pg. 258 Urban morphology – the layout of the city, its physical form and structure pg 259 When and why did people start living in cities? (Read 1st paragraph)

city – a conglomeration of people and buildings clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture, and economics.

What is the trend in most parts of the world? people are moving from countryside to urbanized

areas (towns, cities, and suburbs)

the global population is very urban for the most part

- more people live in towns/cities than in rural areas Urban –

- the term used to describe the build up of the central city or the suburban realm

(the city and the surrounding environ connected to the city) obviously the urban place in non rural and non agricultural

Why are people moving from rural to urban areas? -because the changing global economy -and the increasing ease of movement in the world

-even though the world is increasingly urbanized, urbanization is not distributed evenly.

-these are places that are very urban – Western Europe, U.S., Canada, Japan – 80%

-these are places that are very rural – India and China – 30% A long time ago in took many years for urbanization to occur

- in the modern world it can happen quite quickly

-where is a good example? -Guangdong Province (read that paragraph) -What happened there?

pg. 260 -Today it happens quickly -Urbanization took thousands of years to develop -human communities have existed for 100 thousand years -but it took 90 thousand years before people clustered into towns

-the first cities though were established about 8000 years ago -but they’ve only had their modern size and structure for the last 200 years

The Hearths of Urbanization What came first?

-hunting and gathering then agriculture -agriculture began between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago

-when that happened people became more sedentary -they stayed in one place to tend their fields

-and they clustered in small agricultural villages, living there year round agricultural village – a small village where just about everyone was involved in agriculture

-it was usually small in size and most everyone lived a near subsistence lifestyle

-they lived in an egalitarian way – where everyone pretty much shared the goods

pg. 261 The first agricultural villages in the Fertile Crescent were of this type -But when people established cities this all changed

-What 2 things embodied the formation of cities? 1) Agricultural surplus and 2) social stratification more agriculture that what the differentiation of society needed was produced and into classes based on wealth, therefore sold to others for power, production, and consumption prestige

pg 262 -What series of events led to the formation of an agricultural surplus and leadership class? (and eventually cities)

-(it varies by theory)

-One theory -advances in technology, like irrigation, led to agricultural surplus -and then a leadership class was needed to control the surplus

-Another theory -a king centralized political power and demanded more labor to

generate and agricultural surplus -that would help him/her retain their power

The Leadership class – the urban elite who controlled the lives of others by controlling resources, were made up of the decision makers and organizers

-the homes of the leaders were often close to the grain storage so they could control distribution, storage, and production

-a surplus of agriculture provided for more time for other pursuits -like religion, philosophy -the came writing and record keeping -writing led to codification of laws

-the innovation of the city is called the first urban revolution -it occurred independently in five separate hearths (see the map on page 263)

pg 263

-All the urban hearths have something in common- they all came from agricultural hearths

-First hear – Fertile Crescent -about 3500 BCE is the 1st time we see cities -Mesopotamia – what this 1st urban hearth was called -great cities such as Ur and Babylon were located between the Tigris and Euphrates

-What have we learned about Mesopotamia by studying the urban morphology? - it was protected by a wall - shrines and temples in city center - priests lived in substantial buildings - see p 264 -1st paragraph for others

pg. 264 What were the cities like?

-far from sanitary -disease ridden

-2nd Hearth of urbanization Nile River Valley – 3200 BCE - some say this isn’t a hearth but a case of diffusion from Mesopotamia - maybe in agriculture but there is evidence urbanization did start independently here - people did not build walls around their city - who controlled the power along the river? -those who controlled the irrigation systems

3rd hearth dated to 2200 BCE Indus River Valley

- also probably agriculture diffused from Mesopotamia to here - What were the 1st cities of the Indus River Valley? Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

-The intricate planning of cities points to the existence of a leadership class -but everyone seems to be equal – there were no palaces or

monuments -they had significant trading throughout the Mediterranean

4th Hearth Huang He and Wei River Valleys

-present day China 1500 BCE -purposely planned their cities to center on a vertical structure in the

middle of the city and then build a wall around it -the urban cities built big elaborate structures ex. – Great Wall

pg 265 -Emperor Qin Xi Huang had a mausoleum built for himself

-700,000 slaves – 40 years made 7000 terracotta warriors to guard over his burial place (picture pg 265) 5th urban hearth -Mesoamerica – location of the 5th urban hearth about 200 BCE

-the ancient cities were religious centers -the rulers were deemed to have divine authority and were god-kings -Mayas built great structures in the Yucatan, Guatemala, and Honduras

The Role of the Ancient City in Society -What were the roles of ancient cities -centers of religion, power, and economics -they were the chief market places -bases from which wealthy merchants, and livestock owners, and traders operated -educational centers – where teachers and philosophers lived -handicraft industries – were located here

-ancient cities were: the anchors of culture and society, the focal points of power, authority,

and change -by modern standards, ancient cities were not large

Pg. 266 -Mesopotamia and Nile Valley may have had between 10k and 15k inhabitants -that’s a guess based on a bunch of factors (1st paragraph pg 266)

Diffusion of Urbanization -urbanization diffused from Mesopotamia in several directions

- with increased food supply and sedentary lifestyle, people migrated away from the hearth and diffused their knowledge of

agriculture and urbanization -urbanization diffused to the Mediterranean from Mesopotamia 3500 years ago -about the same time it was developing in Huang He

pg. 266 – Greek Cities -one of the first places urbanization occurred in the Mediterranean was on the island of Crete -the city of Knossos was the cornerstone of a system of towns of the Minoan civilization

by 500 BCE Greece was one of the most urbanized areas on Earth -at its height Greece had 500 cities/towns on mainland and in islands -seafarers connected these urban places with trade routes

-as they went from route to route they carried the idea of city life with them

-What were the two leading Greek cities? -Sparta and Athens (Athens was the largest in the world with 250k people)

-every city had its acropolis – highest point in the city -where the people built most impressive structure – usually religious

-most famous – Parthenon in Athens 2500 years old

-Greek cities also had public places -they were open spacious squares (in contrast to Mesopotamia-which was cramped) -where a lot happened – debates, lectures, judging, socializing

-agora – name of this public meeting place (means “market”) -it became the focus of commercial activity

-had excellent theaters -but was miserable for many

-urbanization diffused from Greece to Rome pg. 267 Roman Cities -were not only along the Mediterranean, like the Greeks, but also interior

Europe and North Africa

-Roman cities were larger than Greek -cities were linked with large transportation networks

-made up of roads, sea-routes, and trading ports pg. 267 -Roman planners were very good at choosing the rite site – the

internal physical attributes of a place its locations, spatial character, and physical setting

-the site identified suitable locales for settlement -the site was chosen for the best trade location, the best defensive location, important religious location

-The Romans were influenced by the Greeks -How? -mythology, cultural landscape, and urban morphology -cities were planned in grid-like pattern like the Greeks

pg. 268 -Romans took the idea of the Greek acropolis and agora and formed the Forum the focal point of Roman public life

-within the forum was the world’s first great stadium the Colosseum – a large version of the Greek theater (what happened in the Colosseum? - read 1st paragraph

-city of ancient Rome reflected rich and poor as well as best and worst of civilizations

Urban Growth After Greece and Rome -after Roman Empire fell in 495 CE, Europe went into Middle Ages 500-1300 -little urban growth occurred during this time and even declined in some parts of Europe

-where did growth take place at this time? -along the Silk Route between Europe and Asia -West Africa – Timbuktu was a major city -the Americas – Aztec capital Tenochtitlan – had 100k people at a time when European cities were in ruins

pg. 269 Site and Situation during European Exploration

-urban areas extended in a crescent shaped zone across Eurasia from England to Japan – “urban banana” -before European exploration where were most cities sited on

continents? - in its interior -the Silk Route and caravan routes of West Africa sustained inland cities

-pg 270 -when European exploration and colonization occurred the inland cities changed from being crucial to being left out -the situation of a city is its relative location, its place in the region and world around it -the external attributes of a place

-and coastal cities took prominence as their situation changed (note some examples) in Asia and West Africa -the trade networks brought riches to Europe’s cities -merchants took their riches and poured it into their cities -but a 2nd revolution in agriculture came first

- its people were to move from fields to cities, food production had to increase

- a bunch of improvements in agricultural were invented - -seed drill, hybrid seeds, breeding livestock in new ways

-this made agriculture easier, faster, etc., and less people needed on farms so… pg 271

-What was the main determinant in the location of early industrial cities? -proximity to a power source ex. – Textile manufacturing industrial cities had to be sited near fresh

water to power looms -in Great Britain – located in Pennines (mountains) because of water

flows down the mountains -iron manufacturing cities located near coal fields

-cities became unregulated jumbles of activity during industrialization (what happened to cities? – left column/last paragraph) -living conditions were dreadful for workers in cities. How so?

-children worked 6 days and week/12 hours per day -health conditions were horrible -”black towns” were so named because grimy soot covered cities -British Midlands

-late 1800s – Karl Marx and Frederick Engels encouraged “workers of the world” to unite

-conditions gradually improved -workers rights recognized

pg 272 -During the 2nd half of the 20th century the nature of manufacturing changed

-factories moved from congested, overcrowded, expensive urban areas -this created “rust belts” out of once thriving industrial districts

-some define urban areas as being over 2500 people -others say 5000 others say employment is the major criterion