor]] in Cambodia grew into the most extensive [[Pre-industrial society|preindustrial settlement]] in the world by area,<ref name="Evans PNAS">Evans ''et al.'', [http://www.pnas.org/content/104/36/14277 A comprehensive archaeological map of the world's largest preindustrial settlement complex at Angkor, Cambodia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422171845/http://www.pnas.org/content/104/36/14277 |date=22 April 2017 }}, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US, 23 August 2007.</ref><ref name="BBC News 2007">"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6945574.stm Map reveals ancient urban sprawl] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071028014349/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6945574.stm |date=28 October 2007 }}", BBC News, 14 August 2007.</ref> covering over {{Convert|1000|km2|abbr=on}} and possibly supporting up to one million people.<ref name="Evans PNAS" /><ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/metropolis-angkor-the-worlds-first-megacity-461623.html Metropolis: Angkor, the world's first mega-city] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110919133524/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/metropolis-angkor-the-worlds-first-megacity-461623.html |date=19 September 2011}}, The Independent, 15 August 2007</ref>

[[West Africa]] already had cities before the [[Common Era]], but the consolidation of [[Trans-Saharan trade]] in the Middle Ages multiplied the number of cities in the region, as well as making some of them very populous, notably [[Gao]] (72,000 inhabitants in 800 AD), [[Old Oyo|Oyo-Ile]] (50,000 inhabitants in 1400 AD, and may have reached up to 140,000 inhabitants in the 18th century), [[Ifẹ̀|Ile-Ifẹ̀]] (70,000 to 105,000 inhabitants in the 14th and 15th centuries), [[Niani, Guinea|Niani]] (50,000 inhabitants in 1400 AD) and [[Timbuktu]] (100,000 inhabitants in 1450 AD).<ref name="Monroe, J. Cameron 2017" /><ref>''[https://www.african-cities.org/african-cities-from-500-ad-to-1900/ African cities from 500 AD to 1900] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217094302/https://www.african-cities.org/african-cities-from-500-ad-to-1900/ |date=17 February 2022 }}'' By David Satterthwaite. 2021.</ref>

===Early modern===
In the West, nation-states became the dominant unit of political organization following the [[Peace of Westphalia]] in the seventeenth century.<ref>Curtis (2016), pp. 5–6. "In the modern international system, cities were subjugated and internalized by the state, and, with industrialization, became the great growth engines of national economies."</ref><ref name="Blomley2013">[[Nicholas Blomley]], "What Sort of a Legal Space is a City?" in Brighenti (2013), pp. 1–20. "Municipalities, within this frame, are understood as nested within the jurisdictional space of the provinces. Indeed, rather than freestanding legal sites, they are imagined as products (or 'creatures') of the provinces who may bring them into being or dissolve them as they choose. As with the provinces their powers are of a delegated form: they may only exercise jurisdiction over areas that have been expressly identified by enabling legislation. Municipal law may not conflict with provincial law, and may only be exercised within its defined territory. [...] <br> Yet we are [in] danger [of] missing the reach of municipal law: '[e]ven in highly constitutionalized regimes, it has remained possible for municipalities to micro-manage space, time, and activities through police regulations that infringe both on constitutional rights and private property in often extreme ways' (Vaverde 2009: 150). While liberalism fears the encroachments of the state, it seems less worried about those of the municipality. Thus if a national government proposed a statute forbidding public gatherings or sporting events, a revolution would occur. Yet municipalities routinely enact sweeping by-laws directed at open ended (and ill-defined) offences such as loitering and obstruction, requiring permits for protests or requiring residents and homeowners to remove snow from the city's sidewalks."</ref> Western Europe's larger capitals (London and Paris) benefited from the growth of commerce following the emergence of an [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] trade. However, most towns remained small.

During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the old Roman city concept was extensively used. Cities were founded in the middle of the newly conquered territories and were bound to several laws regarding administration, finances, and urbanism.

===Industrial age===

The [[Industrial Revolution|growth of the modern industry]] from the late 18th century onward led to massive [[urbanization]] and the rise of new great cities, first in Europe and then in other regions, as new opportunities brought huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban areas. England led the way as [[London]] became the capital of a [[British Empire|world empire]] and cities across the country grew in locations strategic for [[manufacturing]].<ref>Kaplan et al. (2004), pp. 53–54. "England was clearly at the center of these changes. London became the first truly global city by placing itself within the new global economy. English colonialism in North America, the Caribbean, South Asia, and later Africa and China helped to further fatten the wallets of many of its merchants. These colonies would later provide many of the raw materials for industrial production. England's hinterland was no longer confined to a portion of the world; it effectively became a global hinterland."</ref> In the United States from 1860 to 1910, the [[History of rail transport|introduction of railroads]] reduced transportation costs, and large manufacturing centers began to emerge, fueling migration from rural to city areas.

Some industrialized cities were confronted with health challenges associated with [[overcrowding]], [[occupational hazard]]s of industry, contaminated water and air, [[History of water supply and sanitation#Modern age|poor sanitation]], and communicable diseases such as [[typhoid]] and [[cholera]]. [[Factories]] and [[slum]]s emerged as regular features of the urban landscape.<ref>Kaplan et al. (2004), pp. 54–55.</ref>

===Post-industrial age===
In the second half of the 20th century, [[deindustrialization]] (or "[[economic restructuring]]") in the West led to [[poverty]], [[homelessness]], and [[urban decay]] in formerly prosperous cities. America's "Steel Belt" became a "[[Rust Belt]]" and cities such as [[Decline of Detroit|Detroit]], Michigan, and [[Gary, Indiana]] began to [[Shrinking cities|shrink]], contrary to the global trend of massive urban expansion.<ref>Steven High, ''[https://archive.org/details/industrialsunset0000high/page/5 Industrial Sunset: The Making of North America's Rust Belt, 1969–1984]''; University of Toronto Press, 2003; {{ISBN|0-8020-8528-8}}. "It is now clear that the deindustrialization thesis is part myth and part fact. Robert Z. Lawrence, for example, uses aggregate economic data to show that manufacturing employment in the United States did not decline but actually increased from 16.8&nbsp;million in 1960, to 20.1&nbsp;million in 1973, and 20.3&nbsp;million in 1980. However, manufacturing employment was in relative decline. Barry Bluestone noted that manufacturing represented a decreasing proportion of the U.S. labour force, from 26.2 per cent in 1973 to 22.1 per cent in 1980. Studies in Canada have likewise shown that manufacturing employment was only in relative decline during these years. Yet mills and factories did close, and towns and cities lost their industries. John Cumbler submitted that 'depressions do not manifest themselves only at moments of national economic collapse' such as in the 1930s, but 'also recur in scattered sites across the nation in regions, in industries, and in communities.{{'"}}</ref> Such cities have shifted with varying success into the [[service economy]] and [[public-private partnerships]], with concomitant [[gentrification]], uneven [[urban renewal|revitalization efforts]], and selective cultural development.<ref name="Kaplan2004p164">Kaplan (2004), pp. 160–165. "Entrepreneurial leadership became manifest through growth coalitions made up of builders, realtors, developers, the media, government actors such as mayors, and dominant corporations. For example, in St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch, Monsanto, and Ralston Purina played prominent roles. The leadership involved cooperation between public and private interests. The results were efforts at downtown revitalization; inner-city gentrification; the transformation of the CBD to advanced service employment; entertainment, museums, and cultural venues; the construction of sports stadiums and sport complexes; and waterfront development."</ref> Under the [[Great Leap Forward]] and subsequent [[Five-year plans of China|five-year plans]] continuing today, [[China]] has undergone concomitant [[urbanization in China|urbanization]] and [[Chinese industrialization|industrialization]] and become the world's leading [[manufacturing|manufacturer]].<ref>James Xiaohe Zhang, "Rapid urbanization in China and its impact on the world economy"; 16th Annual Conference on Global Economic Analysis, "New Challenges for Global Trade in a Rapidly Changing World", Shanhai Institute of Foreign Trade, 12–14 June 2013.</ref><ref>Ian Johnson, "[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/world/asia/chinas-great-uprooting-moving-250-million-into-cities.html China's Great Uprooting: Moving 250 Million Into Cities] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829234450/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/world/asia/chinas-great-uprooting-moving-250-million-into-cities.html |date=29 August 2017 }}"; ''The New York Times'', 15 June 2013.</ref>

Amidst these economic changes, [[high technology]] and instantaneous [[telecommunication]] enable select cities to become centers of the [[knowledge economy]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Castells |first=Manuel |title=The network society: a cross-cultural perspective |date=2004 |publisher=E. Elgar |isbn=978-1-84376-505-9 |location=London}}</ref><ref>Flew, T. (2008). ''New media: an introduction'', 3rd edn, South Melbourne: Oxford University Press</ref><ref>Harford, T. (2008) ''The Logic of Life''. London: Little, Brown.</ref> A new [[smart city]] paradigm, supported by institutions such as the [[RAND Corporation]] and [[IBM]], is bringing computerized [[Surveillance issues in smart cities|surveillance]], data analysis, and [[E-governance|governance]] to bear on cities and city dwellers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Shelton |first1=Taylor |last2=Zook |first2=Matthew |last3=Wiig |first3=Alan |date=2014-10-27 |title=The 'actually existing smart city' |journal=Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society|volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=13–25 |doi=10.1093/cjres/rsu026 |issn=1752-1378 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Some companies are building brand-new [[land use planning|master-planned]] cities from scratch on [[greenfield land|greenfield]] sites.